The Phoenix Theatre of Indianapolis announces the opening of the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winning August: Osage County by Tracy Letts. This fiercely funny play about an American family opens Thursday, February 16 on the Phoenix Mainstage.
While today's new plays often call for a minimalist set and small cast, August: Osage County broke away from these trends when premiering in 2008, requiring a three-story home to be constructed on stage, a classical three act structure, and a cast of 13. "Although the play has a larger-than-usual set and cast for the Phoenix, the elements that we look for in a piece are all there. Each character is fully developed, dealing with complex, current issues, and each one travels their own journey through the course of the play," says Phoenix Producing Director Bryan Fonseca who is also directing August: Osage County.
Winner of numerous prizes and critical acclaim, August: Osage County was named to dozens of "Best of" lists, and The New York Times critic Charles Isherwood called the play "the most exciting new American play Broadway has seen in years. Fiercely funny and bitingly sad, this turbo-charged tragicomedy - which spans three acts and more than three blissful hours doesn't just jump-start the fall theater season...August throws it instantaneously into high gear."
"Casting this show was certainly a labor of love," says Fonseca. "The first audition was a read-through of the Act 2 funeral dinner and when I looked on that stage, I saw the sheer amount of their combined years in theatre, the length of the friendships those people represented to me personally and the tremendous amount of talent embodied by those actors. Now each rehearsal is like a reunion of sorts, like looking back at the history of the Phoenix."
Photo Credit: Zach Rosing
Jean (Abby Hart), Mattie Fae (Gayle Steigerwald), Violet (Martha Jacobs-standing), Little Charles (Matthew Roland), Barbara (Diane Kondrat) and Bill (Bill Simmons)
Sisters Karen (Diane Timmberman) and Barbara (Diane Kondrat)
Barbara (Diane Kondrat), Bill (Bill Simmons), Violet (Martha Jacobs) and Ivy (Gail Bray – foreground)
Barbara (Diane Kondrat) and Bill (Bill Simmons)
Jean (Abby Hart), Charles (Charles Goad), Little Charles (Matthew Roland), Mattie Fae (Gayle Steigerwald), Barbara (Diane Kondrat), Steve (Richard S. Rand), Bill (Bill Simmons), Ivy (Gail Bray), and Violet (Martha Jacobs)
