Elizabeth Ashley Signs On for Horton Foote's Dividing the Estate

Primary Stages has announced casting for the New York premiere of Horton Foote's Dividing the Estate the second production of the off-Broadway company's forthcoming seasion. The play will begin performances on September 18 and run through October 27 at 59E59 Theaters, under the direction of Michael Wilson Old Acquaintance. Opening night is September 27.

The 12-member cast features Elizabeth Ashley as Stella, Arthur French as Doug, Hallie Foote as Mary Jo, Penny Fuller as Lucille and Gerald McRaney as Lewis, with Devon Abner, James Colby, Lynda Gravatt, Virginia Kull, Maggie Lacey, Nicole Lowrance and Keiana Richard.

Dividing the Estate is described as a human comedy about a family that must confront its past as it prepares for its future. Primary Stages has previously presented Foote's The Day Emily Married and When They Speak of Rita.

Ashley won a Tony Award for Take Her, She's Mine and was nominated for Tonys for Barefoot in the Park and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Thirty years after playing Maggie the Cat on Broadway, Ashley played Big Mama at Hartford Stage. Other Broadway credits include Enchanted April, The Best Man, The Skin of Our Teeth, Caesar and Cleopatra, Legend, Hide and Seek and Agnes of God. Ashley has specialized in the works of Tennessee Williams at theaters around the country.

French recently received a Lucille Lortel Award for the Signature Theater Company's production of Two Trains Running. His Broadway credits include Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, The River Niger, The Iceman Cometh, Death of a Salesman, Design for Living, You Can't Take It With You, All God's Chillun Got Wings and Ain't Supposed to Die a Natural Death.

Foote, known as a peerless interpreter of her father's work, has appeared onstage in The Carpetbagger's Children, The Death of Papa, The Day Emily Married, When They Speak of Rita, The Trip to Bountiful, The Last of the Thorntons, Talking Pictures, Night Seasons, Laura Dennis, The Roads to Home and The Widow Claire, among many others.

Fuller appeared in Southern Comforts at Primary Stages last fall. Her Broadway credits include Barefoot in the Park, Cabaret, Applause and Rex.

McRaney appeared off-Broadway in The Exonerated and is known for the TV series Simon and Simon, Deadwood and the current CBS drama Jericho.

The creative team of Dividing the Estate includes Jeff Cowie Sets, David C. Woolard Costumes, Rui Rita Lights, and John Gromada Sound.