Willow Cabin Theatre Company will present its second offering of the current season when it produces a four play cycle of Thornton Wilder's one-acts entitled The Ages of Man, directed by WCTC Artistic Director Edward Berkeley, at the Blue Heron Arts Center, 121 East 24th Street (between Park and Lexington Avenues). Performances will begin on Friday, May 14, with the official opening performance set for Sunday, May 23 at 3:00 PM.

Thornton Wilder's The Ages of Man will include the New York premieres of Youth and The Rivers Under the Earth and revivals of Infancy and Childhood which both premiered in New York in 1962 as part of "Plays for Bleecker Street." These four plays reveal in a bittersweet comic voice the joys and pains of becoming a grown-up. With remarkable insight, Wilder first presents, in Infancy, a fantasy of existence through infants' eyes spying and gabbing about their parents and keepers - set in 1920's Central Park - followed by suburban children taking a journey of escape in Childhood. Then, in a giant leap of imagination, Whilder whisks us to a desert island in Youth, where Jonathan Swift's Gulliver is washed ashore, to be rejected because of his ancient age (46 years old!); and, finally, Wilder takes us to a Wisconsin lake shore, in The Rivers Under the Earth, where a middle-aged couple tries to help their teenage children find meaning in life - even as they remain strangers themselves. The genius of Wilder's spare theatricality is wonderfully alive in this cycle's first New York production. Willow Cabin is excited to be returning to playwright Wilder's one-acts which provided the company with one of its largest success stories, to date, the Tony and Drama Desk nominated production of Wilder, Wilder, Wilder - which included his plays The Long Christmas Dinner, The Happy Journey to Trenton and Camden, and Pullman Car Hiawatha.

Thornton Wilder (1897-1975) was an American playwright, novelist, essayist, and film writer. Wilder received three Pulitzer Prizes: First for his novel "The Bridge of San Luis Rey" (1927) and then for his plays Our Town (one of the most enduring works of the American stage, first produced in 1938) and for the controversial and successful The Skin of Our Teeth (1942). His third great Broadway success was The Matchmaker (1955, rewritten from the earlier The Merchant of Yonkers.) In 1963 The Matchmaker appeared in musical adaptation as Hello Dolly!

Edward Berkely is Artistic Director and the cast of The Ages of Man will include: John Bolger, Ken Forman, Larry Gleason, Robert Harte, Sarah Lively, Angela Nevard, Linda Powell, Christine Radman, Maria Radman, Jonathan Sea, and Jed Sexton. The set design will be by John Kasarda, the costume design by Mary Nemecek Peterson, and the lighting design by Matthew McCarthy.

Willow Cabin Theatre Company, now in its 12th season, continues to present classic and contemporary works of literary merit. The complete performance schedule for The Ages of Man will be as follows: Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays at 8:00 PM, with matinees on Saturdays at 5:00 PM and Sundays at 3:00 PM, beginning on Friday, May 14 and running through Sunday, June 13. Tickets for all performances are $15.00. The performance on Thursday, May 20, will have a 7:00 PM curtain, and is a benefit for the company (with tickets priced at $50.00) which includes a post-performance party. For reservations and further information call (212) 886-1889.

See you Thursday!

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