Chetkovich's SHE SAID, SHE SAID Premieres At WorkShop 3/12

WorkShop Theater Company (Timothy Scott Harris, Artistic Director), currently in its 15th season, will present the world premiere of Kathryn Chetkovich's "SHE SAID, SHE SAID," directed by Peter Sylvester. "SHE SAID, SHE SAID" will be performed at the WorkShop Theater, 312 West 36th Street (between 8th and 9th Avenues), 4th floor Main Stage Theater. Previews begin Thursday, March 12, and the Official Opening Night will be Monday, March 16 at 7:00 p.m. Performances are scheduled to run through Saturday, April 4.

Which is more important-standing up for a woman who's been your friend for twenty years or standing by the man you're about to marry? In Kathryn Chetkovich's new play "SHE SAID, SHE SAID," a charge of rape sets off a chain of retribution and recrimination that threatens all the relationships it touches-between best friends, brothers, and a couple caught in the middle. "SHE SAID, SHE SAID" is a play about people we all know and people we all are.

Kathryn Chetkovich's last New York production was the full-length play Acts of Love at the Kirk Theatre on Theatre Row in 2007. Her fiction and non-fiction writing has appeared in Granta and other literary magazines and in the Best American Essays and Best American Short Stories anthologies and her short story collection Friendly Fire won the University of Iowa's John Simmons Short Fiction Award. Ms. Chetkovich's much talked about essay Envy was published in The Best American Essays of 2004, and her short play Love and Death was published in Eight Tens @ Eight Festival (Smith & Kraus).

Peter Sylvester recently directed the WorkShop Theater's production of Terrence McNally's A Perfect Ganesh. He was the Founding Artistic Director of the Synchronicity Theatre Group where, over the course of nearly a decade, the company produced over fifty shows in their space on Mercer Street in SoHo. Among the plays he directed, were the American Premiere of Michele Vinaver's Portrait of a Woman, revivals of Elmer Rice's The Adding Machine and Kafka's The Trial, as well as an acclaimed production of Three Sisters. He has also written two plays that have been produced in New York, It's a Wonderful Life and Winter Dance, as well as an adaptation of Uncle Vanya, which he also directed.

The six member cast of "SHE SAID, SHE SAID" will be: Ashley Anderson (Coco), Tom Berdik (Dan), Julianne Carpenter (Claire), Dee Dee Friedman (Nina), Mark Hofmaier (Ross), and Shelley McPherson (Jamie). The set design will be by Mark Symczak (The Countess at The Beckett, The Conversation at 29th Street Rep, and Leaves of Grass at the Peter J. Sharp Theatre), the lighting design by Duane Pagano, and the sound design by Peter Carpenter. The production stage manager will be Michael Palmer.

WorkShop Theater (www.workshoptheater.org), now in its 15th season, specializes in the development of new plays. The company's two-theater complex on West 36th Street includes the 65-seat Main Stage Theater and the 35-seat Jewel Box Theater. The award-winning film Finding Neverland, began as the stage play The Man Who Was Peter Pan by Allan Knee, and was first presented and developed by the WorkShop Theater Company in 1998. Two WorkShop members, Nellie Bellflower and David Magee, were nominated for an Academy Award for their work on this project. "SHE SAID, SHE SAID" is being presented in association with AKIZ Productions, an independent production company.

The complete schedule for "SHE SAID, SHE SAID" (March 12 through April 4) will be: Wednesdays through Saturdays at 8:00 p.m. beginning Thursday, March 12. There will be one additional performance, the Opening Night performance on Monday, March 16 at 7:00 p.m., followed by a reception with the cast and playwright. Tickets for all performances will be $18.00. Students and seniors will be $15.00. TDF vouchers will be accepted. The box office number for reservations is 212-352-3101 or www.theatermania.com. For further information call 212-695-4173, ext. 5.

Photo: Dee Dee Friedman and Baz Snider

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