| The Cowards: A Marvelously Queer New Comedy by Ryan O'Connor, directed by Michael Wilson, will have industry reading December 6 in NYC | |
| Posted by: Official_Press_Release 07:09 pm EDT 10/13/24 | |
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| THE COWARDS A MARVELOUSLY QUEER NEW COMEDY BY RYAN O'CONNOR DIRECTED BY MICHAEL WILSON WILL HAVE INDUSTRY READING ON DECEMBER 6 (New York, NY – Two-time Tony Award winning producers Martian Entertainment (Carl D. White and Gregory Rae) and Graham Wetterhahn are developing the new play, The Cowards: A Marvelously Queer New Comedy, written by playwright/actor Ryan O'Connor, and eyeing Broadway for an upcoming season. An invitation-only industry reading, directed by Michael Wilson (Broadway: The Trip to Bountiful, Gore Vidal's The Best Man, Dividing the Estate), will take place at Pearl Studios in New York City on December 6. The Cowards, O'Connor's first full-length play, is a modern take on Nöel Coward's classic hit comedy Hay Fever. In this unapologetically queer version, the four members of a dysfunctional chosen family unit, The Cowards, have each invited a surprise guest to their Provincetown, Massachusetts home for the weekend. What ensues is a biting, wicked comedy in which a batch of wildly unpleasant people make for uproarious entertainment. The cast for the reading will include Ryan O'Connor (Lawrence Coward), Emmy and Golden Globe nominee Taylor Schilling (Maxine Coward), Peabody Award winner Eva Reign (Ruby Coward), Isaiah Standard (Spencer Coward), Tony Award nominee Veanne Cox (Kay Ritter), Tony Award winner Brandon Uranowitz (Smith Myron), Charlie Barnett (Baldwin Greatham ), Ari Notartomaso (Jackie Lester), and Makai Hernandez (Payn Tyler). Music director for the reading is Or Matias. Stage Manager is Bob Bennett. Casting is by Telsey Office - Craig Burns, CSA and Charlie Hano, CSA. The Cowards was originally presented in 2023 by After Hours Theatre Company (Graham Wetterhahn, Founder and Producing Artistic Director), and the Los Angeles LGBT Center. BIOGRAPHIES RYAN O'CONNOR (Actor/Playwright) is a self-described bon vivant, working successfully in various mediums in entertainment without ever really committing to any one particular vocation. Notable theatre credits include the world premiere of Home Street Home, the Fat Mike/Jeff Marx/Soma Snakeoil musical, the wildly popular LA production of Bradley Bredeweg's Scissorhands: The Musical, and his own autobiographical musical memoir, "Eat, Pray, Vote" which premiered in 2018 to rave reviews and toured the country in 2020. He can be seen on television as Pete Davidson's make-up artist on "Bupkis," as Brian in the Avenue Q scenes on the HBO series "Big Little Lies," "Liza on Demand," and many years ago as Richard Linklater and Jack Black's "favorite part" of the film, School of Rock. Ryan is a graduate of Circle in the Square Theatre School and last performed in New York with his critically acclaimed cabaret debut, "Ryan O'Connor Eats His Feelings" and was also a finalist on "Your OWN Show: Oprah's Search For the Next TV Star" on OWN and appeared on the final season of "The Oprah Winfrey Show." He was the co-host of the popular podcast, "LadyWatch with Ryan and Jason," still available on iTunes. Instagram: @RyanOConnor1981. MICHAEL WILSON (Director) is a Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle award-winning director working on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and at major theaters across the country. On Broadway, he directed the 2013 revival of Horton Foote's The Trip to Bountiful starring Cicely Tyson, who won the Tony Award for Best Actress. Other Broadway productions include the 2012 Tony Award-nominated revival of Gore Vidal's The Best Man; the Tony-nominated Best Plays Dividing the Estate and Enchanted April, for which he earned his first of two Outer Critics Circle nominations. Wilson made his screen directorial debut with the 2014 Lifetime/Ostar television film adaptation of The Trip to Bountiful, which was nominated for two 2014 Emmy Awards – including Outstanding Television Movie – as well as a DGA Award for Outstanding Direction of a Movie or Mini-Series for Television. His first indie film, the award-winning "Showing Roots" (produced by Michael Mailer Films in association with Bill Haber, starring Uzo Aduba, Maggie Grace, and Elizabeth McGovern) was acquired by Lifetime where it had its television premiere in 2016. Off-Broadway, his productions include Signature Theatre Company's revival of Arthur Miller's Incident at Vichy starring Richard Thomas, which was subsequently filmed by BroadwayHD (2015); Desire, the Acting Company's premiere bill of plays by Elizabeth Egloff, Marcus Gardley, Rebecca Gilman, David Grimm, John Guare, and Beth Henley based on short stories by Tennessee Williams; Roundabout Theatre Company's revivals of Lanford Wilson's Talley's Folly (2013) and Tennessee Williams' The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore; and the epic three-part, nine-hour The Orphans' Home Cycle. Internationally, he directed both parts of Tony Kushner's Angels in America for the 1995 Venice Biennale. Recent projects including the American Repertory Theatre revival of The Night of the Iguana (2017); CTG/Ahmanson Theater's Los Angeles premiere of Grey Gardens: The Musical (2016); and the Alley Theatre workshop of the new musical Tender Mercies (2018). Treasurer of SDC since 2015, Wilson was Artistic Director from 1998-2011 of Hartford Stage, where he commissioned and developed the Pulitzer Prize-winning Water by the Spoonful by Quiara Alegría Hudes. |
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