DIVIDING THE ESTATE Opens Tonight 11/20

Lincoln Center Theater (under the direction of Andre Bishop, Artistic Director, and Bernard Gersten, Executive Producer), by arrangement with Primary Stages (Casey Childs, Founder and Executive Producer, Andrew Leynse, Artistic Director, Elliot Fox, Managing Director),presents Horton Foote's critically acclaimed new play, DIVIDING THE ESTATE, directed by Michael Wilson at The Booth Theatre (222 West 45 Street).  The production began preview performances Thursday, October 23 opens tonight, Thursday, November 20 for a limited engagement.

DIVIDING THE ESTATE, a human comedy about a family that must confront its past as it prepares for its future, opened to critical acclaim last fall at Primary Stages.  The production featured a cast of 13 headed by Elizabeth Ashley, Arthur French, Hallie Foote, Penny Fuller and Gerald McRaney, with Devon Abner, Pat Bowie, James DeMarse, Virginia Kull, Maggie Lacey, Nicole Lowrance, Jenny Dare Paulin and Keiana Richard, all of whom will reprise their performances this fall.

DIVIDING THE ESTATE will have sets by Jeff Cowie, costumes by David C. Woolard, lighting by Rui Rita and original music and sound by John Gromada, the play's original design team.

Playwright Horton Foote returns to Lincoln Center Theater where his play The Carpetbagger's Children was presented at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater.   His many plays include The Day Emily Married, The Roads to Home, The Young Man From Atlanta, The Trip to Bountiful, Lily Dale, The Widow Claire and Laura Dennis.  His honors include the Pulitzer Prize for The Young Man From Atlanta and two Academy Awards for his screenplays for To Kill A Mockingbird and Tender Mercies.

Director Michael Wilson staged Horton Foote's The Carpetbagger's Children at Lincoln Center Theater as well as the playwright's The Day Emily Married at Primary Stages.  His other recent New York stage credits include Old Acquaintance for the Roundabout Theatre, Chris Shinn's What Didn't Happen, Eve Ensler's Necessary Targets and Jane Anderson's Defying Gravity.  He has been the Artistic Director of the Hartford Stage for the past 10 years.

DIVIDING THE ESTATE will be performed Tuesday through Saturday evenings at 8pm with matinees Wednesday and Saturday at 2pm and Sunday at 3 pm.  (There is no Saturday matinee on Oct. 25.)  Tickets will be available beginning Monday, September 22, at the Booth Theater box office, by calling Tele-Charge at (212) 239-6200 or on-line by visiting www.lct.org.

Lincoln Center Theater is currently presenting its critically acclaimed, award winning production of  Rodgers & Hammerstein's South Pacific, winner of 7 2008 Tony Awards including Best Musical Revival,  directed by Bartlett Sher at the Vivian Beaumont Theater.  This Fall, in addition to DIVIDING THE ESTATE, LCT will present Noah Haidle's new play Saturn Returns, directed by Nicholas Martin at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater beginning Thursday, October 16.  Also this fall, LCT will begin a new programming initiative - LCT3 - devoted to producing the work of emerging playwrights, directors and designers.  Through mounting fully staged, modestly budgeted productions, LCT3 will bring a new generation of artists and audiences to LCT.  LCT3's first production, Clay, a one-man hip-hop show written and performed by Matt Sax and directed by Eric Rosen, will begin performances Monday, October 6 at the Duke on 42nd Street.

Elizabeth Ashley (Stella) Broadway:  Enchanted April, The Best Man, Take Her, She's Mine (Tony and Theatre World Awards), Barefoot in the Park (Tony nomination), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Tony nomination), The Skin of Our Teeth, Caesar and Cleopatra, Legend, Hide and Seek, Agnes of God. Considered one of the definitive interpreters of Tennessee Williams work, she has starred in many of his plays including (in addition to Cat On A Hot Tin Roof) Eight by Tenn, Suddenly Last Summer, The Red Devil Battery Sign, Sweet Bird of Youth, The Glass Menagerie.  Film:  The Carpetbaggers, Ship of Fools (Golden Globe nomination), Rancho Deluxe, Paternity, Dragnet, Happiness (Independent Spirit Award).  Her many TV credits include:  Evening Shade (Emmy nomination),  The Two Mrs. Grenvilles, Miami Vice, Law & Order, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Homicide, The Larry Sanders Show.

Arthur French (Doug) Broadway:  Ma Rainery's Black Bottom, The River Niger, The Iceman Cometh, Death of A Salesman, Design For Living, You Can't Take It With You.  Off-Broadway:  Two Trains Running (Lucille Lortel Award), Driving Miss Daisy. Film:  Music of the Heart, The Out-of-Towners, Kinsey.  Founding member of the original Negro Ensemble Co.  Obie Award for Sustained Excellence of Performance.

Hallie Foote (Mary Jo) LCT:  The Carpetbaggers Children.  Off-Broadway:  The Day Emily Married, When They Speak of Rita, The Trip to Bountiful, The Last of Thornton's, Talking Pictures, Night Seasons, Laura Dennis, The Roads To Home, The Widow Claire.  Film:  1918, On Valentine's Day,   Her awards include the 1995 Drama Desk Award for the Horton Foote Season at the Signature Theatre Company and a 1993 Obie Award for The Roads To Home.

Penny Fuller (Lucille) LCT:  A New Brain, An American Daughter.  Broadway:  Barefoot in the Park, Cabaret, Applause, Rex.   Her many off-Broadway and regional credits include:  The Cherry Orchard, Harold Pinter's Betrayal, The Seagull, Chekhov in Yalta, Twelfth Night.    TV:  The Elephant Man (Emmy Award), NYPD Blue, Love and War and received Emmy nominations for Cat on A Hot Tin Roof, Miss Rose White and China Beach.

Gerald McRaney (Lewis).  Off-Broadway:  The Exonerated opposite Jill Clayburgh.  His many television credits include the series Jericho, Deadwood, Simon and Simon, Major Dad, JAG and the films and mini-series Take Me Home: The John Denver Story,  Nothing Lasts Forever, A Stranger Beside Me, Not my Son, Deadly Vows, Someone She Knows and Dream of Murder.

Primary Stages Primary Stages was founded in 1984 as a New York State non-profit theater company with the mission of producing new plays and nurturing the development of playwrights.  Primary Stages has significantly contributed to the non-profit theater community by producing 22 seasons and over 90 productions.  By fostering an environment where writers are encouraged to explore the scope of their creative vision, Primary Stages has been instrumental in developing the skills of hundreds of young artists as well as helping to create a library of new works for the American theater.  Primary Stages has given life to many new plays by such writers as Charles Busch, Constance Congdon, A. R. Gurney, Willy Holtzman, David Ives, Julia Jordan, Gen LeRoy, Romulus Linney, Donald Margulies, Melissa Manchester, Terrence McNally, Conor McPherson, Lanie Robertson, John Patrick Shanley, and Mac Wellman.  Over the years the company has received considerable critical acclaim including Obie, AUDELCO Outer Critic Circle, Lucille Lortel, Drama League and Drama Desk awards and nominations. The Stendhal Syndrome; No Niggers, No Jews, No Dogs; One Million Butterflies; Boy; Indian Blood; Sabina; In The Continuum, and Hunting and Gathering are among the many plays that received their world premieres at Primary Stages.

 Photo Credit James Leynes