UGLY LIES THE BONE at Roundabout Underground announces complete cast

ROUNDABOUT UNDERGROUND

ANNOUNCES FULL CASTING, DATES & VIRTUAL REALITY PARTNERSHIP

For The World Premiere Of

UGLY LIES THE BONE

A new play by LINDSEY FERRENTINO

Directed by PATRICIA McGREGOR

Featuring

KARRON GRAVES, MAMIE GUMMER, CAITLIN O’CONNELL, CHRIS STACK, HAYNES THIGPEN

Previews begin September 10, 2015

Official opening October 13, 2015

Limited engagement through November 22, 2015

Off-Broadway at the Black Box Theatre in the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre

This production launches the ninth season of Roundabout Underground following eight critically acclaimed seasons of world-premiere productions since its premiere in 2007. All tickets $25.

Roundabout Theatre Company (Todd Haimes, Artistic Director) is pleased to announce the cast for the Roundabout Underground world-premiere production of Ugly Lies the Bone by Lindsey Ferrentino, directed by Patricia McGregor, as part of the 50th Anniversary Season. The cast will feature Karron Graves (Kacie), Mamie Gummer (Jess), Caitlin O’Connell (Voice / Their Mom), Chris Stack (Stevie) and Haynes Thigpen (Kelvin). Roundabout welcomes back Mamie Gummer, who made her New York stage debut in Roundabout’s 2005 production of Mr. Marmalade.

The world premiere of Ugly Lies the Bone begins preview performances Off-Broadway on Thursday, September 10, 2015 and opens officially on Tuesday, October 13, 2015 at the Black Box Theatre in the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre (111 West 46th Street). This is a limited engagement through Sunday, November 22, 2015. All tickets for Roundabout Underground productions are $25.

For this world premiere Roundabout Theatre Company is partnering with DeepStream VR, a company pioneering virtual reality to help relieve pain and improve quality of life, to allow audiences of Ugly Lies the Bone to experience the technology used to improve the quality of life for the play’s central character, Jess (Gummer). DeepStream VR is creating the next generation of VR games with biofeedback to help patients manage pain, speed rehabilitation and achieve better health and wellness. More information about DeepStream VR is available at deepstreamvr.com.

Newly discharged soldier Jess (Gummer) has finally returned to her Florida hometown. She brings with her not only vivid memories of her three tours in Afghanistan, but painful burns that have left her physically and emotionally scarred. Jess soon realizes that things at home have changed even more than she has. Through the use of virtual reality video game therapy, she builds a breathtaking new world where she can escape her pain. As Jess advances farther in the game, she begins to restore her relationships, her life and, slowly, herself.

Ugly Lies the Bone launches the ninth season of Roundabout Underground, an initiative to introduce and cultivate artists in Roundabout’s 62-seat Black Box Theatre, at the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre (111 West 46th Street). Ugly Lies the Bone, which was presented as part of last year’s Underground Reading Series at Roundabout, is the first-ever recipient of a Special Citation of Excellence from The Laurents / Hatcher Foundation. Prior productions include the acclaimed world premieres of Stephen Karam’s Speech & Debate (2007), Steven Levenson’s The Language of Trees (2008), Adam Gwon’s Ordinary Days (2009), Kim Rosenstock’s Tigers Be Still (2010), David West Read’s The Dream of the Burning Boy (2011), Andrew Hinderaker’s Suicide, Incorporated (2011), Joshua Harmon’s Bad Jews (2012), Meghan Kennedy’s Too Much, Too Much, Too Many (2013), and Jeff Augustin’s Little Children Dream of God (2015).

Roundabout Underground is an initiative to showcase new plays that will either give a debut production to an emerging writer or director or allow an experienced director to go back to his/her creative roots. Robyn Goodman (Artistic Consultant to the Roundabout) serves as Artistic Producer, with Associate Producers Jill Rafson and Josh Fiedler, for this initiative that continues to be a creative breeding ground for nurturing new talent.

