Wright/Rand
by Jeffrey Hatcher and Eric Simonson
directed by David Ira Goldstein
featuring BJ Jones and Tracy Michelle Arnold
This benefit reading is a part of Northlight’s Interplay New Play Development program, providing customized support for new work in the critical stages of early play development.
ABOUT THE PLAY: Frank Lloyd Wright and Ayn Rand were two iconoclastic artists that loomed large over the 20th century. After years of brush-offs from the already accomplished architect to the emerging author, they finally meet and, surprisingly, become friends. With witty badinage and delicious posturing we see the shared ideals and aspirations of these thorny giants over a twenty-year relationship, as well as the darker sides that plagued them both.
Join us for a reading of this new drama while still in the development process!
Support for Northlight Theatre and this reading comes from:
Videos
Jeffrey Hatcher
Playwright
BROADWAY: Never Gonna Dance (book). OFF-BROADWAY: Three Viewings andA Picasso at Manhattan Theatre Club; The Government Inspector at Red Bull; Scotland Road and The Turn of the Screw at Primary Stages; Lucky Duck (book w/Bill Russell) at the New Victory; Tuesdays with Morrie (with Mitch Albom) at Minetta Lane; Ten Chimneys at Peccadillo; Neddy at American Place, Fellow Travelers at Manhattan Punchline. OTHER PLAYS/THEATERS: Compleat Female Stage Beauty, Mrs. Mannerly, Murderers, Cousin Bette, Smash, Wait Until Dark, Key Largo, A Confederacy of Dunces and others at Northlight, Guthrie, Old Globe, Yale Rep, Seattle Rep, Geffen, Huntington, South Coast Rep, Arizona Theater Company, Indiana Rep, Children’s Theater Company, Illusion, Denver Center, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Milwaukee Rep, Actors Theater of Louisville and dozens more in the U.S. and abroad. FILM: Stage Beauty, Casanova, The Duchess, Mr. Holmes and The Good Liar. TV: episodes of Columbo and The Mentalist. GRANTS/AWARDS: NEA, TCG, Lila Wallace Fund, Rosenthal New Play Prize, Frankel Award, Charles MacArthur Fellowship Award, McKnight Foundation, Jerome Foundation, Barrymore Award Best New Play and 2013 Ivey Lifetime Achievement Award. He is a member and/or alumnus of the Playwrights’ Center, the Dramatists Guild.
Eric Simonson
Playwright
Eric Simonson is an ensemble member of Steppenwolf Theatre, where his writing/directing credits include Lindiwe, Nomathemba (written with Ntozake Shange and Joseph Shabalala), Carter’s Way, Honest and Fake. For Broadway, he wrote Magic/Bird,Bronx Bombers and Lombardi, which was the longest running play of the 2010-11 season. His production of Steppenwolf’s The Song of Jacob Zulu received six Tony Award nominations, including one for best direction. Simonson has also served as a Writer/Producer on television shows including Homecoming, The Man in the High Castle(both on Amazon) and the upcoming Swagger (Apple+). His documentary films include A Note of Triumph: the Golden Age of Norman Corwin, which won an Academy Award.
David Ira Goldstein
Director
David Ira Goldstein previously directed his musical A Marvelous Party: The Noel Coward Celebration at Northlight, where the production won four Jeff Awards including Best Director. It subsequently played at over a dozen theatres nationwide. David is the former Artistic Director of Arizona Theatre Company where he produced and/or directed over 200 mainstage plays, workshops, readings, and presentations over 26 years. ATC directing credits include many world premieres including The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini; six premieres by Steven Dietz including Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure(winner of the Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America), Inventing van Gogh, Rocket Man, Private Eyes, and Dracula; and the premieres of Holmes and Watson, Ten Chimneys, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of The Suicide Club by Jeffrey Hatcher. Mr. Goldstein has been a guest director at theatres all across the country including Northlight, Geva Theatre, ACT, Pasadena Playhouse, Berkeley Rep, Seattle Rep, Arizona Opera, Mixed Blood, and Kansas City Rep, among many others.
Cast
BJ Jones
Frank Lloyd Wright
BJ JONES is in his 25th season as Artistic Director of Northlight. Mr. Jones is a two-time Joseph Jefferson Award Winning actor and a three-time nominated director. He’s directed the world premieres of Charm (Jeff Award Best New Play), The Outgoing Tide (Jeff Award Best New Play), White Guy on the Bus (Jeff Nominated Best New Play), Chapatti (Nominated Jeff Award Best New Play), Better Late, and Rounding Third. Notably, he has directed productions of Outside Mullingar, Grey Gardens, The Price, The Lieutenant of Inishmore, and The Beauty Queen of Leenane. As a producer he has guided the three world premieres of The Christmas at Pemberley Trilogy (Jeff Award Best New Play), Shining Lives, The Last Five Years, and Studs Terkel’s ‘The Good War’. Additional directorial credits include Pitmen Painters (Timeline, Jeff Award Best Production); 100 Saints You Should Know (Steppenwolf); Glengarry Glen Ross (Alliance Theatre, Atlanta, Suzi Bass nomination Best Director); The Lady with All the Answers (Cherry Lane, New York); Animal Crackers (Baltimore Center Stage); Three Musketeers, The Tempest, Twelfth Night, Much Ado About Nothing (Utah Shakespeare Festival), and four productions at the Galway International Arts Festival. As a performer, he has appeared at Northlight, Goodman, Steppenwolf, Court, and other theatres throughout Chicago. Film/TV credits include The Fugitive, Body Double, Law and Order: Criminal Intent, Early Edition, Cupid, and Turks, among others.
Tracy Michelle Arnold
Ayn Rand
Tracy makes her home in Spring Green, WI, (home of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin), where she is a member of American Players Theatre’s Core Acting Company. Since 1999, she has spent 21 seasons at APT, and is humble to have such an extraordinary artistic home. Credits with the company include Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire, Kate in Taming of the Shrew, Cleopatra in Antony & Cleopatra, Julie in The Royal Family, and Linda Lohman in Death of a Salesman, among many others. Other Regional credits include Nora in Doll’s House, Part Two at Indiana Rep, Emily in The Lifespan of a Fact and Regina in The LIttle Foxes at Asolo Rep, Brook in Other Desert Cities at the Goodman, Amanda in Private Lives at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, and Miss Madrigal in The Chalk Garden at Northlight.