Theater J to Close Season with Ziegler's Another Way Home

Theater J will bring playwright Anna Ziegler back to DC with the insightful, wry drama, Another Way Home, which plays June 23 through July 17, 2016. Another Way Home, directed by Shirley Serotsky, follows the Nadelman parents (Rick Foucheux and Naomi Jacobson) at summer camp visiting day which quickly turns into a family emergency. Their son Joey (Chris Stinson), is nowhere to be found and they are left wondering - where has he gone, why is their marriage lacking, and what might have happened if they had taken a different path. Join us as we transform Theater J into Camp Kickapoo and discover a little bit more about the strangers we all live with - our family.

"Anna Ziegler's play Another Way Home will resonate with everyone who has ever lived with a teenager, known a teenager, or been a teenager," said Director Shirley Serotsky. "This funny and poignant story about a couple visiting their son at sleep-away camp subtly touches on the big questions of life--about marriage, family, and the legacy we create during our time on earth."

The comical and uplifting play, Another Way Home, was previously developed during a residency at the National Playwrights Conference of 2011 at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, Chautauqua Theater Company's New Play Workshop series, McCarter Theatre's Lab Festival (where it had two readings produced by Adam Immerwahr, now Artistic Director of Theater J), and received its world premiere at the Magic Theatre of San Francisco. Another Way Home received the 2012 Edgerton Foundation New American Play Award and was selected for inclusion in the O'Neill Playwrights Conference.

"Anna Ziegler is one of our country's finest playwrights," says Adam Immerwahr, Artistic Director of Theater J. "This intimate family drama is meaningful, funny, and perfect for a summertime show-after all, it is set in a summer camp. Ziegler has written a quietly powerful, surprising, and deeply moving meditation on the American Jewish family. Ziegler's play, Photograph 51, which audiences will remember from its critical early production at Theater J in 2011, went on to great success on the West End, and will soon be on Broadway. We're delighted we can again provide her with a second-step production with Another Way Home."

Her play Photograph 51 ran this fall on the West End and will transfer to Broadway soon, starring Nicole Kidman. Her most recent work, Boy, was nominated for the Outer Critic's Circle John Gassner Award for new American play, and is currently running off-Broadway. She is the winner of the 2010 Douglas T. Ward Playwriting Prize, awarded by NYU Tisch School of the Arts. Ziegler's work has been produced by organizations across the country and Europe, including The O'Neill Playwrights Conference, Primary Stages, The Araca Group, Ars Nova, TheatreWorks, and The Old Vic New Voices Program. Her work has also been commissioned by The Manhattan Theatre Club, The Ensemble Studio Theatre, Virginia Stage Company, and New Georges, where she is an affiliated artist.

Another Way Home will be directed by Theater J's Associate Artistic Director Shirley Serotsky, whose previous directing credits at Theater J include The Call, Yentl, The Argument, The Hampton Years, The History of Invulnerability, The Moscows of Nantucket, Mikveh (which received two Helen Hayes Nominations for Best Actress), The Rise and Fall of Annie Hall (which received a 2009 Helen Hayes Nomination for Best New Play), and Married Sex for the Locally Grown Festival. Shirley works as a freelance director in the DC area and beyond, and is passionate about the development of new work. Other directing credits include Rapture, Blister, Burn at Round House Theatre; The Jungle Book at Adventure Theatre; a 21/24 Signature Lab Workshop presentation of The Break; Working: The Musical at Keegan Theatre; Blood Wedding at Constellation Theatre; A Man, His Wife, and His Hat and Birds of a Feather (which won the 2012 Charles MacArthur Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding New Play) at The Hub Theatre, References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot at Rorschach Theater, for which she received a 2007 Helen Hayes nomination for outstanding direction, and more.

The Nadelman parents will be played by Rick Foucheux and Naomi Jacobson. Foucheux has appeared at Theater J in Freud's Last Session, Imagining Madoff, The Odd Couple, and The Chosen and Jacobson has appeared at Theater J in Life Sucks, The Disputation, and Mad Dancers. Their son Joey will be played by Chris Stinson, who has appeared in Shear Madness at The Kennedy Center, and on stage at Keegan Theatre, The Hub Theatre and others. The cast also features Shayna Blass, who performed as the titular role in Yentl at Theater J, and has performed at Signature Theatre, Arena Stage, and Studio Theatre, and Thony Mena who has appeared at Rep Stage, Theater Alliance, and Forum Theatre.

The artistic team includes set designer Paige Hathaway, lighting designer Harold F. Burgess II, costume designer Debra Sivigny, sound designer Matthew Nielson, and props designer Kevin Laughon.

Another Way Home runs June 23 - July 17, 2016, at Theater J in the Edlavitch JCC's Aaron & Cecile Goldman Theater. Press night is Monday, June 27 at 7:30 PM. The performances on Thursday, June 23 and Sunday, June 26 are pay-what-you-can previews. Performances on Friday, June 24 and Saturday, June 25 are $30 previews. On Saturday, July 9 at 3:00 PM. The show will have open-captioning for the hearing impaired. There will be a special noon matinee on Wednesday, July 13. Tickets are available starting at $37 at theaterj.org or (202) 777-3210.