The 62-seat Black Box Theatre, below the Laura Pels Theatre in the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre, allows Roundabout to take artistic risks that are better suited for a more intimate space.

The creative team for Ugly Lies the Bone includes: Tim Brown (Sets), Dede Ayite (Costumes), Jiyoun Chang (Lighting), Jessica Paz (Sound), Caite Hevner Kemp, (Projections) and Vincent T. Schicchi & Thomas Denier Jr. (Prosthetics).

Ticket Information

All tickets for Ugly Lies the Bone are $25 General Admission tickets and will be available to purchase on Sunday, August 2, 2015. For first access to tickets and insider news, sign up for Roundabout’s email club at www.roundabouttheatre.org or by calling Roundabout Audience Services at 212.719.1300.

PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE

Ugly Lies the Bone will play Tuesday through Sunday evenings at 7:00PM with Saturday and Sunday matinees at 1:30PM.

The Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre opened in March 2004 with an acclaimed premiere of Lynn Nottage’s Intimate Apparel starring Viola Davis, directed by Dan Sullivan. In the ten years since that landmark production, the center has expanded beyond the Laura Pels Theatre to include the Black Box Theatre and now a new education center. The Steinberg Center continues to reflect Roundabout’s commitment to produce new works by established and emerging writers as well as revivals of classic plays. This state-of-the-art off-Broadway theatre and education complex is made possible by a major gift from The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust. The Trust was created in 1986 by Harold Steinberg to promote and advance American Theatre as a vital part of our culture by supporting playwrights, encouraging the development and production of new work, and providing financial assistance to not-for-profit theatre companies across the country. Since its inception, the Trust has awarded over $70 million to more than 125 theatre organizations.

Roundabout Underground’s home is a 62-seat Black Box Theatre, which is also used year-round by Roundabout’s education department for its activities including student productions and professional development workshops.

Major support for Ugly Lies the Bone is provided by Jodi and Dan Glucksman.

Lindsey Ferrentino’s Ugly Lies the Bone and Roundabout Theatre Company are recipients of a Special Citation of Excellence from The Laurents/Hatcher Foundation.

Roundabout’s work with new and emerging playwrights and directors, as well as development of new work, is made possible by Katheryn Patterson and Tom Kempner.

We gratefully acknowledge the Roundabout Leaders for New Works: Alec Baldwin, Peggy and Mark Ellis, Jodi Glucksman, Sylvia Golden, Judith and Douglas Krupp, K. Myers, Laura Pels International Foundation for Theater, Laura S. Rodgers, Lauren and Danny Stein, Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust, Yolanda R. Turocy, Lori Uddenberg, and Xerox Foundation.

Ugly Lies the Bone was developed during a residency at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center’s National Playwrights Conference in 2014 (Preston Whiteway, Executive Director; Wendy C. Goldberg, Artistic Director).

Ugly Lies the Bone is a Woodward/Newman Award winner, and was developed and produced by the Bloomington Playwrights Project (Chad Rabinovitz, Producing Artistic Director).

This play received a developmental workshop by the Theatre Program of Fordham University in October 2014.

BIOGRAPHIES:

