‘Desert Cities’ Starts Season

    The Hampton Theatre Company in Quogue opens its 29th season tonight at 7 with Jon Robin Baitz’s “Other Desert Cities,” a finalist for the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and winner of the Outer Critics Circle Award for outstanding new Off Broadway play.

    Set in Palm Springs, Calif., during the 2004 Christmas holiday, the play centers on the Wyeth family and the reaction of Polly and Lyman, both Republicans working in show business, to their liberal daughter Brooke’s announcement that she is about the publish a memoir that will reveal a tragic event in the family’s past.

     Morgan Vaughan of East Hampton stars as Brooke, and Vay David, also from East Hampton, plays Silda, Brooke’s liberal aunt and a recovering alcoholic. Diana Marbury, the theater company’s artistic director, has the role of Polly, while Craig Braun will play Lyman Wyeth.

   The production, which is directed by Sarah Hunnewell, will run through Nov. 10 at the Quogue Community Hall on Jessup Avenue, with shows at 7 p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays, 8 p.m. on Saturdays, and 2:30 p.m. on Sundays. Tickets cost $25, $23 for senior citizens (except Saturday), and $10 for students under 21.

    The company has also announced open auditions for two roles in “Heroes,” Tom Stoppard’s translation of the Gerald Sibleyras play about three hospitalized World War I veterans. The roles are Henri and Philippe, both men in their 50s. Auditions will be held on Nov. 3 and Nov. 4 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Quogue Community Hall. Readings will be from the script. Monologues and appointments are not necessary. Rehearsals will begin the first week of December, with performances scheduled to begin Jan. 9.