Partial Comfort premieres New York City public schools drama directed by Hal Brooks starring Wicked's Randy Danson.
October 3 - November 2 at The Wild Project
"Riveting… the acting (is) so convincing you feel like it’s actually happening." -- The New Yorker
"Skillfully evokes terror and heart-pounding anxiety from both characters and audience... bold, and admirable." -- New York Times
"A profoundly affecting show, driven by great directing from Hal Brooks and featuring some fantastic performances." -- Curtain Up
"Wonderful…director Hal Brooks is efficient at eliciting tears." -- Time Out
"Excellent… a despairing portrait of our educational system." -- NY Post
"Unexpected… starts with a bang and then sideswipes your expectations. And it does all this in a refreshing and bracing way." -- Reviews Off-Broadway
"Poignant... Though peppered with bits of bawdy relief, the play well reflects the harsh, sensitive truth behind the teetering modern public education system–an edifice collapsing under the weight of a jaded, dispirited administration." -- Maxamoo
Partial Comfort Productions (Drama Desk nominee A Bright New Boise) kicks off it's 11th season with the World Premiere of AND MILES TO GO by Chad Beckim. Directed by Hal Brooks (Pulitzer Prize finalist Thom Pain), previews begin October 3 at The Wild Project. Opening night is slated for Thursday, October 10.
Disadvantaged students. A disheartened administration. A disintegrated infrastructure. In AND MILES TO GO, Adele Priam has seen the very best and worst in her 50 years as a teacher in the classroom of a New York City public school. As the Board of Education considers shuttering the school, this teacher and her community will forever be changed. A play about the frailty of life, the legacy we leave, and our broken education system.
The production will star Randy Danson (Wicked on Broadway), Andy Prosky (King Lear on Broadway at Lincoln Center), Carlo Alban (Sesame Street), Tre Davis (The Rubber Room at FringeNYC), Brian D. Coats, Devika Bhise, Keona Welch and Gabe Millman with set by Jason Simms, costumes by Whitney Locher, lighting by Lucrecia Briceno, sound by Matthew Staab, and music composition by Ryan Rumery. Michelle Kelleher will serve as stage manager, Tracey Fess is the production manager and it is produced by Molly Pearson with associate producer John Baker.
Chad Beckim's playwrighting credits include …a matter of choice, `nami (which received its West Coast premiere at the Hayworth Theatre in Los Angeles in October, 2007), Lights Rise on Grace (Winner, Outstanding Play, 2007 FringeNYC; Finalist for the 2007 Princess Grace Award; Finalist for Ojai Playwrights’ Conference), The Main(e) Play (Semi-Finalist, The O’Neill Festival), That Men Do Mercy, Cookie and After., as well as numerous short plays. Chad holds an MFA in Playwrighting from Mac Wellman’s Brooklyn College's Program, and in July of 2007 was named one of “50 Playwrights to Watch” by the Dramatists Guild. His work has been published by Playscripts, Smith & Krauss, and in the Plays and Playwrights 2007 collection by NYTE. He is a member of Ars Nova’s “Play Group,” and is a co-Founder and co-Artistic Director of Partial Comfort Productions.
Hal Brooks directed the National Tour of Nilaja Sun’s Obie Award-winning No Child… and the acclaimed Off Broadway hit and Pulitzer Prize finalist Thom Pain (based on nothing) by Will Eno. His recent credits include Be a Good Little Widow (Old Globe), Figaro and The Bald Soprano (Pearl Theatre), Alena Smith’s The Bad Guys (Second Stage Uptown), Sam Hunter’s The Whale (Denver Center – World Premiere), Kimberly Rosenstock’s Tigers Be Still and Itamar Moses’ Back Back Back (Dallas Theater Center), Mona Mansour’s Urge for Going (Public Theater), creative consultant on Colin Quinn: Long Story Short directed by Jerry Seinfeld, Sharr White’s Six Years (Humana Festival) and Steve Martin’s Picasso at the Lapin Agile (Two River Theater Company). He is Artistic Director of the Cape Cod Theatre Project and the Associate Artistic Director of the Ojai Playwrights Conference. He was Artistic Director of the Rude Mechanicals of New York where he directed the Off Broadway premieres of Don DeLillo’s Valparaiso and Will Eno’s The Flu Season. Brooks is a proud member of the Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab and SDC.
Partial Comfort Productions is a collaborative ensemble devoted to the development and presentation of original new theater. The company was co-founded in 2002 by Chad Beckim and Molly Pearson. Past productions include Samuel D. Hunter’s A Bright New Boise (Best of 2010, New York Magazine), Thomas Bradshaw's The Bereaved (Best of 2009, Time Out New York), a quartet of acclaimed works by Beckim (After., nami, The Maine Play and ...a matter of choice), Ross Maxwell’s Open House (Best Ensemble Award winner at FringeNYC 2006); Craft and Nelson by Sam Marks; Kidstuff by Edith Freni, Booty Candy by Robert O’Hara; and Play by OHara, Chay Yew, Kia Corthron, Eddie Sanchez, Keith Adkins and Tracey Scott Wilson. For more information visit www.partialcomfort.org.
AND MILES TO GO runs October 3 - November 2, Wednesday - Saturday at 8 PM. The Wild Project is located at 195 E. 3rd Street b/w Aves A. & B. Tickets are $20, available at 212-352-3101 or www.thewildproject.com.