Tony Award winners Ellen Burstyn and Elizabeth Ashley will be featured performers in Right Before I Go, Stan Zimmerman’s play built on the last words of people lost to suicide. The show will get a special benefit performance December 4 in New York City as a benefit for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and the JED Foundation.
Organizers rescheduled the show from its original November 2 date due to “scheduling complications.”
Burstyn won the Tony Award as Best Actress in a Play for Same Time, Next Year. Ashley won the Tony as Best Featured Actress in a Play for Take Her, She’s Mine, and was nominated twice more for her performances in Barefoot in the Park and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
Also appearing in the reading: Maulik Pancholy (It’s Only a Play), Raviv Ullman (Disney’s Phil of the Future), Jennifer Lim (Chinglish), and Maggie Lacey (Dividing the Estate).
Former Hartford Stage Artistic Director Michael Wilson will direct. The 8 PM performance will take place at Town Hall theatre 123 West 43rd Street, near Times Square.
Consisting of accounts from people “including the heartsick, bullied, veterans, mentally ill and the achingly lonely,” Right Before I Go is designed to “help broaden public perspective of suicide, eliminate the stigma associated with depression, and strengthen the relationship between survivors and those struggling every day.”
The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline provides free and confidential emotional support to people in suicidal crisis or emotional distress 24 hours a day across the United States, and can be reached at (800) 273-8255.
Right Before I Go made its world premiere at the 2015 Hollywood Fringe Festival. Zimmerman has written scripts for TV series including The Golden Girls, Roseanne, and Gilmore Girls, and served as executive producer of the 2008 series Rita Rocks. He was also co-writer for the 1996 feature film, A Very Brady Sequel.
Tickets for Right Before I Go cost $52–$502 and can be purchased online at RightBeforeIGo.com or in person at the Town Hall box office. Tickets purchased at the $252 level and above come with admission to a VIP pre-show cocktail reception.
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