LAByrinth Theater Company - About Labyrinth

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Public Theater: Candi Adams / Sam Neuman, (212) 539-8642
press@publictheater.org

LAByrinth Theater Company: Rick Miramontez/Philip Carrubba, (212) 695-7400
rick@oandmco.com
philip@oandmco.com

LAByrinth Theater Company
And
The Public Theater
Present
The World Premiere Of
A New Play By Stephen Adly Guirgis,
THE LITTLE FLOWER OF EAST ORANGE

Directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman,
The Little Flower of East Orange
Will Run March 18 – April 20

February 8, 2008 – LAByrinth Theater Company (Artistic Director John Ortiz; Co-Artistic Director Philip Seymour Hoffman; Co-Artistic Director and Executive Director John Gould Rubin) and The Public Theater (Artistic Director Oskar Eustis; Executive Director Mara Manus) join forces again to reunite the powerhouse writer/director team behind such groundbreaking urban dramas as The Last Days of Judas Iscariot and Jesus Hopped the ‘A’ Train. Playwright Stephen Adly Guirgis and Director Philip Seymour Hoffman will partner again on the world premiere of THE LITTLE FLOWER OF EAST ORANGE, an inter-generational ghost story set in an upper Manhattan charity hospital.

THE LITTLE FLOWER OF EAST ORANGE will begin previews on Tuesday, March 18 and run through Sunday, April 20 with an official press opening on Sunday, April 6 at 7 PM. Tickets go on-sale on Sunday, February 17.

The cast for THE LITTLE FLOWER OF EAST ORANGE will include Ellen Burstyn, Elizabeth Canavan, Liza Colón-Zayas, Arthur French, Gillian Jacobs, Ajay Naidu, Michael Shannon, Sidney Williams, and David Zayas.

“Stephen Adly Guirgis is becoming one of the great writers of our time, and The Little Flower of East Orange is his most personal and searing work to date,” said Public Theater Artistic Director Oskar Eustis. “We’re proud that the Public can be a home for him and LAByrinth Theater Company, the most exciting group of artists in New York”

“The ongoing collaboration between Stephen and Phil is emblematic of the artistic risk that is LAByrinth’s life-blood. These guys were both actors who developed a new skill with this company: Stephen as a writer and Phil as a director. And they developed these skills in the service of new, ferocious and distinctly New York work,” said John Gould Rubin, LAByrinth’s Co-Artistic Director and Executive Director. “There’s no doubt that The Little Flower of East Orange will be a fierce, pulsating play which is bound to tear your heart out.”

THE LITTLE FLOWER OF EAST ORANGE will feature sets by Narelle Sissons; costumes by Mimi O’Donnell; lights by Japhy Weideman; and sound design by David Van Tieghem.

STEPHEN ADLY GUIRGIS (Playwright) has been a LAByrinth Company Member since 1994. His plays have been produced on five continents and throughout the United States. They include Our Lady of 121st Street (10 best plays of 2003; Lucille Lortel, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Cicle Best Play Nominations), Jesus Hopped the ‘A’ Train (Edinburgh Festival Fringe First Award, Detroit Free Press Best Play of the Year, as well as a Laurence Olivier Nomination for Best New Play), In Arabia We’d All Be Kings (10 Best of '99, Time Out New York), and The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, produced by LAByrinth in collaboration with The Public Theater in 2005. All four plays were originally produced by LAByrinth and directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman. They are published by Dramatists Play Service as well as by Faber and Faber in the anthology Three Plays By.... Stephen was awarded a 2004 TCG fellowship, attended the 2004 Sundance Screenwriter's Lab, and was named one of 2004's 25 New Faces of Independent Film by Filmmaker Magazine. He is the recipient of new play commissions from Manhattan Theatre Club and South Coast Repertory, and is a member of New Dramatists, MCC's Playwright's Coalition, New River Dramatists, Primary Stages, and The Actor's Studio Playwright/Directors Unit. He developed and directed Liza Colón-Zayas's Sistah Supreme for Danny Hoch's Hip Hop Theater Festival, and Marco Greco's award winning Behind the Counter with Mussolini in New York and Los Angeles. As an actor, he appeared in Brett C. Leonard's Guinea Pig Solo, produced by LAByrinth at the Public Theatre in 2004, and has leading roles in Todd Solondz's Palindromes, Brett C. Leonard's Jailbait opposite Michael Pitt, and in Kenneth Lonergan's upcoming Margaret.

PHILIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN (Director) has been a LAByrinth Company Member since 1995 and Co-Artistic Director. He recently directed Andrew Upton’s play Riflemind at Australia’s Sydney Theatre Company. Other directing credits include In Arabia, We’d All Be Kings and Jesus Hopped The ‘A’ Train by Stephen Adly Guirgis with LAByrinth. His production of ’A’ Train was produced to great acclaim Off-Broadway, at the Edinburgh Festival (Fringe First Award), at London's Donmar Warehouse, and then at the Arts Theatre in London's West End. In 2001, he directed Rebecca Gilman’s The Glory of Living at MCC Theater. Most recently he directed LAByrinth’s Off-Broadway commercial production of Stephen Adly Guirgis’s Our Lady of 121st Street at the Union Square Theater. As an actor, his stage credits include: Jack Goes Boating (LAByrinth at The Public), Long Day’s Journey Into Night, The Seagull (The New York Shakespeare Festival, Delacorte Theatre), True West, Defying Gravity (American Place Theater), The Merchant of Venice (Dir. Peter Sellars), Shopping and Fucking (New York Theater Workshop), and The Author's Voice (Drama Dept). His film credits include: Capote, Charlie Wilson’s War, The Savages, Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead, Along Came Polly, Cold Mountain, The Party's Over, Owning Mahowny, Love Liza, Punch-Drunk Love, 25th Hour, Red Dragon, Almost Famous, State and Main, Flawless, Magnolia, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Boogie Nights, Happiness, Patch Adams, The Big Lebowski, Twister, Scent of a Woman, Nobody's Fool, and Empire Falls on HBO. He has recently completed production on Charlie Kaufman's Synecdoche as well as the film version of Doubt, written and directed by John Patrick Shanley.