KARRON GRAVES (Kacie): Broadway: Isobel Ashbrook in the Tony-nominated Coram Boy. Off-Broadway: NY City Center/Pearl (The Philanderer), 59E59 (Two Point Oh), Mint (Construction), Manhattan Theatre Club (Nine Armenians), Lincoln Center Theatre/Newhouse (Danger:Memory!). Regional: Peterborough Players (includes 2014 NH Best Actress Award for The Voysey Inheritance, and Our Town opp. James Whitmore), SITI Company world premiere at Arena Stage (Intimations for Saxophone), SITI Co original production at ASF, McCarter Theater, Ford's Theatre (opp. James Whitmore), Actors' Theatre of Louisville, Dallas Theatre Center, Denver Center, A Noise Within, Vineyard Playhouse. Karron is most known for playing Mary Warren in Arthur Miller’s screen adaptation of The Crucible opposite Daniel Day-Lewis. Other screen credits include She Dreams of Fireflies (upcoming), Late Phases, The Good Shepherd, The Fig Tree (opp. Doris Roberts and Teresa Wright), “Saturday Night Live” and the “SNL 40th Anniversary Special,” “Monk,” “Guiding Light” (various), “Law & Order,” (various) “Dolphin Cove” (series regular). Karron has worked with directors including Nicholas Hytner, Gregory Mosher, Melly Still, Robert DeNiro, Anne Bogart, Lisa Peterson, Lynne Meadows, Gus Kaikkonen, Trip Cullman and Jackson Gay. Opera: six seasons at The Metropolitan Opera (Youth Chorus). Training/Education: Yale, MFA; Princeton, BA; SITI Company (paid training); LaGuardia H.S. of Performing Arts in Manhattan. Karron is on faculty at NYU Tisch and AMDA, and has directed at Yale College, Yale School of Drama, Wesleyan University, Princeton University and Gas Lamp Players.

MAMIE GUMMER (Jess). Film, television and stage actress Mamie Gummer made her off-Broadway debut in 2005 with the premiere of Roundabout Theatre Company’s Mr. Marmalade, for which she won a Theatre World Award. In 2007 Gummer received a Lucille Lortel Award nomination for her performance in The Water’s Edge. She also received high critical praise for her Broadway debut in the Tony Award-nominated revival of Les Lliaisons Dangereuses in 2008. In 2006 Gummer made her first film appearance in Lasse Hallström's The Hoax with Richard Gere and Hope Davis. In 2007 she appeared in Evening with an all-star ensemble including Claire Danes, Patrick Wilson and Vanessa Redgrave. Other film credits include: Ang Lee’s Taking Woodstock, Kimberly Peirce's Stop Loss, Jodie Markell’s The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond, Daniel Adams’ The Lightkeepers, John Carpenter’s The Ward, Jeff Lipsky’s Twelve Thirty, Liz W. Garcia’s The Lifeguard, Steven Soderbergh’s Side Effects and Daniel Barnz’s Cake. Gummer will next be seen in Jonathan Demme’s Ricki and the Flash for Sony with Meryl Streep, Rick Springfield and Kevin Kline, as well as in James Ponsoldt’s End of the Tour. In television, Gummer is currently recurring on WGN America’s “Manhattan” opposite John Benjamin Hickey, Olivia Williams, Ashley Zukerman and Rachel Brosnahan. She plays “Nora,” a street-smart spy who uses her charm and sexuality to pass atomic secrets to the Soviets. Additionally, Gummer has received positive buzz on her guest starring role on the Emmy nominated series “The Good Wife.” In 2008 she was seen in the Emmy and Golden Globe winning HBO miniseries “John Adams” with Paul Giamatti and Laura Linney. Other television credits include: “Off the Map,” “The Big C” and “Emily Owens M.D.” She also recently shot the pilot “The Money” for HBO. Gummer is a graduate of Northwestern University and additionally studied theater at the British Academy of Dramatic Arts.

CAITLIN O’CONNELL (Voice / Their Mom) Broadway: Mothers and Sons, The Heiress, 33 Variations. Off-Broadway: The Killing of Sister George (TACT); All’s Well That Ends Well (NYSF); Stuff Happens (The Public); Third (LCT); Boy (Primary Stages); Baby Screams Miracle, 16 Words or Less (Clubbed Thumb). Regional: Mrs. Warren’s Profession, Playboy of the Western World (Guthrie); Pygmalion (Williamstown Theater Festival); Habeus Corpus (South Coast Rep); Much Ado About Nothing, Twelfth Night, Merry Wives of Windsor (Shakespeare Theatre); The Matchmaker, Winters Tale, Othello, Oh, Pioneers! (Center Stage); Julius Ceasar (Old Globe); Third, The Clean House, Dinner With Friends, The Little Foxes (Denver Center Theatre Company); You Can’t Take It With You (Everyman Theater); Doubt (ATL/Cincinnati Playhouse); Ahmanson, Yale Rep, McCarter, O’Neill Center, Dallas Theater Center, Milwaukee Rep, Intiman Theatre. Film: Oppenheimer Strategies, The Automatic Hate, The Stepchild. TV: “Unforgettable,” “Whoopi,” L&O,” “Homicide.”

