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Aunt Dan & Lemon Reunion Reading
by Wallace Shawn
November 30, 2020
This Reunion Reading was available to stream until April 25, 2021.
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Overview
Aunt Dan and Lemon centers on a romantic friendship between an adult and a child, which nourishes an addiction to vicarious violence. In this political horror story, Lemon looks back on her relationship with her captivating Aunt Dan, and conjures for us, in a most personal way, the terrifying allure of cruelty, and the enduring appeal of political strongmen who echo the dominating figures in our lives.
Reunion Readings, part of The New Group Off Stage slate of projects, are digital broadcasts of play readings featuring the original casts from plays produced in The New Group’s first 25 years.
Original Creative Team
Opening Night: December 18, 2003, New York City, Original Scenic Design by Derek McLane, Original Costume Design by Eric Becker, Original Lighting Design by Jason Lyon, Original Sound Design by Ken Travis, Original Casting by Judy Henderson, CSA, Original Direction by Scott Elliott
Cast
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Marsha Stephanie Blake
CastMarsha Stephanie Blake was nominated for both Emmy and Critics Choice Awards for her portrayal of Linda McCray in Ava Duvernay’s acclaimed miniseries “When They See Us”. She’s been on and off Broadway in various performances (The Merchant of Venice with Al Pacino and Lily Rabe, Joe Turners Come and Gone with the late great Roger Robinson, Othello with Daniel Craig, David Oyelowo, Rachel Brosnahan) and on television in “Orange Is the New Black”, “This Is Us”, “How to Get Away With Murder”, “The Blacklist” to name a few. Films The Photograph, The Laundromat, See You Yesterday and Luce are currently streaming online. Upcoming projects include Social Distance, a Netflix anthology, and the feature I’m Your Woman which she filmed with Rachel Brosnahan and acclaimed writer/producers Julia Hart and Jordan Horowitz.
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Thomas Bradshaw
CastThomas Bradshaw has been called “one of the most deliberately and effectively confrontational American Playwrights of his generation” by The New York Times. His plays include: Intimacy and Burning (The New Group), Mary and Carlyle (Goodman), Southern Promises, Fulfillment, Job, and Dawn (Flea Theater), The Bereaved (Crowded Fire, Partial Comfort, and the State Theater of Bielefeld in Germany), Thomas and Sally (Marin Theater Company), Prophet, Purity, Southern Promises (P.S. 122), and Lecture on the Blues (Whitney Museum). He is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, the PEN/Laura Pels Theater Award, the Prince Prize, a Foundation for Contemporary Arts award, a Doris Duke Implementation Grant, and a Special Citation of Excellence from The Laurents/Hatcher Foundation. He recently served as a Consulting Producer on the Emmy and Peabody award winning mini-series When They See Us. He has had development deals with HBO/HARPO and FX/PLAN B, among others. His work is published by TCG, Samuel French, and Dramatic Publishing. Mr. Bradshaw is a Professor in the MFA in Writing for the Screen and Stage program at Northwestern University.
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Liam Craig
CastBroadway: Boeing Boeing (u/s; appeared). Off Broadway: Timon of Athens, Julius Caesar, The Killer (Theatre For A New Audience), Later Life (Keen Company), The Internationalist (Vineyard Theatre), Aunt Dan and Lemon (The New Group), Two Noble Kinsmen (The Public). Regional: Timon of Athens, School for Lies, The Tempest, Servant of Two Masters (Shakespeare Theatre Company), Henry V (Hartford Stage), The Book of Will (World Premiere, Denver Center), A Long Day’s Journey Into Night, Uncle Vanya (Weston Playhouse), Servant of Two Masters, Accidental Death of an Anarchist (Yale Repertory Theatre), The Lady From The Sea (Intiman). TV: “Madam Secretary”, “Mozart In the Jungle”, “Law and Order; Special Victims’ Unit”. Film: The Royal Tenenbaums. Training: Liam received his MFA from NYU’s Tisch School of The Arts Graduate Acting Program.
