Christopher Lloyd to Lead Classic Stage Company's CAUCASIAN CHALK CIRCLE; Previews Begin 5/2

Classic Stage Company, under the leadership of Artistic Director Brian Kulick and Executive Director Greg Reiner, announced today that acclaimed film and television actor Christopher Lloyd, will star as Azdak in the company's upcoming spring production of Bertolt Brecht's The Caucasian Chalk Circle, to be directed by Brian Kulick (who directed Brecht's Galileo last season), and featuring new music by Tony Award-winning singer/songwriter Duncan Sheik, featuring translation by James and Tania Stern with lyrics by W.H. Auden. The Caucasian Chalk Circle will begin performances Thursday, May 2 at CSC (136 East 13th Street) for a limited engagement. Tickets will go on sale to the general public on Tuesday, April 2.

Christopher Lloyd began his career in theatre. He has appeared in over two hundred plays including on and off Broadway, regional and summer stock productions. For his title role in Kaspar he took home an Obie and Drama Desk award. Christopher starred in the Tony Award-winning Broadway production of Morning's at Seven, directed by Daniel Sullivan, as well as Twelfth Night in NY Festival's Shakespeare in the Park and Center Stage's Waiting for Godot, and as Dalton Trumbo in the New York production of Trumbo. In 1975 Lloyd began his film career in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. This was soon followed by a two-year run as Jim Ignatowski on the television series Taxi, for which Lloyd won two of his three Emmys. In 1992 Lloyd made Emmy history when he won Best Dramatic Actor for Disney's Road to Avonlea. In a category dominated by series regulars, Lloyd was the first actor to win for a guest appearance. The following year, the rules were changed to include a Guest Appearance category. Lloyd has appeared in over ninety film and teleVision Productions, including the Back to the Future trilogy, Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead, Eight Men Out, Addams Family and Addams Family Values, BBC's Dead Ahead: Exxon Valdez Disaster, The Pagemaster, Dennis the Menace, Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai, Track 29, Clue, The Dream Team, Angels in the Outfield, Star Trek III, Goin' South, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, My Favorite Martian, Tales of Despereaux, Snowmen and Mike Nichols' HBO adaptation of Wit, starring Emma Thompson. Lloyd won an Independent Spirit Award for his chilly depiction as a soulless murderer in Twenty Bucks.

CSC recently presented Anton Chekhov's IVANOV, starring Ethan Hawke, Joely Richardson and Juliet Rylance, directed by Austin Pendleton. CSC's season continues in February with Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's Tony Award-winning Best Musical PASSION, featuring Melissa Errico, Judy Kuhn and Ryan Silverman, and directed by Tony Award-winner John Doyle, who has won acclaim for his revelatory reinterpretations of Sondheim's Sweeney Todd and Company. Additional casting will be announced. (Doyle's directorial concept for PASSION will not include musical instruments played by actors.)

Classic Stage Company is the award-winning theatre committed to re-imagining the classical repertory for a contemporary American audience. Last season, CSC presented critically-acclaimed productions of The Cherry Orchard with John Turturro and Dianne Wiest, which received the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Revival; Bertolt Brecht's Galileo starring Academy Award-winner F. Murray Abraham, directed by Brian Kulick; and Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream with Bebe Neuwirth and Christina Ricci, directed by Tony Speciale. Past seasons have included critically-acclaimed productions of Chekhov's Three Sisters with Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jessica Hecht, Juliet Rylance and Peter Sarsgaard, directed by Austin Pendleton (Obie Award); David Ives' The School for Lies with Hamish Linklater (Obie Award), directed by Walter Bobbie; Unnatural Acts, conceived and directed by Tony Speciale; Ostrovsky's The Forest with Dianne Wiest and John Douglas Thompson, directed by Brian Kulick; David Ives' Venus In Fur with Nina Arianda and Wes Bentley, directed by Walter Bobbie; Shakespeare's The Tempest with Mandy Patinkin, directed by Brian Kulick; Chekhov's Uncle Vanya with Denis O'Hare, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard, directed by Austin Pendleton; Anne Carson's An Oresteia (International PEN Award for Poetry); Chekhov's The Seagull with Dianne Wiest and Alan Cumming; David Ives' New Jerusalem with Richard Easton, directed by Walter Bobbie; Hamlet, Richard II, Richard III with Michael Cumpsty (Obie Award as Hamlet), directed by Brian Kulick; and Yasmina Reza's A Spanish Play with Zoe Caldwell, directed by John Turturro.

CSC presents plays from the past that speak directly to the issues of today. As we return to works of the past, we endeavor to keep a clear eye on the future, particularly in terms of the next generation of artists and audiences. Founded in 1967, CSC has received wide recognition for its significant contributions to theatre as an art form through productions of classic plays, translations and adaptations and a long-standing commitment to the identification and nurturing of leading and emerging artists. CSC's artists are the finest established and emerging theatre practitioners working in this country. Highly respected and widely regarded as a major force in New York and American theatre, CSC has been cited repeatedly by all the major Off-Broadway theater awards: Obies, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Drama League and the 1999 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Body of Work.