The New Group Presents Blood from a Stone, Previews 12/13

The New Group proudly presents the world premiere of a new play Blood From A Stone as the first production of its 2010-11 season. Directed by Scott Elliott, this Off-Broadway debut by playwright Tommy Nohilly features Gordon Clapp, Ann Dowd, Thomas Guiry, Ethan Hawke, Natasha Lyonne and Daphne Rubin-Vega. Performances begin Monday, December 13 in advance of an Official Opening Night on Thursday, January 6 at 7:00 PM. This limited engagement runs through February 5 at The New Group @ Theatre Row.

An unflinching and darkly comic depiction of life in blue collar Connecticut, Blood From A Stone zeroes in on a working class family wrestling to keep it together as day-to-day struggles exert their squeeze. When Travis pays a visit to his parents' home, he finds an already volatile household imploding and his close-knit but deeply conflicted family teetering on the brink.

This production features Gordon Clapp and Ann Dowd as Bill and Margaret, Ethan Hawke and Thomas Guiry as their sons Travis and Matt, Natasha Lyonne as daughter Sarah, and Daphne Rubin-Vega as neighbor Yvette. (Cast biographies follow below)

Tommy Nohilly, a former Marine, is making his debut as a writer with Blood From A Stone. As an actor, he has appeared on TV's "Law & Order" and "Third Watch" as well as in films such as Reign Over Me and the Sundance winner The Believer. He's also appeared as Carlson in Of Mice and Men at Westport Country Playhouse, directed by Mark Lamos.

Director Scott Elliott is the founding Artistic Director of The New Group, where last season he helmed the new musical The Kid, based on the book by Dan Savage The Kid: What Happened after My Boyfriend and I Decided to Go Get Pregnant. With The New Group, he has produced over 45 plays, 20 of which he directed, including Groundswell, Rafta, Rafta..., The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, the 2005 revival of Hurlyburly, Aunt Dan and Lemon, What the Butler Saw, and 5 plays by Mike Leigh: Two Thousand Years, Abigail's Party, Smelling a Rat, Goose-Pimples, and Ecstasy. Elliott's Broadway credits include Present Laughter, Barefoot in the Park, and 3 plays produced by The Roundabout: The Threepenny Opera, The Women, and Three Sisters. He is also a film director and screenwriter.

Set Design is by Derek McLane (B'way: 33 Variations, Miracle Worker, Ragtime, Grease, I Am My Own Wife; Off-B'way at The New Group: The Kid, A Lie of the Mind, The Starry Messenger, Groundswell, Rafta, Rafta..., many others), Costume Design is by Theresa Squire (B'way: The Lieutenant of Inishmore, High Fidelity; Off-B'way: Rafta, Rafta..., Sin (A Cardinal Deposed) at The New Group), Lighting Design is by Jason Lyons (B'way: Rock of Ages, The Threepenny Opera, Nine; Off-B'way at The New Group: The Starry Messenger, Groundswell, Rafta, Rafta..., Two Thousand Years, others) and Sound Design is by Bart Fasbender (B'way: Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, Off-B'way at The New Group: Terrorism; and productions with Les Freres Corbusier, Second Stage, MTC, Playwrights Horizons, Lincoln Center, the Atlantic, Primary Stages, Naked Angels and more). The Dialect Coach is Doug Paulson and Special Effects are by Jeremy Chernick (recent Broadway: Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, The Scottsboro Boys, Pee Wee's Playhouse, The Addams Family).

Last season, The New Group (Scott Elliott, Artistic Director; Geoff Rich, Executive Director) presented the critically acclaimed, extended run of Kenneth Lonergan's The Starry Messenger featuring Matthew Broderick, the sold-out revival of Sam Shepard's A Lie of the Mind directed by Ethan Hawke, and the world premiere of the new musical The Kid, directed by Scott Elliott. Other recent productions include Ian Bruce's Groundswell, Eugene O'Neill's Mourning Becomes Electra, Ayub Khan-Din's Rafta, Rafta..., Jonathan Marc Sherman's Things We Want, Jay Presson Allen's The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and Bernard Weinraub's The Accomplices. Additional standouts include David Rabe's Hurlyburly, Mike Leigh's Two Thousand Years, Abigail's Party, Smelling a Rat, Goose-Pimples and Ecstasy, Wallace Shawn's The Fever and Aunt Dan and Lemon, Kenneth Lonergan's This is Our Youth and Kevin Elyot's Mouth to Mouth and My Night With Reg. The New Group is a recipient of the 2004 Tony® Award for Best Musical (Avenue Q).

Blood From A Stone plays at The New Group @ Theatre Row (The Acorn Theatre / 410 West 42nd Street, between 9th & 10th Aves) as follows: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday at 7:00 PM and Thursday, Friday, Saturday at 8:00 PM. Matinees Saturday at 2:00 PM. No performances December 24, 25, 31. No 2:00 PM matinee performance Saturday, January 1. Added performances Sunday, December 26 at 2:00 & 7:00 PM and Sunday, January 2 at 2:00 & 7:00 PM. Tickets may be arranged through www.telecharge.com or (212) 239-6200, or at the Theatre Row Box Office (12-8 PM daily). Tickets are $60.00 plus $1.25 restoration fee.

