Photo Flash: Sneak Peek at Stage West's 4000 MILES

Only it's not the home he grew up in that Leo Joseph-Connell turns to, but the home of his grandmother, Vera. He thinks he's just looking for a place to crash for a couple of days - but his needs go much deeper, in Amy Herzog's 4000 Miles, beginning a 5-week run at Stage West on April 4. Get a sneak peek at the cast below!

Leo has been on a cross-country bike trip from Seattle to New York with his best friend, but something happened on the trip, something life-changing, and Leo doesn't know what to do with himself. And he finds himself ringing the doorbell of his grandmother's West Village apartment at 3:00 am. Though she is sleep-muddled, she takes him in, and so begins a month-long visit.

The two could hardly be more different. Leo is 21, tech-savvy, eco-committed, and laid-back. Vera is 91, a mid-century Marxist, a set-in-her-ways technophobe who is grappling with the depredations of age. Over the course of a month, they drive each other crazy (Leo refuses to communicate with his mother, Vera keeps forgetting things), and they squabble. But they also find some surprising common ground. She gives him a place to decompress; he gives her companionship and stimulation. And in time, they are able to open up to and accept each other.

Ultimately, 4000 Miles is a funny and touching play about life and loss which never becomes mawkish or goes for easy laughs. Christopher Isherwood of the New York Times wrote "Plays as truthful and touching and fine as Amy Herzog's '4000 Miles' come along once or maybe twice a season, if we're lucky."

Amy Herzog holds an MFA from the Yale School of Drama. She won the 2008 Helen Merrill Award for aspiring playwrights, and the 2012 Obie Award for Best New American Play for 4000 Miles. Her other plays include After the Revolution (John Gassner Award Nomination; Lilly Award), Belleville (currently at New York Theatre Workshop), The Great God Pan (recently at Playwrights Horizons) and The Wendy Play (ACT, San Francisco). She has had readings and workshops at Steppenwolf, Manhattan Theater Club, New York Stage and Film, Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., and Lincoln Center, among others. She has received commissions from Playwrights Horizons, Yale Rep, and Steppenwolf. Ms. Herzog is a recipient of the Whiting Writers Award, and is an alumna of Youngblood, Play Group, and the Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab. She has taught playwriting at Bryn Mawr and Yale. The New York Times termed her "one of the bright theatrical lights of her generation. She writes with a keen sensitivity to the complex weave of feelings embedded in all human relationships."

Dana Schultes is directing a talented cast of familiar and new faces. Garret Storms and Tabitha Ray, both last seen at Stage West in Gabriel, will play Leo and his off-and-on girlfriend Bec. Sylvia Luedtke, last seen at Stage West as Mrs. Gottlieb in Dead Man's Cell Phone, and whose credits include Nat in Rabbit Hole at Runway Theatre, will play Vera. Ariel Kim, seen as Cobweb in Stolen Shakespeare Guild's A Midsummer Night's Dream, will play Amanda, the girl Leo meets at a bar.

The set will be designed by Jim Covault, with lighting by Michael O'Brien. Costume design will be be handled by Covault and Peggy Kruger-O'Brien. Lynn Lovett will handle set décor and props.

4000 Miles will preview Thursday, April 4 at 7:30 and Friday, April 5 at 8:00, and will run through Sunday, May 5. Performance times will be Thursday evenings at 7:30, Friday and Saturday evenings at 8:00, with Sunday matinees at 3:00. The opening night reception will be Saturday, April 6. Ticket prices range from $28 to $32, with discounts for preview performances, and for students and seniors. Pay What You Can performances will be Sunday, April 7 and Thursday, April 11. Food service is available 90 minutes prior to performances (reservations are necessary), and all Friday nights after April 5 will feature the $39 Prix Fixe Special. Reservations and information are available through the Box Office (817-784-9378), or on the website, www.stagewest.org. Note: this play contains some strong language, and references to drug usage.

Photo Credit: Buddy Myers

Garret Storms and Tabitha Ray

Garret Storms and Sylvia Luedtke

Sylvia Luedtke and Garret Storms