24's Wynter, Badalucco and More Set for The Rise of Dorothy Hale

Casting is complete for the forthcoming off-Broadway premiere The Rise Of Dorothy Hale, a new play by Myra Bairstow. Emmy winner Michael Badalucco The Practice, film actress Sarita Choudhury Mississippi Masala, Greg Hansen, Laura Koffman, Mark LaMura and SAG Award nominee Sarah Wynter 24 will star in the play, directed by Penny Templeton. Performances begin on September 19 at St. Luke's Theater, with opening night on September 30.

The Rise of Dorothy Hale examines the mysterious death of the 33-year-old widow of American muralist Gardner Hale, who plunged 16 stories from her apartment window at the Hampshire House on Central Park South on October 21, 1938. Dorothy's death was ruled a suicide. Did an alleged suicide note that Clare Boothe Luce claims to have received exist? Why did Harry Hopkins involve the White House and two key players of the Roosevelt Administration to handle damage control around Dorothy's death? What possible secrets did Dorothy know about Hopkins and Luce before she was found dead? And what's the real story behind a Frida Kahlo portrait of Hale commissioned by Luce after Dorothy's death?

Badalucco won an Emmy for The Practice and has appeared in the films The Man Who Wasn't There, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Broadway Danny Rose, Miller's Crossing, Sleepless in Seattle, Jungle Fever, The Professional, Mac, One Fine Day, The Search for One-Eye Jimmy, Summer of Sam, You've Got Mail and Bewitched.

Choudhury, who won acclaim opposite Denzel Washington in Mississippi Masala and later starred in Lady in the Water, has appeared onstage in Roar, Sakharam Binder, Much Ado About Nothing and The Flatted Fifth. Additional film credits include The House of the Spirits, Fresh Kill, The Perez FAmily, A Perfect Murder, Gloria, The Breakup Artist and It Runs in the Family.

Hansen and Koffman are making their off-Broadway debuts. A former "Model of the Year" in France, Hansen has appeared in independent films and played Orlando in a London production of As You Like It. Koffman, whose stage credits include Tartuffe and Five Women in the Same Dress, has had regular roles in the soap operas One Life to Live and Another World.

La Mura's Broadway credits include Aida, Dinner at Eight and Taking Sides. Off-Broadway credits include The History of JFK Part I, When Ladies Battle and Between Time and Timbuktu. Regional credits include Count Dracula, Arms and the Man, Barefoot in the Park, The School for Wives and A Thousand Clowns. He received a Daytime Emmy nomination for playing Mark Dalton in All My Children.

Wynter received a SAG nomination for playing Kate Warner in 24 and most recently starred in NBC's Windfall. Her films include Bride of the Wind, The 6th Day, Lost Souls, Coastlines, Shooting Livien, Three Dollars and Dead Like Me.

The Rise Of Dorothy Hale will feature set design by Josh Iacovelli and lighting design by Graham Kindred. The open-ended off-Broadway run is being produced by Judson Moore, Paolo Montalban, Asset Management Partners LLC, Edmund Gaynes and Aridyne Productions LLC.