SECOND STAGE THEATRE
Announces Two Productions
For Its Upcoming 36th Season
LIPS TOGETHER, TEETH APART
By TERRENCE McNALLY
Directed by PETER DuBOIS
and
THE WAY WE GET BY
By NEIL LaBUTE
World Premiere
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Second Stage Theatre (Carole Rothman, Artistic Director) has announced two productions for its upcoming 36th season: the first New York production in 23 years of Terrence McNally’s acclaimed play, LIPS TOGETHER, TEETH APART, directed by Peter DuBois, and the world premiere of Neil LaBute’s dark comedy, THE WAY WE GET BY.
Mr. McNally returns to Second Stage, which previously presented his play, Some Men, during its 2006-2007 season. Mr. DuBois has directed several productions at Second Stage, including Becky Shaw, Trust, and All New People. THE WAY WE GET BY will mark Mr. LaBute’s Second Stage Theatre debut.
“I’m proud to announce these two productions from writers I consider to be among the most important currently working in American theatre,” said Second Stage Founding Artistic Director Carole Rothman. “Lips Together… is one of Terrence’s finest plays – I’ve wanted to mount a production for several years and I’m so pleased that both Terrence and Peter will be back at our theatre. I’ve long admired Neil LaBute’s plays and I’m thrilled we are debuting one of his works at Second Stage – I know our audiences will embrace his powerful voice and this surprising and uncompromising new work.”
Second Stage Theatre Company is currently presenting The Substance of Fire at the Tony Kiser Theatre and the New York Premiere of American Hero as part of its Second Stage Theatre Uptown series.
For subscription or ticket information, please call the Second Stage Box Office at 212-246-4422 or visit the company’s website, www.2ST.com. All productions are staged at Second Stage’s Tony Kiser Theatre, 305 West 43rd Street (just west of Eighth Avenue).
More detailed information on Second Stage Theatre’s upcoming season follows:
LIPS TOGETHER, TEETH APART
By Terrence McNally
Directed by Peter DuBois
Previews begin October 7; opening late October
It’s the 4th of July on Fire Island where a brother and sister and their spouses are spending the quintessential American summer weekend in an unfamiliar setting. As their season in the sun unfolds, the two couples do their best to enjoy themselves despite their prejudices and insecurities. The grill is fired up, the drinks are cold and the pool is open but no one is going in. Terrence McNally’s trenchant comedy receives its first New York revival in 23 years under the direction of Peter DuBois.
TERRENCE McNALLY is the winner of Tony Awards for his plays Love! Valour! Compassion! and Master Class and his books for the musicals Ragtime and Kiss of the Spiderwoman. In 2010 the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts presented Terrence McNally’s Nights at the Opera, a three-play festival of his work. Last season Golden Age opened at Manhattan Theatre Club’s Stage One at City Center and the Pearl Theatre premiered his new play And Away We Go at their new home on 42nd street in early fall. His newest play, the Tony-nominated Mothers and Sons, is currently running on Broadway. It is his 20th Broadway production. Other plays include Frankie and Johnny in the Clair De Lune; Lips Together, Teeth Apart; The Lisbon Traviata; Corpus Christi; The Ritz; Some Men; A Perfect Ganesh; It’s Only a Play; Bad Habits; The Stendhal Syndrome; Dedication or the Stuff of Dreams; Deuce; and Unusual Acts of Devotion at the La Jolla Playhouse and Philadelphia Theatre Company. He has written the books for the musicals The Full Monty; A Man of No Importance; and The Visit. He also wrote the libretto for the opera Dead Man Walking which had its premiere at San Francisco Opera. He won the Emmy Award for Andre’s Mother.
PETER DuBOIS returns to Second Stage where he directed Becky Shaw, Trust, All New People and Modern Terrorism. He also staged the West End production of All New People and the Almeida Theatre (London) production of Becky Shaw. His other credit include Sons of the Prophet (Roundabout Theatre Company); Measure for Pleasure, Richard III, Mom How Did You Meet the Beatles, Biro (Public Theater/NYSF); Jack Goes Boating, View From 151st Street (LAByrinth Theater Company/Public Theater). He has also staged works at American Conservatory Theater, Trinity Repertory Company, Humana Festival of New Plays, Manchester Opera House, Kings Theatre Glasgow. He was the Associate Producer at The Public Theater/NYSF from 2003-2005 and was their Resident Director from 2005-2008. He also served as Artistic Director of the Perseverance Theatre Company in Juneau, Alaska from 1997-2003. Peter is currently in his fourth season as the Artistic Director of The Huntington Theatre Company in Boston. Peter’s productions have been on the annual top ten lists of The New York Times, Time Out, New York Magazine, The New Yorker, Variety, Entertainment Weekly, The Evening Standard, and the Improper Bostonian.
