Seldes, Baker, Corddry Bros TRUE WEST Set for 2009 Williamstown Theatre Fest Season

Williamstown Theatre Festival (Nicholas Martin, Artistic Director), announced the programming today for its 55th season.

Continuing its 55-year history under the artistic direction of Nicholas Martin, Williamstown Theatre Festival hosts award-winning actors, directors and playwrights who join forces to entertain and delight the Berkshire community of year-round and seasonal patrons.

In addition to its acclaimed productions, WTF has extensive training and professional development programs for the next generation of actors, writers, directors, designers, technicians and managers.

In 2002, WTF received the Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre.

The Main Stage
Children

July 1 - 12, 2009
WTF's Main Stage season will begin with Children by A.R. Gurney. Tony-nominee John Tillinger (Loot, The Sunshine Boys) directs this timeless Gurney classic set in a large summer home on an island off the coast of Massachusetts. When an estranged brother's return and a mother's impending marriage recall painful memories of their father's death, seething arguments reignite one family's struggle with its tragic past and uncertain future.

True West

July 15 - 26, 2009
Next on the Main Stage will be True West, by Sam Shepard, directed by former Boris Sagal Directing Fellow Daniel Goldstein (Walmartopia, Godspell). Former WTF Apprentice Nate Corddry ("Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip," Showtime's "United States of Tara"), and his real-life brother Rob Corddry ("The Daily Show," The Heartbreak Kid), will play the squabbling siblings in this Pulitzer Prize-winning play. This modern classic is an explosive exploration of family rivalry as two very different brothers attempt to sell Hollywood their version of the great American Western.

The Torch-Bearers

July 29 - August 9, 2009

Tony-nominated stage and screen actor Dylan Baker (November, Mauritius, Revolutionary Road) will direct a cast including Becky Ann Baker (All My Sons, Assassins) and Tony Award-winner Marian Seldes (A Delicate Balance, Deathtrap)
in The Torch-Bearers by George Kelly. The play is a side-splitting 1920s farce in which a troupe of amateur actors rehearse and perform a show-stopping new play-or try to with all their might. Their stage is riddled with comedic drama, suspense, and good old-fashioned witty mayhem, similar to both Noises Off and Boeing Boeing.

Quartermaine's Terms

August 12 - 23, 2009
Tony-nominated director Maria Aitken (Broadway and West End's award-winning production of The 39 Steps) will close the WTF Main Stage with Quartermaine's Terms by Simon Gray (Butley, The Late Middle Classes). Featuring a cast including Tony-nominee Mary Beth Hurt (Top Girls, A Delicate Balance), Simon Jones (Blithe Spirit, Waiting in the Wings) and Tony Award-winner Jefferson Mays (I Am My Own Wife, Journey's End), this charming and heart-felt 1960s comedy follows an endearingly eccentric group of English teachers in Cambridge whose insatiable quest for knowledge has masked their secret longings for passion, romance, and true happiness. 

The Nikos Stage
Knickerbocker

July 8 - 19, 2009
Nicholas Martin will open the Nikos Stage season, directing the world-premiere of Knickerbocker by Jonathan Marc Sherman (Women and Wallace, Sophistry). "Are you ready?" The question looms over Jerry as the months tick by and his unborn son grows from the size of a peach to the size of, well, a baby. As the birth date creeps ever nearer, will the advice, encouragement and warnings of friends and family make Jerry more or less ready? The awe and terror of becoming a new parent shines through Sherman's newest play as he examines whether one can ever truly be ready for parenthood.

What Is The Cause Of Thunder?

July 22 - August 2, 2009

Also on the Nikos stage, WTF Artistic Associate Justin Waldman (WTF and Off-Broadway's The Atheist) will direct the world-premiere of What Is The Cause Of Thunder?, a new play by Noah Haidle (Mr. Marmalade, Saturn Returns). After 27 years on the same soap opera, Ada is starting to confuse her art and her life. But after so many years of acting, her art is her life. Haidle's poignant comedy brings us the hilarity of day-time drama alongside the harsher, but often equally funny, realities of life.

Caroline In Jersey

August 5 - 16, 2009
Closing the Nikos Stage season will be the world-premiere of Caroline in Jersey by Melinda Lopez (Sonia Flew at the Huntington Theatre Co., directed by Nicholas Martin and Steppenwolf), directed by WTF Artistic Associate Amanda Charlton (Dissonance, Demon Dreams). Caroline is down and out in New Jersey. She's having a nervous breakdown, her career as an actress is tragically dwindling, and a peculiar stranger has made his presence known in her new apartment. Can she find a way to conquer it all? This funny and touching new play follows one woman's whole-hearted attempt to accept the past and take hold of the future, despite the many surprises that might pop up along the way.

Additional performers and full creative teams for the 2009 Williamstown Theatre Festival Season will be announced at a later date.

2008 L. Arnold Weissberger Award Winner

Williamstown Theatre Festival also announced today that the 2008 Weissberger Award for Playwriting has been awarded to Ken Urban for his play, Sense of an Ending. Mr. Urban will receive a $10,000 prize, publication of his script by Samuel French, Inc., and a reading of his play by the Festival during the 2009 season.

Williamstown Theatre Festival

For more information visit, www.wtfestival.org

 

Photo Credit: Peter James Zielinski