For Immediate Release

July 24, 2014

For interviews and features contact: Phil Elman, General Manager
518.828.7843 contact@stageworkshudson.org

Photos for TOMORROW IN THE BATTLE:
http://stageworkshudson.org/photos_battle2014.html

STAGEWORKS/HUDSON PRESENTS
THE WORLD PREMIERE REVIVAL OF
TOMORROW IN THE BATTLE
BY AWARD WINNING DRAMATIST, KIERON BARRY
August 13 to 31, 2014

TOMORROW IN THE BATTLE
By Kieron Barry
Directed by Laura Margolis
Previews: August 13 and 14
Opens: August 15
Closes: August 31

July 24, 2014 – Stageworks/Hudson, under the leadership of Laura Margolis, will present a return engagement of the play, Tomorrow in the Battle by Kieron Barry. Preview performances are August 13 and 14. Tomorrow in the Battle runs Wednesdays through Sundays through August 31 at Stageworks’ Max and Lillian Katzman Theater, 41 Cross Street, Hudson, New York. Production sponsors for Tomorrow in the Battle are Richard and Carol Seltzer. For ticket information call 518-822-9667 or visit www.stageworkshudson.org.

Starring Danielle Skraastad, Christopher Kelly and Olivia Gilliatt, under the direction of Laura Margolis, Tomorrow in the Battle received its world premiere at Stageworks in August 2012. Brought back by popular demand, the production played to enthusiastic houses and critical acclaim.

“Stageworks is excited to revisit this beautiful play and share it with theater-goers who wanted to see it again or who missed it the first time around. We are honored to be the first theater to produce this profound new play.” comments Laura Margolis. “Kieron Barry is one of the most gifted writers in the American and British theater. Through his imagination comes a riveting mystery of obsession and betrayal.”

Tomorrow in the Battle finds Simon, a heart surgeon, in a heated affair with Jennifer who is a successful young investor that he met at an opera. Though oblivious to her husband’s betrayal, Simon’s wife Anna has contrived a romantic seduction of her own.

Simon, Jennifer and Anna are also facing professional dilemmas which mirror their personal crises. Simon prepares to perform a transplant on the heart of a young boy even as he takes an increasingly devil-may-care approach to his work. Anna, a civil servant at the Ministry of Defense, is coaxed into giving false evidence to Parliament to conceal an error in the program to renew the country’s nuclear weapons system. Meanwhile, a trip to the New York Stock Exchange reveals to Jennifer that deception is not limited to the domains of the heart.

With their secrets deepening in risk and intensity, the past and present intertwine, thrusting them toward a desperate moment that changes their lives forever. Immediate, exquisite and often humorous, Tomorrow in the Battle is a sensual, yet terrifying exposure of contemporary mores.

Born in Stratford-upon-Avon, Kieron Barry is the recipient of three Peggy Ramsay Foundation awards and a Norman Mailer Fellowship. He was also nominated for a London Evening Standard Theatre Award for his play Stockwell, which enjoyed two sell-out runs in London at the Landor and Tricycle theaters and was described by the London Times as “more gripping than anything else to be seen in the London theatre.” His other plays include Mahler & Rachmaninov, Cumquats – developed with the Royal National Theatre of Great Britain and A Bollocking From Tom Watson.

Stageworks/Hudson is pleased to welcome back Danielle Skraastad who was raised in Greene County, New York and has gone on to a distinguished acting career. Ms. Skraastad, who originated the role of Jennifer in Stageworks’ world premiere of Tomorrow in the Battle, directed by Laura Margolis, will now take on the role of Anna, a wife with an erotic imagination and high-pressured job, in this exciting revival.

Her Broadway credits include All My Sons directed by Simon McBurney starring John Lithgow, Diane Wiest and Katie Holmes and Off-Broadway she originated the role of Laurie in Lisa Kron’s In the Wake directed by Leigh Silverman (Chinglish, Well) at The Public Theater. Also at the Public/Signature, she played Maeve in the NY premiere of Tony Kushner’s The Intelligent Homosexuals Guide To Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures directed by Michael Greif (Rent, Next to Normal). Other NY credits include The Architecture of Becoming (Women’s Project) Baby Screams Miracle (Clubbed Thumb), The Mound Builders (Signature Theatre Company) directed by Jo Bonney (Sex, Drugs and Rock and Roll), Anon (Atlantic Theater Company), The Pain and the Itch by Bruce Norris (Playwrights Horizons), the world premiere of The Eyes of Others (New Ohio Theatre), the world premiere of Lidless (Page 73 Productions) directed by Tea Alageic, Carrie: A Period Piece (Theater Couture/PS122), Lascivious Something by Sheila Callahan (Cherry Lane Theatre Mentor Project) and co-wrote and co-starred Big Times (Women’s Expressive Theatre) with Maggie Lacey, Mia Barron and The Moonlighters. Regionally Danielle debuted at San Diego’s Old Globe Theater as Lizzie Curry in the classic play The Rainmaker.

