Williamstown Theatre Festival鈥檚 2019 summer season will include a new production of A Raisin in the Sun and five world premieres, with stage and screen veterans taking center stage at the Massachusetts company.
The newly announced lineup kicks off June 25鈥揓uly 13 with Lorraine Hansberry鈥檚 American classic, marking the 60th anniversary of its Broadway premiere. Tony nominee and Emmy winner S. Epatha Merkerson will take on the role of Lena Younger, with Francois Battiste as her son Walter. Robert O鈥橦ara will direct.
Also set to play the Main Stage is the world premiere of Bess Wohl鈥檚 Grand Horizons, directed by Leigh Silverman. The cast will include Oscar winner Mary Steenburgen and Modern Family star and Broadway veteran Jesse Tyler Ferguson. Steenburgen will play Nancy, a woman who, after five decades of a happy marriage, suddenly wants out, leaving her sons Brian (Ferguson) and Ben to deal with an unexpectedly crumbling family. Performances will run July 17 through July 28.
Uma Thurman will next step onto the Main Stage in a new translation of Ibsen鈥檚 Ghosts from Paul Walsh. Carey Perloff will direct the staging, running July 31 through August 18.
Meanwhile, three world premieres are slated for the Nikos Stage: Jonathan Payne鈥檚 A Human Being, of a Sort, about an African-American convict and the Congolese pygmy he鈥檚 tasked to guard at the Bronx Zoo (directed by Whitney White, June 26鈥揓uly 11); Sylvia Khoury鈥檚 Selling Kabul, about a family hiding from the Taliban (directed by Tyne Rafaeli and featuring Omar Metwally, Marjan Neshat, and Babak Tafti, July 10鈥�21); Sharyn Rothstein鈥檚 Second Amendment-family comedy, Tell Me I鈥檓 Not Crazy (directed by Moritz von Stuelpnagel and featuring Jane Kaczmarek, Mark Feurstein, and Nadine Malouf, July 24鈥揂ugust 3); and Adam Bock鈥檚 Before the Meeting, about a woman struggling to maintain her sobriety after old wounds reopen (directed by Trip Cullman and featuring Jason Butler Harner, August 7鈥�18).
Additional season information, including additional casting and programming for WTF鈥檚 development reading series, will be announced at a later date.
