PERFORMANCE DATES
May 14 - June 22
WHERE
The Pershing Square Signature Center
BEGINS MAY 14 / THE IRENE DIAMOND STAGE
THE PERSHING SQUARE SIGNATURE CENTER
LUNAR ECLIPSE
BY
DONALD MARGULIES
DIRECTEDÂ BY
KATE WHORISKEY
WITH
REED BIRNEY, LISA EMERY
“Maybe forgetting yourself once in a while is a good thing.”
From Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Donald Margulies (Dinner with Friends, Collected Stories) comes a stirring new play about the fragility of memory and the passage of time.
Late on a summer night, in a field on their Kentucky farm, a long-married couple, George and Em, have come to watch a lunar eclipse. As the seven stages of the celestial phenomenon unfold, the two sip bourbon and reflect on land and legacy, children and dogs. But as more and more is revealed, they realize they are as much a mystery to each other as the heavens above. Lunar Eclipse is a funny, moving, universal story of a couple reckoning with the time they’ve spent on earth and the time they have left.
Second Stage Theater’s programs are supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council, and by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.Â
The Season is supported by a grant from the Howard Gilman Foundation.
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 ^30 Under 30 PartyÂ
*Across the Boards - Join members of the creative team for a discussion following the performance.
(i) Insider's Night - An exclusive event for 2ST Subscribers. Join us one hour before for wine, hors d’oeuvres, and intimate discussion with one of the show’s designers.
(s) Student Matinee
OC - Open Captioned Performance. Text is displayed at the side of the stage in real time, including dialogue and sound effects from the production.
AD - Audio Described Performance. Using special audio equipment, commentary and narration is provided during the performance, guiding the listener through the show with descriptions of scenes, costumes, etc. in between dialogue or songs.
REED BIRNEY
(George) Most recently appeared opposite his son, Ephraim, in CHESTER BAILEY. Broadway debut in GEMINI (1978) and film debut in Arthur Penn’s FOUR FRIENDS (1981). Reed has won a Tony and numerous other awards and nominations for plays including CASA VALENTINA, UNCLE VANYA, BLASTED, 1984 and CIRCLE MIRROR TRANSFORMATION. TV: “American Horror Story” “Poker Face” “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” “House of Cards.” Films include: MASS (Gotham nomination, Robert Altman Award), THE MENU and HORIZON—AN AMERICAN SAGA, Part Two.
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LISA EMERY
(Em) BROADWAY: Casa Valentina (with Reed Birney), Six Degrees of Separation, Burn This, Present Laughter OFF BROADWAY: Lonely I’m Not (Second Stage) Marjorie Prime, Marvin’s Room (Playwrights Horizons) Iron (MTC, Obie Award) Curtains (The New Group, ensemble Obie) Dinner With Friends (by Donald Margulies at Variety Arts) TELEVISION: Ozark (Netflix) Dead City (AMC) Marvel’s Jessica Jones FILM: Catch The Fair One, Admissions, The Night Listener. It is pure joy to come full circle from playing Karen in Donald Margulies’ Dinner With Friends in 1999 to playing Em in Lunar Eclipse this summer!Â
BY DONALD MARGULIES
Donald Margulies won the Pulitzer Prize for Dinner with Friends and was a finalist twice before for Sight Unseen (Obie Award) and Collected Stories. Plays include Lunar Eclipse, Long Lost, The Country House, Shipwrecked! An Entertainment, The Loman Family Picnic, Brooklyn Boy, Time Stands Still (Tony nomination) and The Model Apartment (Obie Award). Selected grants and honors: NEA, Guggenheim, NY Foundation for the Arts, two Hull-Warriner Awards, Sidney Kingsley Award, American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature, National Foundation for Jewish Culture Award in Literary Arts, PEN/Laura Pels Award, William Inge Award, Thornton Wilder Prize. Artists’ residencies: McDowell, The Hermitage. Professor in the Practice of English and Theatre & Performance Studies, Yale University. His screenplay for The End of the Tour, which premiered at Sundance, was nominated for the Film Independent Spirit and USC Scripter Awards. Proud lifetime member of both the Writers’ and Dramatists’ guilds.
DIRECTED BY KATE WHORISKEY
Kate Whoriskey is a prolific theater director whose work has been seen on Broadway, off-Broadway and regionally. On Broadway, she directed Clyde’s, Sweat and the revival of Miracle Worker. Off Broadway credits include The Apiary, Letters from Max, All the Natalie Portmans, Ruined, Songs for a New World, Her Requiem, How I Learned to Drive among others. She has directed acclaimed productions at theaters across the country including the Goodman, the Geffen, South Coast Rep, Sundance Theatre Lab, Shakespeare Theatre, the American Repertory Theatre, the Huntington, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Baltimore Center Stage, and Arena among others. Her opera direction has been seen at the Chatelet in Paris and Teatro Municipal in Brazil.Â
Scenic Design by Walt Spangler
Costume Design by Jennifer Moeller
Lighting Design by Amith Chandrashaker
Sound Design by Sinan Refik Zafar
Video Design by S. Katy Tucker
Original Music by Grace McLean
Casting by The Telsey Office; Charlie Hano, CSA, Karyn Casl, CSA
Production Stage Manager: Sara Sahin
Assistant Stage Manager: Narissa Agustin