Guthrie announces complete casting for Pulitzer Prize-winner Donald Margulies' Time Stands Still

A compelling drama about relationships, mid-life crisis and the ties of friendship.

This Tony Award-nominated, deeply human and witty play explores the lives of two couples coping with changes in life and the aftermath of trauma.

Previews begin April 7; Opening April 13;
Playing through May 20, 2012
on the McGuire Proscenium Stage at the Guthrie Theater, Minneapolis

(Minneapolis/St. Paul) The Guthrie Theater today announced complete casting for Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Donald Margulies' celebrated drama Time Stands Still. Artistic Director Joe Dowling will direct the 2010 Tony Award-nominated, deeply human and witty play about the lives of two couples coping with changes in life and the aftermath of trauma. The production will play from April 7 - May 20, 2012 on the McGuire Proscenium Stage.

Dowling has assembled an exceptional ensemble to take on the roles of two couples at a critical juncture in their lives. Twin Cities actress Sarah Agnew (The 39 Steps, Dollhouse, Major Barbara) leads the cast as photojournalist Sarah Goodwin, who wrestles with the consequences of a career spent documenting carnage. Guthrie favorite Bill McCallum (God of Carnage, Much Ado About Nothing, Circle Mirror Transformation) stars as Sarah's partner James Dodd, a war journalist whose desire for a more conventional life puts a strain on the couple's relationship.

The production will also feature the talents of Mark Benninghofen (The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide...) and Valeri Mudek (Charley's Aunt, Tiny Kushner) as Sarah's editor and mentor Richard Ehrlich and his much younger girlfriend Mandy Bloom, respectively.

James is a journalist who left Iraq before photographer Sarah was injured by a roadside bomb. As Sarah deals with her injuries and her lingering feelings of loss for the translator killed by the bomb, James is swamped by guilt for having left her alone. Something is amiss in their relationship, but their differences are lessened when they're in the company of Richard, a magazine photo editor and supporter of their work, and his much younger girlfriend Mandy, a bubbly event planner who looks on the bright side of life.

"What I tried to do with this play is capture a sense of the way we live now," says Margulies. "To dramatize the things that thinking, feeling, moral people are thinking about and struggle with - the issues of how to be a citizen of the world, how to show compassion, how to be involved, how to be true to yourself and your immediate loved ones."

The artistic team includes Walt Spangler (Set Designer), Christine A. Richardson (Costume Designer), Tom Mays (Lighting Designer), Scott W. Edwards (Sound Designer), Jo Holcomb (Dramaturg), D'Arcy Smith (Voice and Dialect Coach), Marcela Lorca (Movement), Martha Kulig (Stage Manager), Meaghan Rosenberger (Assistant Stage Manager) and Jon Ferguson (Assistant Director).
 
Time Stands Still begins preview performances on April 7, opens April 13 and continues through May 20, 2012, on the McGuire Proscenium Stage at the Guthrie Theater. Single tickets start at $24 and are now on sale through the Guthrie Box Office at 612.377.2224, toll-free 877.44.STAGE, 612.225.6244 (Group Sales) and online at www.guthrietheater.org.

Donald Margulies' body of work is a testament to an intelligent writer who doesn't shy away from a challenge. Margulies is willing to engage difficult topics or bend a genre to his own purposes. Whether writing a comic fantasy of sorts about a Jewish family in New York whose youngest son writes a musical version of Death of a Salesman (The Loman Family Picnic) or exploring the search by a celebrated artist trying to recapture the purity of his original inspiration (Sight Unseen), Margulies' work is characterized by fully rounded, nuanced characters in emotionally compelling and intellectually stimulating situations. Margulies has been lauded as one of America's leading playwrights and received the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Dinner with Friends, which was made into an Emmy Award-nominated film for HBO. Because his work ranges from Neil Simon-esque comedy to literary comedy-drama, Margulies is not easy to categorize. Among his many plays are Collected Stories, Brooklyn Boy, Shipwrecked! An Entertainment - The Amazing Adventures of Louis de Rougemont (As Told by Himself) and The Model Apartment. Time Stands Still premiered in 2010 and has been produced in New York and Los Angeles, receiving numerous award nominations as well as critical praise. Time Stands Still is the first play by Margulies to be staged at the Guthrie Theater.