THE PUBLIC THEATER (Artistic Director Oskar Eustis; Executive Director Mara Manus) was founded by Joseph Papp in 1954 as the Shakespeare Workshop and is now one of the nation’s preeminent cultural institutions, producing new plays, musicals, productions of Shakespeare, and other classics at its headquarters on Lafayette Street and at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park. The Public’s mandate to create a theater for all New Yorkers continues to this day on stage and through its extensive outreach and education programs. Each year, over 250,000 people attend Public Theater-related productions and events at six downtown stages, including Joe’s Pub, and Shakespeare in the Park. The Public has won 40 Tony Awards, 141 Obies, 39 Drama Desk Awards, 23 Lucille Lortel Awards and 4 Pulitzer Prizes.

LABYRINTH THEATER COMPANY was founded in 1992 by a group of actors who wanted to push their artistic limits, hone their craft, and create new plays that truly reflected their heritage and experience. Today, LAByrinth is comprised of more than 100 established and emerging theater artists from a wide array of cultural perspectives. Led by Artistic Director John Ortiz, co-Artistic Director Philip Seymour Hoffman and co-Artistic Director and Executive Director John Gould Rubin, the inclusive, multicultural ensemble encourages all members to write, act, direct, and design, and supports multidisciplinary growth and exploration in the creation of daring new work that celebrates the diversity of its New York City home.

Over the last fifteen seasons, LAByrinth has developed hundreds of new plays and staged 49 productions including: UNCONDITIONAL (2008), A View from 151st Street (2007), Jack Goes Boating (2007), A Small, Melodramatic Story (2006), Sailor’s Song (2004), Dutch Heart of Man (2003), Dirty Story (2003), Our Lady of 121st Street (2002), Where’s My Money? (2001), Jesus Hopped the ‘A’ Train (2000), and In Arabia, We’d All Be Kings (1999). Now in its fifth season of residency at The Public Theater, LAByrinth has collaborated with The Public to develop new work, with co-productions such as School of The Americas (2006), The Last Days of Judas Iscariot (2005), and Brett C. Leonard's Guinea Pig Solo (2004). For more information on LAByrinth Theater Company visit LABtheater.org.

TICKET INFORMATION

THE LITTLE FLOWER OF EAST ORANGE will begin previews on Tuesday, March 18 and run through Sunday, April 20 with an official press opening on Sunday, April 6 at 7 PM. The performance schedule is Tuesdays at 7 PM; Wednesdays thru Fridays at 8 PM; Saturdays at 2 PM and 8 PM; and Sundays at 2 PM and 7 PM. There is no matinee performance on Saturday, March 22. There will be post-show discussions on Tuesday, April 8 and Tuesday, April 15.

The Public Theater is located at 425 Lafayette Street. Tickets are $50 and go on-sale on Sunday, February 17. Student tickets are available in advance, at the box office only, for $25 (1 per ID). There are a limited number of Rush Tickets sold an hour before curtain at every performance available to the general public (Two per person, $20 each, cash only).

To purchase tickets, please call (212) 967-7555 or visit www.publictheater.org.

# # #

The Public Theater acknowledges the following for their support:

The LuEsther T. Mertz Charitable Trust provides leadership support for
The Public’s year-round activities.

Time Warner is the Supporting Sponsor of The Public’s 2007-2008 Season.

Bank of America is the Lead Sponsor of Shakespeare in the Park.

Major support is provided by The Ford Foundation, The Doris Duke Charitable
Foundation, The New York State Music Fund, The Shubert Foundation, The Andrew W.
Mellon Foundation, The Carnegie Corporation of New York, The George T. Delacorte
Fund at the New York Community Trust—Fund for Performances at the Delacorte
Theater in Central Park, and by Warren Spector and Margaret Whitton.
Pepsi is the official beverage sponsor of The Public Theater.

Additional generous support is provided by Debra and Leon Black, The Horace W.
Goldsmith Foundation, The Susan Stein Shiva Foundation, The Starr Foundation, The
Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust, Titan Worldwide, and The New York
Times. Public support is provided by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs;
the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency; and the National Endowment for the Arts, an independent federal agency.

Cultural Partners include WNYC and the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce.

Pickle Press is the official printer, and Continental Airlines is the official airline of
The Public Theater.

# # #

LAByrinth Theater Company acknowledges the following for their support:

Time Warner is the lead sponsor of new play development at LAByrinth Theater Company.
Leadership support for LAByrinth Theater Company’s programs and productions is provided by The Lila Acheson Wallace Theater Fund at The New York Community Trust, The Carnegie Corporation, The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, The Lucille Lortel Foundation, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Newman’s Own Foundation, The Fan Fox & Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, The Shubert Foundation and The Harold & Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust.
Additional support is generously provided by the Board of Directors of
LAByrinth Theater Company.

Public funds are provided by The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, The New York State Council on the Arts and The National Endowment for the Arts.

Special thanks to Ira Pittelman, founding member and chairman of the LAByrinth Partners Fund.