Lesli Margherita to Join Tony Danza & More in RADIO GALAXY Industry Readings

Radio Galaxy, a new play by Michele Aldin Kushner, will be performed at invitation-only readings on Friday, February 2 at 11:00am and 2:00pm at the New York Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center. Radio Galaxy is directed by David Esbjornson and produced by Margot Astrachan and Richard Winkler.

In Radio Galaxy, Tino, 17-year-old science prodigy, from a hard-working, blue-collar family, dreams, eats, and sleeps astronomy. Unexpectedly, his biological father, Raju, an astrophysicist, enters his life. Tino has the chance to help Raju's sick daughter and - for the first time in his life - have his dreams of studying the cosmos realized - if only his dad would let him.

For the readings, Olivier Award winner Leslie Margherita (Matilda, Dames At Sea, Zorro in the West End) joins Tony Danza (Honeymoon In Vegas, Taxi, Who’s The Boss), Oscar Williams(Fun Home), Ritisha Chakraborty (The Skin of our Teeth), Ami Sheth (Blindspot), and Alok Tewari (The Band’s Visit).

“Radio Galaxy explores family in a most thoughtful but also heart stopping way,” said producers Margot Astrachan and Richard Winkler. “The play lets us laugh and cry and brings up insightful and thought-provoking questions such as: What does it mean to be a father? What determines fatherhood? And can we overcome our prejudices? Our hope is that the play will be the catalyst for insightful conversations about love and the family unit."

BIOS

MICHELE ALDIN KUSHNER 

(playwright) Michele’s play, Abducted, was read as part of Centenary Stage Company’s Women Playwrights Series 2023. Previously Abducted was read at The Barrow Group and the Workshop Theatre.  The Text of Sex premiered at The New York International Fringe Festival 2014 and took part in Centenary Stage Company’s Women Playwrights Series 2012.  It also had a reading at Luna Stage Company, Passage Theatre, and a workshop production with the American Academy of Dramatic Arts’ New York Company.  Her historical play, Unfit had a workshop and a reading as part of Rider University’s New Play Festival 2016.  Her play, The Baby Game, is the recipient of the Fulton Theatre’s 2012 Discovery Project New Play Contest and took part in the New Jersey Playwright’s Festival 2014. Advanced Women, is the 2009 recipient of the Todd McNerney Playwriting Award from the College of Charleston and took part in the 2010 Piccolo Spoleto Festival in Charleston, SC. Advanced Women, was invited to The Great Plains Theatre Conference Playlabs 2010, Omaha, NE. As a finalist for the W. Keith Hedrick Playwriting Contest in October 2009, Advanced Womenwas given a staged reading at HRC Showcase Theatre in Hudson, NY. Advanced Women also had a reading at Luna Stage Company, NJ. 31 Bond, an historic murder mystery, was originally commissioned by and produced at the Brooklyn Lyceum, NY, in 2002.  In 2007 31 Bond  was presented at the North American Actors Association Playreading Festival at the Soho Theatre, London, England.   Michele’s dark comedy, The Program, premiered at the New York International Fringe Festival 2007.   Her play, Dear America, was part of the New York International Fringe Festival 2006.  Michele’s screenplay 11 Months is the winner of the Alfred P. Sloan Award; MFA, New York University, Tisch School of the Arts, Dramatic Writing Program.  Web site:  www.michelealdinkushner.com

