Casting Announced for MTC's The American Pilot and Translations

Manhattan Theatre Club has announced casting for two forthcoming productions: the American premiere of David Greig's The American Pilot at City Center Stage II, to be directed by artistic director Lynne Meadow, and the Broadway revival of Brian Friel's Translations, to be directed by Tony Award winner Garry Hynes The Beauty Queen of Leenane.

The American Pilot begins previews on November 2 and is scheduled to open on November 21. Translations begins previews at the Biltmore Theatre on January 4, 2007. Opening night has been set for January 25. A co-production with the McCarter Theatre Center, Translations is currently in performances at McCarter's theater in Princeton through October 29.

The cast of The American Pilot includes Geoffrey Arend The Translator, Anjali Bhimani Evie, Brian Bielawski Soldier #1, Yusef Bulos The Trader, Josh Casaubon Soldier #2, Ron Domingo The Farmer, Aaron Staton The American Pilot, Rita Wolf Sarah and Waleed F. Zuaiter The Captain.

Arend's TV credits include Law & Order and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. Film credits include The Ringer and Garden State.

Bhimani appeared on Broadway in Metamorphoses and off-Broadway in Portraits and The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci. Regional credits include Romeo and Juliet, The Vagina Monologues, The Odyssey, Metamorphoses, Arabian Nights, Pentecost and Mirror of the Invisible World.

Bielawski has appeared at San Diego's Old Globe Theatre in As You Like It, Macbeth, The Comedy of Errors and The Winter's Tale.

Bulos most recently appeared as the Rabbi in Broadway's Fiddler on the Roof. Other Broadway credits include Indians and Captain Brassbound's Conversion. Off-Broadway credits include Homebody/Kabul, Sueño, Tamara, Insignificance, The Promise, Crowbar, Sea of Cortez, Golden Boy, A Tale of Two Cities and A Dybbuk.

Casaubon's film and TV credits include One Life to Live and the forthcoming The Good Shepherd and The Invasion.

Domingo's theater credits include The General Returns From One Place to Another, A Dream Play, On House, Hot Keys, The Good Woman of Setzuan, Theory of Everything, Richard III, Lonely Planet and A Private Recital.

Staton played Sky on Broadway in Mamma Mia! and appeared regionally in Jesus Christ Superstar, Oliver!, Measure for Measure and The Wild Party.

Wolf has appeared in a number of UK films, including Majdhar, My Beautiful Laundrette and Slipstream.

Zuaiter appeared on Broadway in Sixteen Wounded. Regional credits include Homebody/Kabul, The Tempest, Glengarry Glen Ross, The Revenger's Tragedy and Troilus and Cressida.

In The American Pilot, the title character crash lands in a rural village in a war-torn country. Should the villagers in the region help him, murder him or use him as a pawn in a dangerous game with the enemy? Greig's topical play just earned raves at London's Royal Shakespeare Company. The show's design team includes Derek McLane Set Design, Ilona Somogyi Costume Design, Christopher Akerlind Lighting Design and Obadiah Eaves Sound Design.

The Translations cast includes Niall Buggy Hugh, David Costabile Manus, Alan Cox Owen, Dermot Crowley Jimmy Jack, Michael FitzGerald Doalty, Morgan Hallett Sarah, Geraldine Hughes Bridget, Susan Lynch Maire, Graeme Malcolm Captain Lancey and Chandler Williams Lieutenant Yolland.

Buggy appeared on Broadway in Conor McPherson's The Weir. He won an Obie for Friel's Aristocrats and appeared in Friel's adaptation of Uncle Vanya. Other off-Broadway credits include Song at Sunset, The Importance of Being Oscar and Shadow of a Gunman.

Constabile's Broadway credits include Caroline, or Change, Titanic and The Tempest. Off-Broadway credits include Mr. Marmalade, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Caroline, or Change, Henry V and Troilus and Cressida For the Encores! series, he appeared in Carnival and Can Can.

Cox's credits include seasons at the National Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Chichester Festival Theatre. He made his West End debut in Strange Interlude and has subsequently appeared in The Importance of Being Earnest and The Creeper.

Crowley appeared on Broadway in The Weir and at MTC in Dealer's Choice. His extensive London credits include Stuff Happens, Undiscovered Country, As You Like It, Richard III, Macbeth, The Plough and the Stars, Amadeus and Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme as well as productions for The RSC and The Bristol Old Vic

Fitzgerald appeared off-Broadway in Philadelphia, Here I Come!. His Abbey Theatre credits include The Importance of Being Earnest, Homeland, Drama at Inish and The Plough and the Stars.

Hallett made her Broadway debut in Long Day's Journey Into Night Regional credits include Love, Janis, Splitting Infinity, Vincent in Brixton, Worksong and Frame 312.

Hughes starred in the off-Broadway and Los Angeles productions of eceived critical acclaim for her solo play Belfast Blues. Regional credits include Orson's Shadow, Kevin's Bed, The Cripple of Inishmaan, The Weir, The Architect and When I Was a Girl I Used to Scream and Shout.

Lynch has numerous London stage credits at the National Theatre, Royal Court, Almeida, Young Vic and the Abbey Theatre and is a regular collaborator with Theatre de Complicite.

Malcolm's Broadway credits include Aida, The King and I and Macbeth. Other New York credits include Waste, Hapgood, Death and the King's Horseman, M. Butterfly, Aristocrats and Prin.

Williams' off-Broadway credits include Rope, The Mysteries, One Arm, Two Noble Kinsmen and Andorra.. Regional credits include Lady Windermere's Fan, On the Razzle, Once in a Lifetime, Street Scene, Princess Ivona, Richard II, Luminosity, Mary Stuart and Kraken.

MTC producted the American premiere of Translations in 1981. Clashing cultures and tragedies of miscommunication unfold in Friel's invented Irish county of Ballybeg, a place he has explored in his plays Dancing at Lughnasa, Aristocrats and Molly Sweeney. The show's design team includes Francis O'Connor Set & Costume Design, Davy Cunningham Lighting Design, John Leonard Sound Design and Sam Jackson Original Music.