Harry Groener, Sally Wingert and More Set for CHRISTOPHER HAMPTON CELEBRATION at Guthrie Theatre, 9/15-10/27

The Guthrie Theater today announced the full casts, comprising 39 actors, for the three plays of the Christopher Hampton Celebration. The previously announced celebration of the multi-faceted writer's work will occupy all three of the Guthrie's stages in an immersive and illuminating theatrical experience, with diverse casts tackling dynamic roles torn from the pages of world history.

Tales from Hollywood, a biting comedy about German intellectual émigrés escaping Nazi Germany for the film industry in Los Angeles, running from September 15 – October 27 on the Guthrie's Wurtele Thrust Stage, will be directed by Ethan McSweeny (Guthrie: Arms and the Man, A View from the Bridge; non-Guthrie: A Midsummer Night's Dream, Shakespeare Theatre Company; The Pirates of Penzance, Stratford Shakespeare Festival).

Tales from Hollywood features Lee Sellars in his Guthrie debut (Twelve Angry Men, George Street Playhouse, Brunswick, N.J.; West Side Story, Palace Theatre, New York) as the wry and knowing narrator Ödön von Horváth, who takes the audience through a world of expatriates in Tinseltown. Keir Dullea (Film: 2001: A Space Odyssey; Theater: I Never Sang For My Father, Harold Clurman Theater, New York) appears for the first time at the Guthrie as novelist Heinrich Mann, with Allison Daugherty (The Time of Your Life, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey) as his much younger wife Nelly Mann. Guthrie favorite Stephen Yoakam (Guthrie: The Birds, The Burial at Thebes) will appear as the turbulent and cynical Bertolt Brecht.

The cast for Tales from Hollywood will also include Julia Coffey (Maple and Vine, American Conservatory Theater, San Francisco; The Merchant of Venice, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Washington, D.C.) as Ödön's love interest Helen Schwartz, Bob Davis (Guthrie: A Christmas Carol, Much Ado About Nothing) will play the Nobel Prize-winning writer Thomas Mann, with Laura Esping (Guthrie: Much Ado About Nothing, A Christmas Carol) portraying his wife Katja Mann. The cast will also include Summer Hagen (Guthrie: The Birds) as Angel, ChariTy Jones (Guthrie: Hay Fever, M. Butterfly) in the role of Marta Feuchtwanger, Barbara Kingsley (Guthrie: Jane Eyre) as Salka Viertel, Bill McCallum (Guthrie: Time Stands Still, God of Carnage) in the dual roles of Art Nicely and Lion Feuchtwanger, Kris L. Nelson (Guthrie: A Christmas Carol, Arsenic and Old Lace) as Hal, Dan Shor (Film: Air Force One, Tron: The Next Day; Television: Star Trek: Voyager) in the dual roles of Charles Money and Jacob Lomakhin, John Skelley (Guthrie: Hay Fever, Charley's Aunt) as Young Man and Anna Sundberg (Guthrie: A Christmas Carol) as Helene Wiegel.

Appomattox, Hampton's new play bridging 1865 and 1965 and the American Civil War and Civil Rights Era, will run from September 29 – November 11 and will be directed by David Esbjornson (Guthrie: The Great Gatsby, Resurrection Blues; non-Guthrie: The Lady from Dubuque, Signature Center, New York; Driving Miss Daisy, productions in New York and London).

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