Company member Alexander Strain is among the prestigious DC actors cast in Forum Theatre's revival of the Tony Award-winning Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes. In addition to Strain, who plays Louis, the ensemble features Helen Hayes Award-winners Jennifer Mendenhall as Hannah and Nanna Ingvarsson as The Angel, along with Helen Hayes nominees Karl Miller as Prior and Jim Jorgensen as Roy Cohn. Casie Platt as Harper, Daniel Eichner as Joe, and Ro Boddie as Belize round out the cast.
"Everyone at Forum is thrilled to have such an amazing group of actors for this project," artistic director Michael Dove says. "I'm excited they are able to join us over this huge journey of a play, and I think DC audiences will enjoy seeing some of their favorite actors in these great roles."
Several Angels cast members were featured in previous Forum productions. Strain, who was recently artistic associate in residence at Theater J, performs on stage with Forum for the first time since his breakout roles in The Gas Heart/Hamletmachine and The Memorandum. Ingvarsson played the title character in Forum's 2006 production of The Skriker, while Jorgensen played Satan in both runs of The Last Days of Judas Iscariot. Platt makes her Forum debut in this summer's dark play or stories for boys, directed by Dove.
Other cast members have drawn acclaim for roles throughout DC. Miller was featured in Signature Theatre's The Lieutenant of Inishmore (directed by Jeremy Skidmore), Mendenhall is a Kushner veteran from the Theater J and Woolly Mammoth co-production of Homebody/Kabul and a frequent Skidmore collaborator, and Eichner earned national attention in Washington Shakespeare Company's Macbeth.
Meanwhile, Boddie, a recent graduate of the North Carolina School of the Arts, makes his DC debut.
Angels in America, which runs October 4 to November 22, 2009, kicks off Forum's residency at Round House Theatre's Silver Spring black box space. Michael Dove and Jeremy Skidmore will co-direct the two parts, Millennium Approaches and Perestroika. The creative team includes set designer Tony Cisek, lighting designers Colin K. Bills and Paul Frydrychowski, costume designers Heather Lockard and Ivania Stack, sound designer Matt M. Nielson, and composer Jesse Terrill.
Forum Theatre produces new and existing works through the collaboration of artists of various genres, explores the possibilities of artistic production of any type, and uses new media and audience outreach to encourage discussion beyond the four walls of the theatre. For further information about Forum and Angels in America, call 202-255-1065.
