Atlantic Theater's 'Body Awareness'

Atlantic Theater Company (Neil Pepe, Artistic Director; Andrew D. Hamingson, Managing Director) is proud to announce the world premiere production of Annie Baker’s play BODY AWARENESS, directed by Karen Kohlhaas and featuring Jonathan Clem, Peter Friedman, Mary McCann and JoBeth Williams. 

BODY AWARENESS will begin previews Wednesday, May 28th, 2008 for an official opening on Wednesday, June 4th, and play a limited engagement through Sunday, June 22nd Off-Broadway at Atlantic Stage 2 (330 West 16th Street).

BODY AWARENESS marks the final production of the 2007-2008 Atlantic Stage 2 season at the company’s second stage theater, where two new plays are staged each year. The hit world premiere production of Academy Award® winning film maker Ethan Coen’s Almost an Evening played a sold out run earlier this season before transferring to The Theaters at 45 Bleecker Street where it plays a limited engagement through June 1st.

In the world premiere of Annie Baker’s new comedy, it is “Body Awareness Week” at bucolic Shirley State College in Vermont, and all must go according to plan. But when photographer Frank Bonitatibus shows up with his passel of photographs of naked women, things start to go awry. 

Playwright Annie Baker makes her Off-Broadway debut at Atlantic with the world premiere of Body Awareness. Her plays have been developed at Atlantic, SoHo Rep, Playwrights Horizons and the Sundance Playwrights Retreat. Atlantic founding member Karen Kohlhaas most recently directed comedian Judy Gold’s Drama Desk Award nominated one woman play 25 Questions for a Jewish Mother Off-Broadway following a national tour. She has also staged Harold Pinter's The Hothouse and Keith Reddin’s Frame 312 at Atlantic, as well as David Mamet’s Boston Marriage at The Public Theater. 

BODY AWARENESS marks Jonathan Clem’s Off-Broadway and professional debut following graduating from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts this year, where he studied at the Atlantic Theater Company Acting School. Tony Award® nominee Peter Friedman (Ragtime) will make his Atlantic debut.  He most recently appeared in the hit Off-Broadway musical The Slug Bearers of Kayrol Island and on Broadway in the acclaimed revival of Twelve Angry Men. Atlantic founding member Mary McCann comes direct from the world premiere production of Ethan Coen’s Almost an Evening, which played at Atlantic Stage 2 prior to its Off-Broadway transfer. She also appeared in the world premiere of Spring Awakening, The Cherry Orchard and The Night Heron at Atlantic. Academy Award®, Golden Globe® and Emmy Award® nominated actress and director JoBeth Williams is best known for her starring roles in the landmark films Poltergeist, The Big Chill and Kramer vs. Kramer. On the New York stage, she has appeared Off-Broadway in Marsha Norman’s Last Dance, John Guare's Gardenia and The Vagina Monologues. Most recently, she starred in Jane Anderson's The Quality of Life at The Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles, for which she received a Back Stage West Garland Award.

The design team for BODY AWARENESS will feature scenic design by Walt Spangler, costume design by Bobby Frederick Tilley III, lighting design by Jason Lyons and sound design by Anthony Gabriele. 

Atlantic’s New York premiere production of Conor McPherson’s (The Seafarer) play Port Authority, directed by Henry Wishcamper, is now in previews for a limited engagement through June 22nd, 2008 at Atlantic Theater Company at the Linda Gross Theatre (336 West 20th Street).

 

Peter Friedman, Jonathan Clem, Annie Baker, Karen Kohlhaas, JoBeth Williams, and Mary McCann

Peter Friedman, Jonathan Clem, JoBeth Williams, and Mary McCann

Peter Friedman, Jonathan Clem, Annie Baker, Karen Kohlhaas, JoBeth Williams, and Mary McCann

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