Westport Country Playhouse to Stage DINNER WITH FRIENDS 6/1-19

The Pulitzer Prize-winning comic drama, Dinner with Friends by Connecticut's Donald Margulies, has been announced as the second production in the 2010 season at Westport Country Playhouse. Scheduled for June 1 through June 19, "Dinner with Friends" will be directed by David Kennedy, Playhouse associate artistic director.

Dinner with Friends is about Gabe & Karen and Tom & Beth, two couples who have been close friends for years, and who participate in all the familiar and comfortable rituals of shared vacations, good conversation and great food. When Tom abruptly walks out on Beth, it threatens more than just their marriage alone. This vibrant and edgy contemporary play explores the difficulties of one couple surviving the other pair's divorce.

In addition to the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Dinner with Friends also received an Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Off-Broadway Play, the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Off-Broadway Play, the Dramatists Guild/Hull-Warriner Award, the American Theatre Critics Association New Play Award and a Drama Desk Award nomination. The play premiered at the 1998 Humana Festival of New American Plays and opened in New York in 1999.

 This production will mark The Westport Country Playhouse directing debut of Associate Artistic Director David Kennedy. Kennedy joined The Playhouse in March 2009 and most recently served as associate artistic director at Dallas Theater Center. He is a founding artistic director of The Lunar Society in Toronto and Milkman Theatre Group in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and was artistic director of The Summer Cabaret in New Haven. Kennedy was the assistant director on the Tony-winning musical Urinetown for Dodger Theatricals/The Araca Group. He is a former Phil Killian Fellow at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, a Drama League Directing Fellow and a graduate of the Yale School of Drama.

Subscriptions to all five plays are available for preferred seating and pricing. Single tickets range from $35 to $55; opening night tickets, including post-performance reception, are $65. Students and educators are eligible for 50% discounts. Groups of 10 or more save up to 30%. For group sales information call (203)227-5137, x120.  For additional information, visit  www.westportplayhouse.org.

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