Kathleen Chalfant Joins Beth Henley's Family Week at MCC

Kathleen Chalfant will joined previously announced star Rosemarie DeWitt in MCC Theater’s forthcoming production of Family Week by Pulitzer Prize winner Beth Henley (Crimes of the Heart). Oscar winner Jonathan Demme will make his theatrical debut as director of the play, which begins previews at the Lucille Lortel Theatre April 7, 2010, with opening night set for April 26. The limited engagement will continue through May 23.

In Family Week, a year after the death of her son, Claire (DeWitt) checks into a recovery center in the desert, searching for a way to cope. When her mother (Chalfant), daughter and sister arrive to participate in "family week," long-dormant traumas collide with recent tragedies in surprisingly comical, shocking and deeply moving ways. United in this family struggle, the women rage and reach out in an effort to reconcile their love with the way things are. Complete casting for the four-person play will be announced shortly.

An earlier version of the play received a commercial off-Broadway production at Century Center in 2000 with a cast that included Rose Gregorio, Angelina Phillips, Carol Kane and Julia Weldon, directed by Ulu Grosbard.

Chalfant received a Tony nomination for Angels in America and won a Drama Desk and numerous other awards for her performance in Wit. Broadway credits include Racing Demon and Dance with Me. Off-Broadway credits include Dead Man’s Cell Phone, Nine Armenians, Twelve Dreams, Henry V, The Vagina Monologues, True History, Phaedra in Delirium, Endgame, The Party, Three Poets and Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You, among many others.