Transport Group's ALMOST, MAINE to Be Taped for New York Public Library, 2/24

Transport Group, the Drama Desk and OBIE award-winning theatre company, has announced that its acclaimed production of Almost, Maine, written by John Cariani and directed by Jack Cummings III, will be taped for the Theatre on Film and Tape Archive of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts on February 27. Almost, Maine opened February 4.

Other Transport Group productions to be filmed for the archive are Bury the Dead, First Lady Suite, and Queen of the Mist, as well as the special event "An Evening with John Doyle."

It's winter in Almost, Maine. Salty waitresses, lost visitors, tough and not-so-tough women and men crack open some beer, start their snowmobiles, pitch a tent, and gather under the northern lights to try to make sense of this strange thing called love. Funny, sexy, sad, and ever-searching, the people of Almost, Maine are stalked by dreams and fears alike as they ante up again and again determined to get past the "almost" to capture the real. Love is local and the world is strange in this midwinter night's dream.

The scene in Almost, Maine, entitled, "They Fell," which is alternately performed by all-male and all-female casts, will be taped both ways--once during the performance and once following the performance. Transport Group's production marks the premiere of the all-female version of the scene.

The cast of Almost, Maine is playwright Cariani, Donna Lynne Champlin, Kevin Isola, and Kelly McAndrew.

Almost, Maine premiered at the Portland Stage Company in Portland, Maine in 2004 where it played to critical acclaim and broke box office records. The play opened at off-Broadway's Daryl Roth Theatre on January 12, 2006 and closed on February 12, 2006. Since its short-lived New York debut, Almost, Maine has become one of the most produced plays around the world. It has received over 2000 productions across the United States and internationally, having been translated into eleven languages, and produced in over 15 countries. Transport Group's production is the play's first New York revival.

Founded in 2001, Transport Group, under the leadership of Jack Cummings III, Artistic Director, and Lori Fineman, Executive Director, is a not-for-profit theatre company that stages new works and re-imagined revivals by American writers. Their visually progressive productions of emotionally classic stories explore the challenges of relationships and identity in America. Transport Group is the winner of a special Drama Desk Award for its "breadth of vision and its presentation of challenging productions." Transport Group presented its premiere production in 2002: Thornton Wilder'sOur Town, which featured older actors in the roles of Emily and George and a twelve-year-old girl as the Stage Manager. Its second production,Requiem for William, an evening of seven seldom produced plays by William Inge, that featured a cast of 26 as well as original songs, premiered in 2003. In 2004 the company presented the first New York revival of Michael John LaChiusa's First Lady Suite, which received rave reviews, played to sold-out houses, and earned two Drama Desk Award nominations including Outstanding Revival of a Musical. Other productions include the world premiere of the musicalThe Audience, which featured a cast of 46 actors and earned three Drama Desk Award nominations, including Outstanding Musical; Normal, a new musical about a mother's battle to save her daughter from anorexia; cul-de-sac, a new play by Tony Award nominee John Cariani; the first New York revival of Tad Mosel's Pulitzer Prize play, All the Way Home; the 50th anniversary, OBIE-winning production of William Inge's The Dark at the Top of the Stairs; the world premiere musicals Crossing Brooklyn, Marcy in the Galaxy, and Being Audrey, and the first New York revival of Irwin Shaw's Bury the Dead. Both First Lady Suite and Bury the Deadwere filmed for the New York Performing Arts Library's Theatre on Film and Tape Archive at Lincoln Center. In 2010 Transport Group presented a sold-out, extended engagement of Mart Crowley's The Boys in the Band, which received an OBIE Award and was nominated for five 2010 Drama Desk Awards, including Outstanding Revival of a Play-the most for an off-Broadway play. Transport Group's productions of See Rock City and Other Destinationsby Brad Alexander and Adam Mathias, and Hello Again by Michael John LaChiusa combined for eleven 2011 Drama Desk Award nominations and one win. Transport Group's production of Lysistrata Jones, by Douglas Carter Beane and Lewis Flinn, opened to rave reviews, played to sell-out houses, transferred to Broadway, and was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical. In 2011, the company produced a critically acclaimed run of The Patsyand Jonas at The Duke on 42nd Street, starring OBIE winner David Greenspan and Michael John LaChiusa's world premiere musical, Queen of the Mist, winner of the 2012 Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding New off-Broadway Musical. Most recently, Transport Group produced the world premiere of House for Sale, an essay by National Book Award-winning author Jonathan Franzen adapted for the stage and directed by Daniel Fish and the New York premiere of the new musical The Memory Show with book and lyrics by Sara Cooper and music by Zach Redler directed by Joe Calarco and starring Catherine Cox and Leslie Kritzer. Both productions were performed at the Duke on 42nd Street.

Transport Group is in the midst of its 20th Century Project, a ten-year cycle of ten productions, each production focusing on a different decade of the 20th century. The ten productions are comprised of five musicals and five plays-including three commissioned musicals, two commissioned plays, and five revivals. The cycle's first production was Michael John LaChiusa's world premiere musical Queen of the Mist, which took place during the first decade of the 20th century (1900-1909). Queen of the Mist was commissioned by Transport Group with major support from the Shen Family Foundation. John Van Druten's I Remember Mama is the second play in this cycle, focused on the next decade, 1910-1919.

Almost, Maine currently plays Tuesday - Thursday and 7pm; Friday at 8pm; Saturday at 2pm and 8pm; Sunday at 3pm at the Gym at Judson, 243 Thompson Street at West 4 Street, through Sunday, March 2.