THE WAY WE GET BY
World Premiere
By Neil LaBute
Director TBD
Summer 2015
Meet Beth and Doug: two people who have no problems getting dates with their partners of choice. What they do have, however, is a very awkward encounter after spending one hot night together following a drunken wedding reception they attend. They wake up to a blurry morning where the rules of attraction, sex and society are waiting for them before their first cup of coffee, which leads them to ponder how much they really know about each other and how much they really care about what other people think. The Way We Get By is a play about love and lust and the whole damn thing.
NEIL LaBUTE burst onto the filmmaking scene at the 1997 Sundance Film Festival with his feature debut, In the Company of Men. The film went on to win the Filmmaker Trophy at the festival, as well as the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best First Feature. In addition to Sundance, it screened at the Cannes, Edinburgh, and Deauville Film Festivals and won two Independent Spirit Awards. Following on the success of In the Company of Men, LaBute continued to push boundaries on screen and stage and has established himself as both a leading playwright and film writer/director. LaBute’s plays have been Tony and Olivier Award nominated and staged throughout the world. They include bash: latter-day plays, The Shape of Things, The Mercy Seat, The Distance From Here, Autobahn, Fat Pig, Some Girl(s), This Is How It Goes, Wrecks, Filthy Talk for Troubled Times, In a Dark Dark House, reasons to be pretty (Tony Award nominated for Best Play), The Break of Noon, In A Forest, Dark And Deep, Reasons to Be Happy and the upcoming The Money Shot. LaBute is also the author of Seconds of Pleasure, a collection of short fiction which was published by Grove Atlantic. Among his films are Your Friends and Neighbors, Nurse Betty, The Shape of Things, Lakeview Terrace, Some Velvet Morning and the short films sexting and BFF. His most recent feature film is Dirty Weekend, starring Matthew Broderick and Alice Eve. It is currently in post-production and will premiere fall of 2014.
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Founded in 1979 under the leadership of Artistic Director Carole Rothman, SECOND STAGE THEATRE produces a diverse range of premieres and new interpretations of America’s best contemporary theatre, including Tiny Alice and Peter and Jerry by Edward Albee; The Good Times Are Killing Me by Lynda Barry; The Little Dog Laughed by Douglas Carter Beane; Little Murders by Jules Feiffer; The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee by William Finn and Rachel Sheinkin; A Soldier’s Play by Charles Fuller; Afterbirth: Kathy & Mo’s Greatest Hits by Mo Gaffney and Kathy Najimy; Becky Shaw by Gina Gionfriddo; Painting Churches and Coastal Disturbances by Tina Howe; Ricky Jay and His 52 Assistants and On the Stem by Ricky Jay; Next to Normal by Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey; Living Out by Lisa Loomer; This Is Our Youth and The Waverly Gallery by Kenneth Lonergan; Some Men by Terrence McNally; By the Way, Meet Vera Stark by Lynn Nottage; eurydice by Sarah Ruhl; Everyday Rapture by Dick Scanlan and Sherie Rene Scott; Let Me Down Easy by Anna Deavere Smith; Saturday Night by Stephen Sondheim; Crowns by Regina Taylor; Uncommon Women and Others by Wendy Wasserstein; Spoils of War by Michael Weller; Before It Hits Home, Jar the Floor and Birdie Blue by Cheryl L. West; Jitney by August Wilson; Lemon Sky, Serenading Louie and Sympathetic Magic by Lanford Wilson; and Metamorphoses and The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci by Mary Zimmerman.
The company’s more than 130 citations include the 2010 Pulitzer prize for Next to Normal, the 2009 Tony Awards for Best Score, Best Orchestrations, and Best Actress in a Musical (Alice Ripley) for Next to Normal, the 2007 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play (Julie White, The Little Dog Laughed), 2005 Tony Awards for Best Book of a Musical (Rachel Sheinkin, …Spelling Bee) and Best Featured Actor in a Musical (Dan Fogler, …Spelling Bee), 2002 Tony Award for Best Director of a Play (Mary Zimmerman for Metamorphoses), the 2002 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Body of Work, 27 Obie Awards, six Outer Critics Circle Awards, two Clarence Derwent Awards, 12 Drama Desk Awards, nine Theatre World Awards, 14 Lucille Lortel Awards, the NY Drama Critics Circle Award and 15 AUDELCO Awards.
In 1999, Second Stage Theatre opened The Tony Kiser Theatre, its state-of-the-art, 296-seat theatre, designed by renowned Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas. In 2002, Second Stage launched “Second Stage Theatre Uptown” series to showcase the work of up and coming artists at the McGinn/Cazale Theatre. The Theatre supports artists through several programs that include residencies, fellowships and commissions, and engages students and community members through education and outreach programs.
SECOND STAGE THEATRE AT THE HELEN HAYES
Second Stage Theatre has acquiredthe right to purchase the historic Helen Hayes Theatre, located at 240 W. 44th Street. With this new home, Second Stage will be the only theatre company on Broadway dedicated exclusively to the development and presentation of contemporary American theatrical productions. Second Stage will also become one of only four non-profit theatre companies that own and operate theatres on Broadway. The company will continue to lease and operate their original theatres on the city’s Upper West Side and in Midtown Manhattan.
For more information, please visit www.2ST.com
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