Troupe goes from zero to ‘4000’

While it wasn’t the show Prospect Theater Project planned to put on, the company is determined to go the distance with “4000 Miles.”

The piece by American playwright Amy Herzog replaced the intended second production of the season, “The Whipping Man,” by Matthew Lopez. That Civil War-era play about a Confederate soldier who returns home to find two of his former slaves still living there had to be scrapped due to licensing restrictions. The new show will premiere at the company’s downtown theater Friday.

Even though “4000 Miles” is a substitute show, director David Barbaree said the subject matter is still powerful and should connect with audiences.

The 2011 play centers around Leo, a 21-year-old who has suffered a significant loss while on the 4,000-mile cross-country bike trip that gives the play its title. Afterward, he winds up on the doorstep of his 91-year-old grandmother, Vera, and the two become unlikely roommates.

“The heart of the play is a young man just entering into the stage of adulthood where he is finding out that one of the conditions of life is preparing yourself for a series of losses,” said Barbaree, who also was slated to direct “The Whipping Man.” “In the meanwhile, his grandmother’s life is about experiencing loss almost daily. So it is someone just entering into adulthood and someone who will be leaving it soon.”

The Prospect production stars Dain Morrison as Leo (last seen as Mark Antony in the Prospect production of “Julius Caesar”) and Karen Olsen as grandmother Vera (a Prospect veteran who will play the elderly character despite being several decades younger). It also features local actors Nicole Brown as Leo’s girlfriend, Bec, and Roni Espinoza as a college-age student he picks up.

Barbaree said despite the initial setback of having to switch plays, this production has been wrinkle-free. He had been worried casting someone as nonagenarian Vera would be tricky. But he said Olsen was up for the challenge.

“She is one of my most favorite actors locally, and she can make anything work. She is just dynamite,” he said. “Dain has also been such a nice surprise to find out how different he can be from his Mark Antony type. As we worked on the play together, every scene opened up in ways we didn’t expect.”

The New York Times called the play “truthful and touching” and a “beautifully rendered portrait of the relationship between an old-style lefty grandmother and her new-style lefty grandson” when it bowed at the Lincoln Center Theater in 2012.

The intimate dramatic comedy was a 2013 Pulitzer Prize finalist for drama and the winner of the 2012 Obie Award for best new play.

That intimacy will be reflected in the show’s seating, which will run onto the stage floor. Barbaree said the close settings will harken back to the company’s days in its smaller Scenic Avenue space.

“In the new theater, some people think we’ve lost the intimacy,” he said. “But a lot of the seating is on the stage floor now for this. You’ll be so close, you can touch the actors again.”

This story was originally published November 20, 2014 at 1:00 AM with the headline "Troupe goes from zero to ‘4000’."