| SECOND STAGE THEATER Announces Complete Casting for LETTERS OF SURESH | |
| Posted by: Official_Press_Release 02:53 pm EDT 08/04/21 | |
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| SECOND STAGE THEATER ANNOUNCES COMPLETE CASTING FOR LETTERS OF SURESH ALI AHN, RAMIZ MONSEF, KELLIE OVERBEY and THOM SESMA By RAJIV JOSEPH Directed by MAY ADRALES Previews begin Tuesday, September 14, 2021 Opening Night on Monday, October 4, 2021 Second Stage Theater (Carole Rothman, President and Artistic Director; Khady Kamara, Executive Director) has announced full casting for the off-Broadway production of Rajiv Joseph's LETTERS OF SURESH. The production will feature Ali Ahn, Ramiz Monsef, Kellie Overbey and Thom Sesma. Ms. Overbey also appeared in Joseph's play, Animals Out of Paper, which is a companion piece to LETTERS OF SURESH that had its world premiere in Second Stage's Uptown Series in 2008. Directed by May Adrales, LETTERS OF SURESH will begin previews Tuesday, September 14, 2021 and officially opens on Monday, October 4, 2021 at Second Stage's Tony Kiser Theater (305 West 43rd Street). In LETTERS OF SURESH, playwright Rajiv Joseph reveals intimate mysteries through a series of letters between strangers, friends, daughters, and lovers — many with little in common but a hunger for human connection. ?Sending their hopes and dreams across oceans and years, they seek peace in one another while dreaming of a city once consumed by the scourge of war. ?A companion piece to Joseph's play Animals Out of Paper, LETTERS OF SURESH is the latest work from the Pulitzer Prize-short listed playwright hailed as "wonderfully daring, imaginative, and compassionate" (The New York Times). The full creative team for LETTERS OF SURESH includes scenic design by Mikiko Suzuki MacAdams; costume design by Amy Clark; lighting design by Jiyoun Chang; sound design and original music by Charles Coes & Nathan A. Roberts; projection design by Shawn Duan; casting by The Telsey Office. LETTERS OF SURESH is the recipient of an Edgerton Foundation New Play Award. The production is supported by a grant from the Blanche & Irving Laurie Foundation. The play was commissioned with support from the Time Warner Foundation. Tickets to Letters of Suresh are on sale now via www.2ST.com. $30 tickets are available to people age 30 and Under with valid ID. Health & Safety Protocols for Second Stage Theater as of August 1, 2021 For the health and safety of our audience, employees, cast and crew please be advised of the following protocols: to be permitted to enter any Second Stage Theater venue (The Tony Kiser Theater, The Hayes Theater, The McGinn/Cazele Theater), guests will need to be fully vaccinated (as defined below) with an FDA or WHO authorized vaccine. Evidence of the vaccination will be required at the time of entry along with a valid ticket for the current production. Other health & safety requirements may be required in addition to the vaccine. See further details on our health & safety protocols page: https://2st.com/visit/safety-updates. "Fully vaccinated" means on the day of the performance date as shown on the valid ticket, a guest is at least 14 days after their second dose of an FDA or WHO approved two dose COVID-19 vaccine, or at least 14 days after their single dose of an FDA or WHO approved single dose COVID-19 Vaccine. Guests may display proof on a smartphone or present a physical copy. New York State residents, or anyone who received a COVID-19 vaccine in New York State, may present proof through the use of the Excelsior Pass (for more details, visit: https://epass.ny.gov) or any other CDC-approved digital app. The only exceptions are guests under the age of 12, who must be accompanied by an adult that meets the above vaccination requirements or guests who need reasonable accommodations due to a medical exception or a sincerely held religious belief. For guests who are not able to be vaccinated for one of the reasons listed above, they must provide proof one of the following instead of evidence of vaccination: a negative COVID-19 antigen test taken within 6 hours of the performance start time, or a negative COVID-19 PCR test taken within 72 hours of the performance start time. In addition to proof of vaccination, all guests 18 years or older must also present a government-issued photo ID such as a driver's license or passport. Guests younger than 18 may use a government-issued photo ID or school photo ID. Guests under 12 must be accompanied by an adult who meets the above requirements. Entry will be denied for guests who do not provide the documentation as required above. Masks are required for all guests, regardless of vaccination status. Masks must be worn at all times while visiting the venue except when eating or drinking in designated areas. All masks must completely cover the nose and mouth and comply with the CDC guidelines for acceptable face coverings: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/about-face Thank you for your cooperation. ABOUT THE CAST ALI AHN (Melody) Broadway: The Heidi Chronicles. Off-Broadway: The Great Leap (Atlantic), Sugar House (Ma-Yi), Twelfth Night, The Importance of Being Earnest (Pearl), House of Bernarda Alba (NAATCO). Regional: Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare on the Sound), Strike-Slip (ATL: Humana Festival). Television: "Raising Dion," "NeXt," "The Path," "Orange is the New Black," "The Other Two," "Billions," "Social Distance," "The Breaks," "Supernatural," "Nurse Jackie," "Blue Bloods," "Benders," "Black Box," "White Collar," "Louie," "Law & Order: SVU." Film: Lucky Grandma, Landline, Girl in the Book, Liberal Arts. RAMIZ MONSEF (Suresh) is thrilled to be back in New York after Los Angeles productions of Guards at the Taj, Mysterious Circumstances (Geffen), Vicuna (Kirk Douglas) and Archduke (Taper). He was a creator and starred in The Unfortunates at both OSF and ACT. He can be seen in Synchronic, a top film on iTunes in 2021, and in episodes of "Young Sheldon," "Shameless," "Kidding" and "Modern Family" among others. His play, The Ants, is scheduled to have its World Premiere at The Geffen in Spring of 2023. KELLIE OVERBEY (Amelia) Broadway: The Coast of Utopia, Twentieth Century, "Q.E.D.", Judgment at Nuremberg, Present Laughter, Buried Child. Drama Desk nominations for Women Without Men (The Mint) and Sleeping Rough (Page 73.) Lortel nomination for The Savannah Disputation (Playwrights Horizons.) At Second Stage: Mary Page Marlowe, Animals Out of Paper, and Good Boys and True. Film & TV include: Imitation Girl, That's What She Said (screenwriter), Sweet and Lowdown, Outbreak, "Tommy", "FBI", "Blindspot", "Blue Bloods", "30 Rock", and "The Good Wife." Kellie is the Executive Director of AisFor.org, an Eastern Principal Councilor at Actors Equity Association, and a founding member of FairWageOnstage.org. THOM SESMA (Father Hashimoto) has numerous Broadway, Off-Broadway, TV and film appearances to his credit. Prior to the pandemic shutdown, he was in Michael Friedman's Unknown Soldier which opened on March 9, 2020 off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons. Since then he accumulated many remote digital credits in plays, musicals, concerts and works in development as well as teaching a popular course in "Acting on Zoom." Letters of Suresh will be his fourth production with Second Stage, following In a Pig's Valise and Baba Goya (1989) and Superhero (2019). For more details and credits please visit thomsesma.com and on Instagram @thsesma. RAJIV JOSEPH returns to Second Stage Theater, which has produced three of his plays: Animals Out of paper, All This Intimacy, and Gruesome Playground Injuries. His play Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo was a 2010 Pulitzer Prize finalist for Drama and was also awarded a grant for Outstanding New American Play by the National Endowment for the Arts. He has twice won the Obie Award for Best New American Play, first in 2016 with Guards at the Taj (also a 2016 Lortel Winner for Best Play) and then in 2018, for Describe the Night. Other plays include Archduke, The Lake Effect, The North Pool and Mr. Wolf. Joseph has been awarded artistic grants from the Whiting Foundation, United States Artists and the Harold & Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust. He is a board member of the Lark Play Development Center in New York City, where he develops all his plays. He served for three years in the Peace Corps in Senegal and now lives in Brooklyn, NY. MAY ADRALES is a director, artistic leader and teacher and has directed over 25 world premieres. She was recently named Artistic Director at the Lark. She was awarded the prestigious Theater Communications Group Alan Schneider 2018 award for freelance directors. She is a Drama League Directing Fellow, Women's Project Lab Director, SoHo Rep Writers/Directors Lab and New York Theater Workshop directing fellow, and a recipient of the TCG New Generations Grant, Denham Fellowship and Paul Green Directing Award. She proudly serves as an Associate Artistic Director at Milwaukee Rep. She is a former Director of On Site Programs at the Lark Play Development Center and Artistic Associate at The Public Theater. May has directed and taught at Juilliard, Harvard/ART, ACT, Fordham, NYU and Bard College. May has served on faculty at the Yale School of Drama and Brown/Trinity MFA program. MFA, Yale School of Drama. Recent world premieres include Qui Nguyen's Lortel Award and Obie Award winning, Vietgone (Manhattan Theatre Club, South Coast Rep, Oregon Shakespeare Festival and Seattle Rep); Lauren Gunderson's Natural Shocks (WP Theater); Poor Yella Rednecks (MTC, South Coast Rep), Kemp Powers's Little Black Shadows (South Coast); Idris Goodwin's The Way The Mountain Moved (OSF); Chisa Hutchinson's Somebody's Daughter (Second Stage Theater) and The Wedding Gift (Contemporary American Theater Festival); JC Lee's Luce (LCT3); A. Rey Pamatmat's Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them (ATL) and after all the terrible things I do (Milwaukee