She has appeared regionally in the world premiere of In the Wake (Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Center Theater Group), for which she received an LA Stage Alliance Ovation Award nomination, Death Tax (Humana Festival of New American Plays), Magnetic North (Portland Stage) and Becky Shaw and Big Love (The Wilma Theater). Regionally Ms. Skraastad has also worked at A Contemporary Theater, Capital Repertory Theater and Two River Theater Company. Her film and television credits include, 27 Dresses, Michael Clayton, The Business of Story, “Law & Order,” “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” “Unforgettable,” ”Mercy” and “Fringe.” Danielle is looking forward to upcoming productions, both of Theresa Rebeck’s The Understudy at The McCarter Theater and the world premiere of The Butcher at Gulfshore Playhouse, as well as her upcoming film, Hard Sell, starring Kristin Chenoweth. Ms. Skraastad received a Master’s degree from NYU.

Christopher Kelly has performed in Tony award-winning theaters across the United States for the past twelve years, including part of seven seasons with the Denver Center Theatre Company, where his credits include Hamlet, Much Ado About Nothing, the world premiere of Great Wall Story, the acclaimed world premiere of Grace and the Art of Climbing and the title roles in The Cripple of Inishmaan and the world premiere of Pierre (adapted by Jeffery Hatcher from the novel by Herman Melville.)

In New York, he was recently featured in the critically acclaimed revival of Lillian Hellman’s Another Part of the Forest (Theatre at St. Clements), and appeared as Ishmael in the Drama Desk nominated production of Moby Dick (Ohio Theatre). At the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C., he played Prince Hal in Henry IV, parts 1 & 2 under the direction of Bill Alexander (Royal Shakespeare Company), and, at the California Shakespeare Festival, performed the title role in Pericles – named one the top Bay Area productions of 2008. Mr. Kelly has also portrayed Hamlet opposite Michael Learned in an evening directed by Nobel Prize winning playwright Wole Soyinka.

Across the U.S., other credits include Tom Wingfield in Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie, Wolfgang Mozart in Peter Shaffer’s Amadeus at the Historic Fulton Opera House, Septimus Hodge in Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia (Theatreworks, CA), poet Percy Shelley in the world premiere of The Yellow Leaf (Pioneer Theatre Company), inventor Wilbur Wright in the world premiere of The Center of Gravity (Portland Stage), actor Garry Lejeune in David H. Bell’s critically acclaimed production of Noises Off (Cleveland Playhouse), as well as appearing in Proof, Witness for the Prosecution (Cincinnati Playhouse), Gross Indecency (Intiman Theatre, Seattle), and the world premiere of The Rivers Under the Earth by Thornton Wilder (Actors Theatre of Louisville). Most recently, he played the seven role male track in Jose Rivera's New Jersey premiere of Marisol at Luna Stage. He has had the honor to perform in Stories on Stage (with Elliot Gould) as the narrator of “Powder,” by Tobias Wolff , and has helped to develop new plays with theatre companies across the country, including New York Theatre Workshop.

Television credits include an appearance in the upcoming season of “Damages,” a recurring role on the CBS series “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman,” co-starring with Johnny Cash and Jane Seymour, and “Brothers of the Borderland,” (narrated by Oprah Winfrey). He is a member of the Actors Center Workshop Company in New York and received his M.F.A. from NYU’s Graduate Acting Program.

Olivia Gilliat is a recent graduate of NYU's prestigious Graduate Acting Program. While there, she originated the roles of Lina in the world premiere of The Other Side by Sathya Sridharan, directed by Anne Troup (CSC's Ivanov), and Alex in the world premiere of Girl on Girl by Lucas Hnath (The Christians, Death Tax, Red Speedo). Ms. Gilliatt has made her mark on the downtown NYC theater scene in such productions as The Tutor and Venus for the NYC Fringe Festival, and The Country Wife, directed by Bradford Cover (a Backstage Critic's Pick). Regionally, she has performed all over the tri-state area, and has spent multiple seasons at the New London Barn Playhouse.

