McCarter to Start 2018 with Marie Jones's STONES IN HIS POCKETS

McCarter Theatre Center is starting 2018 with a strong shot of Irish humor as it presents Marie Jones' Stones in His Pockets, January 12 - February 11 in the Berlind Theatre.

When small town Irishmen Charlie and Jake are hired as extras in an American film that invades their scenic County Kerry village, chaos ensues as they discover that their romanticized Hollywood dream isn't quite what it seems. Marie Jones' Olivier Award-winning comedy is brought to life by two actors portraying a colorful cast of dozens. Acclaimed British director Lindsay Posner helms this hilarious and heartfelt story that pits harsh reality against Hollywood endings.

Stones in His Pockets is a perfect blend of Irish wit and wisdom, and has been immensely popular since its 1996 debut. Winning the Olivier for Best Comedy on the West End and nominated for three Tony Awards, Stones in His Pockets has been performed in more than three dozen countries worldwide.

McCarter welcomes two of the Emerald Isle's finest, with Garrett Lombard and Aaron Monaghan portraying a slew of small-town villagers, Dubliners, and jet-set Hollywood types.

Tony Award-winning set designer Beowulf Boritt (McCarter's Murder on the Orient Express) returns with a triple threat: set, costumes, and projection designs. Boritt is joined by lighting designer Japhy Weideman (Dear Evan Hansen on Broadway) and sound designer/composer Lindsay Jones (A Time to Kill on Broadway).

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

Marie Jones' plays have toured extensively throughout the world. Her plays include an adaptation of Gogol's The Government Inspector, which toured in Britain and Ireland; A Night in November (London, Glasgow, New York and three tours of Ireland); Women on the Verge of HRT (Belfast, Dublin, Glasgow and London's Vaudeville Theatre). Dancing Shoes, the story of George Best, co-written W.T. Martin Lynch, premiered at the Grand Opera House and went on to tour the UK. Stones in His Pockets, which toured Ireland prior to the Dublin Theatre Festival and its West End and Broadway debut in 2000 gaining many awards including the Lawrence Olivier Award, The Evening Standard Award, and three Tony nominations for Best New Play. The play has been translated and performed in 38 languages. Fly Me To The Moon, produced by Green Shoot productions also premièred at the Grand Opera House prior to a hugely successful run in New York and is now being performed and translated in other countries including Canada and throughout Scandinavia. As an actress, Marie has performed in most of the major theatres of Ireland and England. She has been awarded two honorary doctorates of literature and an OBE.

Director Lindsay Posner was Associate Director at The Royal Court Theatre from 1987 to 1992 where his production of Death and the Maiden won two Olivier Awards. Theatre: The End of Longing (West End & New York); The Truth (Menier Chocolate Factory & West End); Cinderella (Stage Entertainment Moscow); The Lie, Dinner with Saddam and Communicating Doors (Menier Chocolate Factory); Hayfever (TRB & West End); Harvey (Birmingham Repertory Theatre & West End); Speed the Plow (Playhouse); Other Desert Cities and The Provok'd Wife (Old Vic); The Winslow Boy (Old Vic & Roundabout, New York); Noises Off (Old Vic, West End & UK Tour); Relatively Speaking (TRB, West End & UK Tour); Richard III (Old Globe, San Diego); The Turn of The Screw, Tom and Viv, House of Games, Romance and The Hypochondriac (Almeida); A View From The Bridge (Duke of York's, Nominated for four Olivier Awards); Carousel (Churchill Theatre, UK tour and Savoy); Fiddler On The Roof (Sheffield Crucible & Savoy); Fool for Love and A Life In The Theatre (Apollo); Oleanna (Garrick); Twelfth Night, The Rivals, Volpone and The Taming of the Shrew (RSC). Opera: La Traviata and Tosca (Grange Park); Guilio Cesare (Royal Opera House); Love Counts (Almeida); Jenufa (Opera Theatre Company, Dublin); Rigoletto and Roberto Deveraux (Holland Park).