Rep); Thomas Bradshaw's Mary (The Goodman). Her work has been seen at Signature Theater, Lincoln Center, Second Stage Theater, Atlantic Theater, Portland Center Stage and Cleveland Playhouse. (www.mayadrales.net) ABOUT SECOND STAGE THEATER Under the artistic direction of Carole Rothman, SECOND STAGE THEATER operates three New York City venues, exclusively dedicated to producing living American playwrights. Second Stage's first season on Broadway at The Hayes Theater included Lobby Hero by Kenneth Lonergan, directed by Trip Cullman (Tony nominee for Best Revival of Play, Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role, Michael Cera and Brian Tyree Henry) and Straight White Men by Young Jean Lee and directed by Anna D. Shapiro. Among Second Stage's 180 productions are the 2015 Pulitzer Prize winner Between Riverside and Crazy by Stephen Adly Guirgis; the 2010 Pulitzer Prize winner Next to Normal by Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey; the 2012 Pulitzer Prize winner Water by the Spoonful by Quiara Alegria Hudes; Mary Page Marlowe by Tracy Letts; The Last Five Years by Jason Robert Brown; Dogfight by Benj Pasek, Justin Paul and Peter Duchan; Dear Evan Hansen by Benj Pasek, Justin Paul, and Steven Levenson; By the Way, Meet Vera Stark by Lynn Nottage; Trust and Lonely, I'm Not by Paul Weitz; The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity by Kristoffer Diaz; Everyday Rapture and Whorl Inside a Loop by Dick Scanlan and Sherie Rene Scott; Let Me Down Easy and Notes From the Field by Anna Deavere Smith; Becky Shaw by Gina Gionfriddo; Torch Song by Harvey Fierstein; Eurydice by Sarah Ruhl; The Little Dog Laughed by Douglas Carter Beane; Metamorphoses by Mary Zimmerman; The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee by William Finn and Rachel Sheinkin; Jitney by August Wilson; Crowns by Regina Taylor; Saturday Night by Stephen Sondheim; Afterbirth: Kathy & Mo's Greatest Hits by Mo Gaffney and Kathy Najimy; This Is Our Youth by Kenneth Lonergan; Coastal Disturbances by Tina Howe; A Soldier's Play by Charles Fuller; The Good Times Are Killing Me by Lynda Barry; and Tiny Alice and Peter and Jerry by Edward Albee. The company's more than 130 citations include six 2017 Tony Awards for Dear Evan Hansen (Best Musical; Best Lead Actor in a Musical, Ben Platt; Best Featured Actress in a Musical, Rachel Bay Jones; Best Book of a Musical; Best Original Score; Best Orchestrations); the 2009 Tony Awards for Best Lead Actress in a Musical (Alice Ripley, Next to Normal), Best Score (Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey, Next to Normal), and Best Orchestrations (Tom Kitt and Michael Starobin, Next to Normal); the 2007 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play (Julie White, The Little Dog Laughed); the 2005 Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical (Rachel Sheinkin, ...Spelling Bee) and Best Featured Actor in a Musical (Dan Fogler, ...Spelling Bee); the 2002 Tony Award for Best Director of a Play (Mary Zimmerman for Metamorphoses); the 2002 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Body of Work, 29 Obie Awards, eight Outer Critics Circle Awards, three Clarence Derwent Awards, 13 Drama Desk Awards, nine Theatre World Awards, 20 Lucille Lortel Awards, the Drama Critics Circle Award and 23 AUDELCO Awards. In 1999, Second Stage Theater opened The Tony Kiser Theater, its state-of-the-art, 296-seat theater, designed by renowned Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas. In 2002, Second Stage launched "Second Stage Theater Uptown" to showcase the work of up and coming artists at the 99 seat McGinn/Cazale Theater. The Theater supports artists through several programs that include residencies, fellowships and commissions, and engages students and community members through education and outreach programs. In 2018, Second Stage began producing at its 589 seat Broadway home, The Hayes Theater. Originally named "The Little Theater" and built in 1912, the city landmark has been remodeled by David Rockwell of Rockwell Group. Second Stage Theater purchased the historic Helen Hayes Theater, located at 240 W. 44th Street, in 2015 and enlisted David Rockwell and The Rockwell Group to make renovations and updates to the 104 year old landmark building. The company will continue to lease and operate the McGinn/Cazale Theater on the city's Upper West Side and The Tony Kiser Theater in Midtown Manhattan. Second Stage Theater is investing in its future on Broadway by co-commissioning established playwrights through its STAGE-2-STAGE program, launched with Los Angeles's Center Theatre Group. This ongoing program will provide a pathway to Broadway, with each play receiving an initial production in Los Angeles at one of CTG's three theaters before moving to New York. The commissioned playwrights are David Adjmi, Jon Robin Baitz, Lisa D'Amour, Lisa Kron, Young Jean Lee, Matthew Lopez, Lynn Nottage, Sarah Ruhl and Paula Vogel. |
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