Talk-backs with the cast, director will occur directly after the performances on August 21 and 28. For ticket information and purchase, call 518-822-9667, or visit www.stageworkshudson.org.

Stageworks’ 2014 season is made possible, in part, with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, the Ernest O’Reaugh Fund, Columbia County Tourism and the Shubert Foundation. The production of Tomorrow in the Battle is sponsored by Richard and Carol Seltzer.

FACT SHEET

About Stageworks/Hudson
Stageworks has established a reputation for its ambitious programming and adventurous productions. The company is especially known for producing the bold, risk-taking work of new dramatic voices. Central to its vision is Futures, an integrative program designed to move Stageworks to the forefront of new play development. Stageworks is both the experiment and the resource to infuse the whole life of the theater with a creative process that produces new ways of expressing, interpreting and sharing the human experience.

Stageworks is a member of the Columbia County Chamber of Commerce and Perform Columbia. It is the recipient of a Proctors Regional Arts Award inaugurated by Proctors Theatre in 2008 to honor the outstanding work of performing arts organizations. For four consecutive years, Stageworks was distinguished in Metroland Magazine as “Best Theater Company.” Stageworks is the recipient of the Crystal Apple Award from the Chamber of Commerce for providing a positive effect both culturally and economically on the quality of life in our community.

Plays are for everyone, whether written by students, established authors or emerging dramatists. Theater illuminates, expresses and interprets the human experience and profoundly serves as a global stage for social exchange and enrichment. Stageworks complements its mainstage season with a series of programs to encourage and engage young people, traditional theatergoers and new audiences. Stageworks continues to actively take a leadership role in establishing the Hudson Valley as a cultural destination by exploring and expanding its reputation for developing new theatrical works, forms and programs.

Playwright, Cast and Director:

KIERON BARRY (Playwright) Born in Stratford-upon-Avon, Kieron Barry is the recipient of three Peggy Ramsay Foundation awards and a Norman Mailer Fellowship. He was also nominated for a London Evening Standard Theatre Award for his play Stockwell, which enjoyed two sell-out runs in London at the Landor and Tricycle theaters and was described by the London Times as “more gripping than anything else to be seen in the London theatre.” His other plays include Mahler & Rachmaninov, Cumquats – developed with the Royal National Theatre of Great Britain and A Bollocking From Tom Watson.

DANIELLE SKRAASTAD (Anna) has appeared at Stageworks/Hudson in the world premiere of Tomorrow in the Battle as well as, Lebensraum, The Countess, Brutal Imagination and How I Learned to Drive. Broadway: All My Sons. NY: The Intelligent Homosexuals Guide...(The Public), In The Wake (The Public/Signature); The Architecture of Becoming (Women’s Project), Baby Screams Miracle (Clubbed Thumb), The Mound Builders (Signature Theater Company), Anon (Atlantic Theater Company), the world premiere of The Eyes of Others (New Ohio Theater), in the world premiere of Lidless (Page 73 Productions), Carrie: A Period Piece (Theater Couture/PS122), Lascivious Something by Sheila Callahan (Cherry Lane Theater Mentor Project) The Pain and the Itch (Playwrights Horizons); Anon (The Atlantic); Big Times (WET); Cressida Among the Greeks (The Ohio); Red Haired Thomas (The Ohio); Fugue (Cherry Lane). Regional: Two River Theater Co, Actor’s Theatre of Louisville Humana Festival, Hartford Stage, The Wilma Theater, Berkeley Rep, The Kirk Douglas Theater, The Lantern, Cap Rep Albany, Old Globe Theater, Portland Stage. Film and television: 27 Dresses, Michael Clayton, The Business of Story, “Law & Order,” “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” “Unforgettable,” ”Mercy” and “Fringe.” Upcoming productions: The Understudy at The McCarter Theater, the world premiere of The Butcher at Gulfshore Playhouse, and the upcoming film, Hard Sell. M.F.A., NYU