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Melissa Errico
Cast“The Maria Callas of American musical theater,” as Opera News has called her, referencing both her silken voice and dramatic, expressive intensity, Melissa Errico’s career is characterized by a dazzling range of passions as actress, singer, and author. First known for her starring roles on Broadway, her tribute album, Sondheim Sublime, was called by The Wall Street Journal “The best all-Sondheim album ever recorded.” Nominated for a Tony Award for her appearance in Michel Legrand’s only Broadway musical, Amour, she was asked to write the eulogy to Legrand in The New York Times in 2019 while that autumn, Ghostlight Records reissued an expanded version of her symphonic album, which Legrand arranged and conducted, as Legrand Affair Deluxe Edition. She has also worked widely as a concert singer, touring from Singapore to Paris with the world’s most noted symphonies and dipping into cabaret and nightclubs from Los Angeles to London. She is currently working on her first book, a memoir tentatively titled Terminal Ingenue.
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Kristen Johnston
CastKristen Johnston’s celebrated acting career spans television, film, and theater. She won two Emmy Awards for her starring role on the hit NBC series “3rd Rock from the Sun”. Johnston currently stars on CBS’s Mom as ‘Tammy Diffendorf’, which is in its eighth season. Previously, she starred for four seasons on the TV Land series “The Exes”. She has also made memorable appearances on such acclaimed shows as “Getting On”, “Modern Family”, “Ugly Betty”, “ER”, and “Sex and The City”, to name a few. Johnston’s film work includes Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, Strangers with Candy, Music and Lyrics, Bride Wars, L!fe Happens, and Vamps. A longtime member of The Atlantic Theater Company, her esteemed theater career includes nearly 50 plays in New York City, London, LA, and Williamstown. Johnston also taught acting at NYU’s Atlantic Acting School for 12 years. Her New York Times Bestselling memoir, Guts: The Endless Follies and Tiny Triumphs of a Giant Disaster, was released in 2013 to great critical acclaim.
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Layla Khoshnoudi
CastMFA, Brooklyn College. Select Theater: Men on Boats (Clubbed Thumb/Playwrights Horizons); Dance Nation (Playwrights Horizons); Bull in a China Shop (LCT3); Dido of Idaho (Ensemble Studio Theater); Wyoming (Lesser America); My Daughter Keeps our Hammer (Flea Theater). TV: “Instinct”; “FBI”. FILM: Closure (wrote & directed); Long Nights, Short Mornings; Nadia Jaan; Androgen; Bookends.
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Carlos Leon
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Emily Cass McDonnell
CastEmily Cass McDonnell has worked on many plays and films in NY and Europe and quite a few with Wallace Shawn, Including this version Aunt Dan and Lemon, The Masterbuilder (film; Dir. by Johnathan Demme and play dir. by Andre Gregory) and Grasses of a Thousand Colors also dir. by Andre Gregory and the film of Marie and Bruce. At some point Emily realized she must also work on other people’s plays, some recent theater credits Emily premiered Annie Baker’s The Antipodes and Lucas Hnath’s The Thin Place.
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Maulik Pancholy
CastMaulik Pancholy is best known for playing Jonathan on NBC’s critically acclaimed “30 Rock”, Sanjay on Showtime’s “Weeds”, and Neal on NBC’s “Whitney”. He is the voice of Baljeet on Disney’s “Phineas and Ferb”, and the title voice of Sanjay on Nickelodeon’s “Sanjay and Craig”. On stage, he starred opposite Matthew Broderick and Martin Short in Broadway’s It’s Only A Play, opposite Ed Harris in the New Group’s Good for Otto, and recently completed the Broadway run of Grand Horizons. In October of 2019, Pancholy released his debut novel, The Best at It (Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins). It was named a 2020 Stonewall Honor Book, a 2019 Junior Library Guild Selection, a Chicago Public Library Best of the Best Books, and received starred reviews from Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly, and the American Library Association’s Booklist. Pancholy was appointed by President Obama to serve on the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs), and he is the co-founder of ActToChange.org—a national nonprofit dedicated to ending bullying for AAPI youth and fostering a world where all young people can celebrate their differences.
