Play Yourself

ABOUT

Text Harry Kondoleon
Direction Craig Lucas

2001/02 Season

June 19, 2002—August 4, 2002

Read Synopsis

As a forgotten Hollywood movie “bad girl” nears the end of her years, she attempts to rewrite the script of her daughter’s life. Miraculously, by the end of the play, everyone gets what they need in Harry Kondoleon’s Play Yourself.

“Harry Kondoleon has been at the heart of New York Theatre Workshop longer than I have,” said artistic director James C. Nicola. “The very first play we produced–a co-production with Playwrights Horizons–was Harry’s Christmas on Mars. I first fell deeply in love with Play Yourself fifteen years ago while I was at Arena Stage. I came here in 1988 with the hope of doing the play, and only now have we gathered together the very special artists that Harry’s work demands.”

Scenic Design John McDermott
Costume Design Catherine Zuber
Lighting Design Ben Stanton
Original Music and Sound Design David Van Tieghem
Stage Manager Antonia Gianino
Assistant Stage Manager Erika Timperman

with Ann Guilbert, Juan Carlos Hernandez, Elizabeth Marvel, Marian Seldes

Harry Kondoleon / Playwright

Harry Kondoleon is the author of the novels Diary of a Lost Boy and The Whore of Tiampuan, and a collection of poems, The Death of Understanding. His plays include Zero Positive (NY premiere at The Public Theatre), Anteroom (New York Drama Critics’ Circle nomination), Christmas on Mars (Playwright’s Horizons), Linda Her and The Fairy Garden (Second Stage), The Vampires (Empty Space in Seattle, Astor Place Theatre), Slacks and Tops (MTC), The Cote D’Azure Triangle (Ensemble Studio Theatre), The Brides (Lenox Art Centre/Music Theatre Group), Rococo (Yale Repertory Theatre), Play Yourself (Virginia Stage Company), The Poets’ Corner (Theatre for a New City), Love Diatribe (premiered at Circle Rep). His numerous honors and awards include: Fulbrights, Rockefeller, Drama Logue, Oppenheimer and Obie Awards. Mr. Kondoleon graduated from Hamilton College and the Yale School of Drama. Mr. Kondoleon died in 1994 at the age of 39 of complications from AIDS.

Craig Lucas / Director

Craig Lucas recently directed This Thing of Darkness, which he co-authored with David Schulner, at the Atlantic Theater Company. Last year he received an Obie for his direction of Harry Kondoleon’s Saved or Destroyed at the Rattlestick Theater. This fall he is directing Joe Orton’s Loot at the Intiman Theater in Seattle where he has been appointed Associate Artistic Director. He is the author of many plays and movies including The Dying Gaul, Stranger, God’s Heart, Prelude to a Kiss, Blue Window, Reckless, Missing Persons, Longtime Companion, and Alan Rudolph’s new film, Secret Lives of Dentists. His most recent play, The Singing Forest, was commissioned by A Contemporary Theater in Seattle.

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