| Long Wharf Theatre News Release Steven Scarpa, Public Relations Manager 203-772-8224 / steven.scarpa@longwharf.org Date: April 2, 2008; revised May 20, 2008; revised June 11, 2008 LONG WHARF THEATRE ANNOUNCES 2008/2009 SEASON NEW HAVEN, CT - Long Wharf Theatre, under the leadership of Artistic Director Gordon Edelstein and Managing Director Joan Channick, announces the 2008/2009 season, an interesting melange of new works, star turns and classic plays. "We know that the experience of live theatre is like no other and holds a special place in our audiences' lives; creating family connections, a sense of engagement and civic dialogue. We strive for relevance in our show selection, reflecting a comprehensive world view that entertains, enlightens and informs our audiences," said Edelstein. Long Wharf Theatre will open its season on Stage II with stage and screen star Brian Dennehy in Hughie by Eugene O'Neill. "This is one of the greatest playwrights of the 20th century. Erie Smith (Dennehy's role in Hughie) is one of O'Neill's most memorable creations. Hughie is all about dreamers," Edelstein said. The Mainstage opens with a new play by Pulitzer Prize winner Paula Vogel entitled A Civil War Christmas. This play featuring dozens of period songs will provide families with a special holiday experience. "A play five years in the making, this is a world premiere from undeniably one of America's top playwrights," said Edelstein. "It is Paula's biggest play, the first play she has attempted that is so large in scope. She is dealing with themes central to American spirit and American history - the issues of race, gender, freedom, inclusiveness and forgiveness." The theatre will also present the East Coast premiere of Victory, a dynamic new work by South African playwright Athol Fugard. "He is one of the world's most unqualified theatrical masters for the past 50 years," Edelstein said. "He is returning to Long Wharf Theatre with his new play, which is a look at the story of a retired teacher and his relationship to the daughter of his former maid - a look at post-apartheid life in South Africa. It is his most important work in over 20 years." Scarborough, by Fiona Evans, will make its American debut on Long Wharf Theatre's Stage II. This poignant story about an illicit romance between a teacher and student was a hit at the Royal Court Theatre in London. "Scarborough continues our long tradition of presenting controversial, topical works. It is exciting to have a play that is going to give people ample topics to discuss on the car ride home," Edelstein said. Eric Ting, Long Wharf Theatre's Associate Artistic Director will present an innovative adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's Nobel Prize-winner novella The Old Man and the Sea. Ting has directed The Bluest Eye and Underneath the Lintel at Long Wharf. "It will be a vividly theatrical, poetic adaptation of one of Hemingway's most beloved stories about courage, honor and nobility of spirit," Edelstein said. LONG WHARF THEATRE: 2008/09 SEASON Hughie Erie Smith, a small-time gambler, wanders home to a seedy New York hotel fresh from a grief-stricken bout of drinking: Hughie, night clerk and once-captive audience for Erie's tall tales, has died. Will Erie find in Hughie's replacement the affirmation and friendship he craves? One loner seeks solace in another in Eugene O'Neill's snapshot of two souls on a city's margins. Brian Dennehy, leading American stage and screen actor (Death of A Salesman, Long Day's Journey Into Night on Broadway), will open Long Wharf Theatre's 2008/09 season on Stage II in a play about coming to grips with the past. "A full, richly eccentric and satisfying evening of theater." - New York Times on Long Wharf's 1996 production, which transferred to New York. A Civil War Christmas By Paula Vogel November 26 through December 21 on the Mainstage It's 1864, and Washington, DC, settles down to the coldest Christmas Eve in years - in the White House, where President and Mrs. Lincoln plot their gift-giving; on the banks of the Potomac, where a young rebel challenges a Union blacksmith's mercy; and in the alleys downtown, where an escaped slave loses her daughter just before finding freedom. The latest from Pulitzer Prize-winner Paula Vogel intertwines many lives and shows us that the gladness of one's heart is the best gift of all. "Ms. Vogel has a gift for sustaining humor and pathos at the same time, without trivializing either emotion." - The New York Times Victory Vicky promises Freddie that robbing her old teacher Lionel's house will go off without a hitch, but when they are caught, the ensuing confrontation ends in tragedy. The pair's standoff with Lionel - who once employed Vicky's mother as his housekeeper - pits poverty against privilege, youth against experience and Vicky and Lionel's accounts of the past against each other. Athol Fugard, a South African, has been described by Time Magazine as "the greatest active playwright in the English-speaking world." Scarborough Step into to a faded hotel room where a couple is having an illicit weekend away. Amongst the peeling wallpaper, they laugh, quarrel and make love, but they don't dare go out. After all, at just 15 years old, one of them is just a child . . . the other the teacher. A dangerously charged romance is played out with humor, compassion and poignancy in this award-winning new play making its North American premiere. Scarborough was the show to see at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2007, winning a Fringe First Award, as well as being a hit at the Royal Court Theatre in London. "Not only does the pathos rocket, you can feel the audience's concentration as we watch difference in gender politics made superbly visible." - Variety The Old Man and The Sea In this vividly theatrical adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's timeless tale, an old fisherman's 85-day struggle to catch a fish culminates with a battle to land the greatest catch of his life - a powerful marlin. While dueling with the marlin, the old man learns to respect and love his adversary, admiring its beauty and greatness. Despite this, he has to kill it. As the old man struggles in his epic duel with the fish, we learn a lesson about life and sacrifice. The Glass Menagerie Laura, a gentle, timid girl living in a world of delicate cut glass animals, has her gentle shattered when her mother, Amanda, envisioning a life for her much like the genteel Southern one she constantly reminisces about, encourages a meeting with a gentleman caller. With her son Tom lusting for a wider view of the world and the specter of their long absent father hanging over the proceedings, this chronicle of dreams, perception and one family's struggle to hold onto its illusions is one of the seminal American plays. Titles subject to change. # # # LONG WHARF THEATRE, founded in 1965, is recognized as a leader in American theater, producing fresh and imaginative revivals of classics and modern plays, rediscoveries of neglected works and a variety of world and American premieres. More than 30 Long Wharf productions have transferred virtually intact to Broadway or off-Broadway, including the 2005 production of BFE by Julia Cho, and the Pulitzer Prize-winning plays Wit by Margaret Edson, The Shadow Box by Michael Cristofer, and The Gin Game by D.L. Coburn. Long Wharf has received New York Drama Critics Awards, Obie Awards, the Margo Jefferson Award for Production of New Works, a Special Citation from the Outer Critics Circle, and the Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre. ~ End of Release ~ Steven Scarpa Close window Long Wharf News Home
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