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Stephen Park
CastOff Broadway: Cardinal (Second Stage Theater); Aubergine (Playwrights Horizons); East of Eden (Steppenwolf); The Dumb Waiter, Ivanov (NAATCO); The New Paradigm (Atlantic Theater Company); Aunt Dan and Lemon (The New Group). Film: Do the Right Thing, Falling Down, Fargo, State of Play, A Serious Man, Snowpiercer, Don Verdean. Television: “Law & Order: SVU”, “The Mindy Project”, “Elementary”, “Person of Interest”, “White Collar”, “Mad About You”, “In Living Color”. Upcoming: Wes Anderson’s “The French Dispatch”.
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Bill Sage
CastBill Sage began his career working with independent filmmakers such as Hal Hartley, with whom he has collaborated on many critically acclaimed films including Simple Men, and further collaborating on the upcoming Where To Land, in the lead role. Mr. Sage has shot several award-winning films and cult hits such as American Psycho, Boiler Room, High Art, EvenHand, Mysterious Skin, Electrick Children, AWOL, the Academy Award-winning Precious, and received critical acclaim at both Cannes and Sundance for his performance in Jim Mickle’s We Are What We Are. Before The COVID-19 pandemic, Mr. Sage completed the first season of “Reprisal “on HULU, and a leading role in a new film franchise, Wrong Turn: The Foundation. Throughout his career, Mr. Sage has been a champion for diversity and equality in the film industry. He has made a point of working with female Directors, Writers and Producers such as Mary Harron, Lisa Cholodenko, Mira Nair, and Rebecca Thomas, to name only a few… For over 20 years Mr. Sage has starred and had supporting roles in numerous television shows such as “Sex and the City”, “Boardwalk Empire”, “White Collar”, “Nurse Jackie”, “Power”, and the Governor of NY on “Orange is the New Black”. Mr. Sage is a graduate of SUNY Purchase and a proud member of the Purchase Mafia. He continues to be a driving force in the world of film and high-end television.
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Lili Taylor
CastLili Taylor is a multifaceted award-winning actor who has conquered film, television, and stage. She recently appeared in the HBO limited series “Perry Mason”, and can most recently be seen in the independent feature “Paper Spiders”, as well as the Netflix series “Chambers” opposite Uma Thurman and Ciaran Foy. On film, she’s best known for her work in a plethora of independent classics such as Mary Harron’s “I Shot Andy Warhal”, Robert Altman’s “Short Cuts”, Stephen Frears’ “High Fidelity”.
Creative Team
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Wallace Shawn
PlaywrightWallace Shawn’s plays include Marie and Bruce, The Music Teacher (opera with Allen Shawn, composer), Aunt Dan And Lemon, The Fever, The Designated Mourner, Grasses Of A Thousand Colors, and Evening at the Talk House. As an actor, he has appeared on stage in David Rabe’s Hurlyburly and many of his own plays. He appeared in Manhattan, Radio Days, My Dinner With Andre, Clueless, Vanya on 42ND Street, A Master Builder, and Rifkin’s Festival, among other films, and on television he appeared in The Cosby Show, Star Trek Deep Space Nine, Gossip Girl, Mozart In The Jungle and Young Sheldon.
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Scott Elliott
DirectorScott Elliott is the founding artistic director of The New Group theater and New Group Off Stage, a multi-media division of the company. He most recently directed Jessica Goldberg’s Babe, featuring Arliss Howard, Gracie McGraw and Marisa Tomei. Other recent productions include the world premieres of The Seven Year Disappear by Jordan Seavey, The Seagull/Woodstock, NY by Thomas Bradshaw, and the musical Black No More by John Ridley and Tariq Trotter.
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Box OFfice Hours
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Closed Saturday-Monday.
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