Playwright
Click the button above for tickets. When you arrive at ovationtix.com, click the "Art of Leaving Text" on the calander date you are interested in to purchace tickets.
Performances Begin October 10; Opening Night October 22.
Anne Marilyn Lucas’ comedy, Art of Leaving, will play a limited run at The Alice Griffin Jewel Box Theatre at The Pershing Square Signature Center (480 West 42nd Street). Matt Gehring directs.
Performances will begin on October 10, and opening night is October 22. It will run through December 14. The show previously enjoyed a sold-out run at Theatre for the New City under the title Party?
The cast is Audrey Heffernan Meyer (Diana), Jordan Lage (Aaron), Alan Ceppos (Felix), Pamela Shaw (Esther), Molly Chiffer (Caitlyn), and Brian Mason (Jason). It is produced by AH Productions, LLC and and Margie Lou Productions LLC. KGM Theatrical serves as the Executive Producer and General Manager.
ART OF LEAVING, a new comedy by Anne Marilyn Lucas, has been called A Doll’s House meets Neil Simon. Inspired by Lucas’s own marriage, the play delivers a fast-paced, laugh-out-loud look at modern love and asks: what does marriage mean now?
Three couples — one in their 20s, one in their 50s, and one in their 70s — find themselves at an unexpected family crossroads. Each generation's definition of what a marriage should be, from a forever commitment to a multiple partner agreement, creates a rollicking roller coaster of comic confusion. At the center are Diana, a lifelong people pleaser and her husband Aaron, who is a devoted follower of a controversial self-help guru whose bestselling book, Male Satisfaction Over 40, promises to help men become “real men again” by shedding all restrictions.
As relationships stretch and snap under new definitions of identity, freedom, and love, Art of Leaving takes a sharply comic — and deeply human — look at the cost of holding on… and of letting go.
Cast and Creative Teams
Alan Ceppos (Felix) made his Broadway debut at age nine in The Three Musketeers and appeared on national TV at 13 in Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery.” His TV credits include “Knots Landing,” “Late Night with Conan O’Brien,” “Late Show with David Letterman,” “New York Undercover,” and “Law & Order.” He was recently seen in the acclaimed drama There is A Fieldand received numerous Best Actor awards for his role in the film That Cold Dead Look in Your Eyes. He can currently be seen on TV in “Gravesend” and in films Behind the Line and The Premiere.   www.alanceppos.com
Molly Chiffer (Caitlyn) is elated to embody this equally spunky and thoughtful young woman. Favorite credits include: The Glass Menagerie (Laura Wingfield), Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express (Mary Debenham), A Christmas Carol Musical (Belle), A Little Night Music (Petra),POTUS… (Stephanie), and her award-winning short film, Kissing Kerouac. BFA in Acting from the University of Southern California (Fight On!). Utmost gratitude to Matt, Anne, and this cast of incredibles! www.mollychiffer.com @jeezmollylouise
Jordan Lage (Aaron) is a founding member of the Atlantic Theater Company, having performed in more than two dozen of fellow co-founder David Mamet’s plays on Broadway, off-Broadway & regionally including American Buffalo, Glengarry Glenn Ross, Speed-The-Plow, Oleanna, Race, & The Water Engine. TV & film work include: “Your Friends and Neighbors,” “American Horror Stories,” “The Blacklist,” “The Equalizer,” “FBI,” “Dickinson,” “Succession,” “Madam Secretary,” “Better Call Saul,” “The Looming Tower,” “Billions,” “Boardwalk” “Empire,” “Oz,” “Madoff,” Salt, Michael Clayton, World Trade Center, The Believer, The Spanish Prisoner, Homicide, Things Change. Drama Desk, SAG, Barrymore awards.
