Trinity Rep Hosts an Evening with Tony Winner Brian Dennehy, 7/30

Trinity Repertory Company has announced a one-night-only engagement with award-winning television, stage and screen actor Brian Dennehy on Monday, July 30 at 7:00pm in Trinity Rep's Dowling Theater. Together onstage with Trinity Rep resident actor FrEd Sullivan, Jr., the pair will discuss and perform the work of America's premier playwright Eugene O'Neill.

Attendees will also be invited to participate in a question and answer session following the performance, and a cocktail reception with Mr. Dennehy and Mr. Sullivan following the discussion.

General admission for the evening is $50. All proceeds benefit Trinity Rep's Theater for Every Generation campaign, for which Mr. Dennehy serves on the honorary campaign board. Tickets can be purchased at the theater's box office at 201 Washington Street, Providence; by phone at (401) 351-4242 or online at www.trinityrep.com.

Last seen onstage at Trinity Rep in the 2003-2004 season production of Hughie, Dennehy is a long-time Eugene O'Neill fan and performer, considered by many to be the preeminent interpreter of O'Neill for his generation. He won the 2003 Tony Award for Best Actor for his performance in Long Day's Journey into Night , appeared on Broadway in Desire Under the Elms and just completed a sold out run in O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh alongside Nathan Lane at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago.

"Brian Dennehy is an icon of the American stage," says artistic director Curt Columbus, "He not only has an unparalleled insight into O'Neill's work, he has devoted the heart of his career to the stage in a way that very few of his contemporaries have. We are thrilled to be able to offer our audiences the rare opportunity to enjoy his talent and unique perspective up close, in our intimate Dowling Theater."

Brian Dennehy's storied Broadway career includes Desire Under the Elms, Inherit the Wind (with Christopher Plummer), Long Day's Journey into Night, Death of a Salesman (for which he won his first Tony Award for Best Actor) and Translations. Off Broadway, he has appeared in Richard Nelson's Conversations in Tusculum at The Public Theater, The Cherry Orchard at Brooklyn Academy Of Music and Says I, Says at Heat Phoenix Theatre. Regionally, he appeared at The Goodman in Hughie, Krapp's Last Tape, Desire Under the Elms, Long Day's Journey into Night, Death of a Salesman, A Touch of the Poet, The Iceman Cometh (also at Dublin's Abbey Theatre) and Galileo. Other regional credits include Twelfth Night, The Homecoming, All's Well That Ends Well, Hughie and Krapp's Last Tape at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Ontario and Rat in the Skull at Wisdom Bridge Theatre. He appeared in London's West End in Death of a Salesman (Olivier Award for Best Actor). Mr. Dennehy's select film credits include The Big Year, The Next Three Days, Ratatouille, Assault on Precinct 13, Tommy Boy, Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet, Presumed Innocent, Cocoon and Silverado, among others. He has appeared on television in 30 Rock, Law & Order, The West Wing, Just Shoot Me!, Birdland, Miami Vice, and in numerous television movies and miniseries. In 2004 Mr. Dennehy was honored with the 2004 New England Pell Award-winner for Excellence in the Arts and was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame in 2010.

Trinity Rep resident Acting Company member FrEd Sullivan, Jr. has acted in more than 100 productions in his 29 seasons at the theater. The actor is no stranger to the O'Neill canon, having played both James Tyrone, Jr. in Trinity's production of A Moon for the Misbegotten and Edmund Tyrone in Long Day's Journey Into Night. Other favorite Trinity Rep roles include Sir John Falstaff in Henry IV and The Merry Wives of Windsor; Charles Condomine in Blithe Spirit (Norton Award for Outstanding Actor); Walter Burns in His Girl Friday (Independent Reviewers of New England/IRNE Award for Best Actor); Harold Hill in The Music Man; Oscar Madison in The Odd Couple; Charlie in Stones in His Pockets; Alfie Doolittle, My Fair Lady; Lloyd Dallas, Noises Off; Boris Semyonov-Pischik, The Cherry Orchard; Daddy Warbucks, Annie; Geoffrey, Absurd Person Singular; Pato Dooley, The Beauty Queen of Leenane; Wolf/Cinderella's Prince, Into the Woods; Peter Patrone, The Heidi Chronicles; Sam Truman, Lips Together, Teeth Apart; Brodin, Red Noses; Aldo, Italian American Reconciliation; Lloyd, Reckless; Dr. Sugar, Suddenly Last Summer; Hucklebee, The Fantasticks; Ronnie, The House of Blue Leaves. Fred appeared in Cloud Nine at Berkeley Rep, The Ruby Sunrise at The Actors Theatre of Louisville, As You Like It (Norton Award Outstanding Actor), A Midsummer Night's Dream, Othello, Comedy of Errors, and All's Well that Ends Well at Commonwealth Shakespeare Company in Boston, The Tempest at New Jersey Shakespeare Festival, My Fair Lady at Theatre by the Sea, Romeo and Juliet, Arcadia and Measure for Measure at The Bread Loaf Acting Ensemble, and Deathtrap at the American Stage Festival. As an award-winning director, Fred helmed Shooting Star, A Christmas Carol (2007) and Boeing-Boeing at Trinity Rep and over 20 productions at the Gamm Theatre. Mr. Sullivan also teaches acting at the Gamm, RISD and at Trinity Rep.

Since its founding in 1963, Trinity Repertory Company has been one of the most respected regional theaters in the country. Featuring the last permanent resident Acting Company in America, Trinity Rep presents a balance of world premiere, contemporary, and classic works for an estimated annual audience of approximately 120,000. In its 49-year history, the theater has produced 58 world premieres, mounted national and international tours, and, through its MFA program, trained hundreds of new actors and directors. This season marks the 46th year of Project Discovery, Trinity Rep's pioneering educational outreach program. Each year, Trinity Rep's educational programs reach nearly 15,000 Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut students through matinees as well as in-school residencies and workshops. Brown University/Trinity Rep offers professional training for actors and directors in a three-year MFA program. Trinity Rep's 49th Season will present seven subscription productions alongside the annual holiday production of A Christmas Carol. The 2012-2013 Season opens with a co-production with Dallas Theater Center of King Lear by William Shakespeare, The How and the Why by Sarah Treem, Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, adapted by Curt Columbus and Marilyn Campbell, Social Creatures by Jackie Sibblies Drury and House & Garden, an epic duo of interconnected plays by Alan Ayckbourn performed simultaneously in our upstairs and downstairs theaters.

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