Shanley’s Chain of Command Will Have Workshop Production at New York Stage and Film

Pulitzer Prize winner John Patrick Shanley’s newest play, Chain of Command, will receive a three-day workshop production July 29-31 at New York Stage and Film (NYS&F), located at the Powerhouse Theater at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York. Academy Award winner Chris Cooper will play the leading role of Lieutenant Littlefield.

The play was originally scheduled for a special one-time-only presentation on July 16 at the Powerhouse; the three-day workshop production replaces the previously announced play The Talk, which has been postponed until further notice.

Shanley won a 2005 Pultizer Prize, a Tony Award, a Drama Desk Award, an Outer Critics Circle Award, a Lucille Lortel Award, and an Obie Award for Doubt. His other plays include Sailor’s Song, Danny and the Deep Blue Sea, and Four Dogs and Bone. He won an Academy Award for the screenplay of Moonstruck.

Cooper won his Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of John Laroche in Adaptation; he received an Oscar nomination for his work in Seabiscuit, an Emmy nomination for his performance in the HBO film My House in Umbria, and a Screen Actors Guild Award for his work in American Beauty.

The NYS&F season begins on June 24 with a production of The Man in the White Suit, a musical written by Urinetown creators Greg Kotis and Mark Hollmann, starring Hunter Foster. Other highlights of the season include Randle Mell’s solo show Anna and Me (July 1-3); the new musical Dangerous Beauty by Amanda McBroom, Michele Brourman, and Jeannine Dominy (July 7-10); and Christopher Curtis’s musical Behind the Limelight, about film great Charlie Chaplin (July 21-24).

For tickets or information to all NYS&F performances, visit powerhouse.vassar.edu or call 845-437-5599.