Karen Pittman and Richard Topol Star in

Chautauqua Theater Company’s Signature Staged Reading of

The Glow Overhead Opening Tonight

(Chautauqua, NY) Karen Pittman, best known for playing the role of Jory in the Tony-nominated play Disgraced and starring in the TV series “The Americans,” and Richard Topol, known for numerous Broadway appearances, most recently with Larry David in Fish in the Dark, both star in Chautauqua Theater Company’s (CTC) Signature Staged Reading ofThe Glow Overhead.  Starting tonight and running through August 5 as part of the 2016 season’s New Play Workshop, The Glow Overhead is written by Nick Gandiello, and directed by Sherri Eden Barber, andplays on the Bratton Theater stage at the Chautauqua Institution.  Tickets are $20 and are currently on sale.

Karen Pittman and Richard Topol, both appearing for the first time at CTC after long friendships with the company,play the roles ofMaryanne and Allan Dempsey, a couple confronting the depth of loss after their son disappeared in a deep cave dive many years ago.  Now a young and ambitious diver, played by conservatory member David Samuel, wants to retrieve his remains at great personal risk, while his wife Vivie, played by conservatory member Alex Raby, becomes unwittingly linked to the past.   Building on the success of new work this season, The Glow Overhead skillfully confronts loss and its aftermath in this achingly beautiful play.  Says playwright Nick Gandiello: “The Glow Overhead was inspired by true events involving a deep, dangerous dive into mysterious waters, but it evolved into a meditation on grief and on the hope and loyalty that moves people forward.”

The creative team includesBruno Pierre-Houle (Sets), Alexis Chaney (Costumes), Reza Behjat (Lights) and Josh Samuels (Sound).

Karen Pittman (Maryanne) Her first season at CTC, Karen Pittman’s Broadway credits include Disgraced, Good People, and Passing Strange. Off-Broadway credits include King Liz (Second Stage), Domesticated (Mitzi Newhouse/Lincoln Center), Disgraced (LCT3/Lincoln Center). Her Regional credits include Neat (Kitchen Theatre), and Two Things (Denver Center). Her film credits are “Custody,” “Begin Again,” “The Rewrite,” “The Bourne Legacy,” and “Last Night.” TV credits include the upcoming “Luke Cage” (Marvel Comics), as well as “The Americans,” “Horace and Pete,” “Person of Interest,” “The Blacklist,” “House of Cards,” “The Good Wife,” “Law & Order: SVU,” and “Law & Order.”

Richard Topol (Allan) His first season at CTC, Broadway appearances include Fish in the Dark with Larry David, the Tony winning revivals of The Normal Heart and Awake & Sing, The Merchant of Venice with Al Pacino,Cymbeline, the Country Girl, The School for Scandal, and Julius Caesar with Denzel Washington. Off-Broadway he just closed Paula Vogel’s new play Indecent, and has appeared in Regrets (MTC), Bronx Bombers and Opus (Primary Stages), When the Rain Stops Falling (Lincoln Center), King Lear, Twelfth Night and The Winter’s Tale (The Public Theater), Hamlet (TFANA), as well as new plays at The New Group, EST, Soho Rep, Naked Angels, and Playwrights Horizons. His film and TV credits include Lincoln, Mickey Blue Eyes, Party Girl, Path to Paradise, Indignation, Great Gilly Hopkins (upcoming), Yinz (upcoming), “The Good Wife”, “Elementary”, “Person of Interest”, all the “Law & Order” series, “Ed”, “Gilmore Girls”, “Drew Carey”, and recurring roles on “The Practice”, “Covert Affairs” and “Perception”. He holds an MFA from NYU, has received 2 Drama Desk Best Ensemble awards, is a Fox Fellowship recipient, and a proud member of Actors Equity.