Garrett Lombard (Charlie) Originally from Wexford and trained at the Samuel Beckett Centre, Trinity College Dublin, has appeared in all of Ireland's major theatres. Recent: Gate Theatre, Dublin in Death of a Salesman (Biff), dir. by David Esbjornson; The Caretaker, dir: Toby Frow; An Ideal Husband, Bedroom Farce, and A Streetcar Named Desire (Stanley Kowalski), dir: Ethan McSweeney; All My Sons and The Glass Menagerie, dir: Robin Le Fevre. Abbey Theatre: Ulysses, School for Scandal, and The Recruiting Officer. Druid Theatre Company: Waiting for Godot; Year of the Hiker (JB Keane, Irish Times Theatre Best Supporting Actor Award nom.); The Walworth Farce (by Enda Walsh) on international tour, Edinburgh (Fringe First), New York and Royal National Theatre (Cottesloe); Film/TV: Quirke (BBC/RTE) with Gabriel Byrne, Pure Mule (RTE), Rough Diamond (RTE/BBC), and Stella Days (dir. by Thaddeus O'Sullivan with Martin Sheen), and Leonnatus in Alexander (dir. Oliver Stone). Voiceover credits including work for McDonalds, Jameson, O2, Lucozade, Fuji, and many more.

Aaron Monaghan (Jake) has trained at The Samuel Beckett Centre, Trinity College Dublin. Select Theatre credits include: King Lear, Tales of Ballycumber, Christ Deliver Us!, Arrah na Pogue, She Stoops to Conquer and 16 Possible Glimpses (The Abbey Theatre Dublin); Waiting For Godot, The Beauty Queen of Leenane, DruidShakespeare, DruidMurphy, DruidSynge, The Walworth Farce, Penelope, The Silver Tassie, and Empress of India (Druid Company). Aaron's Film & TV work includes: Assassins Creed with Michael Fassbender, The Foreigner with Jackie Chan, Pan with Hugh Jackman, Maze, Love/Hate, Vikings, The Tudors, Hideaways, The Other Side of Sleep, and Clean Break. He is the recipient of The Lucille Lortel Award, Manchester Evening News Award, The Irish Times Theatre Award, and an OBIE Award for Outstanding Performance.

Beowulf Boritt (Set, Costumes, Projection Design) McCarter: Murder on The Orient Express. Broadway: Act One (Tony Award), The Scottsboro Boys (Tony nomination), Thérèse Raquin (Tony nomination), Come From Away, Meteor Shower, A Bronx Tale, Prince Of Broadway, Sunday in the Park With George (2017), Hand To God, On The Town, Sondheim On Sondheim, ...Spelling Bee, LoveMusik, Rock Of Ages, Chaplin, Bronx Bombers, Grace, The Two And Only. Off-Broadway: 100 shows including The Last Five Years, Sleepwalk With Me, and Miss Julie. He has designed for the New York City Ballet and the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus and around the world in England, Russia, China, Australia, and Japan. 2007 OBIE Award for sustained excellence.

Japhy Weideman (Lighting Design) Broadway: Dear Evan Hansen, The Visit, The Nance, Of Mice and Men, Airline Highway (all received Tony noms. for Best Lighting Design.) Other Bway: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Bright Star, Sylvia, Old Times,
The Heidi Chronicles, Macbeth (Drama Desk nom.), Cyrano de Bergerac, The Snow Geese. Off-Broadway: Lincoln Center Theatre, The Public Theatre, NYTW, Second Stage, Playwrights Horizons, MTC, MCC, LAByrinth, The Vineyard. West End: A Nice Fish (Harold Pinter Theatre), Blackbird (Albery Theatre). Opera: Bluebeard's Castle/Il Prigionero (La Scala, Nederlands Opera), The Revolution of Steve Jobs, Don Giovanni, Life is a Dream (Santa Fe Opera), Manchurian Candidate, Doubt (Minnesota Opera), Don Giovanni (Opera Lyon).

Lindsay Jones (Original Music and Sound Design) Broadway: Bronx Bombers, A Time To Kill. Off Broadway: The Public Theatre: Privacy, Dry Powder; Playwrights Horizons: Mankind, Bootycandy; Primary Stages: Rx; New York Theatre Workshop: Top Secret; many others. International: Royal Shakespeare Company (England), Stratford Shakespeare Festival (Canada). Regional: South Coast Repertory; Arena Stage; Goodman; Old Globe; Steppenwolf; Guthrie; Hartford Stage; Chicago Shakespeare; many others. Film/TV scoring work: The Brass Teapot for Magnolia Pictures; A Note of Triumph: The Golden Age of Norman Corwin (2006 Academy Award Winner, Best Documentary Short Subject) for HBO Films. Awards: Seven Joseph Jefferson Awards and 24 nominations; two Ovation Awards and three nominations; LA and SD Drama Critics Circle Award; two ASCAP Plus Awards; multiple nominations for Drama Desk, Barrymore, Helen Hayes Awards among many others. lindsayjones.com.

