Phylicia Rashad, Nicholas Martin to Direct at Westport Playhouse in 2012

Phylicia Rashad will play the role of director at Westport Country Playhouse next year when she will direct the powerful classic, “A Raisin in the Sun,” by Lorraine Hansberry, Oct. 9 to Nov. 3.

Rashad made her directorial debut at the Seattle Repertory Theatre with August Wilson's "Gem of the Ocean,” and this past spring, helmed Ebony Repertory Theatre’s production of "A Raisin in the Sun.”

Rashad earned the Tony award when she played the role on L:ena Young in the Broadway revival of the Hansberry play.

Rashad became a household name when she portrayed Claire Huxtable on "The Cosby Show," a character whose appeal earned her numerous honors and awards for over two decades. She teamed up with Bill Cosby in later years on television as Ruth Lucas on "Cosby."

She also appeared on Broadway as Violet Weston in “August: Osage County,” Big Mama in Tennessee Williams’ “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” (a role that she reprised on the London Stage), Aunt Ester in August Wilson’s "Gem of the Ocean" (Tony Award nomination) and Queen Britannia in Shakespeare’s “Cymbeline” at Lincoln Center Theater.

Projects showcasing her musical talent include "Jelly's Last Jam,” "Into the Woods,” "Dreamgirls" and "The Wiz.” In film, she starred in Tyler Perry's “For Colored Girls,” and the soon-to-be-released “Good Deeds.”

Nicholas Martin, who scored with a delightful comedy "The Circle" this year at the theater, returns in 2012 to direct the more somber, intimate drama, “The Year of Magical Thinking,” featuring Maureen Anderman, based on the National Book Award-winning memoir by acclaimed author Joan Didion. That show will play June 12 to 30.

Martin, the former artistic director of the Williamstown Theatre Festival and of Boston’s Huntington Theatre Company. has also staged at the Playhouse ” “A Cheever Evening” and “The Substance of Fire.”

On Broadway, he staged “Present Laughter,” “Butley,” “Match,” “Hedda Gabler,” “The Rehearsal” and “You Never Can Tell.”

Off-Broadway, he directed Christopher Durang’s “Why Torture Is Wrong, and the People Who Love Them” at The Public Theater; “Observe the Sons of Ulster…” (Drama Desk Award nomination), “The Time of the Cuckoo,” “Chaucer in Rome,” “Saturn Returns” and Paul Rudnick’s “The New Century” at Lincoln Center Theater; “Fully Committed” at Vineyard Theatre and Cherry Lane Theatre; “Full Gallop” at Manhattan Theatre Club and West Side Arts; “Betty’s Summer Vacation” (Obie Award, Drama Desk Award nominations) and “Sophistry” at Playwrights Horizons; and “Bosoms and Neglect” at Signature Theatre.

As previously announced, Mark Lamos, Playhouse artistic director, will helm the season opener, a 25th anniversary revival of “Into the Woods,” with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, book by James Lapine, May 1 – 19. The musical is a co-production with Baltimore’s Centerstage.

Lamos will also direct the world-premiere comedy “Harbor,” written by Tony Award-nominated Chad Beguelin, Aug. 28 – Sept. 15. David Kennedy, Playhouse associate artistic director, will stage the biting social satire, “Tartuffe,” written by Molière and translated by Richard Wilbur, July 17 – Aug. 4.