E. Faye Butler and Nova Y. Payton to Star in SMOKEY JOE'S CAFE at Arena Stage; 2013-14 Season Additions Announced!

Two area favorites E. Faye Butler and Nova Y. Payton will unite to star in Smokey Joe's Café - The Songs of Leiber and Stoller in Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater's 2013/14 season.

Butler returns to Arena Stage after earning the 2013 Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in the world premiere of Pullman Porter Blues by Cheryl West last fall. She joins D.C. native Payton in her Arena Stage debut, who amazed area audiences most recently as Effie White in Signature Theatre's production of Dreamgirls. That role, which garnered a 2013 Helen Hayes nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a musical, followed on the heels of her 2012 Helen Hayes Award-winning performance as Motormouth Maybelle in Hairspray, also with Signature.

The two powerhouse performers will take to the Fichandler Stage under the direction of Randy Johnson (One Night with Janis Joplin) and with choreography by Parker Esse (The Music Man, Oklahoma!) April 25 - June 8, 2014.

Also making her Arena Stage and D.C.-area debut next season is Lucie Tiberghien, who will direct Resident Playwright Charles Randolph-Wright's world-premiere production of Love in Afghanistan, October 11 - November 17, 2013 in the Arlene and Robert Kogod Cradle. Tiberghien's recent credits include the 2012 MCC Theatre production of Stephen Belber's Don't Go Gentle at the Lucille Lortel Theatre and La Jolla Playhouse's production of Blood and Giftsby J.T. Rogers, about international military intervention and the secret spy war behind the official Soviet-Afghan War in the 1980s.

Additional casting and creative team updates for the 2013/14 Arena Stage season will be announced at a later date. For complete season information, visit arenastage.org/shows-tickets/the-season.

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Photo Credit: Walter McBride