CHRISTOPHER KELLY (Simon) Regional: Grace, or the Art of Climbing (World Premiere), Great Wall Story (World Premiere), Pierre (World Premiere), The Cripple of Inishmaan, Hamlet, Much Ado About Nothing, The Madwoman, The Three Sisters, (Denver Center Theatre Co.), Henry IV, parts 1 & 2 (Shakespeare Theatre, Washington, D.C.), Pericles (California Shakespeare), Proof, Witness for the Prosecution, (Cincinnati Playhouse/ St. Louis Rep), Noises Off (Cleveland Playhouse), The Rivers Under the Earth (Actors Theatre of Louisville), The Foreigner, The Yellow Leaf, Dracula (Pioneer Theatre), Gross Indecency (Intiman Theatre), The Glass Menagerie, Amadeus (Fulton Theatre), The Center of Gravity (World Premiere, Portland Stage) Off Broadway: Moby Dick (Drama Desk Nomination), revival of Another Part of the Forest (Theatre at St. Clements) Television: "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman" and "Damages." M.F.A., NYU

OLIVIA GILLIATT (Jennifer): Off-Broadway and New York credits include The Country Wife, The Libertine, Malfi, Inc., Who Murdered Love?, The Lazarus Years, Stupid Plans Poorly Executed, Family Symmetry, Saving Kitty, Another Dude's Slingbacks, Venus (NYFringe), The Tutor (NYFringe). Regional theater: Boeing Boeing (Seven Angels' Theatre), Jackass Flats (Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey), Fiddler on the Roof, I Hate Hamlet, Thoroughly Modern Millie, My Fair Lady, and The Unexpected Guest (all for New London Barn Playhouse). B.A., Dartmouth College. M.F.A., NYU.

LAURA MARGOLIS (Director) is the founder and Artistic Director of Stageworks/Hudson. Her directing credits for Stageworks include: Stockholm (American Premiere), Tomorrow in the Battle (World Premiere), Tennis in Nablus (East Coast Premiere), Nowhere on the Border (World Premiere), Car Talk (World Premiere), Falling: A Wake (American Premiere), A Wedding Story (World Premiere), Dog Stories (World Premiere) and many regional premieres such as Omnium Gatherum, Lebensraum, Gutenberg! The Musical!, Brutal Imagination and Wit. Highlighting her career are the plays she has directed for Stageworks' annual Play By Play Festival of New One-Acts. Regionally, she has directed at Capital Rep, Proctors, SUNY/Albany, among others. Laura has received the Certificate of Recognition from the Columbia County Board of Supervisors for providing original and creative opportunities to the community and the Columbia County Arts Award for Artist “for excellence in developing and fostering the arts in Columbia County.” She served as a member of the NYSCA Theater Panel for three years and is a member of the Hudson Planning Commission. Laura attended Brooklyn College's MFA in Arts Administration program and has taught as an adjunct professor of theater at SUNY/Albany.

Design Team:
The design team includes: Randall Parsons (Set Design), Jeffrey Lependorf (Sound Design), Deena Pewtherer, (Lighting Design), Moe Schell (Costume Design) and Phil Elman (Technical Director). The Stage Manager is Paul Carter.

Production Calendar
Previews: August 13 and 14
Opening: Friday, August 15
Closing: Sunday, August 31

Performance Calendar
TOMORROW IN THE BATTLE at Stageworks/Hudson
Wednesday at 7:30 pm: August 13, August 20, August 27
Thursday at 7:30 pm: August 14, August 21, August 28
Friday at 8:00 pm: August 15, August 22, August 29
Saturday at 8:00 pm: August 16, August 23, August 30
Saturday Matinee at 2:00 pm: August 30
Sunday Matinee at 2:00 pm: August 17, August 24, August 31

Talk Back with the cast and director post-performance: August 21 and August 28

Cast:
Olivia Gilliatt, Christopher Kelly and Danielle Skraastad

Playwright:
Kieron Barry

Production Team
Laura Margolis, Director

Randall Parsons (Set Design), Jeffrey Lependorf (Sound Design), Deena Pewtherer (Lighting Design), Moe Schell (Costume Design), Phil Elman (Technical Director), Stage Manager is Paul Carter, Assistant Stage Manager/Understudy is Michael Bradford.

Tickets
For tickets or information, contact Stageworks by mail at 41-A Cross Street, Hudson, NY 12534 or call the box office at (518) 822-9667. For further information, visit the website at www.stageworkshudson.org.

Single ticket prices are:
$18 for preview performances
$24 for Weekdays, Matinees and Sundays
$29 for Friday and Saturday evening performances.
Discounts are available for groups of 10 or more and there are special rates for students and seniors.

Visit Stageworks’ home page for more details at www.stageworkshudson.org.

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