THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER

Prices:
Single tickets: $65.00 each

CheapTix Sundays, $20.00 (all tickets for all Sunday evening performances at 7pm; tickets are available in
advance and must be purchased in person, with cash only at the NYTW box office. Limit 4 tickets per person).

Student tickets, $20.00 (tickets are available in advance
and must be purchased in person with valid student ID at the NYTW box office. Limit one ticket per ID).

Group Tickets
NYTW offers significant discounts for groups of ten or more. Group tickets for students are just $15 each and adult groups are $47.50 each. Please contact Rebekah Paine at Rebekahp@nytw.org or call 212-780-9037 ext. 114 to purchase tickets or for more information.

Dates:
First preview, Friday, November 13, 2009; opening night, Thursday, December 3, 2009; final performance, Sunday, December 20, 2009.

Performance schedule:
Tuesdays @ 7pm
Wednesday – Friday @ 8pm
Saturday @ 3pm & 8pm
Sunday @ 2pm & 7pm

Student Matinees:
Wednesday, November 25 at 12pm
Wednesday, December 16 at 1pm

AfterWords (post show discussions):
November 17, 2009
November 24, 2009
November 28, 2009
December 8, 2009

Running time:
Approximately 2 hours with a 15 minute intermission

Description:
Carson McCullers’ classic novel is adapted for the stage by acclaimed playwright Rebecca Gilman (Spinning Into Butter) and directed by Doug Hughes (The Beard of Avon at NYTW, Doubt). The Heart is a Lonely Hunter is a beautiful and timeless tale about the universal need for human connection. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter follows the story of a deaf man, John Singer, as he navigates the world without his dearest friend who has been committed to an insane asylum. When Singer moves to a small Southern town, the locals flock to him as a newfound confidant, seeking compassion and understanding from the one person who needs it the most. Singer’s isolation in the world is mirrored in a few of the townspeople he meets along the way – a café owner, a rebellious teenager, a black physician, and an idealistic labor organizer whose dreams have been shattered. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter intertwines the lives of these characters in a surprising way that results in a deeply moving story of outcasts in the South during the Great Depression.

About the artists:
Doug Hughes (director) was recently represented on Broadway with A Man For All Seasons starring Frank Langella for the Roundabout Theatre Company, and Off-Broadway with Beau Willimon’s Farragut North for the Atlantic Theatre Company. He also recently directed for Broadway the New York premiere of Theresa Rebeck’s new play, Mauritius; the Tony-nominated revival of Inherit the Wind starring Christopher Plummer and Brian Dennehy; and the critically acclaimed production of John Patrick Shanley’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play Doubt, for which Hughes won a Tony, Drama Desk, Lucille Lortel, and Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Direction of a Play. For Doubt, Hughes also directed the national tour and was awarded his second Joseph Callaway Award, presented yearly by The Foundation of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers for the Most Distinguished Production of the New York Season.

Broadway credits include Eugene O’Neill’s A Touch of the Poet, A Naked Girl on the Appian Way by Richard Greenberg, and Bryony Lavery’s heralded play Frozen, for which he received Tony, Lortel, and Outer Critic’s Circle nominations for Best Director. Recent Off-Broadway productions include Howard Katz by Patrick Marber for the Roundabout Theatre Company, The House in Town by Richard Greenberg for Lincoln Center Theater, Defiance by John Patrick Shanley for Manhattan Theatre Club, The Paris Letter by Jon Robin Baitz for the Roundabout, Rebecca Gilman’s adaptation of Carson McCullers’ The Heart is a Lonely Hunter at the Alliance Theatre (a co-production with The Acting Company), The Roundabout’s production of McReele by Stephen Belber, and Last Easter by Bryony Lavery for MCC Theatre. In 2005, Hughes won his second Obie Award for Sustained Excellence in Direction.

Other New York productions include Flesh and Blood at New York Theatre Workshop for which he won his first Joseph Callaway Award, Richard Wilbur’s adaptation of Molière’s The School for Husbands at Westport Country Playhouse, Amy Freed’s The Beard of Avon (also for NYTW), W.S. Gilbert’s Engaged for Theatre for A New Audience, Othello with Keith David and Liev Schreiber for the New York Shakespeare Festival, An Experiment With An Air Pump for The Manhattan Theatre Club, Scattergood for MCC Theatre, David Rabe’s A Question of Mercy for New York Theatre Workshop, John Guare’s Lake Hollywood for Signature Theatre, The Grey Zone for MCC (Obie Award for Direction, Drama Desk nomination), and the 1996 New York Shakespeare Festival Delacorte Production of Henry V starring Andre Braugher.

From 1997-2001, Mr. Hughes served as Artistic Director of the Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut. Mr. Hughes other administrative posts in the American Theatre include Associate Artistic Director of the Manhattan Theatre Club (1980-1983), Associate Artistic Director of the Seattle Repertory Theatre (1984-1996), Director of Artistic Planning for the Guthrie Theatre (1997-1997) and is the current Resident Director of the Roundabout Theatre Company. Mr. Hughes is the Distinguished Artist in Residence at the New School for Drama (2007-2008) and has served as adjunct professor in the directing program of The Yale School of Drama (2002-2004). He is a graduate of Harvard College.

Rebecca Gilman’s plays include The Crowd You’re In With, Dollhouse, Spinning Into Butter, Boy Gets Girl, Blue Surge, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, and The Glory of Living. Her plays have been produced at the Goodman Theatre, the Royal Court Theatre, Lincoln Center Theatre, Joseph Papp’s Public Theater, Manhattan Theatre Club, and Manhattan Class Company. She is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, The Prince Prize for Commissioning New Work, The Roger L. Stevens Award from the Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays, The Evening Standard Award for Most Promising Playwright, and The George Devine Award. Ms. Gilman was named a finalist for the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for her play, The Glory of Living. Ms. Gilman is an assistant professor of playwriting and screenwriting in the MFA in Writing for the Screen and Stage program at Northwestern University.

THE ACTING COMPANY Honored with a TONY for Excellence in Theater, The Acting Company is America’s most respected and praised touring repertory theater.

Kevin Kline, Patti LuPone, Rainn Wilson, Jeffrey Wright, Frances Conroy, Harriet Harris, Jesse L. Martin, David Schramm, Henry Stram, Tom Hewitt, Andrew Weems, Roslyn Ruff, Jimonn Cole, David Ogden Stiers and Hamish Linklater are just a few of the hundreds of actors whose careers began on tour with The Acting Company, which has performed 133 productions for millions of people in the United States, London, Australia, Russia and Eastern Europe. Its Education Programs — including master classes, student matinees and weeklong artistic residencies — have reached tens of thousands of students.

The legendary John Houseman and current Producing Artistic Director Margot Harley founded The Acting Company in 1972 — with the first graduating class of The Juilliard School’s Drama Division — to develop classically trained American actors and a national audience for the theater. The Acting Company has gone on to win Obie, Audelco, Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards and a TONY.