Cady Huffman, Robert Petkoff and Tom Nelis to Star in Prospect Theater Company's DEATH BY DESIGN

Prospect Theater Company will present a staged reading of Rob Urbinati's original play Death By Design, a witty and wonderfully mysterious whodunit inspired by Noel Coward and Agatha Christie, on Saturday, December 8, 2012 at 2:15pm.

The announcement was made today by Prospect Theater Company Producing Artistic Director Cara Reichel and Managing Director Melissa Huber.

The cast of Death By Design will include Tony Award winner Cady Huffman (Cole Porter's NYMPH ERRANT, The Producers, Steel Pier), Robert Petkoff(Ragtime, Anything Goes), Jennifer Blood (Cole Porter's NYMPH ERRANT), Rachel de Benedet (Catch Me If You Can, The Addams Family, Nine),Jason Collins (Once Upon a Time in New Jersey), Tom Nelis (Enron, The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, Aida), Adam Overett (The Light in the Piazza, Dirty Dancing) and Robby Sharpe (Iron Curtain, The Pursuit of Persephone).

Prospect Theater Company previously produced Urbinati's new adaptation of Cole Porter's NYMPH ERRANT and, in 2007, another of his mystery plays,West Moon Street. Death By Design will be directed by Will Pomerantz, who directed the Prospect production of Cole Porter's NYMPH ERRANT.

What happens when you mix the brilliant wit of Noel Coward with the intricate plotting of Agatha Christie? Set during a weekend in an English country manor in 1932, Death by Design is a delightful and mysterious mash-up of two of the greatest English writers of all time. Edward Bennett, a playwright, and his wife Sorel Bennett, an actress, flee London and head to Cookham after a disastrous opening night. But various guests arrive unexpectedly – a conservative politician, a fiery socialist, a nearsighted ingenue, a zany modern dancer – each with a long-held secret. When one of the guests is murdered, it's left to Bridgit, the feisty Irish maid with a macabre interest in homicide, to solve the crime. Death by Design is more than homage – it's a new classic.

Rob Urbinati wrote the new adaptation of Cole Porter's NYMPH ERRANT produced by Prospect Theater Company. His plays include Hazelwood Jr. Highat The New Group, published by Samuel French; West Moon Street produced by Prospect Theater Company in 2007 and at theatres across the United States, Canada, and England, published by Samuel French; Howard Zinn's Rebel Voices for Culture Project; Cruel & Barbarous Treatment at Gloucester Stage Company; Miss Julie in Hollywood at 78^th Street Theatre Lab; Shangri La, and Karaoke Night at the Suicide Shack at Queens Theatre;Death by Design at Houston Family Arts Center. Death by Design, Rebel Voices, and Shangri La will be published by Samuel French in 2013. Rob has directed at Public Theatre, Classic Stage Company, Culture Project, York Theatre, Cherry Lane Theatre, Pearl Theatre, Abingdon Theatre, New York Music Theatre Festival, New Jersey Repertory Company, and theaters across the country. Rob is a member of SDC and The Dramatists Guild, an alumnus of the Drama League, and Lincoln Center Directors Lab, and Director of New Play Development at Queens Theatre.