Long Wharf Theatre’s Lucille Lortel Award winning production of The Glass Menagerie is about to make its latest stop. Artistic Director Gordon Edelstein has begun rehearsals in New York for the play’s run at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles Sept. 1 through Oct. 17. Judith Ivey, star of this season’s upcoming production of Shirley Valentine, will recreate her Lortel Award winning performance as Amanda Wingfield, alongside Keira Keeley and Patch Darragh. Ben McKenzie will join the cast as the Gentleman Caller. Edelstein is following up another L.A. success, his recent production of Bones, by Dael Orlandersmith, at the Kirk Douglas Theatre.
Eric Ting, the associate artistic director, is currently in Chicago at the Victory Gardens Theater directing a reading of We Are Proud to Present a Presentation About the Herero of Namibia, Formerly Known as South-West Africa, From the German Sudwestafrika, Between the Years 1884-1915 by Jackie Sibblies. The reading is part of the theatre’s Ignition 2010 Festival, running through Aug. 22. Sibblies’ play tells the story of a group of actors rehearsing a presentation on a distant genocide, who realize that summaries are not enough. In the actors’ attempt to delve into history they struggle with stereotype, fear, and their own personal histories. For information about the entire Ignition 2010 Festival, check out http://www.victorygardens.org.
Ting will have a busy spring at Long Wharf Theatre. He’ll be directing Agnes Under the Big Top, a new play by Aditi Brennan Kapil, running March 2 through April 2 and John Patrick Shanley’s Italian American Reconciliation, running from April 27 through May 22.