Klonsky & Schwartz Premieres At E.S.T. With Previews Starting November 28

ENSEMBLE STUDIO THEATRE (Curt Dempster, Founder/Artistic Director) will present Klonsky & Schwartz, the off-Broadway premiere of a new play by Romulus Linney, at E.S.T. (549 West 52nd Street).  Performances begin Monday November 28th and continue through Friday December 23rd, with opening night set for Monday December 5th.

Klonsky & Schwartz, a humorous and provocative play, evokes the creative life of the mercurial and gifted poet Delmore Schwartz who rose to fame during the mid 20th century artistic and political ferment in New York City. In Linney's play, Milton Klonsky, Delmore Schwartz's life-long partner and protégé, fights to rescue his troubled mentor and friend in the turbulent times of the 1960s.

Chris Ceraso and Bill Wise star, under the direction of Jamie Richards.  Chris Ceraso, a member of EST for more than twenty years, has premiered plays by John Guare, David Mamet, Joyce Carol Oates, Lanford Wilson, Romulus Linney, Mac Wellman, Arthur Giron (Richard Feynman in Moving Bodies) and Christopher Durang, among many others.  TV and Film: "Law and Order", "L&O S.V.U," "Deadline," "City Kids," "Magnetism," "101 Ways," and more.  Regional work from Shakespeare to Tennessee Williams at Hartford/>/>, Capitol Rep, Bristol Riverside, etc.  Bill Wise was most recently seen as Dr. Traff, Sr. in Stephen King's "Kingdom/> Hospital/>/>" on ABC. He was Smiley Bowman in 13 Conversations About One Thing opposite Alan Arkin, and was Willis in the Oscar-nominated "In The Bedroom". Among his many stage credits he is most proud of the Steppenwolf Production of Orphans, playing opposite Jason Robards in Established Price, and appearing in Frank Gilroy's A Way with Words at Ensemble Studio Theatre where he has been a member for 22 years.  

Jamie Richards directed Stonewall Jackson's House (American Place Theatre, Outer Critic's Circle Award nomination); Light Years (Playwrights Horizons), The Secret Order, District of Columbia, Flight (E.S.T.) and Romulus Linney's Saint, Magician (Epic Rep). She co-created and was Artistic Director of Off-Broadway's long running comedy hit, Hell's Kitchen Sink. She has directed many plays for E.S.T.'s Marathon of One-Act Plays (1993 Obie Award), including Of Two Minds, Reunions, Brown, Night Rules, Light Years, All About Al, Cats and Dogs, The I Word: Interns, Real Real Gone, The Seventeenth of June, Rain, and Ring of Men.  She has developed plays for Williamstown Theatre Festival, New York Stage and Film, Playwright's Horizons, Primary Stages, the New Group and New Dramatists, among others. Her own plays include The Spirit and Habit of Science (Recipient, Alfred P. Sloan Project Commission), Roman Fever (Marathon '99), Scene of the Crime, and Alice/Looking Glass. Most recently, Jamie directed The Female Heart for DiverseCity Theatre and Love is Deaf in E.S.T. Marathon 2005.

Romulus Linney is the author of three novels, many short stories, and five anthologies of plays, staged throughout the United States/>/> and abroad. They include The Sorrows of Frederick/>, Holy Ghosts, Childe Byron, Heathen/> Valley/>, "2" and, most recently, an adaptation of Ernest L. Gaines's novel A Lesson Before Dying, which has been produced in New York/>/> and in numerous regional theatres, and an adaptation of Tim O'Brien's novel Going After Cacciato, which was commissioned by the Epic Repertory Theatre. He has won two Obie awards, one for sustained excellence in playwriting, two National Critics Awards, three Drama-Logue Awards, and many fellowships, including grants from the Guggenheim and Rockefeller Foundations. He is a member of the American/> Academy/>/> of Arts & Letters.

Delmore Schwartz was born December 8, 1913, in Brooklyn/>. In 1936, he won the Bowdoin Prize in the Humanities for his essay "Poetry as Imitation."  In 1937, his short story "In Dreams Begin Responsibilities" was published in Partisan Review, a left-wing magazine.  The following year, his first book-length work, also entitled In Dreams Begin Responsibilities, was published and received much praise. His book of short stories The World Is a Wedding was published the following year.  Time Magazine compared Schwartz to Stendahl and Anton Chekhov.  By this time, his work was widely anthologized. In 1960, Schwartz became the youngest poet ever to win the Bollingen Prize. His friend Saul Bellow wrote a semi-fictional memoir about Schwartz called Humboldt's Gift, which won the Pulitzer Prize. In the summer of 1966 Schwartz checked into the Times Square Hotel, to focus on his writing.  He worked continuously, but on July 11, he had a fatal heart attack in the lobby of the hotel.

KLONSKY & SCHWARTZ, will have scenic and lighting design by Maruti Evans, costume design by Amelia Baksic and sound design by Graham Johnson.

Ensemble Studio Theatre is a not-for-profit developmental theatre founded in 1972 with two primary goals: to nurture individual theatre artists, and to develop new American plays.  Under the guidance of founder and Artistic Director Curt Dempster, the theatre's membership has grown from a core of 20 artists to a flourishing community of nearly 450 theatre artists of the highest caliber.  Among them are winners of accolades and higher awards including Pulitzer Prizes, Oscars, Tonys, Emmys, and Obies.  E.S.T. is a lifelong artistic home for its member playwrights, directors, actors, designers, technical personnel, and administrators. Each year, the Ensemble produces over 300 projects, including readings, staged readings, and fully produced mainstage full-lengths. Performances will be Monday through Saturday evenings at 8pm, with matinees Saturdays at 2pm. Tickets are $35 each ($25 during previews, November 28th through December 3rd). Tickets may be ordered by calling 212-352-3101.