By Michael Dorn Moody
Directed by Leonard Peters
With Jeff Daniels, Emily Hacker, Daniel Hugh-Kelly, Jack R. Marks, Lynn Milgrim, Edward Seamon
Scenic Design by Leslie Johnson
Costume Design by Irene Nolan
Lighting Design by Steve Shereff
Sound Design by Gary Harris
Production Stage Manager Gerard J. Campbell
This production was dedicated to Walter McGinn and John Cazale.
"The Shortchanged Review is a powerful, important commentary of the 'me' decade. It sharply depicts the shattering of dreams and ideals that once moved and directed this country to action in everyday life, as well as in politics." - Mike Perreca, The Setonian
"An explosive drama." - The West Side Weekly
By Michael Weller
Directed by Carole Rothman
With Brooke Adams, Pamela Blair, Polly Draper, John Heard, Rick Lieberman, Paul McCrane, Chip Zien
Scenic Design by Heidi Landesman
Costume Design by Irene Nolan
Lighting Design by Victor En Yu Tan
Sound Design by Gary Harris
Production Stage Manager Loretta Robertson
This production was dedicated to Carole L Kuebler.
"Split is the kind of show that makes you excited to be a theater-goer. John Heard is absolutely outstanding." - Joanna Langfield, WCMA
"Carole Rothman assembles an unusually strong cast for this production and handles them with an easy-going subtlety that precisely suits the author's intention." - Howard Waxman, Show Business
"Michael Weller has done his playwright colleagues a favor by proving in Split that people talk as well as they ever did. All that's needed for more good contemporary plays are playwrights who can organize the exchanges that are right in front of us." - Christopher Sharp, Women's Wear Daily
"A superior production." - Variety
By Corinne Jacker
Directed by Caymichael Patten
With Vic Polizos, Verna Bloom, Robert Fields, Robyn Goodman, Lynn Milgri
Scenic Design by Michael Smith
Costume Design by Denise Romano
Lighting Design by Victor En Yu Tan
Sound Design by Gary Harris
Production Stage Manager Jonathan Silver
"Bits and Pieces jumps right into the audience's lap and stays there until the curtain falls. Any play that's as neatly designed and as thoroughly entertaining as Bits and Pieces deserves to be welcomed with open arms." - Robert Santelli, The Aquarian
"Corinne Jacker's characters are deftly fleshed out and wring the best from Jacker's wonderfully darkish humor." - Don Nelson, The Daily News
"Caymichael Patten has assembled a first-rate cast. Robyn Goodman, a tall and fiesty actress, manages to make Iris seem both irritating and tender; her sexual hunger for her husband is ravenous without ever being carnivorous. Robert Fields is a constant delight." - Frank Rich, The New York Times
By Wendy Kesselman
Directed by Inverna Lockpez and Carole Rothman
With Lisa Banes, Brenda Currin, Beverly May, Elizabeth McGovern
Scenic Design by Jim Clayburgh
Costume Design by Susan Hilferty
Lighting Design by Arden Fingerhut
Sound Design by Gary Harris
Production Stage Manager Frederic H. Orner
Hair by Antonio Soddu
Stage Manager Judith Ann Chew
Casting by Meg Simon and Fran Kumin
First produced by Actors Theatre of Louisville.
This production was made possible in part with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts.
"Miss Banes and Miss McGovern are just right. Like Miss Kesselman's writing, they straddle a creepy, almost hallucinatory ground between Gothic melodrama and high farce. Though My Sister is full of grotesque events and shocking shifts of tone, its author negotiates most of her wild curves with ease." - Frank Rich, The New York Times
"A play of horrifying beauty, gorgeously designed." - Marilyn Stasio, New York Post
"My Sister in This House is a tight and powerful script in a delicate, mesmerizing mounting which boasts brilliant performances from all four actresses." - Tish Dace, Other Stages
"Wendy Kesselman's play never ceases to be fascinating. Elizabeth McGovern and Lisa Banes are brilliant." - Peter Wynne, The Record
By Susan Miller
Directed by Michael Kahn
With Kevin Bacon, Jean De Baer, Daryl Edwards, Robyn Goodman, Sam Robards, Clare Timoney, Michael Tucker
Scenic and Costume Design by Ernest Allen Smith
Lighting Design by William Armstrong
Sound Design by Gary Harris
Production Stage Manager Larry Speigel
Stage Manager D. King Roger
Casting by Meg Simon and Fran Kumin
Previously produced in workshop by the Phoenix Repertory Company, The New York Shakespeare Festival, and the American Repertory Company in London.
