SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER Revival, THE GRAVEDIGGER'S LULLABY & More Set for TACT's 2016-17 Season

TACT has announced the 2016-17 season will kick off with a rare NY revival of Oliver Goldsmith's She Stoops To Conquer, a fully mounted production seen in TACT's 2015-'16 Salon Series. Performances at The Beckett Theatre at Theatre Row (410 West 42nd Street, between 9th and 10th Avenues) will begin Tuesday October 4th for a strictly limited engagement through November 5th.

She Stoops To Conquer, directed by TACT Artistic Director Scott Alan Evans, will mark the seventh time that TACT has moved a play from TACT's Salon Series into a mainstage production. The Salon cast will reprise their roles: Simon Jones ("The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"), Cynthia Darlow (Beyond Therapy), Mary Bacon (Giant), Jeremy Beck (Widowers' Houses), MacKenzie Meehan (HBO's "Vinyl"), James Prendergast (Happy Birthday) and Richard Thieriot (Clybourne Park). Opening Night is set for Sunday, October 16th.

She Stoops To Conquer will feature set design by Brett Banakis (D Deb Debbie Deborah), lighting design by Mary Louise Geiger (The Constant Wife), and costume design by Tracy Christiansen (HBO's "Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill"). This classic 18th century British comedy, in which a mismatched love comes to rights when a strong young woman lowers the stakes, combines heightened language, great heart, and timeless humor. TACT's production will take a fresh streamlined look at this enduring play and will feature some daring audience participation.

In the spring, TACT will present the World Premiere of The Gravedigger's Lullaby, a play that arrives at the Mainstage by way of the 2015 newTACTics New Play Festival where it was workshopped and developed. Written by TACT company member and Laurents/Hatcher Foundation Award winner Jeff Talbott and directed by former TACT Artistic Director and current company member Jenn Thompson, the play tells the powerful, simple tale of Baylen, a hardworking gravedigger fighting to feed his family in a world that threatens to bury him. The Gravedigger's Lullaby will begin performances on Tuesday February 28th, 2017 and open on Sunday March 12th for a strictly limited run through Saturday April 1st. Cast and creative team for The Gravedigger's Lullaby will be announced at a later date.

"Our new season is full of daring dynamic contrasts," says Artistic Director Scott Alan Evans. "This fall we are bringing a fresh new take to a classic 18th century comedy, the hilarious She Stoops to Conquer - we think we're all going to need a good laugh right about then - and then a contemporary glance at a time gone by with the world premiere of Jeff Talbott's beautiful new play The Gravedigger's Lullaby in the spring. Light and dark/old and new/classic and contemporary: we'll be showing the full range of TACT's reach."

TACT is a company of theatre artists that reveals, reclaims, and re-imagines great plays of literary merit, creating an intimate theatre experience for its audience by focusing on the text and the actor's ability to bring it to life. From the beginning, TACT made its reputation with its Concert Performance productions: fully rehearsed presentations stripped down to their essence. Staged in our intimate studio space, these performances (currently known as our Salon Series) feature simple staging, costuming, and lighting, refocusing the emphasis of the drama away from spectacle and production and back to the words and the actor - creating theatre in its purest form. This style grew out of the belief that the true magic of theatre lies in the special connection between the artist, the work of art, and the fully engaged audience. TACT is a resident company of NYC's famed Theatre Row and produces their Mainstage Off-Broadway productions there in the Beckett Theatre. In addition, TACT presents the Salon Series in their studio space at 900 Broadway. Both spaces allow audiences to enjoy an up-close and personal experience with both the play and the artists.

Performances, which take place at The Beckett Theatre at Theatre Row (410 West 42nd Street, between 9th and 10th Avenues), will be Tuesday at 7pm, Wednesday and Thursday at 7:30pm, Friday and Saturday at 8pm, with matinees Saturday and Sunday at 2pm. All tickets are at $63.25, including $2.50 restoration fee.

Tickets are on sale NOW! To purchase tickets go to Telecharge.com or call 212/239-6200 or visit the Theatre Row Box Office.

For more information, visit TACT on the web at tactnyc.org/ or call 212-645-8228.