Goodman Theatre Premieres Magnolia

Artistic Director Robert Falls announces an addition to the Goodman's upcoming 2008/2009 season: Magnolia by Artistic Associate Regina Taylor (director TBA) slated for March 2009. Set in 1963 as the tide of social change is transforming Atlanta, Magnolia is written in the tradition of Anton Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard, revealing the powerful need to belong that exists at the root of all families-especially in the face of profound change. Prior to its world premiere at the Goodman, Magnolia has been chosen to receive a workshop at The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's National Playwrights Conference in July 2008. This marks the second collaboration between the Goodman and The O'Neill-the first was the 2007 workshop of The Ballad of Emmett Till by Ifa Bayeza, which will enjoy its world premiere at the Goodman April 26 - June 1, 2008.

Magnolia is set in winter, 1963, as the schools, stores and real estate markets of Atlanta, Georgia are beginning to desegregate-much to the resentment of the white community. Lily, a white landowner, returns from Paris to find the Forest Estate, her family's land, on the brink of ruin. Thomas, a successful businessman and the descendent of former slaves to the estate, has a plan to save the land: turn it into subdivisions and sell it to the white families fleeing the city. Tensions build as members of the estranged family reunite to try and save their beloved land-magnolia trees and all.

Regina Taylor is an Artistic Associate of Goodman Theatre where she most recently appeared in the staged reading of Fences, part of the 2007 August Wilson Celebration. Her other Goodman credits include the The Dreams of Sarah Breedlove (which premiered at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival); the award-winning Crowns (first produced at McCarter Theatre and at Second Stage in New York); the world premiere of Oo-Bla-Dee (2000 American Theatre Critics/Steinberg New Play Award); Urban Zulu Mambo (an evening of plays by Adrienne Kennedy, Ntozake Shange, Suzan-Lori Parks, Kia Corthron and Regina Taylor); and Drowning Crow. Crowns and The Dreams of Sarah Breedlove were both written and directed by Taylor. Drowning Crow, her adaptation of Chekhov's The Seagull, was produced on Broadway at Manhattan Theater Club's Biltmore Theatre.

Her other plays include A Night in Tunisia, Escape from Paradise, Watermelon Rinds, Inside the Belly of the Beast, Mudtracks and Love Poem #97. Taylor was the first black woman to play Juliet in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet on Broadway. Her other stage credits include As You Like It, Macbeth, Machinal, A Map of The World, The Illusion, Jar the Floor and The Tempest. For her role as Lilly Harper in the television series I'll Fly Away she received a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a TV Series, an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series and two Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series. Taylor recently received the NAACP Image Award for "Best Actress in a Drama" for her work on David Mamet's The Unit on CBS.

Other television credits include Crisis at Central High, The Education of Max Bickford, Feds, In From the Night, Cora Unashamed, Strange Justice, The Third Twin, Hostile Waters, Children of the Dust, I'll Fly Away: Then and Now, Howard Beach: Making a Case for Murder, Concealed Enemies, Crisis at Central High and Nurse. Taylor's film credits include The Negotiator, Courage Under Fire, A Family Thing, The Keeper, Clockers, Losing Isaiah, Jersey Girl and Lean on Me.

More than 600 plays have evolved at The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's summertime National Playwrights Conference headed by Artistic Director Wendy C. Goldberg-including Ifa Bayeza's The Ballad of Emmett Till (which enjoys its world premiere production at the Goodman April 26 - June 1, 2008). Playwrights who have participated in the conference include Kia Corthron, John Guare, Israel Horovitz, David Henry Hwang, David Lindsay-Abaire, Adam Rapp, Mark Ravenhill, Wendy Wasserstein and August Wilson. In addition to writers selected for staged readings, the conference serves as a retreat for several writers in residence working independently on special projects. Recent summers' residents include Christina Anderson, David Cale and Joseph Chaikin.

The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, founded in 1964, has been home to more than 1,000 new works for the stage and 2,500 emerging artists and is itself the winner of a special Tony Award, the National Opera Award, the Jujamcyn Award for Theater Excellence and the Arts and Business Council Encore Award. -- www.goodmantheatre.org