Rebecca Brooksher, Jeffrey Carlson & More End Run In The Kennedy Center's GOLDEN AGE, 4/4

The Kennedy Center will end its run of Golden Age, a new play by Terrence McNally, on April 4th. Following its world premiere with the Philadelphia Theatre Company ran in the Kennedy Center Family Theater as part of Terrence McNally's Nights at the Opera, a five-week event featuring three of the playwright's works performed concurrently on three Kennedy Center stages.

The production features the ensemble cast of Rebecca Brooksher as Grisi, Jeffrey Carlson as Bellini, Roe Hartrampf as Florimo, Marc Kudisch as Tamburini, Hoon Lee as Lablache, Christopher Michael McFarland as Rubini, Dante Mignucci as Page, and Amanda Warren as Malibran.

Golden Age takes place backstage at the Théâtre-Italien in Paris on the evening of January 24, 1835. The occasion is the premiere of Vincenzo Bellini's opera, I Puritani. Assembled are the composer and his faithful friend, Francesco Florimo, and The Four Singers for whom the opera was expressly composed known the world over as The Puritani Quartet. Bellini's rivalry with his fellow Italian composer, Gaetano Donizetti, for French favor was at its height. This opera was to cement his supremacy. It was to be his last.

Playwright Terrence McNally has received four Tony Awards®, two Guggenheim Fellowships, a Rockefeller Grant, the Lucille Lortel Award, the Hull-Warriner Award, and a citation from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He won an Emmy Award for his television film Andre's Mother in 1990. A year later, he returned to writing for the stage with Lips Together, Teeth Apart. In 1992, Mr. McNally collaborated with John Kander and Fred Ebb on the script for the 1993 Tony Award®-winning musical Kiss of the Spider Woman, as well as on the script for the musical The Rink. Additionally, in collaboration with Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens, he wrote the book for the musical Ragtime for which he won the 1998 Tony Award® for Best Book of a Musical. His other plays include Love! Valour! Compassion! in 1994, Corpus Christi in 1997, and the play and screen adaptation of Frankie and Johnny in the Claire de Lune.

Austin Pendleton (Director) has directed on Broadway, where three of his productions (The Little Foxes, Spoils of War, and Shelter) have received Tony® nominations, and Off-Broadway where last season alone he directed three productions: Fifty Words, Uncle Vanya and Vieux Carre. He is also an actor and a playwright, and teaches acting at the HB Studio in New York. He has appeared in more than 100 movies and TV shows, as well as extensively in theater.

Rebecca Brooksher (Grisi) has starred Off-Broadway in Dying City at Lincoln Center Theater, winning a Lucille Lortel nomination, and in White People at Atlantic Theater. Regionally, she has appeared in several productions at Berkshire Theatre Festival, McCarter Theatre, and Chautauqua Festival, and has also performed at The Guthrie Theater and Barrington Stage Company.

Jeffrey Carlson (Bellini) won a Drama Desk Award for his performance in Taboo. He was also seen on Broadway in The Goat, or Who is Sylvia? and Tartuffe and Off-Broadway in Antony & Cleopatra at Theater for a New Audience, Bach at Leipzig at New York Theatre Workshop, Last Easter at Lucille Lortel Theatre, and Thief River at Signature Theatre. Regionally, he has appeared in several Shakespeare productions at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, Shakespeare Theatre Company, McCarter Theatre, and Yale Repertory Theatre in roles including Richard III and Hamlet.

Roe Hartrampf (Florimo) has starred in Much Ado About Nothing, Waiting for Godot, and The Pillowman, all at Stella Adler Studio as well as several productions at Alliance Theatre and The Westminster School. He is a recent graduate of NYU.

Mark Kudisch (Tamburini) has been seen on Broadway in 9 to 5, receiving a Tony® and Drama Desk nomination; Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, garnering Tony® and Outer Critics Circle nominations; Assassins, scoring a Drama Desk nomination; and Thoroughly Modern Millie, earning Tony®, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle nominations. Regionally he has starred in Zorba, which won him the Garland Award and Los Angeles Ovation and Outer Critics nominations, and The Highest Yellow at Signature Theatre, which prompted a Helen Hayes nomination. He has appeared in A Little Night Music at both Los Angeles Opera and New York City Opera and in several Encores! productions.

Hoon Lee (La Blache) has appeared on Broadway in Pacific Overtures, Urinetown, and Flower Drum Song. He has been featured regionally in Yellow Face at both The Public Theatre and Mark Taper Forum and in productions at Ma-Yi Theatre Company, Paper Mill Playhouse, and Delacorte Theatre.

Christopher Michael McFarland (Rubini) has been a frequent guest at Arizona Shakespeare Festival, Arizona Classical Theatre, and Yale Repertory Theatre. While earning his M.F.A. at Yale School of Drama, he was featured in numerous productions there and at the Yale Cabaret.

Dante Mignucci (Page), age 13, lives in Havertown, Pennsylvania and has appeared on stage at The Walnut Street Theatre, The Wilma Theater, and Stage Stormers in Media, P.A.

Amanda Mason Warren (Malibran) has performed in several productions at Stella Adler Theatre and Yale Repertory Theatre, as well as at New York Stage & Film Festival, The New Dramatist, and Classical Theatre of Harlem. She performed in SophisticatEd Ellington: Celebrating 100 Years of Duke Ellington at Carnegie Hall and is known to television audiences for her role in The Good Wife.

Golden Age features set design by Santo Loquasto (Unusual Acts of Devotion), who most recently did the set design on Broadway for David Mamet's Race and costume design for the hit revival of Ragtime, as well as Tony® and Drama Desk Awards for Café Crown and The Cherry Orchard; costume design by Richard St. Clair (Orson's Shadow and The Laramie Project and two Barrymore Awards); lighting design by Jason Lyons (The Threepenny Opera and Barefoot in the Park on Broadway, and Rock of Ages and Fault Lines Off-Broadway); and sound design by Ryan Rumery (Murderers, Unusual Acts of Devotion, Grey Gardens, and most recently The Light in the Piazza).

Terrence McNally'S NIGHTS AT THE OPERA

Terrence McNally's Nights at the Opera is a five-week event featuring three of Terrence McNally's plays performed concurrently on three Kennedy Center stages. Master Class directed by Stephen Wadsworth will star Tyne Daly and run March 25 to April 18, 2010 in the Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater. The Lisbon Traviata directed by Christopher Ashley will run March 20 to April 11, 2010 in the Terrace Theater. Golden Age, a new play directed by Austin Pendleton, co-produced with the Philadelphia Theatre Company and part of the Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays, will run March 12 to April 4, 2010 in the Family Theater.

Photo credit: Walter McBride

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