CHRIS STACK (Stevie) Most recently appeared in Daniel Talbott's Afghanistan, Zimbabwe, America, Kuwait (Rattlestick/Piece By Piece/Snug Harbor), Christina Gorman's Fidelis (The Public), A.R. Gurney's Wayside Motor Inn (Signature Theater), John Banville's Love In The Wars (Bard Summerscape), Kirk Lynn's Your Mother's Copy of the Kama Sutra (Playwrights Horizons), Sarah Shaefer's Gin Baby (IRT), David Adjmi's Marie Antoinette (Soho Rep), and Lucy Thurber's Killers & Other Family (Rattlestick). Other theater credits include Arlene Hutton's Vacuum (NYC Fringe); Stephanie Janssen's Umbrella Plays (The Tank); Daniel Reitz's Self Portrait in a Blue Room (Ensemble Studio Theater); Jim Christy's Love & Communication (Passage Theater); Allan Knee's Last Seder (Workshop Theater Co.); Liz Tuccillo's Joe Fearless (Atlantic Theater). TV and Film: “Law & Order: SVU,” “Blue Bloods,” “White Collar,” “One Life To Live,” “As The World Turns,” “Damages,” “Third Watch,” “Conviction,” “The Education of Max Bickford;” Evening, The Mini, School of Rock, Roger Dodger, Maine Story, New Media, Small Collection and Juke.

HAYNES THIGPEN (Kelvin): Broadway: Dead Accounts, Misalliance. Off-Broadway: An Octoroon at Theatre for a New Audience, The Patron Saint of Sea Monsters and Our House at Playwrights Horizons, To the Bone at The Cherry Lane, The Umbrella Plays at The Fringe Festival, Revengers Tragedy and The Duchess of Malfi at Red Bull Theatre Co. Regional: Hamlet at The McCarter, The Black Monk at Yale Rep, Our House at The Denver Center, The Aliens at San Francisco Playhouse, Dead Accounts at Cincinnati Playhouse, Twelfth Night at The Shakespeare Theatre, Black Sheep at Barrington Stage, Cymbeline at Cal Shakes, August: Osage County at The Old Globe, Twelfth Night at Great Lakes Theatre Festival. Film and TV: “The Good Wife,” “Law and Order,” “Law and Order: Criminal Intent,” Dance 'till Dawn, Blackbird. Training: Juilliard.

LINDSEY FERRENTINO (Playwright) is a New York-based playwright originally from the sunny state of Florida where many of her plays are set. Ugly Lies the Bone is the winner of the 2014 Newman/Woodward Drama Award. The play was developed at the National Playwrights Conference at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center as part of their 50th Anniversary Season and had a workshop production this past fall at Fordham University. The play was also chosen for Roundabout Theater Company's Underground Reading Series, Premiere Stages New Play Contest, Florida Studio Theater's New Play Festival, and The Great Plains Theater Conference as a Play Lab selection. More recently, Lindsey was granted the 2015 Emerging Writer's commission from South Coast Repertory. Her work has been developed/performed at Atlantic Theater Company, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, New York Theatre Workshop, 3LD Art and Technology Center, Manhattan Repertory Theater, and The Marilyn Monroe Theater in New York. Her work has been seen regionally at The Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, The Alliance Theater in Georgia, The Blank Theater in LA, and The Institute of Contemporary Arts in London. She was a 2014 Kendeda Playwright with the Alliance Theater. Ferrentino is a recipient of the Edward Albee Playwriting Fellowship and Residency as well as The Blue Ridge Summer Theater Festival’s Playwriting Fellowship. Her short stories have been published in New York magazine and Aaduna Literary Magazine. She holds a BFA from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, an MFA in playwriting from Hunter College, and is currently pursuing a second master's degree in playwriting at the Yale School of Drama. lindseyferrentino.com