This production was made possible in part with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts.
"Intelligent and carefully crafted." —Allan Wallach, Newsday
"Susan Miller's Flux is funny and tense and sad…(it) captures the essential interactions with lovers and other kinds of intimates more affectingly than any other new play of the season." — Tish Dace, Other Stages
By Deborah Eisenberg
Directed by Carole Rothman
With Elizabeth Austin, Christine Estabrook, Jeffery Fahey, Judith Ivey, Taylor Miller, Thoman Waites, David B. Hunt, Bjorn Johnson, Paul Loughlin
Scenic Design by Heidi Landesman
Costume Design by Nan Cibula
Lighting Design by Frances Aronson
Sound Design by Gary Harris
Production Stage Manager James McConnell-Clark Jr.
Stage Manager Rebecca Pease
Casting by Meg Simon and Fran Kumin
This production was made possible in part with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts.
"Deborah Eisenberg's first play, Pastorale, is what a first play should be: the discovery of a sensibility that intrigues and delights us…one of the freshest and funniest voices in some seasons." - Jack Kroll, Newsweek
"Deborah Eisenberg's comedy at The Second Stage is a blast of fresh air. I don't know where Miss Eisenberg comes from, but she has the most original, not to mention funniest, new comic voice to be heard in a New York theater…You're going to want to say you knew her when." - Frank Rich, The New York Times
"Carole Rothman has directed with wonderfully cartoonish tableaus and cunningly syncopated timing." - John Simon, New York Magazine
Written and Directed by David Mamet
With Patti LuPone, Peter Weller
Scenic Design by Marjorie Bradley Kellogg
Costume Design by Clifford Capone
Lighting Design by Pat Collins
Fight Sequences by BH Barry
Production Stage Manager Daniel Morris
Stage Manager Kate Hancock
Casting by Meg Simon and Fran Kumin
This production was made possible in part with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts.
"Patti LuPone - her nerve ends shining like raindrops - gives a perfectly wound-up performance of tension before the breaking point."- Clive Barnes, New York Post
"The Woods is a play of complex shadings whose subliminal impact is enhanced by the abstract contours of the language. None of our young playwrights has as precise an understanding of the musical properties of language as David Mamet. His dialog is hard, sculpted, its rhythms shaped to propel the drama along." - Howard Kissel, Women's Wear Daily
"Patti LuPone is vibrant, tender, demanding, furious, and resigned by turn. And Peter Weller commands our attention at all times." - Douglas Watt, Daily News
By Amlin Gray
Directed by Carole Rothman
With Bob Gunton, Daniel Stern
Scenic Design by Patricia Woodbridge
Lighting Design by Victor En Yu Tan
Costume Design by Susan Denison
Sound Design by Gary Harris
Dance Sequence by Harry Streep III
Production Stage Manager Clifford M. Schwartz
"Amlin Gray's How I Got That Story is an explosion of young talent - in writing, directing and acting - and a bracing demonstration of what such talent can do when everything goes right." — Frank Rich, The New York Times
"How I Got That Story makes splendid use of that precious theatrical asset, the playgoer's imagination. Daniel Stern fixes his character with a goofy, all-American grin that, by the play's end, has become an eerie, all-too-American grimace. Bob Gunton is a pinwheel of energy and Cheshire-cat charms." — Richard Corliss, Time Magazine
"Two outstanding actors turn this production into a tour de force. Bob Gunton demonstrates a comic range reminiscent of the late Peter Sellers. Daniel Stern's sensitive performance gives the play continuity and focus. This two man play is charged with manic energy and seems to have a cast of hundreds. It is a great evening of theatre." — Lou Starkey, Radio Long Island
By William Finn
Directed by Judith Swift
Choreography by Sharon Kinney
With Kate Dezina, Karen Jablons, Alaina Reed, Jay O. Sanders
Scenic Design by Nancy Winters
Costume Design by Karen D. Miller
Lighting Design by Victor En Yu Tan
Orchestrations and Musical Direction by Michael Starobin
Audio-Visual Consultant Gary Harris
Production Stage Manager Belle Baxter
Casting by Meg Simon and Fran Kumin
A version of In Trousers was originally produced at Playwrights Horizons in 1979.
