Photo Flash: At Hand Theatre Co's LETTERS TO THE END OF THE WORLD

At Hand Theatre Company opened the World Premiere of LETTERS TO THE END OF THE WORLD, written and directed by Anton Dudley (Slag Heap, Substitution, Getting Home) Sunday, May 2.

LETTERS TO THE END OF THE WORLD revolves around Todd, a twenty-something gay man in New York City. After reading an article in a fashion magazine, Todd begins writing letters to a woman in Zambia at the forefront of the African AIDS crisis. What starts as a pen pal relationship turns into an unexpected friendship that takes him halfway around the world. He soon discovers that Africa is much closer to his heart than he thinks.

The production stars Shannon Burkett (Dead City), Francesca Choy-Kee, Tyrone Mitchell Henderson (The America Play, The Tempest with Patrick Stewart), and Charles Socarides (2006 Tony-winning Awake & Sing!), with set by Eli Kaplan-Wildmann, lighting by Ryan Bauer and costumes by Nicole Wee. The Production Stage Manager is Donald Butchko.

Anton Dudley's Off-Broadway productions include Substitution (Soho Playhouse), Getting Home (Second Stage) and Slag Heap (Cherry Lane). Other productions include Honor and the River (Walnut Street Theatre, Luna Stage, New York Stage & Film), Cold Hard Cash (Williamstown Theatre Festival), Circumvention (Keen Company), Davy & Stu (Ensemble
Studio Theatre), The Lake's End (Adirondack Theatre Festival), BOB (New York Stage & Film). Anton's work has been published by Playscripts, Inc. (Honor and the River and Circumvention), Heinemann Press, Meriwether Publishing, The Dramatist, Paper Theatre, and New American Short Plays 2005 (edited by Craig Lucas). The award-winning short film of Davy & Stu, for which Anton adapted the screenplay, appears in Boys Life 6, and was an official selection of over 60
international film festivals. He is a member of MCC Theater's Playwrights' Coalition, New York Theatre Workshop's Usual Suspects, Partial Comfort Productions, and Lark Play Development Center.

At Hand Theatre Company (Daniel Horrigan, Artistic Director; Justin Scribner, Executive Director) was founded in 2007 with a mission to produce new plays in greener ways. At Hand's theatrical productions are created using environmentally conscious means, with limited materials. They explore simple, creative solutions that are cost effective, eco-friendly and engage the imagination of the audience. Their directors, designers, and actors work collaboratively with playwrights on original texts - helping them shape the script, negotiating the language of the play, and focusing the storytelling. Past productions include the World Premieres of Lila Cante by Mark Snyder, Dan Horrigan's one-man show My AiDS, Brian Dykstra's Silence!, Andrea Lepcio's One Nation Under, and Jono Hustis' Cake and Plays... But Without the Cake, as well as the New York Premiere of Trickster at the Gate by John Patrick Bray. At Hand also produces an annual one-act festival entitled POP! and a Staged Reading Series of new plays. For more information visit www.athandtheatre.com

Photo Credit: Matthew Murphy