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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

TONY^® AWARD-WINNING WILLIAMSTOWN THEATRE FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES ADDITIONAL CASTING FOR THE 2016 SUMMER SEASON

KATE WALSH, GRACE GUMMER, CHRISTOPHER ABBOTT, WENDELL PIERCE, JUSTIN LONG, STEPHEN KUNKEN, LAILA ROBINS, DEBORAH RUSH, BRÍAN F. O’BYRNE, REBECCA NAOMI JONES, JOSE LLANA, LINDSAY MENDEZ, AND MORE JOIN MAIN STAGE & NIKOS STAGE PRODUCTIONS

New York, NY – (April 25, 2016) Artistic Director Mandy Greenfield has announced additional casting for the upcoming Williamstown Theatre Festival 2016 Summer Season kicking off June 28 and running through August 21, 2016.

On the Main Stage: Christopher Abbott (“Girls”), Katie Lee Hill (The Wildness), Darren Pettie (“Mad Men”), Will Pullen (Goat), Lindsay Mendez (Wicked) and Constance Shulman (“Orange is the New Black”) join the previously announced Marisa Tomei in The Rose Tattoo (June 28 – July 17); Justin Long (last season’s An Intervention and Legacy), Connie Ray (Stuart Little, “ER”) and Andrew Weems (Born Yesterday) will be seen in the world premiere comedy Romance Novels For Dummies (July 20 – July 31); and Saidah Arrika Ekulona (Ruined), Grace Gummer (Arcadia), Stephen Kunken (“Billions”), Tony Award nominee Deborah Rush (“Orange is the New Black”) and SAG Award winner Kate Walsh (“Grey’s Anatomy”), along with Pettie and Pullen, will all appear in An American Daughter (August 3 – August 21).

On the Nikos Stage: Gregg Mozgala (Downsizing Camus), Rebecca Naomi Jones (American Idiot) and Wendell Pierce (“The Wire,” WTF’s 2008 Broke-ology) can be seen in the World Premiere Cost of Living (June 29 – July 10); Carson Elrod (Peter and the Starcatcher), Sue Jean Kim (Bachelorette), Brían F. O’Byrne (Doubt) who replaces the previously announced Michael Stuhlbarg and Laila Robins (“Homeland”) make up the cast of the World Premiere sci-fi comedy thriller The Chinese Room (July 13 – July 23); Jerry Dixon (If/Then), Jose Llana (The King and I), Katie Lee Hill, Stephen Wallem (“Nurse Jackie”) and Noah Zachary (Dear Edwina) will appear in the World Premiere musical Poster Boy (July 27 – August 7); and closing out the summer are the previously announced Tony and Emmy Award nominee Alfred Molina and Golden Globe and Emmy Award nominee Jane Kaczmarek in the American Premiere of And No More Shall We Part (August 10 – August 21).

Additional programming and events, as well as further casting and creative team information, will be announced at a later date. Single Tickets are now available for purchase at www.wtfestival.org.

Williamstown Theatre Festival casting by Telsey + Company / William Cantler, CSA and Karyn Casl, CSA.

 

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ABOUT THE SEASON

MAIN STAGE 

The Rose Tattoo | June 28 – July 17

By Tennessee Williams
Directed by Trip Cullman
with Christopher Abbott, Katie Lee Hill, Lindsay Mendez, Darren Pettie, Will Pullen, Constance Shulman, and Marisa Tomei

Obie Award winner Trip Cullman directs Academy Award winner Marisa Tomei in this new production of Pulitzer Prize winner Tennessee Williams’ intoxicating comedy, which won the Tony Award for Best Play in 1951. After retreating in grief, widow Serafina (Tomei) revives and rejoins the world when the hot-blooded trucker Alvaro (Christopher Abbott) arrives at her doorstep. Passion, gossip, music and mystery fill the air in this steamy Gulf Coast town, where possibility and promise ignite.

WORLD PREMIERE
Romance Novels For Dummies | July 20 – July 31

By Boo Killebrew
Directed by Moritz von Stuelpnagel
with Justin Long, Connie Ray, and Andrew Weems

Sisters Liz and Bernie couldn’t be more different: Liz is a good, Southern stay-at-home mom; Bernie is a flailing actress smoking and swearing her way through New York City. But when Liz is suddenly widowed, she and her young daughter move in with Bernie to start again. While Bernie challenges all of Liz’s assumptions about life, love and raising a child, Liz goes out on a series of internet dates which eclipse the grief, fear and gentility she’s known for so long. Can Liz compel her own story to end like a romance novel? Tony Award nominee Moritz von Stuelpnagel directs this new comedy by Boo Killebrew, which asks us to imagine how we might handle the curve-balls — big and small — that life throws us.

