PECCADILLO THEATER PRESENTS 'A LOSS OF ROSES'

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OFF BROADWAY

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Patricia Hodges

The OBIE, Lucille Lortel and Drama Desk Award-winning Peccadillo Theater Company, in association with La Femme Theatre Productions, has announced the full cast for the play’s first NY revival as well as the New York City premiere of the published version of William Inge’s A Loss of Roses. Performances begin May 8th (not May 7th as previously announced) at Theatre at St. Clement’s, 423 West 46th Street, NYC, and continuing through June 7th, 2014. The play opens officially on May 12th at 7 PM.

Under Dan Wackerman’s direction, A Loss Of Roses will feature Deborah Hedwall as Helen Baird, Patricia Hodges as Mme. Olga St. Valentine, Ben Kahre as Kenny Baird, Jean Lichty as Lila Green, Gregory Perri as ‘Jelly’ Beamis, Fina Strazza as Sandra, Jonathan Stewart as Ricky Powers, Kristen Sweeney as Mrs. Mulvaney, Marty Thomas as Ronny Cavendish, with Randy Lawson as Production Stage Manager and Joshua Quinn as Assistant Stage Manager.

Deborah Hedwall (Helen Baird) created roles in the original NY productions of Savage in Limbo, Extremities, Why We Have a Body, Amulets Against the Dragon Forces, Fall to Earth and Sight Unseen (OBIE and Drama Desk Nomination). Film and Television include: The West Wing, The Big C, Delocated, Law and Order, You Don’t Know Jack, starring Al Pacino and Higher Ground starring Vera Farmiga.

Jean Lichty (Lila) has appeared in several William Inge plays including playing ‘Cherie’ in Austin Pendleton’s acclaimed revival of Bus Stop at the Olney Theatre Center and the Arkansas Rep’s revival of A Loss of Roses. Other NYC credits include the premieres of Bro with Kevin Bacon and Ethan Hawke, directed by Ulu Grosbard; Diane Amsterdam's Letting Billy and The Girl's Last Big Mistake; The Moth's Muses, Mentors, and Monsters; ‘Lorna’ in Golden Boy; ‘Maggie’ in After the Fall, and ‘Titania’ in A Midsummer Night's Dream. She was ‘Wanda’ in the film of Christopher Durang's Wanda's Visit and the female lead in the Sundance finalist, Close Call.

Ben Kahre (Kenny) recently appeared in the Manhattan Theatre Club’s production of The Commons of Pensacola with Sarah Jessica Parker and Blythe Danner. He made his Off-Broadway debut in The Steadfast by Mat Smart and performed in the world premiere of Carey Perloff’s Higher at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. Other regional theatre credits include The Real Thing, Romeo and Juliet, Noises Off, and The Taming of the Shrew.

Gregory Perri (Jelly) has appeared on Broadway in Good People and in Off-Broadway/Regional productions at Syracuse Stage, The Actor’s Company, Shakespeare on the Sound, The Stratford Summer Festival, The Red Stage Theater Company, Ensemble Studio Theater, Mile Square Theater, La Mama and The Cider Mill Playhouse.

Jonathan Stewart (Ricky Powers) has appeared in the Off Broadway productions of Perfect Crime, A Little Night Music, Road to Hollywood, Valentino the Musical, Dirty Talk and Rodgers & Hart Rediscovered. Regional credits include On Golden Pond, Richard II, Hamlet, Taming of the Shrew, Twelfth Night, Timon of Athens, 42nd Street, By Jeeves, Phantom, Brigadoon, Oklahoma!, etc.

Patricia Hodges (Mme. Olga) has appeared on Broadway in Born Yesterday, A Man For All Seasons, Dancing At Lughnasa, and Six Degrees Of Separation. Her Off-Broadway credits include Rose's Dilemma (Manhattan Theatre Club), Communicating Doors, On The Verge, The Normal Heart (Public Theater) and Surviving Grace. She toured in the Lincoln Center production of Carousel, and for two seasons with John Houseman's The Acting Company.

Marty Thomas (Ronnie) has appeared on Broadway in The Secret Garden, Wicked and Xanadu and Off Broadway in Pageant, Black Nativity and My Big Gay Italian Wedding. He was featured in the film Big Gay Musical, was the 1992 Junior Vocalist Ed McMahon's Star Search Champion and was named Mr. Broadway 2008. He toured Europe with the famed Harlem Gospel Singers as the group’s first caucasian member and currently plays ‘Damon' on the CBS sitcom Two Broke Girls.

Kristen Sweeney (Mrs. Mulvaney) has played Brooke in Legally Blonde, Grace in Annie, Jellylorum in CATS, Hope in Anything Goes, Woman 1 in ILYYPNC, and Beatrice in Much Ado.

