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Kicker will Premiere off-Broadway at the Connelly Theatre on June 9th

By: May. 20, 2005
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Triptych Theatre will present the off-Broadway premiere of Kicker, a new play by Robert Simonson, beginning performances June 9th, at The Connelly Theatre (220 East 4th Street) and continuing through June 25th.

Brendan Hughes will direct a cast that includes Jonathan Fielding, Juliet Gowing, Dalane Mason, Lordon Napoli, Matt Pepper and James Lloyd Reynolds.

Kicker takes a tragicomic look at today's pop-star idol worship from the inside out, as entertainment journalist Michael Gray has the interview of his life with a modern Ernest Hemingway, only to find it all a sham. Gray struggles to find value and meaning in a profession where beauty and luck are all that's needed to be a star.

The play was developed at Soho Rep, Playwrights Horizons, the Williamstown Theatre Festival, and Ensemble Studio Theatre and is the recipient of a Pilgrim's Project grant.

Simonson is the author of Cafe Society, which has been produced in New York, Chicago, and Boston and was published in Plays and Playwrights for the New Millennium. Other plays include Which One's Yours (Soho Rep), Wittenberg (Nada), and Emotional Correctness, Some Friend, and Napkin (all Theatre Three). Simonson is also the author of two non-fiction collections of theatre profiles: On Broadway, Men Still Wear Hats (Smith and Kraus, 2004) and Role of a Lifetime (Back Stage Books, 1999). A theatre journalist for 20 years, he writes theatre profiles, reviews, and commentary for The New York Times, The New York Sun, Time Out New York and The Village Voice. He has been the editor of Playbill.com since 1998.

Hughes has directed over 25 plays to critical acclaim up and down the Eastern seaboard, including Gagarin Way (Sugan Theatre Company, Boston), Golf with Alan Shephard (American Stage, St. Petersburg, FL), Private Jokes Public Places (Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater, Cape Cod), and most recently Le Nozze di Figaro (Opera Theater of Yale College). He also adapted and directed a new work, You've Never Done Anything Unforgivable, for the 2004 New York Fringe Festival. He is the founder of the Theatre Cooperative in Boston, and a graduate of the Yale School of Drama.

Triptych Theatre was founded in 2004 to bring new theater works to the New York stage. According to its press release, "Triptych is creating, producing, and promoting plays and performance pieces that challenge our everyday perceptions of social norms and expose the invisible threads that hold our culture together. Triptych is currently developing three separate but related works for New York premiere."

Performances will be Thursday through Monday (June 9 – 13), Wednesday through Sunday (June 15 – 19) and Wednesday through Saturday (June 22 – 25). Tickets, which are $15, are available by calling 212.868.4444 or visiting www.smarttix.com.

Visit www.triptychtheatre.com for more information.




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