STAGE TUBE: Michael Wilson, Christopher Shinn & Cast Go Behind the Scenes of Huntington Theatre's NOW OR LATER

To coincide with the ongoing presidential campaign, the Huntington Theatre Company will stage the American premiere of Now or Later, Christopher Shinn’s timely political drama about our freedoms. Drama Desk and Outer Critic’s Circle Award winner Michael Wilson, who recently helmed the acclaimed Broadway production of Gore Vidal’s presidential drama The Best Man, directs the new production. The production opens tomorrow, Wednesday, October 17 and runs through November 10. 

In the videos below, director Michael Wilson, playwright Christopher Shinn, Huntington's artistic director and cast members Toms Nellis and Grant MacDermott discuss the powerful personal relationships family drama that exist at the heart of the edgy political thriller NOW OR LATER, which plays through November 10 at the South End/Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA.

The play takes place in real time in a hotel room on election night as the returns are being announced. The gay son of the favored presidential candidate sends his father’s team into crisis mode when controversial photos of him at a college party dressed as the prophet Muhammad and accompanied by a friend dressed as the ultra-conservative “Pastor Bob” spread over the internet, potentially sparking an international incident. Quickly, the son must wrestle to explain his motives and personal beliefs about freedoms of religion and expression to members of his father’s campaign team, his mother, and ultimately his father.

Shinn wrote Now or Later as a commission for London’s Royal Court in 2008. The production was extended and became the American dramatist’s biggest UK hit.

The cast includes: Michael Goldsmith, Ryan King, Tom Nelis, Adriane Lenox, Grant MacDermott and Alexandra Neil.

Scenic design by Jeff Cowie (The Carpetbaggers Children at Lincoln Center Theater and What Didn’t Happen at Playwrights Horizons); costume design by David C. Woolard (Dividing the Estate and West Side Story on Broadway); lighting design by Russell H. Champa (Captors at the Huntington Theatre Company and Completeness at Playwrights Horizons); sound design and original composition by David Remedios (The Luck of the Irish and Before I Leave You at the Huntington). Production stage manager is Carola Morrone Lacoste. Stage manager is Candace D. Mongellow.

Watch the videos below for a behind-the-scenes look at the production!