HALF HOUR By Blake DeLong Comes to Theatre 511

Tony Award winning producers Ashley Melone and Nick Mills in association Vineyard Arts Project will present an industry reading of HALF HOUR by Blake DeLong, directed by Jon Hudson Odom. The presentation is on Thursday, May 22, 2025 at Theatre 511.

Featuring :

Christopher Abbott (Danny and the Deep Blue Sea)

Austin Pendleton (The Minutes, Choir Boy on Broadway)

Michael Rishawn (Luciille Lortel and OCC Award winner for MCC's Table 17)

Teagle F. Bougere (Broadway's The Crucible)

Quincy Dunn-Baker (HBO's The Righteous Gemstones)

Marsha Stephanie Blake (An Octoroon)

Amy Hargreaves (Showtime's Homeland; Netflix's 13 Reasons Why)

Fred Lehne (NBC's Elsbeth; HBO's Westworld; Zero Dark Thirty)

Christine Spang (HBO's Succession; The Changling on Apple TV+)

HALF HOUR is the story of how families are created and dissolved. Set in the intimate space of a Men's dressing room during a starry Off-Broadway production of HAMLET, it is a complicated and heartbreaking love letter to the theater. Capturing the current moment, it pulls at the threads of power, masculinity, and desire, challenging us to question what we do with the precious time we have. 

Blake DeLong Broadway: Death of a Salesman. Off-Broadway: Richard Nelson's Illyria (The Public); Sam Gold's Othello (NYTW); The Bachelors (Rattlestick); Natasha, Pierre, & the Great Comet of 1812 (Lortel Award nomination), others. Regional Highlights: Steppenwolf Theatre, Portland Center Stage, Pig Iron Theatre, Bay Street Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Shakespeare Theatre Company. TV/film highlights: "When They See Us" (Netflix); "The Loudest Voice" (Showtime); "Law & Order: SVU"; “The Blacklist” (NBC); “FBI”; “FBI: Most Wanted” (CBS). Lee Daniels' The United States vs. Billie Holiday (Hulu); Spike Lee and Danya Taymor's Pass Over (Amazon), Tesla (IFC), Mindy Kaling's Late Night (Amazon). He can currently be seen in season five of “Law & Order: Organized Crime” on Peacock. He is also producing a film based on the true events surrounding a 1999 community college production of Tony Kushner's Angels in America in Kilgore, Texas. And his play The Hottest Blood was produced in a secret Manhattan loft space in 2015, featuring DeLong opposite David Rysdahl (FX's “Fargo”).

Jon Hudson Odom TV: HBO Max's Lovecraft Country, Somebody Somewhere, South Side Film: The Year Between, A Savage Nature Theatre; Steppenwolf, Goodman Theatre, Woolly Mammoth Theatre, McCarter Theatre, Denver Theatre Center, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Folger Shakespeare Theatre. Six time Helen Hayes Award nominee and recipient, and two time Jeff Award nominee. He is a company member at Woolly Mammoth Theatre, and an Artistic Affiliate at American Blues Theatre. Graduate of University of North Carolina School of the Arts. 

Ashley Melone and Nick Mills are Tony Award winning producers and co-founders of A Great Love Productions. As producers, credits include ‘Stereophonic' on Broadway and the award winning short film, “Dark Moon". Co-producing credits include the Off Broadway productions of ‘The Big Gay Jamboree' and ‘The White Chip.' Ashley is the Founder and Artistic Director of Vineyard Arts Project, Martha's Vineyard, MA. At Vineyard Arts, Ashley has developed many new plays and musicals including ‘Appropriate', ‘Disgraced,' ‘Act One,' ‘Small Mouth Sounds', and ‘Sell/Buy/Date.' As an actor, Nick appeared on Broadway in the Tony Award winning play ‘The Humans' as well as ‘1984'. TV: Succession, Mr. Robot, The Good Fight. Film: ‘The Amateur' (20th Century Studios). He is a professor of Acting at NYU Tisch.