Fina Strazza (Sandra) NY theater credits include The Sound of Music (Gretl), Once on This Island (Little Ti Moune), The King and I, Annie, No Boundaries, and A Christmas Rose at Carnegie Hall. Her film A Little Game recently premiered at the Newport Beach Film Festival in LA.

Randy Lawson (Production Stage Manager) most recently was PSM for the Broadway Revival workshop of SUGAR BABIES & BASQUIAT: The Musical at Joe’s Pub as well as the Off Broadway smash DE LA GUARDA (2yrs) and many more. Randy has been Script Supervisor for the live TV broadcasts of The Drama Desk Awards, & Street Coordinator for The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade (5yrs).

Joshua Quinn (Assistant Stage Manager) Credits include The Farm, Sistas:The Musical (Off-Broadway), Requiem for Sherlock, Thicker than Water, Helicopters, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, The Tenth Floor, POPart, Yorktown, Sister Myotis's Bible Camp, Engaging Shaw, Dreyfus in Rehearsal, Antigone, Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train, Picasso at the Lapin Agile, Shadow of a Gunman.

From William Inge, the most successful American playwright of the 1950’s, comes this poignant story of a young man’s struggle for independence and an older woman’s search for connection. Set against the backdrop of a small mid-western town in the 1930’s, their unconventional romance is filled with the promise of new beginnings as well as the possibility of scandal and rejection. The bittersweet romance about the loss of innocence garnered 22 year old Warren Beatty a Tony Award nomination as Best Featured Actor in the 1959 Broadway production. The original cast also included Carol Haney, Michael J. Pollard, Betty Field and Robert Webber.

The original 1959 production was a bitter professional failure for Inge (his first), playing only 27 performances on Broadway. His successes included Come Back, Little Sheba, Picnic, Bus Stop and The Dark at the Top of the Stairs as well as the Academy Award-winning screenplay for Splendor in the Grass. In his introduction to the published version of A Loss of Roses, Inge blames the play’s failure on the changes forced upon him by the director and producer. The Peccadillo Theater Company is producing the original never-before-seen-in-NYC version of the play.

Peccadillo’s Artistic Director, OBIE winner Dan Wackerman, who directs the Equity production, said “Set in a small mid-western town in 1933, this story of a young man struggling to separate himself from his mother, is at once heart-wrenching and necessary. From a psychological perspective, this story of a young man's journey towards independence and its impact on the women he loves, will never go out of fashion. I was determined that Peccadillo should be the company to introduce NYC audiences to Inge’s original version of that journey.”

Scenic & lighting design will be by Harry Feiner, with video design by Mr. Feiner and Ido Levran, costume design by Marianne Custer, sound design by Dave Thomas and wig design by Paul Huntley.

Founded in 1994, Peccadillo is devoted to the "lost classics" of the American theater – plays of obvious literary and theatrical merit which, for whatever reason, have fallen off the radar. With this production and in its 20th anniversary season, Peccadillo continues its mission of rediscovery.

Beginning with Eugene O’Neill, generally considered the starting point of

Modern American theater, Peccadillo concentrates on the era of the so-called

well-made play, a period of sparkling wit and sophistication in comedy as

well as deepening realism in the drama. It encompasses such diverse and

little-known dramas as Counsellor at Law by Elmer Rice, Jane by S.N. Behrman,

Morning Star by Sylvia Regan, The Shanghai Gesture by John Colton as well as

the neglected plays of celebrated authors like Dorothy Parker and John O’Hara.

Taken as a whole, this work represents nothing less than the American

experience itself in all its contradictions and screwball energy. The mission of

The Peccadillo Theater Company is to restore these buried gems to their

rightful owner - the American theatergoer.

In recent years, Peccadillo has broadened its mission to include original

plays and musicals that touch upon the history of the American theater. Such

was the case with Jeffrey Hatcher's Ten Chimneys, a delightful comedy about

the highly theatrical marriage of Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne, as well as

Zero Hour, Jim Brochu's one-man show about the actor/comedian, Zero Mostel.

Peccadillo is an OBIE, Lucille Lortel, Drama Desk Award-winning theater

company. Artistic director (Dan Wackerman) won the 2005 OBIE Award for

direction (Elmer Rice's Counsellor at Law). Peccadillo also has earned several Outer

Critics Circle nominations.

A Loss of Roses begins performances at Theatre at St. Clement’s

on May 8th, opens on May 12th at 7 PM and continues through June 7th, 2014.

Performances will be Wednesdays @ 7PM; Thursdays through Saturdays

@ 8 PM with Sunday matinees @ 3 PM with an additional performance on May 12th.

All seats at $25 are available via www.thepeccadillo.com or by calling

OvationTix at (212) 352-3101. Senior discounts, student rush and TDF tickets

will be offered.

Photo By: Walter McBride/WM Photography/Retna