Emmy winner Matthew Rhys (The Americans, Brothers & Sisters) and Golden Globe winner Keri Russell (Felicity, Waitress, Burn This) will star in a dramatic reading of Christopher Monger's new play about Dylan Thomas, Dear Mr. Thomas: A New Play for Voices, May 14 at 7:30 PM at 92NY's Kaufmann Concert Hall.
The event, co-directed by Rhys and Monger, will take place on International Dylan Thomas Day.
Rhys, who played Dylan Thomas in the 2008 film The Edge of Love, will again play the Welsh poet with Russell as Liz Reitell, who was the assistant to 92nd Street Y Poetry Center Director John Malcolm Brinnin. Additional casting will be announced.
The one-act play was commissioned for The 92nd Street Y’s 150th anniversary, and it details the back story of Thomas’ Under Milk Wood—which premiered at 92NY May 14, 1953—as well as the poet’s time in New York and Wales in the early 1950s.
Billed as "an interpretation of events and not a definitive biography," the play includes several works by the poet, and it highlights a seminal moment in his history and 92NY’s history.
"[92nd Street Y’s Poetry Center Director] John Malcolm Brinnin and 92NY were instrumental in introducing Dylan Thomas to America and crucial to the development of Under Milk Wood," says playwright Monger in a statement. "Between 1950 and Dylan’s death in 1953, Brinnin organized four American tours for Dylan that cost both of them dearly. They greatly respected each other but ultimately one has to wonder at what cost. This ‘play for voices’ is both my homage to Under Milk Wood and those involved, and an attempt to imagine the chaos of Dylan’s final years as John Malcolm Brinnin endeavored to help Dylan and his family. It is a singular, resonating privilege to write something for 92NY that centers on 92NY, especially since it involves a wonderfully talented fellow Welshman, Matthew Rhys."
Monger's writing credits and directing credits also include the HBO film Temple Grandin, The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain, Like a Woman, and Waiting for the Light.
Click here for ticket information.
