Louise Lasser to Direct On The Wind Productions' CHINESE COFFEE Revival; Performances Begin 9/24

On The Wind Productions will present a revival of CHINESE COFFEE by Ira Lewis. The production will be directed by Emmy nominee Louise Lasser (Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman; Girls; Bananas on Broadway) starring Obie Award winner Austin Pendleton (My Cousin Vinny, The Diary of Anne Frank on Broadway) and Sean Walsh. Previews begin September 24 with opening slated for September 28 at the Roy Arias Stage II Theater.

CHINESE COFFEE begins at 1 a.m. on a freezing winter night in New York City in 1983. Novelist Harry Levine is banging down his best friend Jake's door, demanding the $473 long owed him. What comes next will change the course of their relationship and challenge the fabric of their lives

LOUISE LASSER began her career as a New York stage actress, appearing in Bananas, Take the Money and Run, Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex... and Stardust Memories with ex-husband, Woody Allen. But it was playing the title role in the TV phenomenon Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman that catapulted Ms. Lasser to national consciousness. She also wrote and starred in a movie commissioned by NBC, Just Me and You. Ms. Lasser returned to the New York stage in the New York Shakespeare Festival production of Wallace Shawn's Marie and Bruce, followed by A Couple of White Chicks Sitting Around Talking. She has made numerous guest appearances on TV including The Mary Tyler Moore Show, hosting Saturday Night Live, playing Judd Hirsch's ex-wife on Taxi and a CBS presentation of Ingmar Bergman's The Lie. Ms. Lasser's recent film work includes the critically acclaimed Happiness; Mystery Men; Requiem for a Dream; Fast Food, Fast Women; and National Lampoon's Gold Diggers. Ms. Lasser was the first actress to win a Clio award; she garnered an Emmy nomination for Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman and the National Board of Review's Award for Best Ensemble Cast for Happiness. Her face has appeared on the cover of Time, Newsweek, Rolling Stone, People, Ms. and numerous other national magazines.

AUSTIN PENDLETON has been seen on Broadway in The Diary of Anne Frank and Grand Hotel. He has appeared in the first New York productions of Oh Dad, Poor Dad..., Fiddler on the Roof, Hail Scrawdyke (Derwent Award), The Last Sweet Days of Isaac (Obie Award), The Sorrows of Frederick, Doubles, The Imposter, The Loop and Sophistry, and in the title roles of Off-Broadway productions of Hamlet, Richard III, Uncle Vanya, Keats and Jeremy Rudge. He is a playwright (Orson's Shadow, Booth and Uncle Bob), director (Spoils of War, The Runner Stumbles and Elizabeth Taylor in The Little Foxes), teacher (HB Studio), and member of Chicago's Steppenwolf

Ensemble. His film credits include What's Up Doc?, Trial and Error, The Associate, The Mirror Has Two Faces, Mr. and Mrs. Bridge, The Proprietor, Guarding Tess, The Fifteen Minute Hamlet,
Catch-22 and Amistad. TV includes Fired Up, Frasier and Tracey Takes On. He began his career, and has acted and directed many times, at the Williamstown Theatre Festival.

SEAN WALSH is a native New Yorker who began acting on the stage as a member of HB studio's ensemble company. It was at HB that he met and began to study under Louise Lasser as well as Austin Pendleton. He has since collaborated with both Louise and Austin on a number of projects, but Chinese Coffee will be the first to bring all three together. He also acts as the executive administrator to Ms. Lasser's Acting Studio.

IRA LEWIS has written 6 full-length plays. His first play, The Sponsor was produced off-Broadway and toured with Eli Wallach and E.G. Marshall. Chinese Coffee was first presented at The Aspen Playwrights Conference and then in New York by The Actors Studio, of which Lewis is a member. Subsequently, it was produced at the Stamford Center for The Arts, in Stamford, CT, starring Al Pacino and Ben Gazarra, and then on Broadway starring Pacino and Charles Cioffi. It was recently made into a film starring Al Pacino and Jerry Orbach with a screenplay written by Lewis His other plays include Pearlfield (which starred Jose Ferrer), Every Place is Newark, Gross Points and Frank's Will.

CHINESE COFFEE runs September 24 - October 3 at 8pm. (Note: there is no performance Sept. 29). Running time is 90 minutes. Roy Arias Stage II Theater is located at 300 West 43rd St. at 8th Avenue. Tickets are $18, available at 212-352-3101 or www.chinesecoffee2014.com.

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