{"id":30888,"date":"2019-06-26T15:05:34","date_gmt":"2019-06-26T19:05:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/college.unc.edu\/?p=30888"},"modified":"2024-07-02T17:11:41","modified_gmt":"2024-07-02T17:11:41","slug":"playmakers-broadway-bound","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/?p=30888","title":{"rendered":"PlayMakers’ Vivienne Benesch is Broadway bound, will direct Debra Messing in “Birthday Candles”"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Vivienne
Vivienne Benesch (photo by Alison Sheehy)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

PlayMakers Repertory Company’s Producing Artistic Director Vivienne Benesch will make her Broadway directorial debut next spring with the New York premiere of Noah Haidle\u2019s play Birthday Candles<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The play will star Debra Messing and begins preview performances on April 2, 2020, with opening night on April 21 at Roundabout\u2019s American Airlines Theatre on Broadway<\/a>. Birthday Candles<\/em> follows Messing\u2019s Ernestine Ashworth as she celebrates decades of birthdays surrounded by an evolving array of family members and a cake-in-progress.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know how I came to be the one to help bring this gorgeous, moving, funny, profound new play to life,\u201d said Messing on Instagram<\/a>, \u201cBut I am vibrating with joy. Birthday Candles<\/em> by Noah Haidle, produced by the legendary Roundabout Theatre, directed by one of my oldest, dearest friends from NYU Grad, the extraordinarily talented Vivienne Benesch \u2014 and you\u2019ve got the greatest gift I can imagine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Messing\u2019s enthusiasm is perhaps only matched by Benesch’s: \u201cI have had the great privilege of working with Noah Haidle on the development of this beautiful new play over the last several years and could not be more excited to share it with a Broadway audience. The fact that this production will reunite me with my graduate school classmate Debra Messing, in a role that suits her like a silk glove, is icing on-the-not-so-proverbial cake!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut perhaps most important, I hope that this will shed a great light on the incredible work happening right here at PlayMakers and at UNC-Chapel Hill as we develop new work for the American theatre.\u201d
\nVivienne Benesch, director<\/small><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Benesch has been with the project for quite some time. The Detroit Public Theatre<\/a> had the foresight to commission the play for its 2018-19 season, giving Chautauqua Theater Company<\/a> the summer to develop it in one of their workshops. \u201cWe premiered it in Detroit with a heart-pounding, talented cast and creative team,\u201d said Benesch. For their part, Roundabout first caught sight of it at the Goodman Theatre\u2019s New Stages Festival<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\""Birthday
“Birthday Candles” is headed for Broadway.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cOh, the journeys our heart\u2019s work take us on!\u201d added Benesch. \u201cI\u2019m so thankful to the Detroit Public Theatre for trusting me with it and to my home team, PlayMakers Repertory Company, for all their support already!\u201d<\/p>\n

Benesch will direct the world premiere of Heidi Armbruster\u2019s farm-to-table comedy <\/em>Dairyland this fall at Playmakers, the professional theater in residence in the College of Arts & Sciences at UNC-Chapel Hill.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

By PlayMakers Repertory Company<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PlayMakers Repertory Company’s Producing Artistic Director Vivienne Benesch will make her Broadway directorial debut next spring with the New York premiere of Noah Haidle\u2019s play Birthday Candles. The play will star Debra Messing. 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