McCarter is one of America's leading regional theaters and is the only organization in the country that is a professional producing theater and simultaneously a presenter of major performing artists. Winner of the 1994 Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre, recent world premiere plays include Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike (2013 Tony - Best Play), Miss Witherspoon; The Brother/Sister Plays; Me, Myself & I; Having Our Say; The Convert; and Crowns. Other plays include Broadway productions of Translations; Anna in the Tropics (Pulitzer Prize); and Electra. McCarter is a presenter of world renowned artists such as Lang Lang, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Wynton Marsalis, David Sedaris and many others. Education/outreach efforts serve tens of thousands through student matinees, in-school residencies, and adult education classes. McCarter is supported by contributions from Princeton University, the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, many corporations and foundations and from over 3,000 individuals. Discover more at mccarter.org.

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IF YOU GO:

STONES IN HIS POCKETS
By Marie Jones

CREATIVE/PRODUCTION TEAM
Direction: Lindsay Posner
Set, costume, and projection design: Beowulf Boritt
Lighting design: Japhy Weideman
Sound design: Lindsay Jones
Casting director: Laura Stanczyk Casting, CSA AURA STANCZYK CASTING, CSA
Production stage manager: Diane Healy*
Director of Production: David York
Resident Producer: Debbie Bisno
Interim Managing Director: Harold Wolpert
Artistic Director/Resident Playwright: Emily Mann

THE CAST (in alphabetical order)
Charlie Conlon.........................................................Garrett Lombard
Jake Quinn.............................................................Aaron Monaghan

*Denotes membership in Actors Equity Association, the union of professional actors and stage managers in the United States.

Stones in His Pockets runs January 12 - February 11 in the Berlind Theatre.
The production running time is two hours with one 15-minute intermission.

Single tickets range from $25 - $97.50 and are on sale now online at mccarter.org, by phone at (609) 258-2787, or in person at the McCarter Theatre Center Ticket Office, located at 91 University Place in Princeton.

SPECIAL EVENTS:

Cows in Our Town
The Arts Council of Princeton and McCarter Theatre Center are joining forces with Cows in Our Town, a new community-wide public art project created to promote awareness of local artists and McCarter's upcoming production of Marie Jones' Stones in His Pockets. Through a series of art installations placed in local businesses Cows in Our Town will run December 20 - February 11 and aims to enhance the around-town experience for visitors and Princeton residents alike through the holiday season and into the new year. Visit mccarter.org for a list of participating artists, information on how to view the works, and to participate in a social media scavenger hunt tied to the project.

McCarter Pub Night at Triumph Brewery - Sunday, January 14
Enjoy a little Irish "craic" with fellow theatergoers at Triumph Brewery, directly following the 2p.m. matinee on Sunday, January 14. For a special package price, take in a performance of Stones in His Pockets, followed by a dinner buffet at Triumph. Wine and beer included (two drinks). For more information visit mccarter.org or by calling the McCarter Ticket Office at (609)-258-2787.

Dialogue on Drama - Sunday, January 21
Join us for a special post-show discussion with director Lindsay Posner on Sunday, January 21 following the 2 p.m. matinee performance. This is a free event, no RSVP req.

Post-Show Discussions - Wednesday, January 24 and Sunday, January 28
Post-show discussions at McCarter are interactive audience-based conversations facilitated by a member of McCarter's artistic staff, often featuring cast members. Post-show discussions occur directly following the 7:30 p.m. performance on Wednesday, January 24 and following the 2 p.m. performance on Sunday, January 28.

Inside Story
Join us 45 minutes before any performance for a talk led by a member of McCarter's artistic staff. Hear about what inspired the play, its unique creation and style, and much more. All Inside Story talks will take place in the Berlind Theatre unless otherwise noted in the lobby upon arrival.

McCarter is supported by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, Princeton University, and over 2,000 individuals, corporations, community leaders, and foundations. McCarter Theatre is located at 91 University Place in Princeton, NJ. For more information, visit mccarter.org.

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