Hunter Foster & More to Bring Burning to Life With Off-Broadway's New Group

Tony nominee Hunter Foster (Million Dollar Quartet, Little Shop of Horrors, Urinetown) has signed on for the New Group's forthcoming production of Thomas Bradshaw's Burning. The play will begin previews at the Acorn Theatre on Theatre Row on October 26 and open November 14, directed by New Group artistic director Scott Elliott.

Joining Foster on stage will be Jeff Biehl, Reyna DeCourcy, Barrett Doss, Andrew Garman, Drew Hildebrand, Evan Johnson, Danny Mastrogiorgio, Andrew Polk, Larisa Polonsky, Adam Trese, Vladimir Versailles and Stephen Tyrone Williams.

The emotionally charged, intersecting stories of Burning span two eras. A contemporary black painter, who depicts shocking racial violence in his art but hides his race from the press, goes to Berlin for a gallery show only to find that his work has been misinterpreted. In the mid-'80s an ambitious teenage boy, recently orphaned, comes to New York to become an actor and is taken in by a gay couple as they are preparing the debut of a new Broadway play. Using tales of self-invention and sexual identity, Burning attacks the pretenses of the worlds of art and theatre.

Burning features set design by Derek McLane, lighting design by Peter Kaczorowski, costume design by Clint Ramos, sound design by Bart Fasbender and video design by Wendall Harrington. The limited engagement will run through December 17.