HARTFORD, CT — December 13,
2018 — Hartford
Stage Artistic Director Darko Tresnjak and Managing
Director Michael Stotts announced today the cast and creative
team for Samuel Baum’s The Engagement Party, directed by Tresnjak. Zach Appelman, Richard Bekins, Mia Dillon and Beth Riesgraf lead the cast. The world premiere play will perform
Thursday, January 10, through Sunday, February 3, 2019.
Baum’s suspenseful contemporary drama centers upon
a young couple’s intimate gathering with family and friends to celebrate their
engagement – an evening that leads to a
spiraling sequence of events and revelations that will irrevocably change their
lives. The
Engagement Party is one of two world premieres that Tresnjak will direct
during his final season as Artistic Director of Hartford Stage.
“We have put together a splendid ensemble for the
world premiere of The Engagement Party,
Samuel Baum’s apprehensive play about the consequences of secrets and lies,”
Tresnjak said.
The Engagement Party received a prestigious 2018 Edgerton Foundation New Play Award. These awards
provide funds for extended rehearsal time for world premieres that the
Foundation deems to be of special merit. Only
theatres with a strong and consistent track record of producing new
work are invited to apply. The Hartford Stage world premieres of Sarah
Gancher’s Seder, Quiara Alegría Hudes' Pulitzer Prize winner Water by the Spoonful,
and Daniel Beaty’s Breath &
Imagination are all past recipients.
The
Engagement Party is also the recipient of an Art Works grant
from the National Endowment for the Arts
– which supports public engagement
with, and access to, various forms of excellent art across the nation and the
creation of art that meets the highest standards of excellence – and a Theatre
Development Grant from the Laurents/Hatcher Foundation’s highly
competitive grants program supporting the development or production of new
plays and musicals.
Playwright Samuel Baum
is also a screenwriter and producer. Baum created the FOX television series Lie to Me and
co-wrote the 2017 Emmy-nominated HBO film The Wizard of Lies, starring
Robert DeNiro and Michelle Pfeiffer, about the downfall of Bernie Madoff. He also co-created and executive produced the ABC
series The Evidence, as well as
television pilots for HBO, Amazon and CBS. Baum’s writing often examines ethical complications of living in
the modern world, where telling the truth and telling lies do not necessarily
correspond with doing good and doing harm. With The Engagement Party,
Baum returns to writing for theatre with a vivid script that explores
challenging moral terrain.
Zach Appelman will play Josh in The
Engagement Party. Appelman last appeared at Hartford Stage in the title
role of Tresnjak’s acclaimed production of Hamlet
in 2015. He received an
Outstanding Leading Actor in a Play Award from the Connecticut Critics Circle
for his performance. His theatre credits include St. Fine in War Horse at Lincoln Center; Demetrius
in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, directed
by Julie Taymor, at Theatre for a New Audience; Diomedes in Troilus & Cressida at The Public
Theatre, and the lead role in Henry V
at Folger Theatre. Appelman was a regular on the FOX television series Sleepy Hollow and will have a recurring
role on the network’s upcoming series,
The Passage. He has guest-starred on Amazon’s The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Showtime’s Homeland, The CW’s Beauty
& the Beast, NBC’s Chicago PD,
and CBS’s Blue Bloods.
Veteran stage, film and
television actor Richard Bekins will
play Conrad. Bekins has appeared in Broadway productions of Love! Valour! Compassion!, Tartuffe and Happy New Year. Bekins’ Off-Broadway appearances include The Normal Heart, Too Much Sun and Somewhere
Fun. He previously appeared at Hartford Stage in Hedda Gabler, directed by Mark Lamos. Other regional theatre
performances include Heartbreak House
(Huntington Theatre Company), Other
Desert Cities (Alley Theatre) and Hamlet
(Pioneer Theatre Company). His film credits include United 93, Julie & Julia,
and Limitless. He appeared in the ABC
television miniseries Madoff and had
guest-starring roles on CBS’s Madam
Secretary, HBO’s Boardwalk Empire,
AMC’s Mad Men, and Netflix’s Daredevil.
Tony Award nominee Mia Dillon will play Gail. Dillon
previously appeared at Hartford Stage in the world premiere play Seder, Caryl Churchill’s Cloud 9, and Noël Coward’s A Song at Twilight. Dillon’s accolades include a Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Play for Crimes of the Heart; a Drama Desk Award nomination
for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play for Once a Catholic; and a Connecticut Critic’s Circle Award for
Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play for her work in Cloud 9. She appeared in Broadway productions of Our Town, Agnes of God and Hay Fever.
Notable among her many regional credits are Lettice
and Lovage (Westport Country Playhouse), On Golden Pond (Bucks County Playhouse) and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Provincetown Tennessee Williams Theatre
Festival).
Television and film actor Beth Riesgraf will portray Katherine. Riesgraf was a series regular on the
USA Network drama Complications and
TNT’s crime-thriller Leverage. She
also had a recurring role on the popular CBS crime drama Criminal Minds. Riesgraf has guest-starred on numerous television
shows, including Netflix’s Stranger
Things; CBS’s How I Met Your Mother and Without a Trace; and ABC’s Big
Shots. Her film credits include Alvin
and the Chipmunks, I Love Your Work
and Scorcher.
Also in the company of The
Engagement Party are: Teddy Bergman (Peter and the
Starcatchers, Broadway; Seven Minutes
in Heaven, Huntington Theatre Company/Ars Nova; I was Tom Cruise, FringeNYC) as Alan; Brian Lee Huynh (War
Horse, Lincoln Center; The
Light Years, Playwrights Horizon; A Clockwork Orange, New World
Stages) as Kai; Brian Patrick Murphy (The Clearing, Theatre at St. Clement’s; Two Gentlemen of Verona, Bryant Park
Shakespeare; Break, FringeNYC) as Johnny;
and Anne Troup (Mother of the Maid, Bernstein Theater; Ivanov, Classic Stage Company; Lungs,
Kitchen Theatre Company) as Haley.
Director Darko Tresnjak’s Hartford Stage credits include A
Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder (winner of four 2014 Tony Awards,
including Best Musical and Best Direction of a Musical for Tresnjak); A
Lesson from Aloes; A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Heartbreak House; The
Comedy of Errors; Rear Window; Romeo & Juliet; and Hamlet. Other
recent credits include The Killer (2014 Obie Award for
Direction) at Theatre for a New Audience and The Ghosts of Versailles at
LA Opera.
Tresnjak is also the director of the new musical Anastasia, which debuted at Hartford Stage in May
2016. The musical premiered on Broadway the following year at the
Broadhurst Theatre, where it still performs. The first national tour of Anastasia embarked in October, which coincided with the opening of
European productions in Spain and Germany. Additional productions in Mexico and
The Netherlands will open in 2019.
In addition to Tresnjak, the
creative team includes Set Designer Alexander Dodge (Anastasia and A
Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, Hartford Stage and Broadway); Costume
Designer Joshua Pearson (A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Private Lives, Hartford
Stage); Lighting Designer Matthew Richards (A Lesson from
Aloes and Twelfth Night,
Hartford Stage); and Sound Designer Jane
Shaw (A Lesson from Aloes
and Heartbreak House, Hartford
Stage). Hartford Stage Associate Artistic Director Elizabeth Williamson (The
Inheritance, Young Vic and West End; Make
Believe, Hartford Stage) is the Dramaturg.
Robyn M. Zalewski (Henry V and A Lesson from Aloes,
Hartford Stage) will serve as Production Stage Manager, with Whitney
Keeter (Something Rotten,
First National Tour; Rotterdam, 59E59
Theaters) as Assistant Stage Manager.
