Soap Stars Zimmer and Pelphrey To Be Featured in Reading of The Sunken Living Room
Guiding Light stars Kim Zimmer and Tom Pelphrey will be featured in a staged reading of The Sunken Living Room, a play by David Caudle, at the Abingdon Theatre Arts Complex in New York on Sunday, December 11 at 7pm. Southern Rep artistic director Ryan Rilette will direct the performance; a reception will follow, with goodies donated by Biscotti Di Vecchio and Starbucks.
The event will benefit Miami’s New Theatre and its co-production of The Sunken Living Room. If not for Hurricane Katrina, the play would now be in the midst of its world premiere run at Southern Rep in New Orleans. (Both Southern Rep and New Theatre have been devastated by hurricanes this year; direct hits from Wilma and Katrina, as well as preparations and evacuations for Rita, have forced the cancellation of more than 20 performances.)
The Sunken Living Room is a comically heartbreaking story about a teenage boy’s struggle to keep the showpiece living room clean as his family falls apart. Zimmer, who will play mom Lynette in the reading, began her soap career on One Life to Live but is best known for her Guiding Light role of Reva Shayne, which she created in 1983 and for which she has won three Daytime Emmy Awards as Outstanding Lead Actress. She did guest spots on such shows as Seinfeld, Babylon 5, and University Hospital, and has appeared in many TV movies-of-the-week. Zimmer also had a leading role in the Off-Broadway production of John Patrick Shanley’s play Four Dogs and a Bone.
Pelphrey will play the drug-addled older brother Chip in the reading. He joined the cast of Guiding Light last September as troublemaker Jonathan Randall and subsequently received his first Daytime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Younger Actor in a Drama Series. Pelphrey attended the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University. He performed in The Taming of the Shrew and Richard III at Shakespeare’s Globe Theater in London, and he has also appeared in several small films.
John Magaro, who was cast in the New Orleans production of The Sunken Living Room before it was cancelled, will play the lead role of youngest son Wade. Halley Wegryn Gross, who starred in the recent Off-Broadway production of Hurlyburly opposite Ethan Hawke, will play Chip’s girlfriend Jenny.
The Abingdon Theatre Arts Complex is located at 312 West 36th Street between Eighth and Ninth Avenues. Tickets are priced at $30; they may be paid for by cash or check at the door. To make reservations, call 212-875-4815.
