Every day is opening night.

Contact:
Rick Miramontez/Richard Hillman
rick@oandmco.com / richard@oandmco.com

FOR RELEASE ON WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 20th

New York, NY – TACT/The Actors Company Theatre (Scott Alan Evans, Cynthia Harris and Simon Jones, Co-Artistic Directors), the critically-acclaimed company “dedicated to presenting neglected or rarely produced plays of literary merit,” announced today that Simon Jones has had to withdraw from its forthcoming production of The Memorandum. Jones, who is also co-Artistic Director of the company, was scheduled to play the role of Joseph Gross in this comedy by Václav Havel. TACT company member James Prendergast will assume the role. The Memorandum begins previews at The Beckett Theatre (410 West 42nd Street) on October 25th and opens on Thursday, November 4th.

Jones and his son were knocked down by a car on Friday, October 8th, while walking home from seeing Brief Encounter. “We had a second ‘brief encounter” but this time with several tons of metal,” he said. Miraculously no bones were broken, but they suffered extensive bruising and abrasions. “I had hoped that I could return to the play after a week’s recuperation, but recovery is going to take longer, and time is running out,” he added.

Scott Alan Evans, Co-Artistic Director said in a statement, “This has certainly been an unlucky turn of events – and we’re terribly sorry that it happened to Simon and Tim and are so thankful neither sustained serious injury. We are lucky, however, to have the extraordinary repertory company of actors we have and were able to go to go to our bench, as it were, and come up with such a great replacement in James Prendergast, who is a long time company member.”

Jones adds, “I couldn’t be more relieved and delighted. He’s the ideal person to take the role, make it his own, and have a great success with it. It’s also proof that TACT, having a standing repertory company of actors, can rely on its members to step up to the plate when an emergency like this arises. Because we’ve all worked together before so often we can work in a sort of shorthand, and he’ll be able very quickly to make up for lost time, in a way a guest performer would find hard to do.”

Does Jones have any words of advice to his successor? “I told him: Go out there, and make me hate you.”

The Memorandum will have the following performance schedule: Monday, Wednesday – Friday at 7:30pm; Saturday at 2pm & 8pm; Sunday at 3pm. Tickets are $36.25 – $56.25 and are available 24/7 through Telecharge.com/212-239-6200 or at the Theatre Row box office (410 West 42nd Street (between 9th & 10th Avenues) between 12pm and 8pm daily.