'Dysfunctional Families' Focus of Drama Desk Panel March 7

As its second panel of the 2007/2008 theater season, the Drama Desk will present a special luncheon-panel discussion, entitled "Broadway's Dysfunctional Families," with focus on The Homecoming and August: Osage County, on Friday, March 7, 2008, at Sardi's (234 West 44th Street, in the 4th floor dining room). Drama Desk member Elysa Gardner, Theater Critic for USA Today, will serve as moderator.

The sit-down luncheon will begin at 11:45AM and the Panel Discussion will take place 1PM-2:30 PM. Some space is being allotted for non-Drama Desk members interested in the theater. The cost for Drama Desk members is $35 and for non-members $45 (including gratuity and tax). Admission is payable by cash or check. There will be a cash bar. Food choices (salmon, chicken or pasta) are to be designated with RSVPs, which should be e-mailed to wolf@wolfentertainmentguide.com.

August: Osage County, which opened this past November for a limited engagement at the Imperial Theater, is directed by Anna D. Shapiro and features members of the Steppenwolf Theatre ensemble. The drama is about a missing patriarch and the reunion of the Weston clan at their three-story family home in rural Oklahoma where old family wounds are reopened and where new revelations are revealed.        

The revival of The Homecoming, directed by Daniel Sullivan, opened at the Cort Theater last December. The play, set in London, concerns the ultimate dysfunctional family presided over by Max (Ian McShane). Living under his roof in his run-down house are his brother Sam (Michael McKean), and two of his sons: Lenny (Raúl Esparza), the local pimp, and Joey (Gareth Saxe), who is training to be a boxer. Tensions begin to boil over when Max's oldest son Teddy (James Frain) arrives unexpectedly after six years in America with his new wife Ruth (Eve Best).

The Drama Desk, organized in 1949, presented its first awards in 1955. It is the only theater organization whose awards are competitive equally in the same categories for Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway and not-for-profit theater productions.