Victoria Clark Joins Cast Of 'Prayer' At Playwrights

Playwrights Horizons, under the leadership of Artistic Director Tim Sanford and Managing Director Leslie Marcus, has announced additional casting and dates for its upcoming 2008/2009 Season.   

Tony Award winner Victoria Clark (The Light in the Piazza, the current The Marriage of Bette and Boo at Roundabout, Follies and Juno at City Center, How to Succeed..., the film The Happening) has joined the cast of PRAYER FOR MY ENEMY, the New York premiere of a new play by two-time Tony Award winner, two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist and two-time Obie winner Craig Lucas (Small Tragedy at Playwrights Horizons, The Light in the Piazza, Prelude to a Kiss, Reckless, The Dying Gaul).  Directed by Tony Award winner Barlett Sher (The Butterfly Collection at Playwrights Horizons, the current Tony-winning Broadway revival of South Pacific, The Light in the Piazza), the production will begin previews on Friday, November 14 at Playwrights Horizons' Mainstage Theater (416 West 42nd Street).

The addition of Ms. Clark to the production reunites three key team members behind the Tony Award-winning production The Light in the Piazza, which featured a book by Mr. Lucas, was directed by Mr. Sher and starred Ms. Clark.

Ms. Clark joins a cast that includes Tony Award nominee Jonathan Groff (Spring Awakening, the upcoming Hair for Shakespeare in the Park), 2008 Theatre World Award winner Cassie Beck (The Drunken City) and Skipp Sudduth (Lincoln Center's current South Pacific).

Victoria Clark received Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle awards, as well as a Drama League Honor, for her performance as Margaret Johnson in The Light in the Piazza.  Her other Broadway credits include Titanic, How to Succeed…, Urinetown, Cabaret, Guys & Dolls, A Grand Night for Singing and Sunday in the Park with George, plus national tours of Les Misérables and Cats.  For City Center's Encores! Series she's appeared in Juno, Follies and Bye, Bye Birdie. She's currently appearing in the Roundabout production of The Marriage of Bette and Boo and additional Off-Broadway credits include The Agony and the Agony (Vineyard) and Tres Ninas (The Zipper). Film credits include the current The Happening, plus Tim Robbins' Cradle Will Rock and vocal work for several Disney animated features. Last Fall, she released her debut solo album Fifteen Seconds from Grace.   

The company also announced that Drama Desk Award winner Marylouise Burke (Fuddy Meers, plus Kimberly Akimbo, Broadway's recent Is He Dead? and the revival of Into the Woods) has joined the cast of THE SAVANNAH DISPUTATION, the New York premiere of a new play by Evan Smith (Psych and The Uneasy Chair at Playwrights Horizons, Servicemen at The New Group).  Directed by Tony Award winner Walter Bobbie (Chicago, New Jerusalem), the production will begin previews on Friday, February 6, 2009 at Playwrights Horizons' Mainstage Theater (416 West 42nd Street).  

Ms. Burke joins a cast that features five-time Tony Award nominee and three-time Obie Award winner Dana Ivey (Driving Miss Daisy, Sunday in the Park with George and Mr. Smith's The Uneasy Chair at Playwrights Horizons, The Rivals, Butley).  

Marylouise Burke most recently appeared on Broadway as Madame Caron in Is He Dead? and also appeared in the revivals of Into the Woods and Inherit the Wind.  She was also featured in the national tour of Lettice and Lovage.  Off-Broadway credits include Fuddy Meers (MTC, Drama Desk Award), Kimberly Akimbo (MTC, Drama Desk nomination), The Oldest Profession (Signature), Wintertime (Second Stage), American Sligo (Rattlestick) and Now That's What I Call a Storm (Edge Theater). Film work includes Doubt, A Prairie Home Companion, Sideways, Woody Allen's Celebrity, Bringing Out the Dead and Jeffrey.

Additional casting for all six of the season's productions will also be announced in the coming weeks.  Attached is a complete list of all production details announced so far.   

Subscriptions to Playwrights Horizons' 2008/2009 season are now available, in 6-show (four Mainstage productions and two productions in The Peter Jay Sharp Theater) or 4-show (four Mainstage productions) packages.  Packages include "Anytime" (6-show $260, 4-show $195), "Matinees" (6-show $240, 4-show $175), "Previews and Sunday Nights" (6-show $225, 4-show $160), and "Platinum Patron" (6-show with exclusive benefits, $1250). In addition to discounts on all Mainstage season attractions, subscribers receive priority seating, ticket exchange privileges, parking and dining discounts, and exclusive mailings of Playwrights Horizons Bulletins.

 PLAYWRIGHTS HORIZONS, under the leadership of Artistic Director Tim Sanford and Managing Director Leslie Marcus, is a writer's theater dedicated to the support and development of contemporary American playwrights, composers and lyricists, and to the production of their new work.  In its 38 years, Playwrights Horizons has presented the work of more than 375 writers and has received numerous awards and honors, most recently being honored with a special 2008 Drama Desk Award for "ongoing support to generations of theater artists and undiminished commitment to producing new work."  Notable productions include four Pulitzer Prize winners: Doug Wright's I Am My Own Wife (2004 Tony Award, Best Play), Wendy Wasserstein's The Heidi Chronicles (1989 Tony Award, Best Play), Alfred Uhry's Driving Miss Daisy and Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's Sunday in the Park with George, as well as John Dempsey, Michael Friedman and Rinne Groff's Saved, Sarah Ruhl's Dead Man's Cell Phone, Doug Wright,Scott Frankel and Michael Korie's Grey Gardens (2006 Outer Critics Circle Award, Outstanding Off-Broadway Musical), Bruce Norris's The Pain and the Itch, Lynn Nottage's Fabulation (2005 Obie Award for Playwriting), Craig Lucas's Small Tragedy (2004 Obie Award, Best American Play), Kenneth Lonergan's Lobby Hero, Kirsten Childs's The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin, Richard Nelson and Shaun Davey's James Joyce's The Dead, William Finn's March of the Falsettos and Falsettoland, Christopher Durang's Betty's Summer Vacation and Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You, Richard Nelson's Goodnight Children Everywhere and Franny's Way, Jon Robin Baitz's The Substance of Fire, Scott McPherson's Marvin's Room, A.R. Gurney's Later Life, Adam Guettel and Tina Landau's Floyd Collins and Jeanine Tesori and Brian Crawley's Violet.   

Playwrights Horizons' 2008/2009 Season is generously supported by The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust.

Playwrights Horizons is supported in part by public funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the New York State Assembly and the New York State Senate.  In addition, Playwrights Horizons receives major support from Carnegie Corporation of New York, The Charina Endowment Fund, The Peter Jay Sharp Foundation, The Shubert Foundation and Time Warner Inc. 

Photo credit Susan Shacter

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