Acclaimed theater company Playwrights Horizons (Tim Sanford, Artistic Director; Leslie Marcus, Managing Director) has announced nine initial performers who will participate in the return of its unique benefit evening STORIES ON 5 STORIES on Monday, November 9. Among those taking part in the special event will be two-time Academy Award winner and two-time Obie Award winner Diane Wiest (Memory House at Playwrights Horizons/PH, Hannah and Her Sisters, Bullets Over Broadway), Tony Award winner Debra Monk (Assassins at PH, Redwood Curtain, Curtains), Obie Award winner Jason Butler Harner (current Stage Manager in Our Town, Hedda Gabler, The Coast of Utopia), Clarence Derwent Award winner Zoe Kazan (100 Saints You Should Know at PH; Come Back, Little Sheba; Things We Want), Theatre World Award winner Cassie Beck (The Drunken City and Prayer for My Enemy at PH), Cristin Milioti (The Retributionists at PH, the upcoming The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter), Sue Jean Kim (The Drunken City and BFE at PH, 365 Days/365 Plays), Carmen M. Herlihy (The Thugs, Crooked) and Greg Keller (Broadway's Uncle Vanya, The Rainmaker). Additional performers will be announced in the coming weeks.
The event will feature new works by seven of the theater's alumni writers: Adam Bock (The Drunken City at PH; The Receptionist, The Thugs), composer Randy Courts (Jack's Holiday at PH; Magic Tree House: The Musical, The Gifts of the Magi), Pulitzer Prize finalist and Obie Award winner Adam Rapp (Essential Self- Defense and Kindness at PH; Red Light Winter), Jonathan Reynolds (Geniuses at PH; Dinner with Demons, Stonewall Jackson's House), Evan Smith (The Savannah Disputation, Psych and The Uneasy Chair at PH; Serviceman), Kathleen Tolan (A Girl's Life; Kate's Diary, The Wax and Memory House all at PH) and Sarah Treem (A Feminine Ending at PH, "In Treatment"). The event will take place at Playwrights' home at 416 West 42nd Street, and will benefit the company's annual programs and productions.
Debra Monk's Broadway credits include Curtains (Drama Desk Award, Tony nomination), Chicago; Reckless; Thou Shalt Not; Ah, Wilderness!; Steel Pier (Tony nomination); Company; Picnic (Tony nomination); Redwood Curtain (Tony Award); Nick and Nora; Prelude to a Kiss; Pump Boys and Dinettes (co-author, Tony nomination). Off-Broadway: Show People, The Seagull, The Time of the Cuckoo (Obie Award), Death-Defying Acts, Three Hotels (also Kennedy Center, Helen Hayes Award), Assassins, Oil City Symphony (co- author, Drama Desk Award). Film: The Great Buck Howard; The Savages; The Producers; Palindromes; Milwaukee, Minnesota; Center Stage; Devil's Advocate; In & Out; The Substance of Fire; Extreme Measures; The Bridges of Madison County; Jeffrey; Fearless; Prelude to a Kiss; Reckless; Mrs. Winterbourne; Bed of Roses and the upcoming Love and Other Impossible Pursuits. TV: "Ghost Whisperer," "The Closer," "Desperate Housewives," "Frasier," "The Music Man," "Eloise," "Law & Order," "Redwood Curtain," Katie Sipowicz on "NYPD Blue" (Emmy Award), George's mother on "Grey's Anatomy," Ellen's mother on "Damages," and Will Schuester's mother on "Glee."
Diane Wiest has most recently been seen on the New York stage in Arthur Miller's All My Sons on Broadway. Other recent stage appearances include The Seagull at Classic Stage Company, Wendy Wasserstein's Third at Lincoln Center and Kathleen Tolan's Memory House at Playwrights Horizons. On Broadway, she's appeared in Salome, Solitaire, Othello, Beyond Therapy and In the Summer House. She won Obie Awards for her performances in The Art of Dining, Other Places and Serenading Louie. Film credits include The Purple Rose of Cairo, Hannah and her Sisters (Academy Award), Radio Days, September and Bullets Over Broadway (Academy Award), all by Woody Allen. She also appeared in Parenthood (Academy Award nomination), Edward Scissorhands and The Birdcage. She was last seen on screen in Charlie Kaufman's movie Synecdoche, New York and the HBO series "In Treatment" (Emmy Award). She will next appear on stage at Classic Stage Company in Kathleen Tolan's adaptation of Alexander Ostrovsky's The Forest.
