Christopher Hampton

The Guthrie Theater has announced casting for the Christopher Hampton festival, which starts next month with "Tales from Hollywood."Thirty-nine actors will be used for three productions – primarily for "Hollywood" and Hampton's new play, "Appomattox." To state the obvious, that's a lot of actors.

Among some of the highlights: Keir Dullea, pictured, who made his mark long ago in the film "2001" will play German novelist Heinrich Mann in "Hollywood." Lee Sellars plays the principal role in that production, narrator Odon von Horvath. Stephen Yoakam plays Bertolt Brecht and New York actor Allison Daugherty plays Mann's wife, Nelly. The play is about German expatriate writers in Hollywood in the 1940s. Ethan McSweeny ("Arms and Man") is directing at the Guthrie.

"Appomattox" begins in 1865 at the end of the Civil War and jumps to 1965 and the civil rights struggles.

Harry Groener (at right), from TV's "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" plays both Abraham Lincoln and LyndonJohnson. Groener was nominated for Tonys for his work in "Oklahoma" and "Crazy for You." Sally Wingert plays Mary Todd Lincoln and Lady Bird Johnson.

Shawn Hamilton and Greta Oglesby are slated to portray Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King. David Esbjornson ("The Great Gatsby") will be at the helm.

The third play in the festival is "Embers," a small work planned for the Studio theater. Barbara Bryne and Nathaniel Fuller are both well known to Guthrie audiences. Joe Dowling directs in the black-box theater that bears his name for the first time.More information here.