Lenny Wolpe and More Set for BEAU JEST Reading at Westport Country Playhouse; Full Cast Announced!

Casting is announced for Westport Country Playhouse's Script in Hand playreading of the romantic comedy "Beau Jest" by James Sherman, a former actor/writer for Chicago's Second City, on one-night-only, Monday, March 18, 7 p.m. Tickets are $15.

The six-member cast includes:

Brian J. Carter, who will play Bob, was at Westport Country Playhouse in Script in Hand playreadings of "Golden Boy," "Harvey," and "Holiday." Off-Broadway, he was in the original production of "Wit."

Jordan Coughtry (Chris) appeared at Westport Country Playhouse in "Twelfth Night," and Script in Hand playreadings of "Holiday," and "The Philadelphia Story." New York theater credits include "Murder in the Cathedral."

Erik Liberman (Joel) was at Westport Country Playhouse last season in "Into the Woods." On Broadway, he appeared in Harold Prince's "LoveMusik." Regional credits include "Merrily We Roll Along" for which he won a Helen Hayes Award.

Dana Steingold (Sarah) appeared as Little Red Ridinghood in Westport Country Playhouse's "Into the Woods," and a Script in Hand playreading of "The Philadelphia Story." She was in the Broadway/National Tours of "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee."

Cheryl Stern (Miriam) was at Westport Country Playhouse in "Into the Woods." On Broadway, she appeared in the 2010 Tony Award-winning "La Cage aux Folles," "The Women," and "Laughing Room Only."

Lenny Wolpe (Abe) performed at Westport Country Playhouse in "She Loves Me," and a Script in Hand playreading of "Over the River and Through the Woods." He is currently on the New York stage in "Old Jews Telling Jokes."

Set in the late 1980s, "Beau Jest" is a romantic comedy about Sarah, a young, single Jewish woman, whose parents want her to marry a nice Jewish man. To please them, Sarah says she's dating a Jew although her boyfriend is actually a WASP. When her parents insist on meeting him at a dinner, Sarah decides to hire a Jewish escort to pose as her boyfriend for the evening.

For more information or tickets, call the box office at (203) 227-4177, or toll-free at 1-888-927-7529, or visit Westport Country Playhouse, 25 Powers Court, off Route 1, Westport. Tickets are available online 24/7 at www.westportplayhouse.org. Stay connected to The Playhouse on Facebook (Westport Country Playhouse), follow on Twitter (@WCPlayhouse), view Playhouse videos on YouTube (WestportPlayhouse) or get an insider's peek on The Playhouse Blog (www.theplayhouseblog.org).

Westport Country Playhouse is a nationally recognized, not-for-profit, professional theater under the artistic direction of Mark Lamos and management leadership of Michael Ross. The Playhouse creates five live theater experiences, produced at the highest level, from April through November. Its vital mix of works---dramatic, comedic, occasionally exploratory and unusual---expands the audience's sense of what theater can be. The depth and scope of its productions display the foremost theatrical literature from the past---recent as well as distant---in addition to musicals and premieres of new plays. During the summer, The Playhouse is home to the Woodward Internship Program, renowned for the training of aspiring theater professionals. Winter at The Playhouse, from November through March, offers events outside of the main season---Family Festivities presentations, and Script in Hand play readings. In addition, businesses and organizations are encouraged to rent the handsome facility for their meetings, receptions and fundraisers.

As an historic venue, Westport Country Playhouse has had many different lives leading up to the present. Originally built in 1835 as a tannery manufacturing hatters' leathers, it became a steam-powered cider mill in 1880, later to be abandoned in the 1920s. Splendidly transformed into a theater in 1931, it initially served as a try-out house for Broadway transfers, evolving into an established stop on the New England straw hat circuit of summer stock theaters through the end of the 20th century. Following a multi-million dollar renovation completed in 2005, The Playhouse became a state-of-the-art producing theater, preserving its original charm and character.

Today, the not-for-profit Westport Country Playhouse serves as a cultural nexus for patrons, artists and students and is a treasured resource for the State of Connecticut. There are no boundaries to the creative thinking for future seasons or the kinds of audiences and excitement for theater that Westport Country Playhouse can build.

Westport Country Playhouse's five-play 2013 season: A.R. Gurney's "The Dining Room," a witty and heartfelt story of the American family and its vanishing traditions set in the most singular of rooms, where people gather, meals are eaten, conversations begin, and generations converge, directed by Mark Lamos, April 30 - May 18; "The Show-Off" by George Kelly, a funny, surprising, and moving story of a family in upheaval when their youngest daughter becomes engaged to a brash loudmouth, directed by Nicholas Martin, June 11 - 29; "Loot," a wickedly funny send-up of larcenous, lascivious behavior among the English middle classes by the master of British farce Joe Orton, directed by David Kennedy, Playhouse associate artistic director, July 16 - August 3; the second world premiere in as many seasons, "Oblivion" a touching and funny-and very modern-tale of parents, children, and the gulf that sometimes exists between them, commissioned by Playwrights Horizons and developed by Steppenwolf Theatre Company, written by Carly Mensch, a writer for Showtime's "Weeds," and directed by Mark Brokaw, August 20 - September 7; and John Murray and Allen Boretz's "Room Service," a madcap American farce about a producer and his ragtag bunch of actors who try to raise money for a Broadway show as they scramble to evade their hotel bill, directed by Mark Lamos, October 8 - 26.