Today, Williamstown Theatre Festival (Mandy Greenfield, Artistic Director) and Audible (Kate Navin, Artistic Producer, Audible Theater) announced casting for three productions: Photograph 51 by Anna Ziegler, directed by Susan Stroman; Animals by Stacy Osei-Kuffour, directed by Whitney White; and A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams, directed by Robert O’Hara. These three plays will all rehearse and have remote recording sessions this month as part of the upcoming Williamstown Theatre Festival season produced by Audible, the world’s largest producer and provider of original spoken-word entertainment and audiobooks.
In the critically acclaimed new play Photograph 51, previously announced Emmy Award nominee Anna Chlumsky is joined by David Corenswet, Tony Award nominee Stephen Kunken, Aasif Mandvi, Tony Award nominee Omar Metwally,and Ben Rosenfield.
The world premiere comedy Animals will feature SAG Award nominee Madeline Brewer, Jason Butler Harner, 2020 Emmy Award nominee William Jackson Harper, and Aja Naomi King.
A Streetcar Named Desire with previously announced cast members Emmy, Grammy, and six-time Tony Award winner Audra McDonald and Carla Gugino, will also feature Joel Reuben Ganz, Joe Goldammer, Carmen Herlihy, Sullivan Jones, Brian Lucas, Stacey Raymond, and Cesar J. Rosado.
For the Audible recording, the role of Stanley will be played by Ariel Sharif. Sharif replaces the previously announced Bobby Cannavale who is unable to participate due to a scheduling conflict.
These three productions join the previously announced world premiere of Shakina Nayfack’s new play Chonburi International Hotel & Butterfly Club directed by Laura Savia which recently completed its remote recording sessions. The complete cast features the playwright alongside Ivory Aquino, Kate Bornstein, Liz Lark Brown, SAG Award winner Annie Golden, Bianca Leigh, Telly Leung, Dana Levinson, Pooya Mohseni, Angelica Ross, Ita Segev, Grammy Award nominee Jason Tam, and Samy Nour Younes.
Exact release dates on Audible and additional information about the complete season of seven shows will be announced shortly.
As previously announced, this unprecedented collaboration between two industry leaders, forged during and in response to a fraught moment in history, preserves the Festival season in a different format, provides continued work for the artists involved in the Festival season, and produces a body of work that will be made available for global Audible listeners to enjoy and experience. It also marks the first time that an external theatrical season of work will be produced on Audible. In addition to being available for Audible listeners, the Williamstown Theatre Festival season on Audible will be made available to Williamstown Theatre Festival subscribers and donors.
For more information, please visit www.wtfestival.org. For more information about Audible Theater, which makes outstanding performances and powerful storytelling available to millions of people all over the world, please visit www.audible.com/theater.