Caldwell, O'Hare, Etc. Lined Up for CSC's '06-'07 Season

Classic Stage Company (136 E. 13th Street) has lined up an array of stars for its 2006-2007 season. Among the season's attractions will be Michael Cumpsty in the title role of Richard II and Zoe Caldwell, Denis O'Hare and Linda Emond in Yasmine Reza's A Spanish Play.

The season will kick off with Shakespeare's historical tragedy Richard II, directed by Brian Kulick and starring Cumpsty (The Constant Wife, Democracy, 42nd Street) as the flawed English king whose crown is usurped. It will run from September 6th through October 15th. Cumpsty previously starred in Hamlet for CSC.

Directed by John Turturro (films such as The Big Lebowski, The Resistable Rise of Arturo Ui for CSC), the English language premiere of A Spanish Play, by Yazmina Reza (Art), will star four-time Tony Award-winner Caldwell (Master Class, Medea), Tony Award-winner O'Hare (Sweet Charity, Assassins) and Emond (Homebody/Kabul), as well as Larry Pine and Katherine Borowitz. "Reza's play follows in the venerable tradition of Corneille, Shakespeare and Pirandello, playing with the question of truth and illusion as an audience is asked to disentangle real life from the rehearsal of a play," state notes on the show.

CSC will join forces with Aquila Theatre Company for The Iliad: Books I-III, adapted from the Homer epic by Aquila artistic director Peter Meineck, who also directs. The show, which charts the stories of Trojan War heroes such as Agamemnon and Achilles, will run from March 14th through April 22nd, 2007.

Among other offerings of the season will be staged readings of Chekhov's The Seagull, Uncle Vanya, Three Sisters and The Cherry Orchard, presented as part of the "First Look Festival," a four-night exploration of Christopher Marlowe's Edward II (directed by Kulick and acted by his Richard II company), and a Young Company production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, featuring Columbia University graduate school actors.

Call (212) 677-4210 ext. 11 or visit www.classicstage.org for more information.