Lincoln Center Theater, under the direction of Andre Bishop and Bernard Gersten will present Spinning Into Butter, a new play by Rebecca Gilman, beginning performances Thursday, June 29 at 8pm at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater. Spinning Into Butter, which is being presented in association with Lincoln Center Festival 2000, will be directed by Daniel Sullivan and will open on Thursday, July 27 at 6:45pm.

In Spinning Into Butter, controversy descends on the campus of a small Vermont collegewhen a series of racist notes are pinned to an African-American student's door. As the school's administration scrambles to contain the situation, with both students and faculty thrown into a flurry of politically correct activity, a young dean, Sarah Daniels (played by Hope Davis), is forced to take a hard look at her own racism.

The cast will also feature: Matt DeCaro, Daniel Jenkins, Steven Pasquale, Jai Rodriguez, Henry Strozier and Brenda Wehle. Sets by John Lee Beatty, lighting by Brian MacDevitt, costumes by Jess Goldstein and original music and sound by Daniel Moses Schreier.

Playwright Rebecca Gilman will make her New York debut with this Lincoln Center Theater production of Spinning Into Butter which received its world premiere at Chicago's Goodman Theatre. Her most recent play Boy Gets Girl was produced this season at the Goodman and will be presented next year in New York at the Manhattan Theatre Club. Her other plays include Speech Therapy, Crime of the Century and The Glory of Living, which was produced at the Royal Court Theatre in London where she won the Evening Standard Award for most Promising Playwright.

Daniel Sullivan directed the Lincoln Center Theater productions of A.R. Gurney's Ancestral Voices and Far East, Eugene O'Neill's Ah, Wilderness!, Wendy Wasserstein's An American Daughter and The Sister's Rosensweig, and Jon Robin Baitz A Fair Country and The Substance of Fire. This season he is represented both on Broadway and off-Broadway with critically acclaimed productions of O'Neill's A Moon For The Misbegotten, Donald Marguilies Dinner With Friends and David Auburn's Proof.

Hope Davis returns to Lincoln Center Theater where she appeared opposite Kevin Kline in Ivanov and in Richard Nelson's Some Americans Abroad. Her other theatre credits include Nicky Silver's The Food Chain and Pterodactyls and last summer's Williamstown Theatre Festival production of Tennessee Williams' Camino Real. Her film credits include the current Joe Gould's Secret, Arlington Road, Mumford, Next Stop Wonderland, The Imposters, The Daytrippers, and Myth of Fingerprints.

Spinning Into Butter is Lincoln Center Theater's 82nd production. In addition, Lincoln Center is also presenting its Tony Award-winning production of Contact, by Susan Stroman and John Weidman, in an open-ended run in its Vivian Beaumont Theatre.

Spinning Into Butter will be performed Monday through Saturday evenings at 8pm, with matinees Wednesday and Saturday at 2pm. Tickets, priced at $50, are available at the Lincoln Center Theater box office, or, by calling Tele-Charge at (212) 239-6200. Performances begin Thursday, June 29 and Opening Night is Thursday, July 27.

See you Sunday!

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