F. Murray Abraham Among Guest Actors Set for Off-Broadway Drama an oak tree

Playwright Tim Crouch will star in his play an oak tree at the Barrow Street Theatre beginning October 27. The play, which will alternate at the off-Broadway theater with Nilaja Sun's hit solo show No Child…, features a guest actor at each performance. Among those on tap for the first week of previews are F. Murray Abraham October 30 and Charles Busch October 31. Opening night is November 4.

An oak tree is the story of two men brought together by loss: a father whose daughter has been killed in a car accident and the driver of that car, a provincial stage hypnotist. The play presents what happens when the man and the hypnotist are reunited for the first time since the accident, when the hypnotist inadvertently calls him on stage as a volunteer. Crouch plays the hypnotist, and a different actor—male or female—plays the father at each performance. As an added twist, the second actor walks on stage having neither seen nor read a word of the play he're in….until he's in it.

Crouch is an Artistic Associate of the Franklin Stage Company in upstate New York and has played starring roles there in The Taming of the Shrew, Twelfth Night, Uncle Vanya and The Tempest. His first play, my arm, opened at the Edinburgh Festival in 2003, has run in New York and London and toured extensively throughout Europe and North America. An oak tree opened in Edinburgh in summer 2005 and has since toured Europe before arriving off-Broadway.

The following actors have been scheduled for the first week of performances, subject to change: Peter Van Wagner 10/27, Rachel Fowler 10/28, 5:00 p.m., Lucas Caleb Rooney 10/28, 9:30 p.m., Michael Cullen 10/29, 5:00 p.m., Mark Blankenship 10/29, F. Murray Abraham 10/30, Charles Busch 10/31 and Reed Birney 11/3. Credited as co-directors are Crouch, Karl James and A. Smith.