David Mamet's A LIFE IN THE THEATRE will begin performances TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21st, 2010 at the GERALD SCHOENFELD THEATRE

LIMITED ENGAGEMENT THROUGH JANUARY 2ND

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A LIFE IN THE THEATRE will reunite Mamet with Tony Award winning scenic designer SANTO LOQUASTO who designed the set for Race, Glengarry Glen Ross and the original American Buffalo.  The show also reunites Mamet with both LAURA BAUER, who designed costumes for Speed-The-Plow and November, and with Tony Award winning lighting designer KENNETH POSNER who designed the lights for Glengarry Glen Ross. NEIL PEPE (Speed-The-Plow)directs.

A LIFE IN THE THEATRE will be making its Broadway premiere. The play made its world premiere at The Goodman Theatre in Chicago in February of 1977 with Mike Nussbaum and Joe Mantegna and was directed by Gregory Mosher.    The play opened off-Broadway on October 20, 1977 at the Lucille Lortel Theatre and ran for 288 performances. That production was directed by Gerald Gutierrez and starred Peter Evans and Ellis Rabb.

Describing life in the footlights from an actor’s point of view, A LIFE IN THE THEATRE focuses on the relationship between two thespians: Robert, an older, experienced performer; and John, a relative newcomer. Though Robert’s guidance is welcomed by John at first, as the play progresses Robert falters as an actor and mentor, and John emerges as a mature actor. Mamet was inspired to write A LIFE IN THE THEATRE by what he had observed backstage as well as by his own experiences in his early career as an actor.

The New York Times

February 4, 1977

MAMET WINS WITH ‘LIFE IN THEATER’, Mel Gussow

“David Mamet’s “A Life In The Theatre” is a comedy about the artifice of acting. In a swift 75 minutes, the author spoofs actors’ insecurities, pretensions and illusions – the ironies and ignominies of the profession. The author was once an actor and he makes his actors enormously vulnerable people. His attitude is wry and affectionate.”

.…

“Mr. Mamet knows how people talk – the shortcuts, repetitions and accidents that make American language comical and even poetic. In the author’s hands, that language also proves astonishingly theatrical. The play is Mr. Mamet in a lighthearted mood…. It has bite and it also has a heart.”