Complete casting has been announced for the first two production of Playwrights Horizons’ 2009-2010 season. The season kicks off with the world premiere of Daniel Goldfarb’s The Retributionists, directed by Leigh Silverman, beginning previews August 21 and opening September 15. The limited engagement plays through September 27 at Playwrights Horizons’ Mainstage Theater. A world premiere of Annie Baker’s Circle Mirror Transformation, directed by Sam Gold, will follow, beginning performances September 24 with opening set for October 13 at the company’s Peter Jay Sharp Theatre. The limited engagement plays through November 1.
Adam Driver (off-Broadway debut), Margarita Levieva (Impressionism, the recent film Adventureland), Cristin Milioti (Coram Boy, The Lieutenant of Inishmore), Hamilton Clancy (Burn After Reading), Rebecca Henderson (CSC’s Three Sisters), Luisa Stus (Go Away, Go Away, Steppenwolf’s It Ain’t No Fairy Tale) and Adam Rothenberg (Second Stage’s Danny and the Deep Blue Sea) comprise the seven member cast of The Retributionists. The show, a romantic thriller inspired by actual events, follows a band of young Jewish freedom fighters’ attempts to avenge a society’s wrongs—if only they can keep from tearing each other apart in the process.
Goldfarb’s work has appeared on Broadway in Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me. Off-Broadway credits include Modern Orthodox, Sarah, Sarah and Adam Baum and the Jew Movie. His plays Party Come Here and Jerry Christmas have appeared regionally at the Williamstown Theatre Festival and New York Stage and Film, respectively.
Baker’s Circle Mirror Transformation will star Heidi Schreck (Drum of the Waves, Amazons and Their Men), Tracee Chimo (Irena’s Vow, Bushwackin’) and previously announced Playwrights Horizons’ alums Reed Birney (The Savannah Disputation), Tony nominee Peter Friedman (Ragtime, The Heidi Chronicles) and Deirdre O’Connell (Manic Flight Reaction, Love and Anger). The play is the story of what happens when four lost New Englanders enrolled in a community center drama class experiment with harmless games. The results include hearts quietly torn apart and tiny wars of epic proportions waged hilariously within this new comedy.
Baker’s full-length plays include Body Awareness, Nocturama, The End of the Middle Ages and The Aliens.
The Playwrights Horizons season will continue with the world premieres of Melissa James’ Gibson’s This (November 6, 2009, through December 13), featuring Parker Posey; Bruce Norris’ Clybourne Park (January 29, 2010, through March 7, 2010); Kia Corthron’s A Cool Dip in the Barren Saharan Crick; and the New York premiere of new musical The Burnt Part Boys. Additional casting a details will be announced shortly.