Durang's VANYA AND SONIA AND MASHA AND SPIKE Opens McCarter Theatre Center's 2012-13 Season

A new Chekhov-inspired play by Christopher Durang, an Edward Albee classic, and one of Shakespeare's late romances directed by Rebecca Taichman will be produced at McCarter Theatre Center during the 2012-2013 season. 

"We are building a season around the most talented and accomplished artists in the theater today. Christopher Durang and his director Nicholas Martin, Edward Albee and his director Emily Mann, and Rebecca Taichman are drawing upon their remarkable talents to create work that brings our audiences the extraordinary experiences they have come to expect at McCarter," said McCarter Producing Director Mara Isaacs.

Christopher Durang's new play, VANYA AND SONIA AND MASHA AND SPIKE, a McCarter Theatre Center commission, is scheduled to play in the Berlind Theatre tonight, September 7 through October 7. Following the McCarter, the production will move to New York's Lincoln Center Theater.

Durang – the acclaimed author of satires and absurdist comedies like Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You, and Why Torture Is Wrong, and the People Who Love Them – has mixed themes and characters from Uncle Vanya and other Chekhov plays and set them (as well as a new character, a "twenty-something boy toy Spike") in present-day Bucks County, Pa.

The play will be directed by Nicholas Martin, who staged Mr. Durang's Why Torture Is Wrong at The Public Theater, and another popular Durang work, Betty's Summer Vacation, at Playwrights Horizons. For McCarter, MR. Martin directed the 2009 production of Oliver Goldsmith's comedy She Stoops to Conquer.

Home, family, and friendship are all at stake in A DELICATE BALANCE, which will run from January 18 through February 17, 2013. Master playwright Edward Albee (Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf; Me, Myself & I) penned this scorching masterpiece which won him the 1967 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Agnes and Tobias' precarious suburban lives are shaken when they find themselves facing unexpected houseguests-who plan to stay indefinitely. Albee examines emptiness, sanctuary, and love in this stylish, bold, and profoundly touching social comedy. The production will be directed by McCarter Artistic Director Emily Mann.

A leading interpreter of Mr. Albee's work, Ms. Mann directed All Over at McCarter and The Roundabout (2003 Obie Award for Directing), and the world premiere of Me, Myself & I at McCarter and Playwrights Horizons. Ms. Mann's production of The Convert, which had its world premiere at McCarter this season, is currently on stage at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, before moving to LA's Center Theatre Group. Emily Mann is currently represented on Broadway with Tennessee Williams A Streetcar Named Desire.

Director Rebecca Taichman (Twelfth Night, Sleeping Beauty Wakes) brings her astonishing artistry to McCarter's audiences once again with Shakespeare's THE WINTER'S TALE that celebrates redemption, reconciliation, and the mending of broken hearts. Tragic, romantic, hilarious, and uplifting, this rarely-performed genre-bending masterpiece is one of Shakespeare's most elegant, haunting, and sumptuous plays. A co-production with The Shakespeare Theatre in Washington, DC, the production will run at McCarter Theatre, April 2 through 21, 2013.

To subscribe to the 2012-2013 McCarter Theater Season, call (609) 258-2787; visit online at www.mccarter.org; or in person at the McCarter Theatre box office at 91 University Place in Princeton.