January 3, 2000 From: BOB FENNELL / MARC THIBODEAU / BRETT OBERMAN

CLASSIC STAGE COMPANY presents a new production of Ben Jonson’s hilarious Con Man’s Comedy, THE ALCHEMIST. Directed by CLASSIC STAGE COMPANY Artistic Director Barry Edelstein, the production will begin performances on Thursday, February 3^rd. With an official opening on Thursday, February 17th at 7:00 PM, performances will continue through Sunday, March 12^th.

Featured as the Alchemist will be DAN CASTELLANETA, best known for his television work as the voice of Homer Simpson on "The Simpsons" and as a regular on the FOX Network’s "The Tracey Ullman Show." The company also features Buzz Bovshow, Johann Carlo, Ümit Çelebi, Reuben Jackson, Yaani King, Hillel Meltzer, Steve Rattazzi, Matthew Saldivar, Lee Sellars, Jeremy Shamos and Michael Showalter.

THE ALCHEMIST centers on Subtle (Castellaneta) and Face (Shamos), two quicksilver con-men and masters of disguise who bamboozle, baffle and blind-with-science a parade of greedy gulls. A riotous explosion of double-talk, flim-flam and hocus pocus, THE ALCHEMIST is a masterpiece of English comedy and widely considered one of the funniest plays ever written. Edelstein’s modern-dress production will be the first major New York revival of the play since 1966.

THE ALCHEMIST features a set design by Adrianne Lobel, lighting design by Stephen Strawbridge, costume design by Michael Krass and sound design by Robert Kaplowitz.

Following THE ALCHEMIST, CLASSIC STAGE COMPANY’s season continues with the American Premiere of Nicholas Wright’s new version of Luigi Pirandello’s Naked (March 30 through April 30). This new translation premiered to critical acclaim last season at London’s Almeida Theatre. John Rando will direct.

THE ALCHEMIST will begin performances on Thursday February 3^{rd h} at CLASSIC STAGE COMPANY (136 East 13^th Street). During previews, the performance schedule will be as follows:

Post-opening through March 12^th, THE ALCHEMIST plays Tuesdays through Saturdays at 8:00 PM, with 3:00 PM matinees on most Saturdays and Sundays. Tickets are $30-$35 ($25-$30 for preview performances) and can be purchased at the CLASSIC STAGE COMPANY box office or by calling (212) 677-4210 x2.

DAN CASTELLANETA (Subtle) is best known to audiences as the voice of Homer Simpson on the long-running animated series "The Simpsons". A Chicago native, his stage work ranges from classics like A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Taming of the Shrew and Macbeth to the Chicago-based children’s theatre program The Magic Door. From 1983 to 1987, Castellaneta performed at Chicago's renowned Second City where he was seen by Tracey Ullman. He later joined the cast of the award winning "The Tracey Ullman Show" on which he played many, many characters. The show subsequently spun off into "The Simpsons," the most successful animated series in television history. Castellaneta’s other television work includes appearances on "Mad About You," "The Drew Carey Show," "Cybill" and "Sibs". His film credits include My Giant, Forget Paris, The Client, Say Nothing, Nothing In Common and War of the Roses. The Alchemist marks Castellaneta’s New York stage debut.

BARRY EDELSTEIN (Director) is Artistic Director of Classic Stage Company where he directed this season’s production of Hurricane by Erin Cressida Wilson as well as last season’s The Misanthope starring Roger Rees and Uma Thurman. He also directed Arthur Miller’s All My Sons at the Roundabout (Lucille Lortel Award, nominated for Drama Desk and Drama League Awards for Outstanding Revival). Edelstein has directed or dramaturged over half of Shakespeare’s plays at theaters around the country, including the Williamstown Theatre Festival (As You Like It starring Gwyneth Paltrow); the New York Shakespeare Festival (The Merchant of Venice, starring Ron Liebman; The Sonnets with Kevin Kline, Sigourney Weaver and others). He also teaches Shakespeare at the Juilliard School, the Graduate Acting Program at NYU and the Public Theater’s "Shakespeare Lab". He has directed many other classical plays, ranging from Aristophanes through the Spanish Golden Age and English Renaissance, to George Bernard Shaw and other major 20^th Century European and American classics. Edelstein has also directed contemporary works and has staged plays by writers as diverse as Steve Martin, Paul Schrader, Alan Zweibel and Paula Vogel. A graduate of Tufts University, he holds an M. Phil. in English Renaissance Drama from Oxford University, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar.

CLASSIC STAGE COMPANY is the award-winning Off-Broadway theater that re-imagines the classics for contemporary American audiences. Now in its 32^nd season, Classic Stage is highly respected and widely regarded as a major force in New York and American theater. Its flexible 180-seat auditorium is at once intimate and spectacular, and is cherished by artists in every aspect of theater as one of the great spaces in New York. Classic Stage productions have been cited repeatedly by all the major Off-Broadway theater awards: OBIES, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Drama League and the 1999 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Body of Work. Classic Stage believes that the works of the past -- both distant and near, familiar and less well-known -- are meaningful, relevant and indeed essential to the world of today. Embracing an inclusive range of viewpoints about those works in their original contexts and simultaneously in our own, Classic Stage Company creates theater that looks forward by looking back. Classic Stage’s artists -- the best established and emerging theater practitioners working in this country -- bring enduring stories and ideas to new life so that Classic Stage’s audiences, of all ages and backgrounds, can understand in vivid new ways the rich resonances of the human experience over time.