NEW HAVEN – Judith Ivey, a Tony and Obie Award winner also known for her work on the hit television series “Designing Women,” will play Amanda in Gordon Edelstein’s production of The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams, the final show of Long Wharf Theatre’s 2008-09 season.

The production will be staged from May 13 through June 7 on the Mainstage.

Tennessee Williams’ seminal work about one family’s struggles to hold onto their illusions tells the story of Laura, a timid girl living in a world of delicate cut glass animals. Laura has her life shattered when her mother Amanda, played by Ivey, encourages a meeting with a gentleman caller.

Judith Ivey is the recipient of the Tony Award and the Drama Desk Award for her portrayals in Steaming and Hurlyburly, the Obie Award for her performance in The Moonshot Tape, and countless others for her stage and film work. Most recently she was honored with the Texas Medal of Arts for Theatre.

She also recently toured the United States in the one-woman show, Irene O'Garden's Women On Fire. Some film credits include The Devil’s Advocate; Washington Square; Mystery, Alaska; Brighton Beach Memoirs; Love Hurts; Compromising Positions; What Alice Found; and Flags Of Our Fathers.

Ms. Ivey starred in four television series, the most memorable being “Designing Women.” Some television film credits include “The Long, Hot Summer,” “What The Deaf Man Heard” (Emmy nomination), “Rosered” and “Half A Dozen Babies.”

Ms. Ivey’s most recent directing credit is Secrets Of A Soccermom off-Broadway and she will be directing the musical Vanities to open this August at the Pasadena Playhouse.

Prior directing jobs include The Butcher Of Baraboo at the Second Stage Uptown Series, Fugue at the Cherry Lane Theatre, and Southern Comforts at Primary Stages in NYC. Judith directed Bad Dates both at the Northlight Theatre in Chicago, and the Laguna Playhouse, the acclaimed Steel Magnolias at the Alley Theatre, and More with Yeardley Smith at Union Square Theatre, and the Falcon Theatre in Los Angeles.

Other directing credits include Two For The Seesaw at the Westport Playhouse, The Go-For-It Guy at the Aspen Comedy Festival, and Soccer Moms at Fleetwood Stage.

Judith starred in Edward Albee’s revival of The American Dream and The Sandbox at the Cherry Lane Theatre this year. And she portrayed Ann Landers in David Rambo’s The Lady With All The Answers at the Northlight Theatre.

Ms. Ivey is married to Tim Braine, and is the proud mother of Maggie and Tom. She has been a member of Actors’ Equity for 34 years, and the SSDC for five years.