TACT (The Actors Company Theatre), has announced its 2005-2006 season (the company¹s 13th), with the company continuing to carry out its mission of "presenting neglected or rarely produced plays of literary merit." Co-Artistic Director Scott Alan Evans (Cynthia Harris and Simon Jones are the other two) will direct the season's first offering, Lillian Hellman's Watch on the Rhine. "When an idealist anti-facist German flees his country with his children and wife to find sanctuary in America with his wife's family, he discovers that he cannot rest without compromising his deeply held beliefs," state press notes. Performances will take place at Florence Gould Hall at the French Institute Alliance Français (55 East 59th Street) on Saturday, October 15th at 7:30pm; Sunday, October 16th at 2pm; and Monday, October 17th at 7:30pm. Watch on the Rhine opened at the Martin Beck Theatre on April 1st, 1941 with a cast that included Ann Blyth, Paul Lukas (who won a 1944 Best Actor Oscar for the film version starring Bette Davis), and Lucille Watson. It ran for nearly four hundred performances and won the American Critics Drama Award. Nearly every review was some variation on the theme of John Anderson's (New York Journal American) comment: "passionately anti-fascist and often deeply moving." A revival of Watch on the Rhine was produced in 1980. Directed by Arvin Brown, the cast featured Jan Miner, Jill Eikenberry and George Hearn.
Watch on the Rhine's cast will include TACT Company Members Kyle Fabel, Cynthia Harris, Darrie Lawrence, Francesca Di Mauro, Margaret Nichols and Guest Artists Curzon Dobell, Leah Morales, Daniel Oreskes and Travis Walters. The production team includes Mary Louise Geiger (lighting design), David Toser (costume design), and David Macdonald (original music).In addition to the regular season, beginning in January, the company will introduce the "TACT Salon Series," a play reading series held in a more intimate setting - their new studio space! Each reading will include a free wine reception and "talk back" with the cast. The new salon series will include: Come Back, Little Sheba, Dear Liar and A Handsome Man (NY Premiere). The remainder of the main stage season include: He & She, by Rachel Crothers: November 19-21; A play TBA; March 11-13, 2006 and The Hot L Baltimore, by Lanford Wilson: May 6-8, 2006.
Tickets for Watch on the Rhine are $20 and may be purchased by calling Ticketmaster at 212-307-4100. Tickets can also be purchased at the Florence Gould Hall box office located at 55 East 59th Street (between Madison and Park Avenues). For more information on TACT, please visit www.TACTnyc.org.
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