Playwright
Michael Weller

Director
Austin Pendleton

Cast
Norbert Leo Butz (Adam)
Elizabeth Marvel (Jan)

MICHAEL WELLER (Playwright) studied music composition at Brandeis University with Irving Fine, Harold Shapiro and Martin Boykin, then worked as a jazz pianist before taking his graduate degree in theater at the University of Manchester, England. His best known are MOONCHILDREN, FISHING, LOOSE ENDS and SPOILS OF WAR. His films include HAIR and RAGTIME (for Milos Forman) and LOST ANGELS (for Hugh Hudson) and a teleplay of his Broadway drama “Spoils of War,” starring Kate Nelligan. He co-founded (with Angelina Fiordelissi and Suzanne Brinkley) and serves now as supervising mentor of the Mentor Project of the Cherry Lane Theatre, currently in its tenth season. Dr. Zhivago (from the novel by Boris Pasternak, for which he wrote the book) - Des McAnuff to direct, Lucy Simon music, Amy Powers and Michael Korie lyrics – will open in London’s West End in 2009 prior to its Broadway premiere. He is currently writing the book for a Broadway musical “Rumors” about the making of Fleetwood Mac’s two legendary breakthrough albums, to be directed by Taylor Hackford. His work has received an Academy Award nomination, an N.A.A.C.P. Outstanding Contribution Award, Critics Outer Circle Award, a Rockefeller Foundation Grant and a Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays Award, and has been honored by The Broken Watch Theatre Company which gave their playhouse his name. He is on the counsel of the Writer’s Guild Fund, and the Dramatists Guild of America.

AUSTIN PENDLETON (Director) has been seen on Broadway in The Diary of Anne Frank and Grand Hotel. He has appeared in the first New York productions of Oh Dad, Poor Dad..., Fiddler on the Roof, Hail Scrawdyke (Derwent Award), The Last Sweet Days of Isaac (Obie Award), The Sorrows of Frederick, Doubles, The Imposter, The Loop and Sophistry, and in the title roles of Off-Broadway productions of Hamlet, Richard III, Uncle Vanya, Keats and Jeremy Rudge. He is a playwright (Orson’s Shadow, Booth and Uncle Bob), director (Spoils of War, The Runner Stumbles and Elizabeth Taylor in The Little Foxes), teacher (HB Studio), and member of Chicago's Steppenwolf Ensemble. His film credits include What's Up Doc?, Trial and Error, The Associate, The Mirror Has Two Faces, Mr. and Mrs. Bridge, The Proprietor, Guarding Tess, The Fifteen Minute Hamlet, Catch-22 and Amistad. Recent TV includes "Fired Up," "Frasier" and "Tracey Takes On." He began his career, and has acted and directed many times, at the Williamstown Theatre Festival.

NORBERT LEO BUTZ (Adam) Broadway: Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics, Drama League Award winner, Best Actor, Musical) Wicked (Original Cast, Fiyero) Thou Shalt Not (Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics nominations,) Rent(original cast, Broadway debut). Off-Broadway: Buicks (Drama Desk nomination,), The Last Five Years (Drama Desk, Lortel nominations,);Drama League Award) Juno and the Paycock, Saved. National Tour: Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Cabaret (Helen Hayes, Jefferson, Dora, and Ovation Awards) Regional: Alabama Shakespeare Festival (four seasons);  Repertory Theatre of St. Louis.  Film: Dan In Real Life. Television: “Playing Chicken”,“Comanche Moon”. BFA, Webster University, MFA, Alabama Shakespeare Theatre.

ELIZABETH MARVEL (Jan) most recently appeared in Top Girls on Broadway, for which she was nominated for a Drama League Award. Broadway: Top Girls, Seascape, An American Daughter, Taking Sides, The Seagull. Off-Broadway: Almost an Evening (Atlantic Theatre Company), Dark Matters (Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre), Hedda Gabler (OBIE Award), A Streetcar Named Desire (OBIE Award), Shopping and Fucking (NYTW),Therese Raquin (OBIE Award, CSC), Misalliance (OBIE Award, Roundabout), Troilus and Cressida, King Lear, Silence, Cunning, Exile (NY Shakespeare Festival). Regional: McCarter, Guthrie, American Repertory, Stratford Theatre Festival, Williamstown Theater Festival. Film & TV: Pretty Bird, Burn After Reading, The Dying Gaul, Ten Hundred Kings, “A Dog Year” (HBO), “The District” (series regular), “Kidnapped,” “Law & Order: Criminal Intent,” “Homicide”. Training: Juilliard.