Original CLYBOURNE PARK Cast to Reunite at Mark Taper Forum

Crystal A. Dickinson, Brendan Griffin, Damon Gupton, Christina Kirk, Annie Parisse, Jeremy Shamos and Frank Wood have been cast in Bruce Norris' Pulitzer Prize-winning comedy "Clybourne Park," opening the 45th season at the Center Theatre Group/Mark Taper Forum, January 25, 2012.

The entire original Playwrights Horizons' off-Broadway cast, along with original director Pam MacKinnon, reunites for the Los Angeles production of "Clybourne Park," which begins previews January 11 and continues through February 26.

Rehearsals for the play begin Monday, December 12, 2011.

In "Clybourne Park," which also won the Olivier Award for Best New Play, Norris imagines the history of one of the more important houses in literary history, both before and after it becomes a focal point in Lorraine Hansberry's classic "A Raisin in the Sun." In 1959, the house, which is located in a white neighborhood at 406 Clybourne St. in Chicago, is sold to an African-American family (the Younger family in "A Raisin in the Sun"). Then in 2009 after the neighborhood has changed into an African-American community, the house is sold to a white couple. It is through this prism of property ownership that Norris' lacerating sense of humor dissects race relations and middle class hypocrisies in America.

"Clybourne Park" features scenic design by Daniel Ostling, costume design by Ilona Somogyi, lighting design by Allen Lee Hughes and sound design by John Gromada. The production stage manager is C.A. Clark.

Other plays by Bruce Norris include "The Infidel" (2000), "Purple Heart" (2002), "We All Went Down to Amsterdam" (2003 – Joseph Jefferson Award for Best New Work), "The Pain and the Itch" (2004 – Jefferson Award) and "The Unmentionables" (2006), all of which premiered at Steppenwolf Theatre. His work has also been produced at Lookingglass Theatre, Philadelphia Theatre Company, Woolly Mammoth Theatre (Washington, D.C.), The Royal Court Theatre (London) and The Staatstheater Mainz (Germany). He is the recipient of the 2009 Steinberg Playwright Award, the Whiting Foundation Prize for Drama, and the Kesselring Prize, Honorable Mention.

In conjunction with the presentation of "Clybourne Park" at the Taper, CTG will present the critically-acclaimed Ebony Repertory Theatre production of "A Raisin in the Sun," directed by Phylicia Rashad, at the Kirk Douglas Theatre, January 19 through February 19, 2012.

Playwrights Horizons, Inc., New York City, produced the world premiere of "Clybourne Park" off-Broadway in 2010.

Tickets and information are available at CenterTheatreGroup.org, the Center Theatre Group box office located at the Ahmanson Theatre, or by calling (213) 628-2772.

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