PATRICIA MCGREGOR (Director) is a Harlem-based director, writer and deviser of new work. She recently directed the New York premiere of Brownsville Song: B-Side for Tray at LCT3, and the world premiere of Will Power’s Stagger Lee at Dallas Theatre Center. Her production of Adoration of an Old Woman by José Rivera was produced at INTAR Theatre, and her recent production of Marcus Gardley’s The House That Will Not Stand transferred from Berkeley Rep to Yale Repertory Theatre in Winter 2014. Patricia’s other recent credits include The Mountaintop at Philadelphia Theatre Company, Spunk at California Shakespeare Theatre, and the world premiere of Hurt Village at Signature Theatre Center. As Associate Director of Fela! on Broadway, Patricia coached Patti LaBelle in the role of Funmailayo. Patricia has worked at venues including NYSF Shakespeare in the Park, BAM, Second Stage, The Public Theater, The Kitchen, The O'Neill, and the Lincoln Center Institute. She co-founded Angela's Pulse with her sister, choreographer Paloma McGregor. Angela's Pulse creates vital choreoplays and fosters collaboration among artists, educators, organizers, academics and other diverse communities. Patricia attended the Yale School of Drama where she was a Paul and Daisy Soros Fellow and Artistic Director of the Yale Cabaret.

Roundabout Theatre Company is committed to producing the highest quality theatre with the finest artists, sharing stories that endure, and providing accessibility to all audiences. A not-for-profit company, Roundabout fulfills its mission each season through the production of classic plays and musicals; development and production of new works by established and emerging writers; educational initiatives that enrich the lives of children and adults; and a subscription model and audience outreach programs that cultivate and engage all audiences.

Roundabout Theatre Company presents a variety of plays, musicals, and new works on its five stages, each of which is specifically designed to enhance the needs of Roundabout’s mission. Off-Broadway, the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre, which houses the Laura Pels Theatre and Black Box Theatre, with its simple sophisticated design, is perfectly suited to showcasing new plays. The grandeur of its Broadway home on 42nd Street, American Airlines Theatre, sets the ideal stage for the classics. Roundabout’s Studio 54 provides an exciting and intimate Broadway venue for its musical and special event productions. The Stephen Sondheim Theatre offers a state of the art LEED certified Broadway theatre in which to stage major large-scale musical revivals. Together these distinctive homes serve to enhance Roundabout’s work on each of its stages.

American Airlines is the official airline of Roundabout Theatre Company. Roundabout productions are supported, in part, with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, as well as the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

Roundabout’s 2014-2015 season concludes with the world premiere of Joshua Harmon’s Significant Other, directed by Trip Cullman.

Roundabout’s 50th anniversary season in 2015-2016 includes: Clive Owen, Eve Best and Kelly Reilly in Old Times by Harold Pinter, directed by Douglas Hodge; Andrea Martin in Noises Off by Michael Frayn, directed by Jeremy Herrin; The Humans by Stephen Karam, directed by Joe Mantello; Keira Knightley, Gabriel Ebert, Matt Ryan and Judith Light in a new adaptation of Thérèse Raquin by Helen Edmundson, based upon the novel by Émile Zola, directed by Evan Cabnet; Laura Benanti, Josh Radnor, René Auberjonois, Gavin Creel and Jane Krakowski in She Loves Me by Joe Masteroff, Sheldon Harnick and Jerry Bock, directed by Scott Ellis; Jessica Lange, Gabriel Byrne and John Gallagher, Jr. in Long Day’s Journey Into Night by Eugene O’Neill, directed by Jonathan Kent. The 2015-2016 Roundabout Underground production is Ugly Lies the Bone, a new play by Lindsey Ferrentino, directed by Patricia McGregor.