THE ROAD TO DAMASCUS begins at 59E59 Theaters on January 17, part of the inaugural 5A Season

59E59 Theaters (Elysabeth Kleinhans, Artistic Director; Peter Tear, Executive Producer; Brian Beirne, Managing Director) is thrilled to welcome the world premiere of THE ROAD TO DAMASCUS, written by Tom Dulack and directed by Michael Parva. Produced by The Directors Company and part of the 59E59’s inaugural 5A Season, THE ROAD TO DAMASCUS begins performances on Saturday, January 17 at 8 PM for a limited engagement through Sunday, March 1. Opening Night is Tuesday, January 27 at 7 PM. The performance schedule is Tuesday – Thursday at 7 PM; Friday at 8 PM; Saturday at 2 PM & 8 PM; Sunday at 3 PM. Single tickets are $70 ($49 for 59E59 Members). To purchase tickets, call Ticket Central at (212) 279-4200 or visit www.59e59.org.

Tom Dulack’s prescient play imagines a world where the first black African Pope is in the Vatican, and the first third party President in American history is in the White House. When suicide bombers strike Manhattan’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral and a train station in Miami, the US is sent in a tailspin. With America under attack and a full-scale civil war raging in Syria, the President must act. Will the Pope intervene directly in American foreign policy in Syria, or will he acquiesce?

This blistering political thriller, riddled with international intrigue, imagines the power struggles, backroom machinations, and deadly secrets that threaten to destabilize the world. First conceived in 2007, and continually updated to reflect on-going political changes, THE ROAD TO DAMASCUS shows how the trajectory of US foreign policy and diplomacy can take a dangerous turn.

The cast features Rufus Collins (The Real Thing at Huntington Theatre, Broadway’s The Royal Family) as Dexter Hobhouse, Larisa Polonsky (Burning at The New Group) as Nadia Kirilenko, and Mel Johnson Jr. (Broadway’s On the Twentieth Century; Film: Total Recall) as Pope Augustine. They are joined by Robert Verlaque (The Games Maker at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival) as Cardinal Medeiros, Joris Stuyck (Off Broadway’s The Bilbao Effect and Guantánamo: Honor Bound to Defend Freedom) as Bishop Guzman, Joseph Adams (Broadway’s A View from the Bridge; Murder in the First at 59E59) as Teddy Bowles, and Liza Vann (Poetic License at 59E59) as Bree Benson.

The design team includes Brittany Vasta (scenic design); Graham Kindred (lighting design); Lux Haac (costume design); and Quentin Chiappetta (original music/sound design).  The production stage manager is Rose Riccardi. The stage manager is Katharine S. Fergerson.

Tom Dulack (playwright) is an award-winning playwright and director best known for his comedy Breaking Legs (world premiere Old Globe, dir. Jack O’Brien; Broadway’s Promenade Theater, dir John Tillinger) and the tragic study of American poet Ezra Pound in captivity, Incommunicado (winner, the Kennedy Center Award for New American Plays). This is his sixth season writing and staging the Young People’s Concerts for the New York Philharmonic. His plays are presented on and Off-Broadway as well as in leading regional theaters around the country, and have been translated into foreign languages around the world. They include Solomon’s Child, Diminished Capacity, York Beach, Just Deserts, 1348, Shooting Craps, and Friends Like These. Notable directors and playwrights with whom he has collaborated are Jack O’Brien, Alan Ayckbourn, Chris Hart, and John Tillinger. A member of the Dramatists Guild and The Writers Guild of America, he also is professor of English at the University of Connecticut, where he teaches Shakespeare and playwriting on the Waterbury Campus.

Michael Parva (director) has developed, produced and directed over 50 productions of new works, including most recently the world premiere of On a Stool at the End of the Bar by Robert Callely, Almost Home by Walter Anderson and Murder in the First featuring Chad Kimball. Broadway: Irena’s Vow by Dan Gordon, starring Tovah Feldshuh (nom. for a Joe A. Calloway Award for Direction). Additional directing credits include Marsha Norman’s Trudy Blue, and Concrete Christ Trilogy by Mary Sue Price with Philip Seymour Hoffman and the Kesselring Award winning plays including: Anna Deavere Smith’s Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992; Nicky Silver’s Pterodactyls with Hope Davis; David Lindsay-Abaire’s Kimberly Akimbo with Edie Falco & John Gallagher Jr. and David Auburn’s The Latecomer. Upcoming: the world premiere of the new musical, Eliot Ness.