Richard Nelson’s acclaimed dramas The Apple Family Plays: Scenes From Life in the Country, will be filmed by PBS for future broadcast.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the dramas are near selling out and those who wish to view them will have a chance to on PBS. A New York PBS station WNET Thirteen Productions will shoot the dramas a week after their off-broadway run closes.
Public Theater artistic director Oskar Eustis said, “The Apple Family Plays are an amazing writing achievement, but they have also been blessed with one of the greatest ensembles New York has seen in recent years.”
The series of dramas began with That Hopey Changey Thing, it introduced the Rhinebeck, N.Y. Apple family and their reflections on their lives and the state of the nation during that year’s mid-term election night as polls closed. It premiered the same night as the event it depicted.
The second installment Sweet and Sad came in 2011 and was set on the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. In 2012 the third play, Sorry, visits the family the morning of this past presidential election. In 2013 they concluded with Regular Singing on 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s assassination.
“To my knowledge, no previous works of theater have been topical in the resonant and specific ways of the Apple Family plays,” Ben Brantley of The New York Times wrote in his review of Regular Singing. “What happens in these productions is both casual and momentous, as any day in a life is when examined closely enough.”
Nelson directed all of the plays. The plays are running in repertory since October 22. The cast includes Jon DeVries, Stephen Kunken, Sally Murphy, Maryann Plunkett, Laila Robins and Jay O. Sanders.
David Horn will direct The Apple Family Plays for television and Mitch Owgang will produce.