Primary Stages to Present NY Premiere of Athol Fugard's Exits and Entrances

Off-Broadway theater company, Primary Stages, will present the New York premiere of Athol Fugard's award-winning play, Exits and Entrances as the final play in their 2006-2007 season. The limited engagement runs at 59E59th Theatres from March 20 through April 28 with opening night slated for March 28. The play replaces originally announced season-closer, Deuce, which will instead be seen on Broadway.

Set in Port Elizabeth, South Africa in 1956 and 1961, Exits and Entrances is based on Fugard's relationship with stage actor André Huguenet, who was known at one time as the Olivier of South Africa. The autobiographical two-character play chronicles the friendship between a young idealistic playwright and an older actor struggling unhappily to find meaning and dignity in his fading career.

This New York production reunites director Stephen Sachs and actors Morlan Higgins as André and William Dennis Hurley as The Playwright, all of whom worked on the world premiere production at Los Angeles' Fountain Theatre.

Higgins has won numerous L.A. area acting awards for his roles in plays like The Boys in the Band, After the Fall and Borderlines, also at the Fountain Theatre, and The Birthday Party, Dealing with Clair, Mad Forest and Water Children at the Matrix Theatre.

Hurley won both the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award and the Backstage West Garland Award for his performance as The Playwright. Other L.A. credits include Among the Thugs, The Boys Next Door, Biloxi Blues, Equus, Thanksgiving Cries, Bobby Gould in Hell and Spring Awakening.