Groundbreaking Play Sheds New Light on Lincoln Assassination
Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) June 06, 2014 -- In 1992, 8-year old Adam Wylie played the youngest child, Zachary Brock, alongside Tom Skerritt and Kathy Baker on CBS’s "Picket Fences." On June 8th Wylie will debut as President Abraham Lincoln’s assassin, John Wilkes Booth, in the new play "My Brother" (http://www.mybrotherplay.com). Written and directed by Brendan Russo, "My Brother" will premiere at The Lillian Theatre (1076 Lillian Way) in Hollywood, CA on June 8th at 7:30 PM as part of the Hollywood Fringe Festival.
On September 11th, 2001, writer/director Russo, a downtown NYC high school student at the time, was reeling from the WTC attacks. Sitting on a bench in Union Square Park, he looked up at a statue of Abraham Lincoln and began to deal with his emotions over the atrocities. Through the death of Lincoln, and the story of John Wilkes Booth, Russo began to understand how the world had changed on 9/11. “My Brother” was Russo’s reaction to his experience, which examines the reasons why a person with all of the love and potential in the world would embark upon violent, long-lasting means to achieve the end they claim is peace. Meticulously researched, and taken from the diaries of both Booth and his sister, “My Brother” takes a hard, emotional, complicated look at Booth, his life, his passions, and the people he affected both in the lead-up to, and the aftermath of Lincoln’s assassination.
Adam Wylie, long past the days of playing the young boy on CBS’s "Picket Fences, and who now spends his time performing on Broadway (the TONY-Winning Revival of "Into the Woods," Wicked) and on Television ("Veronica Mars," "Gilmore Girls," and as Peter Pan in Disney’s wildly successful Jake and the Neverland Pirates franchise) takes center stage as romantic matinee star/Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth, who is torn between his devotion to his family, and to the war-torn South. The play chronicles his life and his relationships, mainly with his writer-sister, Asia (Eryn Guyton) who lives stuck in a dead-end marriage with a sycophantic actor trying to milk the Booth family name for his career, and his much more famous brother, actor Edwin Booth (Vince Major), whose life devolves into alcohol and hedonism as he becomes one of the most famous men in the world.
During its nascency, "My Brother" received a private reading at the Joseph Papp Public Theatre in New York. As the script was workshopped, it opened the door for Russo to gain acceptance to the Dramatists Guild, where then-president and playwright John Weidman (writer, "Pacific Overtures," "Anything Goes," "Big," "Assassins") gave Russo guidance in the structure, and development of the piece, bringing it to the form in which it exists today.
"My Brother" will have its world premiere as one of the most controversial and highly anticipated shows in the 2014 Hollywood Fringe Festival on June 14th with a special preview performance on June 8th at 7:30 PM. Additional shows will include June 14th (3:30 PM), June 18 (8:30 PM), June 22 (5:00 PM) and June 28 (10:00 PM). Tickets are available at http://www.hollywoodfringe.org.
"My Brother" is an Intact Production written and directed by Brendan Russo; Starring Adam Wylie, Eryn Guyton, Vince Major, Steve Phelan, Erin McIntosh, Bianca Hali Doria, Steve T. Bartlett, Radek Antczak, and Aleksander Ristic; Produced by Alexa Berry, Javier Sepulveda, Brendan Russo & Juan Carlos Moreno Rangel; The Lillian Theatre, 1076 Lillian Way, Hollywood, CA 90038.
For more information on "My Brother," please visit: http://www.mybrotherplay.com.
MARLAN WILLARDSON, MWPR, +1 (310) 701-3350, [email protected]
Share this article