Mint Theater to Present World Premiere of Dawn Powell’s Walking Down Broadway

The Mint Theater will kick off its 2005-2006 season with the world premiere of Dawn Powell’s 1931 play Walking Down Broadway. To be directed by Steven Williford, the production will run September 15-November 6, with the official opening set for September 25.

The play concerns two young girls from a small town in Ohio, now living in New York City, who meet two young men on the street. Powell, who was born in Ohio, was the author of 16 novels, 10 plays — only two of which were ever produced — and over 100 short stories. She died in 1965 at the age of 68.

The cast of Walking Down Broadway includes Christine Albright, Denis Butkus, Antony Hagopian, Carol Halstead, Amanda Jones, Emily Moment, Stacy Parker, Ben Roberts, Cherene Snow, and Sammy Tunis. The show will feature scenic design by Roger Hanna, costume design by Brenda Turpin, lighting design by Stephen Petrilli, and sound design by Jane Shaw.

The Mint is devoting its entire season to works by American women writers. Other scheduled offerings include a reading of Edith Wharton’s own dramatization of her novel The House of Mirth on October 17 and a production of the Rachel Crothers comedy Susan and God, about a socialite who undergoes a religious transformation while on a trip to Europe. That play debuted on Broadway in 1937, starring Gertrude Lawrence; a 1940 film version, directed by George Cukor, starred Joan Crawford, Frederic March, Ruth Hussey, and Rita Hayworth.