Photo Coverage: CSI's McCullouch to Star in World Premiere of New Play, DADDY

DownTownTheatre Company proudly presents the World Premiere of Daddy, written by Dan Via and directed by David Hilder. Daddy runs from January 28 - February 13, 2010 in a limited engagement at TBG Arts Center Mainstage Theatre, located at 312 West 36th Street on the 3rd Floor, between 8th & 9th Avenues in NYC. Previews begin January 28 for a January 31 opening. Performances are Wednesdays-Mondays at 8pm. Tickets are $18 and can be purchased online at http://www.SmartTix.com or by calling 212-868-4444. For more information on the show visit http://www.DaddyThePlay.com.

Colin is a popular newspaper columnist with a knack for bedding the bi-curious hotties in his soccer league, but he's nevertheless starting to feel he's missed out on something deeper. Law professor Stew has a bad habit of settling, and has let a once promising career stagnate in a comfortable but unfulfilling rut. Enter Tee, a bright and intense 21-year-old man who sweeps Colin off his feet. Convinced the increasingly erratic younger man might be dangerous, Stew forces a confrontation that has unexpected and life-changing consequences. The hot-button issue of gay marriage percolates under Daddy, spurring long-time best friends Colin and Stew to really examine their relationship for the first time in 20+ years. With crackling dialogue, humor and suspense, Daddy celebrates the gay community's resourcefulness in creating supportive families while offering a provocative look at love, loyalty and the cost of things unsaid.

The three-member cast features Gerald McCullouch (Colin), who played resident weapons expert "Bobby Dawson" on CBS's top-rated CSI for ten seasons, and appeared in A Good Farmer (Lucille Lortel Award winning 3Graces Theater Company) and Stephen Belber's McReele. Also in the cast is Bjorn DuPaty (Tee), who recently appeared in Severed and Talking Heads at The Flea Theatre and Dan Via (Stew).

Director David Hilder directed the New York premiere of Ping Pong Diplomacy at 59E59 Theatres for Reverie Productions and two shows at TBG Arts Center; the world premiere of Philip Gerson's Jumping Blind (GayFest NYC) and the New York premiere of Scituate (Outcast Productions/Barry Goralnick). He served as Assistant Director to Doug Hughes on the Broadway revival of Kaufman & Ferber's The Royal Family and the Broadway and Off Broadway productions of Frozen (4 Tony nominations, 4 Outer Critics Circle Nominations, 6 Lucille Lortel Award nominations). Other New York directing credits include Faithful and Movin' On, both at Ensemble Studio Theater.

Playwright Dan Via is an actor whose New York appearances include It's Our Town, Too (Vital Theatre Company) and Madonna and Child and Other Divas (2007 NY International Fringe Festival). In Washington, DC, his credits include Adding Machine: A Musical and Indian Ink (Studio Theatre), Much Ado About Nothing (The Shakespeare Theatre) Oh, The Innocents! (Theater J), 1984 and The Flu Season (Catalyst Theater Company), Jerry Springer: The Opera (Studio Theatre Secondstage). He also appeared in the GLAAD Award-winning production of Corpus Christi at the Source Theatre in Washington, DC.

The design and production team consists of Samantha Desz (Producer), Emmy Award Winner Michele Reisch (Costume Design), Eugenia Furneaux-Arends (Set and Prop Design), Zakaria M. Al-Alami (Lighting Design), Alex Neumann (Original Music and Sound Design) and Michael Palmer (Stage Manager).

DownTownTheatre Company believes in the power of ideas and in the power theatre has to communicate ideas. All of our work springs from constantly asking ourselves "Why this and why now?" Always in service to this question, we develop and nurture new works and re-evaluate and adapt ideas captured in all media. We believe in creating opportunities to actively collaborating across boundaries of traditional theatre roles and with all other art forms. On top of all this, we believe that our work must be kept economically accessible.

"DownTownTheatre are...artists to keep an eye on." ~ Martin Denton, NYTheatre.com review of Mao on Line One

No one under 18 will be admitted. Running time is 90 minutes with no intermission. Trains: A,C,E,1,2,3,9 to 34th Street.

Photos by Derek Storm / Retna Ltd.