"A variety of songs become a dazzling musical portrayal of a young man's maturtation into adulthood. William Finn's lyrics excel as brilliant observations of the human condition and experiences." — Martin Gould, The Hollywood Reporter
"I have to admire Finn for refusing to make obvious choices, for insisting that the audience listen and think at the same time and for pulling off a wonderful coup de theatre: the audience discovers thatIn Trousers is a gay musical about the time that Marvin discovers he's gay." — Don Shewey, SoHo News
"A vibrant talent is alive on the stage." — Don Nelson, Daily News
By Michael Weller
Directed by Amy Saltz
With Richard Cox, Robyn Goodman, Daniel Hugh-Kelly, Penelope Milford, Timothy Phillips, Ralph Roberts, John Spencer
Scenic and Lighting Design by Niel Peter Jampolis
Costume Design by Judy Dearing
Sound Design by Gary Harris
Production Stage Manager David S. Rosenak
Casting by Meg Simon and Fran Kumin
"A lovely revival, loaded with meaty roles for the superb cast. The writing is magical: with the utmost economy and grace, Michael Weller has captured both the whimsy and pain of the drug experience, even as he exposes the longings and fears of two complicated people." — Frank Rich, The New York Times
"Amy Saltz has directed this revival with not one false performance. Richard Cox engages you immediately. He, Daniel Hugh-Kelly, and Penelope Milford make being together the most natural and also the most painful thing in the world." — Don Nelsen, Daily News
"Michael Weller has a strong gift for capturing the way his generation speaks and thinks. Fishing is a thoughtful piece of American dramatic writing, well worth reviving. Director Amy Saltz has caught all the play's moods, colors and nuances, making it an extremely satisfying evening of theater." — Howard Kissel, Women's Wear Daily
By Tina Howe
Directed by Carole Rothman
With Frances Conroy, Donald Moffat, Marian Seldes
Scenic Design by Heidi Landesman
Costume Design by Nan Cibula
Lighting Design by Frances Aronson
Sound Design by Gary Harris
Hair by Antonio Soddu
Production Stage Manager Loretta Robertson
Stage Manager Nancy Kohlbeck
Casting by Meg Simon and Fran Kumin
"The performances are excellent.” — Frank Rich, The New York Times
“The most moving work by Howe yet… Director Carole Rothman has given us gutsy, but playful, theater.” — Christopher Sharp, Women’s Wear Daily
By Carl Reiner
Directed by Michael Kahn
With Andrew Duncan, Robyn Goodman, Ellen March, Theresa Merritt, Norman Parker, Audrss Rae, Wendy Wolfe
Scenic Design by Jim Clayburgh
Costume Design by Mariann Verheyen
Lighting Design by Victor En Yu Tan
Sound Design by Gary Harris
Hair by Antonio Sodu
Assistant Director Peter Webb
Production Stage Manager Janet Friedman
Stage Manager Susanne Jul
Casting by Meg Simon and Fran Kumin
“…dotted with bright comic notions…” — Allan Wallach, Newsday
By Adele Edling Shank
Directed by Harris Yulin
With Reed Birney, Robert Dorfman, Carlin Glynn, James Olson, Judith Roberts, Cristine Rose, Geoffrey Sharp, Ann Talman
Scenic Design by Douglas Stein
Costumes Design by Ann Emonts
Lighting Design by William Armstrong
Sound Design by Gary Harris
Hair by Antonio Soddu
Production Stage Manager Judith Ann Chew
Stage Manager Stacey Fleischer
Casting by Meg Simon and Fran Kumin
“…captures the tense chaotic bustle of a holiday gathering as well as its chilly undercurrents.” — Roderick Mason Faber, Village Voice
“Harris Yulin… has created with his outstanding cast not only the feeling within his home, but an entire flow of the day – so realistically handled you can smell the food being prepared in the kitchen.”— Sy Syna, New York Tribune