David Esbjornson 

(Director) was the Artistic Director of Classic Stage Company (NYC) from 1992-97 as well as Seattle Repertory Theatre 2005-8, producing and directing eleven seasons of new plays, classics and special events. In the last decade, David was Chair of the Rutgers MGSA Conservatory where he created the 3.5 conservatory program. Directing premieres include: Manifest Destiny’s Child by Dennis Trainor, (Edinburgh Festival), The Glass Menagerie (Shanghai, China) Driving Miss Daisy by Alfred Uhry, (Broadway, London and Australia) Edward Albee’s The Goat or Who is Sylvia? (Broadway) and The Play About the Baby (Century, NYC) Arthur Miller’s The Ride Down Mt. Morgan (Broadway) and Resurrection Blues (Guthrie), the world premiere of Tony Kushner’s Angels in America: Millennium Approaches and the first staged presentation of Perestroika(Eureka) and Homebody/Kabul (London). The Great Gatsby (the new Guthrie Inaugural Production) and Christopher Hampton’s Appomattox, The Confederacy of Dunces by Jeff Hatcher (Huntington) Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? by Todd Kriedler (Arena Stage DC, Huntington, Boston) The Outsider by Paul Slade Smith, (Paper Mill Playhouse), In the Blood by Suzan-Lori Parks (Public) Neil Simon’s Rose and Walsh, (Geffen) Therese Raquin by Neil Bell (CSC) Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom and Jeffrey Hatcher (Minetta Lane) My Old Lady by Israel Horovitz (Promenade) and Ariel Dorfman’s Purgatorio (SRT), Moira Buffini’s Gabriel and Peter Parnell’s Trumpery (Atlantic), Molly Ivins: Red Hot Patriot (Arena Stage, The Geffen, Philadelphia Theatre Company, Berkeley Rep) At Wits End-- The Erma Bombeck Story by Engels sisters (Arena Stage, Cincinnati Playhouse), Dealer’s Choice by Patrick Marber (Long Wharf). Major revivals include: Lady From Dubuque (NY Signature Inaugural Production) Death of a Salesman, (The Gate, Dublin), Measure for Measure and Much Ado About Nothing (NYSF in Central Park), A Few Good Men (London West End), The Normal Heart (Public) All My Sons (Huntington), Hamlet (Theatre For A New Audience), Our Town (George Street), Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Summer and Smoke (Guthrie) Twelfth Night, Mud and Drowning (Signature), Endgame, The Maids, Entertaining Mr. Sloane, The Entertainer, (Classic Stage Company) and Farmyard (NY Theatre Workshop).

Margot Astrachan 

(Producer) is a Tony Award winning commercial theatrical producer based in New York. Broadway: the Tony Award winning A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder, The Realistic Joneses, Nice Work If You Can Get It, the revival of On a Clear Day You Can See Forever; Bonnie & Clyde; Diana, A New Musical; The Prom. Producer: Busker Alley, Ghost the Musical National Tour, and the only staging of Stephen Sondheim’s Evening Primrose. She also produced The Sting starring Harry Connick Jr. at The Papermill Playhouse. Margot wrote, produced and performed five one-woman cabaret shows. New York: Danny’s Skylight Room, Judy’s, The Plaza Hotel, The Oak Room of The Algonquin Hotel, the Triad, The National Arts Club, among others. With dancer/choreographer Carmen De Lavallade, she wrote the book of a new Jazz musical, which was read at Lincoln Center and at The York Theater. Margot was the American Artistic Director of the Jermyn Street Theatre in London and The Kings Head Theatre in London, and has had over 30 years’ experience producing special events for Arts Organizations such as The York Theatre Company, The Theatre Museum, and BritArts of The St. George’s Society, which with Jim Dale, featured British and American theatre professionals in readings and panels in New York. She was Vice Chair of The New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF), a current board member of Alumni & Friends of The LaGuardia High School of The Arts and Chair of the Theater Advisory Committee of the Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center. She is a graduate of CTI (The Commercial Theatre Institute) and is a member of The Association of Performing Arts Presenters, The National Alliance for Musical Theatre, The Broadway League, The Dramatists Guild, the Advisory Board of TRU, British American Business, Inc. and BAFTA East Coast. She is a past chair of The American Friends of the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

Richard Winkler 

(Producer) - Red Hanger Productions has received 8 TONY Awards and 5 OLIVIER Awards since 2009, following a worldwide 35-year career as a lighting designer for theatre and opera. TONY Awards include Leopoldstadt (2023), The Leman Trilogy (2022), The Inheritance (2021), The Ferryman (2019), Vanya/Sonia/Masha/Spike (2013), Memphis (2010), La Cage aux Folles (2010) and The Norman Conquests (2009). Previous Broadway Includes A Little Night Music (2009 Tony nomination), La Bête, Something Rotten!(2015 Tony nomination), Hand to God (2015 Tony nomination), Disgraced (2013 Pulitzer Prize 2013, Tony nomination), King Charles III (2016 Tony nomination), Sunday in the Park with George, 1984, and Sweat (2017 Pulitzer Prize, 2017 Tony nomination). OLIVIER Awards include Leopoldstadt (2020), Come from Away (2019), The Inheritance (2019), Home, I’m Darling (2019), Long Day's Journey (2012), The Lehman Trilogy (2019 Olivier nomination). Current West End includes Lyonesse, Dr. Semmelweis, and Patriots. Previous West End includes Mad House, Nine Night, Magic Mike, and Memphis.

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