THE OTHER
AMERICAN
Written by D.W. GREGORY
Directed by JAMES GLOSSMAN
Starring
AMIE BERMOWITZ, CHRISTOPHER
DAFTSIOS, ELI GANIAS,
JOHN LESCAULT, and NAJA
SELBY-MORTON
WHEN: Begins performances on September 5; Opening on
September 7, 2024;
WHERE: NJ Rep is located at 179 Broadway, Long Branch, New Jersey
Tickets are NOW on sale at NJRep.org or by calling 732.229.3166
New Jersey Repertory Company (NJ Rep) will continue its 27 th Season with the world premiere of The Other American by D.W. Gregory (Radium Girls) , directed by James Glossman.
Inspired by a
true story, The
Other American is set in Paris in 1952. After tangling over politics with
an American tourist, a promising art student spirals into a mental
breakdown that derails his life. Thirty years later, he discovers
why: The tourist was a CIA operative, and the student was
an unwitting participant in one of the darkest chapters
of the Cold War.
"We
are thrilled to present the 158 th world premiere at NJ Rep
with D.W. Gregory's 'The Other American.' Gregory, known for her powerful
storytelling plays such as 'Radium Girls,' brings a gripping tale that explores
the unexpected intersections of art, politics, and espionage during one of the
Cold War's most shadowy chapters. This play promises to captivate and challenge
audiences as we continue our 27th season ."— SuzAnne Barabas, Artistic Director
of NJ Rep
The
cast includes Amie Bermowitz (Off-Broadway: Goldstein, Ruthless!), Christopher
Daftsios (Regional: The Jag, Swimming at the Ritz), Eli Ganias (Regional:
Talley’s Folly), John Lescault (Off-Broadway: Handbagged. International:
Defiant Requiem), and Naja Selby-Morton (Regional: Pirara).
The creative team includes set design by Jessica Parks , lighting design by Jill Nagle , technical direction by Brian Snyder , costume design by Patricia E. Doherty , sound design by Nick Simone , the production stage manager is Kristin Pfeifer, and assistant stage manager is Rachael Malloy.
Who’s Who
D.W. GREGORY (Playwright) D.W. Gregory’s plays frequently explore political issues through
a personal lens and with a comedic twist. The New York Times called her “a
playwright with a talent to enlighten and provoke” for her most-produced
work, Radium Girls, about the famous case of industrial poisoning.
Other plays include Memoirs of a Forgotten Man, a National New Play
Network rolling world premiere (Contemporary American Theater Festival,
Shadowland Stages, New Jersey Repertory Company); Molumby’s Million (Iron
Age Theatre), nominated for a Barrymore Award by Theatre Philadelphia; A
Thing of Beauty, winner of the Southeastern Theatre Conference’s 2023
Charles M. Getchell New Play Award; The Good Daughter and October
1962 (New Jersey Repertory Company); and a new musical comedy, The
Yellow Stocking Play, with composer Steven M. Alper and lyricist Sarah
Knapp. Her plays have been developed through the support of AATE, the National
New Play Network (NNPN), the Playwrights’ Center, the Maryland State Arts
Council, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the HBMG Foundation, and the National
Endowment for the Arts. A member of the Dramatists Guild, Gregory is an
affiliated writer with the Playwrights’ Center in Minneapolis and an affiliated
artist with NNPN. Gregory also writes for youth theatre (Salvation Road and
Penny Candy) and makes occasional appearances as a teaching artist. Dramatics
magazine named Radium Girls among the 10 Most-Produced Plays
in American High-School Theatre for five years in a row.
JAMES GLOSSMAN (Director) For NJ Rep, many productions and staged readings over the past
two decades, among them A Tailor Near Me, Circumference of a
Squirrel, Tour De Farce, and most recently DW Gregory’s Memoirs of a Forgotten
Man. This spring, he directed the world premiere of Dan Lauria’s Just Another
Day at Shadowland Stages (NY), where he is an Associate Artist, and in
the past several years, he directed the US premiere of John Cleese’s new
farce Bang Bang! (w/Sean Astin & Scott Shepherd) and the
East Coast premiere of Jeff Daniels’ Flint. Co-wrote and directed
the music-theatre piece Shostakovich and the Black Monk, in
collaboration with the multiple-Grammy-winning Emerson String Quartet, which
has been performed around the world from the Tanglewood, Wolf Trap, and Ravinia
Festivals in the US to the Lotte Concert Hall in Seoul, South Korea, with a
rotating cast including David Strathairn, Sean Astin, Jay O. Sanders, Richard
Thomas, Evie Colbert, Jeff DeMunn, and Len Cariou. His adaptation of Raymond Chandler’s Trouble
Is My Business had its world premiere at Portland Stage. In three
decades of collaboration with writer and journalist Jim Lehrer, Glossman
adapted & directed Lehrer’s novels Kick the Can, The Special
Prisoner (w/William Schallert), directed his play The Will and Bart
Show; and is currently developing Lehrer’s final play, Glock.
During lockdown, Glossman directed for NJ Rep world premieres of video
productions written for Zoom: Lia Romeo’s Sitting and Talking (w/Wendie
Malick & Dan Lauria), Ken Weitzman’s Fire in the Garden (w/Sean
Astin), and Nicky Glossman’s Portrait of a Woman in Repose (w/Paula
Prentiss & Tony Shalhoub). Last summer, at Shadowland, he directed the
world premiere of the time-traveling adventure Safe Home, which he
has co-written with Tom Hanks.
The NEW JERSEY REPERTORY COMPANY (NJ Rep) was founded in 1997
by SuzAnne and Gabor Barabas. Its current central headquarters is the Lumia Theater, located on lower Broadway in Long Branch. The
theater's mission is to develop and produce new plays and to make a lasting
contribution to the American Stage. Over two decades, NJ Rep has produced 151
plays, of which 127 have been world premieres. The theater has the additional
distinction of having had many of its plays produced by other theaters around
the country, totaling over 200 subsequent productions in the US and overseas.
In 2012 and 2018, NJ Rep was the recipient of a National Theater Company Grant
from the American Theater Wing that sponsors the annual Tony Awards for
Broadway in recognition of its contribution to the repertoire of the American
Stage. Only seven theaters have had this distinction. In addition, the theater
has presented over 400 developmental readings as well as introduced 136 new
works through its Theatre Brut Short-Play Festivals that focus on visionary and
avant-garde works. NJRep acquired a new property, a 28,000 square foot school
situated on 2 ½ acres and located just five minutes from its Main Stage Lumia
Theater and two blocks from the Jersey Shore. The theater plans on gradually transforming
the school in stages into a cultural center that will house additional
performance spaces, an art cinema, an art museum, a rooftop café, an arts
education wing, and residences for out-of-town actors and playwrights. When
completed, the center will present a wide array of programs in acting,
playwriting, art, sculpture, poetry, music, and photography and will serve as a
catalyst for economic development and as the foundation for the cultural
renaissance of the community.
NJ Rep thanks the following for their support: The Shubert Foundation, MacMillan Family Foundation, New Jersey State Council on the Arts, The New Jersey Cultural Trust, The Stone Foundation of New Jersey, The Horizon Foundation for New Jersey, OceanFirst Foundation, Manasquan Bank Philanthropic Fund, Investors Bank Foundation, Community Foundation of New Jersey, Jewish Communal Fund, Darien Family Fund, Citizens Philanthropic Foundation, The Smart Family Foundation, NJED