An American Daughter | August 3 – August 21

By Wendy Wasserstein
Directed by Evan Cabnet
with Saidah Arrika Ekulona, Grace Gummer, Stephen Kunken, Darren Pettie, Will Pullen, Deborah Rush, and Kate Walsh

When the President of the United States nominates Dr. Lyssa Dent Hughes (Kate Walsh) to the position of Surgeon General, the excavation of her past triggers a scandal that threatens her confirmation. As partisan politics play out, Lyssa’s deep personal relationships and impressive career trajectory hang in the balance. Evan Cabnet directs Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winner Wendy Wasserstein’s prescient 1997 play about the cost one woman pays when she dares to have it all.

 

NIKOS STAGE

WORLD PREMIERE
Cost of Living | June 29 – July 10

By Martyna Majok
Directed by Jo Bonney
with Gregg Mozgala, Rebecca Naomi Jones, and Wendell Pierce

Obie Award winner Jo Bonney directs Martyna Majok’s play about four very different people, in four very different circumstances, each trying to get by. Eddie (Wendell Pierce), an unemployed truck driver, reunites with his ex-wife Ani after she suffers a devastating accident. John (Gregg Mozgala), a brilliant and witty doctoral student, hires over-worked Jess (Rebecca Naomi Jones) as a caregiver. As their lives intersect, Majok’s play delves into the chasm between abundance and need and explores the space where bodies — abled and disabled — meet each other.

 

WORLD PREMIERE
The Chinese Room | July 13 – July 23

By Michael West
Directed by James Macdonald
with Carson Elrod, Sue Jean Kim, Brían F. O’Byrne, and Laila Robins

Obie Award winner James Macdonald directs this sci-fi comedy thriller by Irish playwright Michael West. A visionary in the field of Artificial Intelligence, Frank (Brían F. O’Byrne) has built a humandroid to preserve his wife Lily’s (Laila Robins) memory — because she is losing hers. But when he is ousted from the company he founded, he must race to save his life’s work. As Frank scrambles to protect his property, his legacy and the technology he invented, the play examines how far we will go to preserve what we love.

 

WORLD PREMIERE
Poster Boy | July 27 – August 7

Music and Lyrics by Craig Carnelia, Book by Joe Tracz
Movement by Danny Mefford
Directed by Stafford Arima
with Jerry Dixon, Katie Lee Hill, Jose Llana, Stephen Wallem, and Noah Zachary

Inspired by actual events surrounding the 2010 suicide of Tyler Clementi, a college student who brought national attention to cyber-bullying, Poster Boy is a new American musical by Tony Award-nominated composer Craig Carnelia and playwright Joe Tracz. A community of gay men in an online chat room come together to discover what drove one of their own to take his life.  Directed by Olivier Award nominee Stafford Arima with movement by Danny Mefford, this provocative and moving new musical lays bare the complexity of protecting our privacy, identity and humanity in the digital era.

 

AMERICAN PREMIERE
And No More Shall We Part | August 10 – August 21

By Tom Holloway
Directed by Anne Kauffman
with Alfred Molina and Jane Kaczmarek

Obie Award winner Anne Kauffman directs Tony and Emmy Award nominee Alfred Molina and Golden Globe and Emmy Award nominee Jane Kaczmarek in this intense and intimate drama by Australian playwright Tom Holloway.  When Pam (Kaczmarek) becomes terminally ill, she and her husband Don (Molina) must face the most difficult decision yet in their long and loving marriage.  With passion, fear, strength and even humor, they grapple with how, and if, to say goodbye.

 

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TICKETS AND SCHEDULE                                      

Single tickets for the 2016 Williamstown Theatre Festival season are now available at www.wtfestival.org and by phone at 413-458-3200 x 17. The WTF Box Office will open in June at which point tickets may be purchased online, by phone, or in person at the ’62 Center for Theatre and Dance Box Office at 1000 Main St (Route 2), Williamstown, MA 02167.

 

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WILLIAMSTOWN THEATRE FESTIVAL                         

Since 1955, the Williamstown Theatre Festival has brought America’s finest actors, directors, designers, and playwrights to the Berkshires, engaging a loyal audience of both residents and summer visitors. Each WTF season is designed to present unique opportunities for artists and audience alike, revisiting classic plays with innovative productions, developing and nurturing bold new plays and musicals, and offering a rich array of accompanying cultural events including Free Theatre, Late-Night Cabarets, readings, workshops, and educational programs. With offices in both Williamstown and New York City, WTF creates vibrant work that feeds the wider theatrical landscape. The artists and productions shaped at the Festival each summer often go on to reach diverse audiences nationally and internationally. WTF is also home to of the nation’s top training and professional development programs for new generations of aspiring theatre artists and administrators. WTF was honored with the Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre in 2002 and the Commonwealth Award for Achievement in 2011.