Casting, Opening Date Set for Belber's A Small, Melodramatic Story

Complete casting and performance dates have been announced for Stephen Belber's A Small, Melodramatic Story, the first production of the LAByrinth Theater Company's 15th anniversary season. The cast includes Carlo Alban, Quincy Tyler Bernstine, Lee Sellars and Isiah Whitlock Jr., directed by the previously announced Lucie Tiberghien, Belber's wife. The limited-run production begins performances October 10 and is scheduled to run through November 5. LAByrinth will continue its residency at the Public Theater for the 2006-2007 season.

A Small, Melodramatic Story takes place in Washington D.C., where a widow named O is trying to figure out whether life is worth re-engaging with. In her path are the 1968 riots, the first Gulf War, the Freedom of Information Act and herself. There's also an archivist named Keith, a cop named Perry and a kid named Cleo. And finally there's the question of just how much about anything do we really need to know.

Belber's plays include Match, McReele, Tape which was adapted into a film starring Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman, Carol Mulroney, One Million Butterflies, Drifting Elegant, The Transparency of Val, The Wake, Through Fred and The Death of Frank. He received an Emmy nomination for his contribution to the screenplay for the HBO movie version of The Laramie Project.

Alban's New York stage credits include References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot and A Winter's Party. He spent five years as a cast member on Sesame Street and has appeared in films such as Hurricane Streets, Hi-Life and the TNT movie Thicker Than Water.

Bernstine has appeared onstage in New York in Passing Strange, I am Nobody's Lunch, Matt & Ben, The Ladies and The Trail of Her Inner Thigh.

Sellars' New York theater credits include The Alchemist, Buying Time and Ghost on Fire. As a musician, he performs with the band eelwax jesus.

Whitlock, a veteran film actor The 25th House, She Hate Me, Pieces of April, The Spanish Prisoner, Eddie appeared in Four at the Manhattan Theatre Club and on Broadway in The Iceman Cometh, The Merchant of Venice and Mastergate. Off-Broadway credits include The Cherry Orchard, A Lesson Before Dying, Edmond and The American Clock.

A Small, Melodramatic Story has set an opening date of October 22.