Lovely Day

January 12–February 12, 2006
USAN.Y.C. Premiere
While celebrating their wedding anniversary, Fran and Martin are driven to opposite sides of one of the most profound questions a mother or father can face. What happens when parenthood and patriotism collide?
Meet the Artists

Leslie Ayvazian is the author of 8 full-length plays and seven one-act plays, published variously by Samuel French and Dramatists Play Service. Some have been included in annual anthologies of best plays. Nine Armenians won the John Gassner/Outer Critics Circle Award for best new American play, The Roger L. Stevens Award, and second place for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. Rosemary and I received an honorable mention from the Susan Smith Blackburn jury. Leslie has received commissions from the Manhattan Theatre Club, Windancer Productions and South Coast Repertory Theatre. Make Me, directed by Christian Parker, was produced in New York by the Atlantic Theatre Company. High Dive was produced at the Long Wharf Theatre and the Manhattan Class Company, directed by David Warren, and went on to be produced in Poland and Slovakia. Her short film Every Three Minutes starring Olympia Dukakis was produced by Showtime and won a Telly Award. Her play Deaf Day was produced as a short film in Syria by Rana Kaz Kaz, and was included in the 2012 Palm Springs International Short Film Festival. Her latest short film, The Favor, stars Olympia Dukakis, Margaret Colin, and John Pankow. A theatrical version of The Favor ran at City Theatre in 2013 and also had a production in The Ensemble Studio Theatre’s Spring festival of one-act plays. A current play Out of the City has received workshops at the Manhattan Theatre Club and the Southampton Writers’ Conference. It will receive its first production in 2014 at the Merrimack Repertory Theatre in Lowell, Massachusetts. Her one-act play Above it All recently toured the Miami FL school system. Her latest play, 100 Aprils, recently received a workshop at the Atlantic Theatre in NYC. Leslie is an Adjunct Professor of dramaturgy at the Columbia University Graduate School of the Arts. Her credits as an actress include a recurring role on Law & Order – SVU and roles on Broadway in Lost in Yonkers and Naked Girl on the Apian Way.

Bio coming soon

Darron L. West (Sound Designer) is a TONY and OBIE award-winning sound designer whose 33 year career spans theater and dance, Broadway and Off Broadway.His work has been heard in over 650 productions all over the United States and internationally in 15 countries. Additional honors include the Drama Desk, Lortel, Audelco and Princess Grace Foundation Statue Award, among many others. His soundscapes for Photograph 51, Paradise Blue and Coal Country can be heard on Audible.

Blair Brown is as skillful a director as she is an actress.”
–CurtainUp

…well-served by director Blair Brown and the cast…O’Connell gives a completely authentic performance…Rasche exquisitely limns a man puzzled by his wife’s transformation…Picayo offers a wonderfully subtle characterization…
–TheaterMania

It’s about time a playwright explored how the war in Iraq affects family members who have opposing political viewpoints.
–Broadway.com

Related Productions

Featuring

Diedre O’Connell Javier Picayo David Rasche

Set Design

David Korins

Costume Design

Michael Krass

Lighting Design

Paul Whitaker

Sound Design

Darron L. West

Production Stage Manager

Lisa Iacucci

Venue

The Beckett Theater 410 West 42nd Street New York, NY