Nick Gandiello (Playwright) His first season at CTC, Nick Gandiello’s plays include The Blameless, which will have a World Premiere in 2017 at the Old Globe San Diego, Sunrise Highway, which won Marin Theatre Company’s 2016 Calicchio Emerging American Playwright Award, Oceanside (Merrimack Repertory Theatre) and The Wedge Horse (Fault Line Theatre).  Nick was the 2015 Page 73 Productions Playwriting Fellow. He is an alumnus of the Ars Nova Play Group. His work has been developed or presented by Manhattan Theatre Club, Ojai Playwrights Conference, Keen Company, Chautauqua Theater Company, Samuel French’s OOB Festival, Capital Stage, Premiere Stages, and Wide Eyed Productions, among others, and his short plays can be found published in Smith and Kraus’s Best 10 Minute Plays of 2015 and 2016.  For the screen, he developed and shot a television pilot, “Substance,” with Ready Set Go Productions. Nick was the Literary Manager of Young Playwrights Inc. from 2012-2015 and was the Associate Artistic Director of Writopia Lab’s 2016 Worldwide Plays Festival. As a Teaching Artist, he has worked with Naked Angels, Merrimack Repertory Theatre, Ojai Playwrights Conference, and the New School for Drama. MFA: New School for Drama.

Sherri Eden Barber (Director)  Her first season at CTC, Sherri Eden Barber is a New York based-theatre director and Artistic Director of Ricochet Collective. Her recent work includes Happily After Ever (Ricochet Collective – 59E59, Edinburgh Fringe), Gordy Crashes (Ricochet Collective), Mr. Landing Takes A Fall (The Flea), Herman Kline’s Midlife Crisis (The Beckett), The Lightning Thief (Theatreworks USA), 24 Hour Plays on Broadway (American Airlines Theatre), Latrell: Live Tonight! (Joe’s Pub), and Dance Lessons (winner of the Samuel French Short Play Festival). She has developed new work with Rattlestick, Orchard Project, The Flea, Culture Project, and Old Vic. Selected Associate and Assistant Directing credits include: Daphne’s Dive (Signature Theatre); Faust: The Concert (Encores! New York City Center); Family Furniture (The Flea); The Village Bike, Side Effects (MCC Theater); These Girls (Glamour Magazine). Sherri is the Program Director at The Drama League, the Core Company Director for The Orchard Project, Artistic Associate at Rattlestick Theater, a Drama League Directing Fellow, and recipient of the US/UK Exchange Award. She received her MFA from the New School for Drama.

TICKETS to The Glow Overhead are $20 and seating is reserved.  Tickets can be purchased online at www.ctcompany.org or by calling (716) 357-6250.  A single event ticket is required, which also serves as a Chautauqua Institution gate pass 4 hours before and 4 hours following the start time of the performance.

PERFORMANCES Wednesday, August 3rd at 8pm; Thursday, August 4th at 4pm; Friday, August 5th at 4pm.

Be a vital part of the process: participate in the post-show discussions following every performance and the related Brown Bag event on Thursday, August 4th at 12:15 PM, an excellent opportunity to hear directly from CTC staff and creatives involved in the workshop.  Brown Bags are free with the purchase of a Chautauqua Institution gate pass.  

LOCATION and PARKING INFORMATION  The Glow Overhead plays at theBratton Theater located at the Chautauqua Institution.  To get to the Bratton Theater from the Chautauqua Institution Main Gate go down the red brick walkway (Miller).  Once at Bestor Plaza take a left on Pratt.  Then go a few blocks and Bratton Theater will be on the left. For additional directions visit www.ctcompany.org.  For parking information visit www.chqtickets.com.

The New Play Workshop Signature Staged Readings continue with Nick Gandiello’s The Glow Overhead August 3 – 5.

2016 Season: The Taming of the Shrew 8/12-8/19, The New Play Workshop Signature Staged Reading: The Glow Overhead 8/3-8/5

Entering its 33rd Season, Chautauqua Theater Company is the resident professional theater and Conservatory of the Chautauqua Institution. Internationally known actors, directors, designers, and writers join 20 emerging artists drawn from the nation’s top training programs to form a unique company that produces a vibrant summer of work in the historic Bratton Theater. Dedicated to the next generation of theater artists, the development of new work, first-rate productions of modern and contemporary classics, and fresh insight into Shakespeare’s canon, CTC produces the best of a year-round regional theater within an eight week summer season.

The pre-eminent expression of lifelong learning in the United States, Chautauqua Institution is a 140-year-old community on the shores of Chautauqua Lake in southwestern New York State that comes alive each summer with a unique mix of fine and performing arts, lectures, interfaith worship and programs, and recreational activities.

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