New Group artistic director Scott Elliott stages the decade-spanning ensemble drama about sexual identity, race, art and theatre that will run through through Dec. 17.

In addition to Foster (Million Dollar Quartet, Little Shop of Horrors, Urinetown), Williams (The Hallway Trilogy), Garman (Uncle Vanya), Mastrogiorgio (Wait Until Dark, Contact) and newcomer Johnson in his Off-Broadway debut, the cast features Jeff Biehl (Southern Promises), Reyna DeCourcy (Dreams of the Washer King), Barrett Doss (Cleansed), Drew Hildebrand (Dawn), Andrew Polk (The Accomplices), Larisa Polonsky (One Arm), Adam Trese (12 Angry Men, A View From the Bridge) and Vladimir Versailles (The Wood).

According to the New Group, "In emotionally charged intersecting stories spanning two eras, a contemporary black painter, who depicts shocking racial violence in his art but hides his race from the press, goes to Berlin for a gallery show only to find that his work has been misinterpreted. And in the mid-'80s an ambitious teenage boy, recently orphaned, comes to New York to become an actor and is taken in by a gay couple in the industry as they are preparing the debut of a new Broadway play. In searing and graphic tales of self-invention and sexual identity, Burning attacks the pretenses of the worlds of art and theatre."

Burning has set design by Derek McLane, lighting design by Peter Kaczorowski, costume design by Clint Ramos, sound design by Bart Fasbender and video design by Wendall Harrington. Doug Paulson serves as dialect coach.

Bradshaw's plays include Mary, The Bereaved, Southern Promises, Dawn, Job, Prophet, Strom Thurmond Is Not A Racist, Cleansed and Purity. His plays have been produced by the Goodman Theater, PS 122, The Flea, The Wilma and at Germany's Theater Bielefeld. He is a 2009 Guggenheim Fellow. For tickets phone (212) 239-6200, or visit Telecharge. The Acorn Theatre is located at Theatre Row, 410 West 42nd Street.

The New Group and artistic director Scott Elliott were honored with a Special 2010-11 Drama Desk Award "for presenting contemporary new voices, and for uncompromisingly raw and powerful productions."

For further information visit thenewgroup.org.