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 Pleasantville, NY - The Insights & Revelations Performance Series, in residence at the Rosenthal JCC at 600 Bear Ridge Road in Pleasantville, NY, announces its presentation of an open rehearsal in advance of The Atlantic Theater Company’s New York premiere of Port Authority.
The show is directed by Henry Wishcamper and the open rehearsal will take place on Saturday, April 12th at 8:30 p.m.
Audiences will get a rare view of the creative process when the director introduces the show and provides insights into the rehearsal process to date (at the time of this presentation they will be halfway through the four-week rehearsal period). The director will rehearse two members of the cast – Tony winner John Gallagher, Jr. and Tony nominee Brian d’Arcy James - in select portions of the play, discussing and repeating sections for a real fly-on-the wall rehearsal experience. The director will conclude by revealing his plans for the final weeks of rehearsal. A discussion with the audience will follow, and a reception with the cast and director will complete the evening.
In Port Authority, we meet Kevin, Dermot and Joe, three generations of Irishmen. Set against the backdrop of contemporary Dublin, each man’s story is a beautifully woven tale of failure, loss and the elusiveness of love. With great wit and humor, Tony-nominated playwright Conor McPherson (The Seafarer, Shining City, The Weir, Dublin Carol) expertly exposes the heart of the common man. Critics have called McPherson’s plays “potent” and “spellbinding,” as well as “funny,” and “suspense-packed.” The New York Times called McPherson “prodigiously talented” and proclaimed The Seafarer (currently running on Broadway) to be the “pick-me-up play of the season,” while The Wall Street Journal called it “the stuff of greatness.”
“I am delighted to welcome The Atlantic Theater Company back to the Insights & Revelations Performance Series” stated Series Producer Anna Becker. “They came to us with the Pinter Plays in 2005, with an outstanding cast and brilliant insights from the show’s director, Neil Pepe. Returning now with acclaimed playwright Conor McPherson’s beautiful and moving play, we look forward to another inspiring evening from this remarkable theatre company.”
The Insights & Revelations Performance Series is a 2007 Best of Westchester winner for Best New Performance Series and is known for bringing award-winning off-Broadway companies such as Classic Stage Company, the New Group, the Barrow Group, and Symphony Space to Westchester, as well as presenting a wide range of professional artists in live presentations and exhibits.
PERFORMANCE AND TICKET INFORMATION
Port Authority
Saturday, April 12th, at 8:30 p.m.
At the Rosenthal JCC Theatre, 600 Bear Ridge Road, Pleasantville
A discussion and reception with the artists follows the program.
Tickets are $25.
To purchase tickets by phone call 212-868-4444, or order online at www.smarttix.com. All performances take place at the Rosenthal JCC, 600 Bear Ridge Road, Pleasantville, NY 10570.
CONOR MCPHERSON (Playwright) was born in Dublin in 1971. He attended University College Dublin where he began to write and direct. He is currently represented on Broadway with the acclaimed West End transfer production of The Seafarer, for which he also made his directorial debut. Other plays include: Rum & Vodka, The Good Thief, This Lime Tree Bower, St Nicholas, The Weir (Olivier Award® Best Play), Dublin Carol and Shining City (Tony Award® nomination Best Play). Alongside many productions of his own plays, other work as a director includes Billy Roche's Poor Beast in the Rain (Gate Theatre, Dublin) and Eugene O'Brien's Eden (Abbey Theatre, Dublin, and West End). For television, he directed Samuel Beckett's Endgame starring Sir Michael Gambon. Screenplays include I Went Down (Best Screenplay Award, San Sebastian Film Festival), Saltwater (CICAE Award Best Film, Berlin Film Festival), and The Actors. Other awards for his work include the Evening Standard Award, Critics Circle Award and two Irish Film and Television Academy Best Screenplay Awards.
HENRY WISHCAMPER (Director). Recent directing credits include Horton Foote's Talking Pictures (Goodman Theatre), the New York premiere of Jane Martin's Flags (59e59), Doug Grissom's Elvis People (New World Stages), his own play The Polish Play, A Conflation of Macbeth by William Shakespeare and Ubu Roi by Alfred Jarry (Katharsis Theater Company), Thornton Wilder's Pullman Car Hiawatha (Keen Company; Drama Desk Nomination for Outstanding Revival of a Play), Scott Blumenthal's So Frightful... (McGinn/Cazale Theater; commissioned by the Maine Humanities Council), Conor McPherson's The Good Thief (Portland Stage Company), Moliere's The Flying Doctor and The Imaginary Cuckold (Roundtable Ensemble), and John Ford's 'Tis Pity She's a Whore (HERE). He served as the assistant director on the Broadway productions of August: Osage County (directed by Anna D. Shapiro), Shining City (directed by Robert Falls), Absurd Person Singular (directed by John Tillinger) and Match (directed by Nicholas Martin). Henry is the Artistic Director of Katharsis Theater Company. He served as the Artistic Director of the Maine Summer Dramatic Institute in Portland, Maine from 1997-1999 and as the Artistic Associate of Keen Company from 2002-2005. He is a Drama League Directing Fellow.
