Hawke, Cusack, Easton, Hamilton & More Set for Classics at BAM

Ethan Hawke, Sinead Cusack, Richard Easton, Josh Hamilton and Rebecca Hall will join Simon Russell Beale in productions of The Cherry Orchard and The Winter's Tale this fall, according to Variety. The plays are the first two productions of the Bridge Project, a new trans-Atlantic theater series spearheaded by the Brooklyn Academy of Music, London's Old Vic and Sam Mendes' Neal Street Productions.

Mendes will direct the cast in a double bill of Chekhov's classic family drama in a new adaptation by Tom Stoppard and Shakespeare, which will will play at BAM January-March 2009, followed by engagements in Singapore, Auckland, Madrid and Germany and then finish with a May-August 2009 run at the Old Vic, the London theater where Kevin Spacey serves as artistic director.

Conceived as a three-year series of classical theater double bills that draws on stage talent from both sides of the Atlantic, the Bridge Project was to begin performances this year but was delayed when Stephen Dillane withdrew from productions of Hamlet and The Tempest due to an illness in the family, Variety reported.