Project Shaw Announces The Cast For Shaw's BACK TO METHUSELAH (Part 1)

Gingold Theatrical Group (David Staller, Artistic Director) is proud to announce the next presentation of the 13th Season of Project Shaw, a special series of evenings offering some of Shaw's greatest works and those of his contemporaries, presented monthly at Leonard Nimoy Thalia at Peter Norton Symphony Space (2537 Broadway at 95th Street).The season will continue on October 22nd with Bernard Shaw's Back to Methuselah (Part 1).

Back to Methuselah is Shaw's 1921 play that tells the story of all humanity. Starting in the Garden of Eden and sailing up through the 22nd century, this far-out comedy tackles all the political and social issues Shaw is so notorious for. Do you have to see both parts to get it? NO! Part Two of this play will be presented on November 19th, and the two parts exist independently of each other. After Man and Superman, this is Shaw's most often quoted play. Most all of the great lines go, of course, to the women.

David Staller, GTG's Artistic Director, directs a cast that features Brenda Braxton (Smokey Joe's Cafe - Tony Award nomination, Chicago, Jelly's Last Jam); Michael Doonan (Long Day's Journey into Night at the Court Theatre); Daniel Jenkins (Big River - Tony Award nomination, Big, Billy Elliot, Angels in America); Tim Jerome (Phantom of the Opera, The Lyons, Baz Luhrmann's La Bohème, Grand Hotel, Cats, The Rothschilds); Talene Monahon (currently starring in Apologia with Stockard Channing & Hugh Dancy); Tony Roach (currently starring in Lerner & Loewe's My Fair Lady at Lincoln Center); Margaret Loesser Robinson (Man and Superman directed by David Staller at the Irish Rep); Thom Sesma (starring opposite Raúl Esparza in Classic Stage Company's upcoming The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui); and David Shih (NAATCO's Henry VI).

"After World War I, Shaw decided to take stock and assess where we odd humans had been, where we were now, and where we might be headed. So, beginning as a lark, he began to write The Entire History of the World in a particularly whimsical frame of mind. Starting in the Garden of Eden, these five plays actually work independently of each other and, with Shaw's usual razor-sharp wit, he reminds us that the future is up to us and that we'd better stay awake and be a part of our own lives!," said Mr. Staller.

The 13th season will continue with Shaw's Back to Methuselah - Part 2 (November 19th), and from one of Shaw's contemporaries, The Enchanted Cottage by Arthur Wing Pinero (December 17th). The Project Shaw 2019 season will be announced soon!

All the plays in this series are presented in a concert-reading format at the Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theater at Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway at 95th Street. Tickets are $35 and are available by calling (212) 864-5400 or online at www.symphonyspace.org. Special reserved VIP seating available for $50 by contacting the Gingold office 212-355-7823or info@gingoldgroup.org. Symphony Space's Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theatre space is completely accessible. Infra-red hearing devices are also available.

Now celebrating its 13th year, Gingold Theatrical Group's Project Shaw made history in December 2009 as the first company ever to present performances of every one of Shaw's 65 plays (including full-length works, one-acts and sketches). They are now also including plays by writers who share Shaw's activist socio-political views embracing human rights and free speech, including work by Chekhov, Ibsen, Elizabeth Robins, Rachel Crothers, Pinero, Wilde, Barrie, and Harley Granville-Barker. GTG's other programs include its new play development and educational programs. For those interested in lively off-site discourses, each Project Shaw event is followed by a talk-back with cast members. GTG's David Staller and Stephen Brown-Fried are also hosting a monthly Shaw Club discussion group. Always lively, they meet the Monday evening after every Project Shaw event at 520 8th Avenue. For reservations, which are required, call 212-355-7823 or email info@gingoldgroup.org.

GTG recently completed an acclaimed Off-Broadway engagement of Shaw's Heartbreak House. The Wall Street Journal declared, "Mr. Staller has taken on Heartbreak House, one of Shaw's most challenging plays, with altogether extraordinary results. Every gesture lands with the utmost potency, and the climactic convulsion that is the play's final scene sweeps away the bubbly comedy and leaves you, as Shaw intended, in shock. Mr. Staller has given us a uniquely satisfying production of this great but hard-to-stage play."

For more information about Project Shaw and all the programs at Gingold Theatrical Group, call 212/355-7823, email info@gingoldgroup.org, or visit gingoldgroup.org.

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