Mark Nelson as he appeared in the Long Wharf production of Underneath the Lintel. Photo by T. Charles Erickson.
We know one member of the cast of the season-ending production of My Name is Asher Lev at the Long Wharf Theatre. This is the show which replaced Sophie’s Choice on the Long Wharf schedule. It runs May 2-27 on the theater’s mainstage.
Mark Nelson is doing the “father” and “artist” roles in Aaron Posner’s three-actor, multi-character, 90-minute adaptation of Chaim Potok’s novel about art, fame and faith. The production will be directed by Long Wharf artistic director Gordon Edelstein.
If Long Wharf had a Hall of Fame, Nelson would be in it for his yeoman’s work in productions as diverse as Theresa Rebeck’s Abstract Expression (directed by Greg Leaming in 1998), Shaw’s Arms and the Man (directed by Leaming in 2001), and Edelstein’s rethought modern A Doll’s House in 2010. The photo above is of Mark Nelson in Glen Berger’s one-man religious odyssey Underneath the Lintel, directed by Eric Ting on Long Wharf Stage II in 2006.
Nelson’s New York resume is just as broad, from Neil Simon and Steve Martin comedies to Ibsen, Chekhov and the tour-de-force I Am My Own Wife. (I also have fond memories of a production of Kaufman & Lardner’s June Moon that Nelson directed Off Broadway in 1997.)
Long Wharf has always utilized Mark Nelson well. He’s a consummate ensemble player, and always makes a role his own. This name in the cast for My Name is Asher bodes very well for the show as a whole.