Jane Martin's H2O to Receive NYC Premiere at 59E59 Theaters

59E59 Theaters (Elysabeth Kleinhans, Artistic Director; Peter Tear, Executive Producer; Brian Beirne, Managing Director) is thrilled to welcome Ground UP Productions with the NY premiere of H2O written by Jane Martin and directed by West Hyler. H2O begins performances on Friday, November 27 for a limited engagement through Sunday, December 13. Press opening is Tuesday, December 1 at 7:15 PM. The performance schedule is Tuesday - Thursday at 7:15 PM; Friday at 8:15 PM; Saturday at 2:15 PM & 8:15 PM; and Sunday at 3:15 PM. Performances are at 59E59 Theaters (59 East 59th Street, between Park and Madison Avenues). Tickets are $35 ($24.50 for 59E59 Members). To purchase tickets, call Ticket Central at (212) 279-4200 or go to www.59e59.org.

After arriving in Los Angeles, an aimless young man catapults to movie stardom and into Hollywood's sleazy celebrity culture. Banking on his fame (and name), he is selected to star on Broadway in Hamlet. Given full casting approval, he heads to New York City in search of his Ophelia and encounters his muse and his match: a young evangelical Christian woman set on getting the role...and saving his life. H2O transports audiences into the reclusive, madcap world of Jane Martin's drama/comedy/love story about self-destruction, notoriety, and the dark journey to purity and salvation.

Jane Martin makes a rare return to New York City with H2O. She was last represented in New York in 2007 with her play Flags at 59E59.

After his fascinating turn as a sentient robot in last season's Uncanny Valley, actor Alex Podulke returns to 59E59 to play movie star Jake. He's joined by the formidable, Chicago-based Diane Mair as Deborah, who makes her New York premiere.

The design team includes David Arsenault (set design), Travis McHale (lighting design), Amanda Jenks (costume design), and Toby Algya (sound design). The production stage manager is Devan Hibbard.

A Kentuckian, Jane Martin (playwright) first came to national attention for Talking With, a collection of monologues premiering in Actors Theatre of Louisville's 1982 Humana Festival of New American Plays. Since its New York premiere at Manhattan Theatre Club in 1982, Talking With has been performed around the world, winning the Best Foreign Play of the Year Award in Germany from Theatre Heute magazine. Her other work includes: Vital Signs, Cementville, Keely And Du (Pulitzer Prize nominee; 1994 American Theatre Critics Association Best New Play Award), Jack And Jill (1997 American Theatre Critics Association Best New Play Award); Anton In Show Business (2001 American Theatre Critics/Steinberg Principal Citation), Mr. Bundy, and Flaming Guns Of The Purple Sage. Good Boys premiered at Guthrie Theater in 2002. Flags was co-produced by Guthrie Theater and Mixed Blood in 2004, and her most recent work, Sez She, premiered at Illusion Theatre in April 2006.

West Hyler (director) is a director and writer living in New York City. Broadway credits include How The Grinch Stole Christmas and Jersey Boys, which he staged across five continents. New York directing credits include work at Primary Stages, Ars Nova, York Theater Company, HERE Arts Center and New York Musical Theater Festival. Regional directing credits include work at Actors Theatre of Louisville, St. Louis Repertory Theater, The Colony Theater, La Jolla Playhouse, The Guthrie Theater, The Old Globe, Great River Shakespeare Festival, Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival, SC Upstate Shakespeare Festival, and Mythmakers Theater Company. In the world of circus he directed the Big Apple Circus productions Legendarium and Metamorphosis (NY Times Critics' Pick) as well as the Martial Arts Circus Panda! in Beijing and at the Palazzo Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. As a writer his credits include We Declare You A Terrorist (Summer Play Festival), Georama (St. Louis Rep, Great River Shakespeare Festival) and the short film A Jake and A Tom. He is currently working on the new Cirque Du Soleil production. MFA University of California at San Diego.

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