Brian Mason (Jason) is an actor and musician who brings his curiosity and love of storytelling to stage and screen. National tour: The Lonesome Travelers with Peter Yarrow (Narrator/Lead Guitar). Off-Broadway/Regional: The Turkish General’s Wife (Stan, The Actors Studio); The Retreat (Timothy, La Mama); Freefall Frostbite (Steven, 54 Below); West Side Story (Action, North Shore Music Theatre). Film: Larchmont (Ethan, Independent); Fly High (Donut, Independent). TV: “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” (Man at Bar, Amazon); “Bae or Bail” (Boyfriend, A&E). Commercials: Hasbro Gaming (national); Anheuser-Busch (national). He also plays music with several acts at venues throughout the East Coast.
Audrey Heffernan Meyer (Diana). From Silence (National Yiddish Theater Folksbiene, dir.  Arin Arbus). Broadway workshop of Zorba (Chita Rivera), The Flea Theatre; Romance Language (Ars Nova); Quilt (Playwright’s Horizons); This One’s for the Girls! (Playhouse 46 St. Lukes); Grand Hotel (St. Clements); Merrily We Roll Along (APAC). Joe’s Pub, 54 Below solo show. Regional:Tuning In (Adirondack Theatre); Damn Yankees; Sound of Music (Sharon Playhouse); Tintypes(Barter Theatre); Oklahoma!, Music Man, Guys & Dolls, Fiddler (Bucks County Playhouse). TV: “FBI: Most Wanted,” “Blacklist,” “Billions,” “Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” “Blue Bloods,” “Royal Pains,” “Y The Last Man,” “Hear About the Morgans?”  Acting/Vocal: Austin Pendleton, F. Murray Abraham, Chris York, Jane Fujita. BA Theatre-Penn State.
Pamela Shaw (Esther). Film: Bolio (Tony Shalhoub), & Sons (Bill Nighy), Deep Water (Ben Kingsley); Little Miss Sociopath, “Good Guy with a Pun” (series), Indigo Lake (short list AACTA), Salvation Boulevard (Pierce Brosnan), Splinterheads (SXSW), Lucky Stiff. Stage: Originated Peg in Tennessee Williams’ In Masks Outrageous and Austere (Shirley Knight, Culture Project); A Fable (Rattlestick), Five Plays About Life and Death (Craig Lucas, 59E59 Theaters, Edinburgh Fringe) Scarcity (Obie 2017), A Summer Day (Cherry Lane), The Gig (LA). Regional: The Hostage (LATC), Laughing Wild\(SF), Liaisons Dangereuses (AU). Solo: created and performed Naughty with a Band (Edinburgh Fringe, England, Malta, Australia, Los Angeles, Las Vegas).
Matt Gehring (Director) is a theater educator and director. Off-Broadway debut! He’s directed 100+ comedy shows with artists including Alexis Gay, Chrissy Shackelford, Chloe Troast, Bowen Yang, and Matt Rogers, at venues from the Edinburgh Fringe to Joe’s Pub. He created the long-running musical show Shiz at Upright Citizens Brigade, where he’s taught and directed for over a decade. At Stagedoor Manor, he directed the pilot youth production of Suffs. Matt founded Ars Nova’s comedy residency and is the Comedy Division Director at Stella Adler. He holds an MFA from Brooklyn College, where he was a Shubert Scholar.
Anne Marilyn Lucas’ (Playwright) plays include From Silence, Recovery, Party and Say the Nameand have played at Theater for the New City, Meum of Jewish Heritage, Marblehead Little Theatre, House of Seven Gables, and other NY and MA theatres. Recovery was performed in Greece and received three MA Cultural Council grants. She has written biographical musicals about Leonard Bernstein, Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, Kander & Ebb, Alan J. Lerner, Cole Porter, Jerome Robbins, and Richard Rodgers. She graduated from the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art, studied at London’s Royal College of Music, holds three graduate degrees in theatre, and was a drama professor at Salem State. A member of the MLT board, on ART’s advisory board, and a proud member of the DGA
Member and Board Member
Board Member
Member
