Austin Pendleton to Direct Tennessee Williams' SMALL CRAFT WARNINGS 2/15-27

Mother of Invention Theatre Company, under the direction of founder and Artistic Director Gina Stahlnecker will celebrate the 100th year since Tennessee Williams' birth with the seldom seen study in moral squalor, SMALL CRAFT WARNINGS on February 15 - 27, 2011. The production will run off-Broadway at Theatre Row (Studio Theatre - 410 West 42nd St.) The official opening is on Saturday, February 19, 2011 at 8PM. Austin Pendleton will direct.

SMALL CRAFT WARNINGS is an intimate look at a lonely and disparate group of working class people - among them are a compassionate middle-aged heart patient; a desirable beautician; her ne'er-do-well live-in lover; an alcoholic who lost his license to practice medicine but still does; A woman who risks becoming the target of wrath when she flirts; the short order cook who follows her around; and two gay men - a washed-up screenwriter and the young man bicycling from Iowa to Mexico that he picked up on the road. They are a motley crew of lost souls rejected by "normal" society who come together to cobble a kind of family for themselves, but on this particular night, that family is torn apart forever.

A poetic and forceful glimpse at emptiness, solitude and perception, SMALL CRAFT WARNINGS first premiered in New York on April 2, 1972 at the off-Broadway Truck and Warehouse Theatre.

2011 marks the 100th year since the birth of American born playwright Tennessee Williams. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for A Streetcar Named Desire in 1948 and for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in 1955. In addition, The Glass Menagerie (1944 in Chicago, 1945 in New York) and The Night of the Iguana (1961) received the New York Drama Critics Circle Award. His 1952 play The Rose Tattoo received the Tony Award for best play. In 1980 he was presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Jimmy Carter.

Director Austin Pendleton has directed at The Pearl, Toys in the Attic (in 2007) and Vieux Carre (in 2009). Recently in New York he's appeared in Mother Courage (with Meryl Streep), Romeo and Juliet (with Lauren Ambrose), Limonade Tous Les Jours (by Charles Mee), Love Drunk (by Romulus Linney) and Another Vermeer (by Bruce Robinson). He is also a playwright of Orson's Shadow, Booth and Uncle Bob all of which ran off-Broadway. He can be seen in the movie Wall Street: Money Never Sleep," and has just directed Detroit (which will have a Broadway run directed by Pendleton in the fall of 2011) by Lisa D'Amour, at the Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago, where he is a member of the Ensemble. For MCC he directed 50 Words with Norbert Leo Butts and Elizabeth Marvel. In 2009 he directed Uncle Vanya at CSC and is directing Three Sisters there currently. He most recently completed a run at the Pearl as Dr. Kroll in Ibsen's Rosmersholm.

The cast of SMALL CRAFT WARNINGS features Adam Dodway, John Greenleaf, Jason Jung, Tammy Lang, Ross Kramberg, Austin Pendleton, Eddy Lee Priest, Gina Stahlnecker, Joe Ulam and Jeff Ward.

Performances of SMALL CRAFT WARNINGS are on Tuesdays at 7PM, Wednesdays - Saturdays at 8PM and Matinees are on Saturdays at 2PM and Sundays at 3PM.

Tickets are $18 and can be purchased at www.telecharge.com or by calling 212.239.6200. Tickets are also available at the box office prior to each performance.

Theatre Row is located at 410 West 42nd Street. Take the A/C/E to Times Square, 42nd Street. Exit the subway at 42nd Street & 8th Avenue and walk 1 1/2 blocks west to Theatre Row. Note: the 1, 2, 3, 7, 9, N, R, Q, W, and S stop at 42nd Street and Seventh Avenue, 2 1/2 blocks east of Theatre Row.

ABOUT MOTHER OF INVENTION:

Mother of Invention is a theater company dedicated to providing an opportunity for theater artists to develop and produce works that; stimulate public interest in theater, promote a broader deeper appreciation of the cultural significance of theatre through performances of the written word, embrace theatrical works that reflect the great diversity of our world community and present a repertoire of a wide range of works. To build a company of artists who working together will develop new and exciting productions of the classics, old and new, recent plays and newly written works.

 

Photo Credit: Walter McBride/WM Photos