Blessing, Gurney, Howe, and Margulies Part of Primary Stages Season

Works by Lee Blessing, A.R. Gurney, Tina Howe, and Donald Margulies will be part of Primary Stages’ 2008-2009 season.

The season will begin with the New York premiere of Gurney’s Buffalo Gal, July 22-August 30. The play concerns a faded film and television star who is persuaded to return to her hometown to star in a local theatre production and faces a dilemma when Hollywood comes calling. Mark Lamos, who helmed Gurney’s Indian Blood for the company, will direct the production.

Also to be presented is the New York premiere of Blessing’s A Body of Water (September 16-October 25), about a middle-aged couple who wake up one morning not knowing who they are. Blessing is the author of Thief River, A Walk in the Woods, and Great Falls, which debuts next month at the Humana Festival of New Plays.

Margulies’ Shipwrecked! An Entertainment — The Amazing Adventures of Louis de Rougemont (As Told By Himself) will play January 27-March 7. The show is a whimsical new play about a man lost at sea who embarks on an awe-inspiring, 30-year adventure. Margulies’ other plays include Dinner With Friends, Collected Stories, Sight Unseen, and Brooklyn Boy.

Howe’s new play Chasing Manet will star Tony Award winner Jane Alexander. The playwright’s other work includes Painting Churches, Museum, and Birth and After Birth. It will run March 24-May 2.

Primary Stage’s current season resumes on January 22 with Brooke Berman’s Hunting and Gathering, starring Michael Chernus, Mamie Gummer, Keira Naughton, and Jeremy Shamos, and continues on March 18 with Willy Holtzman’s Something You Did, starring Joanna Gleason. The company’s most recent offering, Horton Foote’s Dividing the Estate, may reportedly transfer to Broadway later this year.

For more information, visit www.primarystages.com.