Erin Darke, Mia Dillon, and Keir Dullea Will Join Christopher Lloyd in Off-Broadway Reading of Pound
NEW YORK, NY — Additional casting has been announced for Triumvirate Artists’ one-night-only reading of playwright Sean O’Leary’s Pound, which will be presented September 18 at 7 PM at The Vineyard Theatre.
(West Virginia’s O’Leary is the author of seven full-length plays, six of which have been professionally produced. Sean’s father, Hal O’Leary, was a fixture in WV drama for decades. Sean is a newspaper columnist and blogger, and author of the excellent book on West Virginia: The State Of My State)
Emmy winner Christopher Lloyd (Back to the Future, Taxi), as previously reported, will star as Ezra Pound. He will be joined by the newly announced Erin Darke (Good Girls Revolt, Love & Mercy, Don’t Think Twice), Mia Dillion (Money Pit, All Good Things), and Keir Dullea (2001: A Space Odyssey).
Darke joins as Mary Polley, a young psychiatrist who aspires to help the man who has been labeled “incurable.” Dillon takes on the role of Nurse Priscomb with Dullea as Archibald MacLeash.
Kathleen Butler directs. The play is produced by Triumvirate Artists’ Kathleen and Daniel Butler and John Essay.
The play concerns the final days of American poet Ezra Pound’s stay at St. Elizabeths psychiatric hospital, where he was remanded to from 1945 until 1958. O’Leary’s play “imagines what might have happened in those last days at St. Elizabeths to irreversibly change the character of Ezra Pound.”
The Vineyard Theatre is located at 108 East 15th Street. Seating is limited and on a first-come, first-served basis. RSVPs are mandatory and should be submitted to [email protected].
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EDITOR’S NOTE(The following is from a Facebook posting by Paul Meecham):
Tri-State Congratulates Playwright Sean O’Leary on New York Reading of POUND
Christopher Lloyd to Headline Reading of POUND in NYC
By BWW News Desk BroadwayWorld.com Sep. 7, 2017
On Monday, September 18th at 7pm, Triumvirate Artists will present a “one-night-only’ reading of POUND by playwright Sean O’Leary featuring award winning actor Christopher Lloyd (Back to the Future trilogy) as Ezra Pound and directed by Kathleen Butler. The play is produced by Triumvirate Artists (John Essay, Daniel Butler and Kathleen Butler).
During World War II the American poet, Ezra Pound, made propaganda broadcasts for Mussolini’s fascist government. As a result, he was charged with treason. But, before he could be tried, Pound was judged to be mentally unfit to stand trial and was remanded to the custody of St. Elizabeths psychiatric hospital, where he would remain from 1945 until 1958 when the indictment was dismissed and he was released.
The play Pound challenges us with questions about whether words can be as powerful as actions, whether revenge can be just, and, ultimately, whether sanity is possible when we’re made to see the world as it is and not as we would have it.
The reading will take place at The Vineyard Theatre (108 East 15th Street). Seating is limited and on a first come first serve basis. RSVPs are mandatory and should be submitted to [email protected] or [email protected].
Sean O’Leary (Playwright) is the author of seven full-length plays, six of which have been professionally produced.
His most recent, play, The Boy in the Box, was commissioned by Barter Theatre. Walt Whitman’s Secret premiered at the Frank Theatre in Vancouver, BC in October 2016.
Valu-Mart, was the 2007 winner of The University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Ruby Lloyd Apsey Award for plays confronting racial and ethnic issues. It was also the winner of the 2007 Best Play award from the West Virginia Writers Conference and was a finalist in the National Arts Club’s 2006 Playwrights First competition.
Valu-Mart premiered at Pittsburgh Playwrights Theater in March 2010. Beneath Shelton Laurel was commissioned by The Southern Appalachian Repertory Theatre where it played to record audiences between 2005 and 2006 and won a National Endowment for the Arts “Access to Artistic Excellence” grant for a touring production. RAIN IN THE HOLLOWS (first read as Claudie Hukill) received its professional premiere in 2004 at Tri-State Actors Theater in New Jersey.
Tri-State also read POUND as part of its New Plays Reading Series. RAIN IN THE HOLLOWS has gone on to numerous productions as well. Sean’s first play, Wine to Blood was produced by Oglebay Institute’s TownGate Theatre and selected by Brandeis University for its Permanent Collection of works inspired by the Spanish Civil War. Sean is the 2004 winner of the West Virginia Commission on The Arts Fellowship for Drama and was recently added to The Literary Map of West Virginia. He lives in Indianola, Washington.
