THE AUSTERITY OF HOPE Opens Off-Broadway 10/19

ELR Productions, LLC will present the Off-Broadway premiere of THE AUSTERITY OF HOPE, a new drama by Dan Fingerman about gay relationships set to the backdrop of the 2008 Obama campaign, with previews beginning Friday, October 19th on the mainstage at the Abingdon Theatre Arts Complex, 312 West 36th street. The official opening will be on Sunday, October 21, 2012. Dan Dinero Directs.

THE AUSTERITY OF HOPE "exposes the interpersonal dynamics of a group of gay friends in Astoria Queens and the issues they and young adults across the country confronted during the 2008 election of Barack Obama – relationships, careers, finances and sex. During a period that famously renewed the spirit of politics in America, they begin to balance their excitement for the hope he promises with the realization that true change might only come from within each one of them."

The cast of THE AUSTERITY OF HOPE includes Akeem Baisden Folkes, Todd Flaherty, Derrick Ledbetter*, Lee Garrett,Kohler McKenzie*, Jacob Perkins, Emily Rieder, Max Rhyser*, Micah Spayer* and Anni Weisband.

Set Design is by Helen Ammon, Lighting Design is by Lauren Bremen, Costume Design is by Liene Dobraja, the Stage Manager is Ashley Warren* and Tzipora Kaplan is the Production Manager.

Playwright Dan Fingerman’s first play The Austerity of Hope enjoyed a sold-old and well-reviewed run at the 2011 Fresh Fruit Festival. He is currently employed by Guilford Publications, an academic publishing firm and has worked for a number of NYC politicians in the past. A graduate of the University at Albany (SUNY), he currently serves on the Steering Committee of Out Astoria and has led an AIDS Walk Team for the past seven years.

Dan Dinero (Director) won the Fresh Fruit Festival award for Best Director last year for The Austerity of Hope, and is thrilled to return to the piece. Other NY directing credits: six plays for Emerging Artists Theatre; The Rubber Room for Artistic New Directions; and Fixing Frank and Lonely Planet with the Greenland Theatre Collective, a company he co-founded. Dan assisted Jeff Calhoun on the Broadway productions of both Brooklyn (also Denver Civic, NY workshop) and Deaf West’s Big River (also National tour), and he assistant directed the New York premiere of Tennessee Williams’s Spring Storm. This year, Dan will finish his dissertation on musical theatre and subjectivity for a Ph.D. in Performance Studies at NYU-Tisch; he holds an M.A. from the same program, and a B.A. from Yale University.

Elyssa Rabinowitz (Producer) is the executive producer of ELR Productions, LLC which was created in May 2012. The company was founded in order to provide new and upcoming artists an avenue to bring their vision of original works to life. She previously produced The Austerity of Hope as part of the Fresh Fruit Festival. She holds a B.A. from West Chester University and an M.B.A. from New York Institute of Technology.

Performances of THE AUSTERITY OF HOPE are on 10/19 at 8PM; 10/20 at 2PM and 8PM; 10/21 at 2PM; 10/23 at 7PM; 10/24 at 7PM; 10/26 at 8PM; 10/27 at 2PM and 8PM; 10/28; 2PM; 10/29 at 7PM; 10/30 at 7PM; 11/1 at 8PM; 11/2 at 8PM; 11/3 at 2PM and 8PM.

Tickets are $18 and available at www.smarttix.com For more information please join the Facebook page at www.facebook.com/theausterityofhope.

The June Havoc Theater is located on the 1st floor of the Abingdon Theater Complex at 312 West 36th St.

*Appear courtesy of Actor’s Equity Association.

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