BRIAN D'ARCY JAMES. Broadway: The Apple Tree, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, The Lieutenant of Inishmore, Sweet Smell of Success (Tony® and Drama Desk Award nominations), Titanic, Carousel, Blood Brothers, Les Misérables (national tour). Off-Broadway: Next to Normal (Second Stage), The Lieutenant of Inishmore (Atlantic), The Pavilion (Rattlestick), Flight (Melting Pot), The Good Thief (Keen Company; Obie Award; Backstage Garland Award; L.A. Weekly Award; Drama Desk Outer Critics nominations), City Center Encores! Pardon My English, The Wild Party (MTC, Drama Desk nomination), Ancestral Voices (LCT), Public Enemy (Irish Arts), Floyd Collins (Playwrights Horizons), Irving Berlin's White Christmas (SF, LA, Boston). Film and TV: the upcoming Ghost Town; Enchanted; "Cashmere Mafia;" "Rescue Me;" "The Education of Max Bickford;" Neurotica; Exiled; Sax and Violins. Numerous cast recordings and concert appearances. BS, Theater: Northwestern University. Board Member: Keen Company. Brian will star in the title role in SHREK THE MUSICAL, which debuts this fall at the Broadway Theatre.www.briandjames.com.
JOHN GALLAGHER, JR. Broadway: Spring Awakening (Tony Award®, Drama Desk nomination), Rabbit Hole. Off-Broadway: Spring Awakening, Kimberly Akimbo, Current Events. Other theater: the London premiere of Fuddy Meers. TV: "The West Wing," "Law and Order," "Law and Order: CI," "NYPD Blue," "Ed," "Love Monkey." Film: Pieces of April, Kenneth Lonergan's upcoming Margaret.
ATLANTIC THEATER COMPANY (Neil Pepe, Artistic Director; Andrew D. Hamingson, Managing Director) is the award winning Off-Broadway theater dedicated to producing great plays simply and truthfully utilizing an artistic ensemble. Atlantic believes that the story of the play and the intent of the playwright are at the core of the creative process. Atlantic's acclaimed world premiere production of its first musical Spring Awakening, with music by Duncan Sheik, book and lyrics by Steven Sater and direction by Michael Mayer, won 8 Tony Awards®, including Best Musical. In 2006, Atlantic was awarded the Lucille Lortel Prize for Outstanding Body of Work and its lauded production of Martin McDonagh's The Lieutenant Of Inishmore, directed by Wilson Milam, transferred to the Lyceum Theatre, where it was nominated for five 2006 Tony Awards® including Best Play.
Since it's inception in 1985, Atlantic has produced more than 100 plays including the Tony Award® winning production of The Beauty Queen Of Leenane, the world premieres of Woody Allen's A Second Hand Memory and Writer's Block, the acclaimed world premiere of David Mamet's Romance, Jez Butterworth's Mojo, Tom Donaghy's Minutes From The Blue Route, Edwin Sanchez' Trafficking in Broken Hearts and the American premieres of Blue/Orange, Dublin Carol and The Night Heron, the New York premieres of The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow and The Cider House Rules, the
revivals of American Buffalo, Edmond, The Hothouse and Hobson's Choice. Atlantic maintains an ensemble of acclaimed actors, writers and directors including David Mamet (playwright and director) and William H. Macy (Academy Award® nominee for Fargo), who founded Atlantic over twenty years ago in 1985.
THE DEEP END PRODUCTIONS was founded by its producer, Anna Becker, and is dedicated to presenting world-class, professional artists in an intimate setting. Provocative and inspiring material and audience access to the artistic process are central to The Deep End’s mission. Previous presentations include Symphony Space’s Thalia Follies: A Political Cabaret, The New Group’s A Spalding Gray Matter, The Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival’s The Tempest, and Classic Stage Company’s open rehearsals of The Merchant of Venice with Ron Leibman and Richard III with Michael Cumpsty. Anna Becker has produced for theatre, television and film for more than 20 years. She served as Theatre Program Director for the New York State Council on the Arts, and as a consultant for the National Endowment for the Arts, Theatre Communications Group, AT&T Foundation, and the Lila Acheson Wallace Theater Fund. Becker created and produced the Insights & Revelations Performance Series at the Northern Westchester Center for the Arts and most recently produced A Celebration of the Actor at the Joseph Papp Public Theater with Kate Burton, Charles Busch, Charlayne Woodard, and Julie Halston. She is currently the producer of the off-Broadway show, Life in a Marital Institution, running in February/March 2008 at 59E59 Theaters.
THE ROSENTHAL JCC is a Jewish Community Center (JCC) where individuals grow, explore, and connect to the community around them. We offer recreational, educational, cultural and social services for all ages. Our main campus is in Pleasantville, NY, and we have a branch serving the Yorktown, NY, area. Call for more information about our Jewish learning and celebrations, early childhood programs, summer camps, after-school activities, sport leagues, cultural programs, and social services such as early intervention and referrals or counseling.
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