Subscriptions to The New Group 2010-11 season available through Turnstyles Ticketing at http://www.myticketsny.com/newgroup.html. For more info, visit www.thenewgroup.org.

Blood From A Stone at The New Group / CAST BIOGRAPHIES

Gordon Clapp (Bill): Broadway: Glengarry Glen Ross (Tony® nomination). Television: Emmy-winner Gordon Clapp appeared for 12 seasons as Detective Greg Medavoy on "NYPD Blue." Numerous guest-starring roles on shows including "CSI," "Monk," "Without A Trace" and "Deadwood." He recurred as Rose Byrnes' father on "Damages" and was honored to appear in Taking Chance for HBO. Film: Flags of Our Fathers, Sunshine State and The Game Plan. Additional theater credits with the Young Playwrights festival and the National Playwrights Conference. He starred in Art and Picasso at the Lapin Agile at the New London Barn Playhouse and appeared as Robert Frost in the World Premiere of A.M. Dolan's This Verse Business at Peterborough Players in his native New Hampshire.

Ann Dowd (Margaret): Broadway: The Seagull, Taking Sides, and as Prossy in Candida (Clarence Derwent Award). Films: Marley & Me, The Informant, Garden State, Taking Chance, Flags of Our Fathers, Greencard, Lorenzo's Oil, Philadelphia, Shiloh, Shiloh Season, Saving Shiloh, The Alice Movie. Television: Series regular on "Nothing Sacred." Recurring roles on "Freaks and Geeks," "The Education of Max Bickford" and "Third Watch," "Law & Order," and as a guest star on "House," "NYPD Blue," "The X Files," "Family Law," "Providence," "Chicago Hope," "Touched By An Angel" and more. Other New York Theater: Our Town, Immaculate Misconception, Happy Journey..., Splitting Infinity, The Woolgatherer, Different Moon, and The Mysterious Mr. Love. Regional: Quatermaine's Terms, Doubt, The Crucible, Major Barbara, Uncle Vanya, The Normal Heart (Jeff Award), Heartbreak House, The Philanthropist and others.

Thomas Guiry (Matt): Film credits include Mystic River, Black Hawk Down, The Sandlot, Steel City, U-571, and Yonkers Joe among others. Television credits include a series regular on NBC's "The Black Donnellys," various "Law and Order" episodes, "CSI Miami" and numerous movies of the week. Theater credits include Sarah and Abraham, The Tempest and A Christmas Carol.

Ethan Hawke (Travis): With The New Group, he directed last season's acclaimed revival of Sam Shepard's A Lie of the Mind (Drama Desk nomination, Outstanding Director of a Play) and Jonathan Marc Sherman's Things We Want, and played Eddie in Hurlyburly. Hawke appeared in Lincoln Center's Tony Award-winning productions of Tom Stoppard's Coast of Utopia (Tony® nomination) and Shakespeare's Henry IV. Other Broadway: Chekhov's The Seagull. Off-Broadway: The Winter's Tale, Cherry Orchard, Sophistry, The Late Henry Moss, Casanova. Regional: Buried Child (Steppenwolf), Camino Real (Williamstown). He was Artistic Director of The Malaparte Theater Company. Films: Dead Poets Society, Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, Gattaca, Training Day, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, and Daybreakers, among others. Hawke has also directed two films and written two novels. He has been nominated for an Academy Award as both an actor and a writer.

Natasha Lyonne (Sarah): Most recognized from The Slums of Beverly Hills and American Pie, Lyonne has appeared in over thirty films including But I'm a Cheerleader, Woody Allen's Everyone Says I Love You, Robots, Kate and Leopold, Party Monster and The Grey Zone. Recent theater credits include Tigers Be Still (Roundabout Theater Company's Roundabout Underground), Nora and Delia Ephron's Love, Loss and What I Wore, Mike Leigh's Two Thousand Years at The New Group. Television credits include "Will and Grace," "Loving Leah," "If These Walls Could Talk 2" and "Pee-Wee's Playhouse." Upcoming film projects include All About Evil and Thirteen.

Daphne Rubin-Vega (Yvette): Theater credits include Jack Goes Boating (Film as well), f-ing A, Two Sisters and a Piano (Public Theater) and Bernarda Alba (Lincoln Center). On Broadway, she appeared in Les Miserables (Fantine), Anna in the Tropics (Tony nomination; Best Featured Actress in a Play) The Rocky Horror Show (Magenta) and RENT (Mimi; Original Cast, Tony Nomination; Best Actress in a Musical). Select Film credits include Jack Goes Boating, Sex And The City (film), Flawless, Virgin and Wild Things (Blockbuster Award, 1998). She has appeared on Television in "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" among others.