- 2023-10-09
Annie Baker’s Circle Mirror Transformation
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MARIN THEATRE COMPANY AND
ENCORE THEATRE COMPANY PRESENTS
ANNIE BAKER’S CIRCLE MIRROR TRANSFORMATION
REGIONAL PREMIERE OF
OBIE AWARD-WINNING COMEDY
BY ONE OF THE TOP NEW AMERICAN PLAYWRIGHTS
OPENS 46 YEAR-OLD THEATER’S
2012/13 SEASON
August 2 – 26, 2012 | Opening Night: August 7
MILL VALLEY, CA—Marin Theatre Company, in a co-production with Encore Theatre Company of San Francisco, opens its 2012/13 Season with the regional premiere of Circle Mirror Transformation by Annie Baker, which runs from August 2 to August 26. New York-based director Kip Fagan directs this “absorbing, unblinking and sharply funny” (The New York Times) play that won the 2010 Obie Award for Best New American Play. Opening night is on Tuesday, August 7.
“I am excited to begin our 2012-13 Season with Circle Mirror Transformation, which has a tremendous amount of energy swirling around it because of some new beginnings,” MTC’s artistic director Jasson Minadakis said. “It marks our first co-production collaboration with San Francisco’s Encore Theatre Company and the company's executive artistic director Lisa Steindler. It also marks the MTC debut of the brilliant American playwright Annie Baker, who has taken both the Bay Area and the country by storm with her sensitive, funny writing, and of director Kip Fagan, who comes to us fresh off another successful production at the Humana Festival of New American Plays.”
During a six-week adult Creative Drama class, four strangers and their teacher learn more about themselves than they do about acting in the “biggest hit” by “one of the country's hottest young playwrights,” (San Francisco Chronicle). Listed among the top ten plays of 2009 by The New Yorker, The New York Times and Time Out New York, this quirky “indie charmer” (Los Angeles Times) won the 2010 Obie Award for Best New American Play and received a Drama Desk nomination for Best Play. This is the second of three plays that Baker set in the fictional college town of Shirley, Vermont, including Body Awareness, which Aurora Theatre Company in Berkeley closed in March 2012 after an extended run, and The Aliens, which SF Playhouse closed in May 2012.
New York-based director Kip Fagan makes his MTC debut to direct the co-production. He specializes in directing new plays, and his regional theater credits include the Humana Festival of New American Plays (Actors Theatre of Louisville), Portland Center Stage, Williamstown Theater Festival and Boise Contemporary Theater. The cast features an all-star ensemble of Bay Area actors all returning to MTC’s Boyer Theatre: Arwen Anderson (Bellwether, A Streetcar Named Desire), Julia Brothers (Seagull, Magic Forest Farm), L. Peter Callender (Seven Guitars, My Children! My Africa!), Marissa Keltie (Bellwether) and Robert Parsons (Communicating Doors, Pal Joey). This is Brothers first Bay Area performance since understudying on Broadway for Relatively Speaking, three one-act plays by Ethan Coen, Elaine May and Woody Allen, directed by John Turturro at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre.
FACTS & CALENDAR INFORMATION
WHAT
CIRCLE MIRROR TRANSFORMATION | Regional premiere
WHO
Marin Theatre Company
Co-production with Encore Theatre Company
By Annie Baker
Directed by Kip Fagan
Featuring Arwen Anderson,* Julia Brothers,* L. Peter Callender,* Marissa Keltie* and Robert Parsons*
* Member, Actor’s Equity Association
WHEN
August 2 – 26, 2012
Opening Night: Tuesday, August 7
Previews: Thursday, August 2 - Sunday, August 5
Performance Days
Tue, Thu, Fri & Sat 8:00 pm
Wed 7:30 pm
Sun 7:00 pm
Matinees: Every Sun 2:00 pm | Sat 8/11 & 8/25, 2:00 pm | Thu 8/16, 1:00 pm
Check marintheatre.org or call the box office at (415) 388-5208 for exact performance dates and times.
WHERE
Marin Theatre Company | 397 Miller Avenue, Mill Valley, CA 94941
ABOUT
“Absorbing, unblinking and sharply funny ”– The New York Times
During a six-week adult Creative Drama class, four strangers and their teacher learn more about themselves than they do about acting. Don’t miss this regional premiere of “the biggest hit” by “one of the country’s hottest young playwrights” (San Francisco Chronicle), whose plays Body Awareness and The Aliens were recently seen at Aurora Theatre Company and SF Playhouse.
Winner of the 2010 Obie Award for Best New American Play
TICKETS
$36–$57, details below (discounts available for Seniors and those Under 30)
Ticket Prices
Previews: $36 all
Opening Night & Sat Evenings: $52 side | $57 center
Tues: $36 | $41
Wed, Thu, Sun Evenings & Matinees: $41 | $46
Fri: $47 | $52
Discounts available:
RUSH tickets: $15, available one hour prior to show, based on availability
Under 30: $20, all performances
Senior discounts: varies by performance, please call
For group sales, contact Julie Knight, (415) 388-5200, ext. 3302
ENGAGE
“MTC Engaged” invites patrons to join MTC’s artistic staff, designers and casts in conversation. A member of MTC’s artistic staff (often with one or more members of the cast) hosts a Q&A talk back after every performance, except Saturday matinees and evenings, and Opening and Closing Nights.
MTC Engaged Special Events:
– Theater Lecture Series at Mill Valley Public Library – FREE public lecture by MTC artistic staff, 375 Throckmorton Ave., Tue 7/24, 7:30 p.m.
– After Words – post-show interview with special guest: Sun 8/5, 2:00 p.m.
– Director’s Night – post-show conversation with director: Wed 8/8 & 8/22
– Perspectives – pre-show topical lecture: Thu 8/16, 12:00 p.m.
ACCESS
“MTC All Access” strives to make theater accessible to all audiences. For visually impaired patrons, Large Print playbills are available at the box office at all performances, Digital playbills that are compatible with screen reader software are available online starting one week before the first performance of a production, and Braille playbills are available with two-weeks advance notice through partnership with LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired. To request a Braille playbill, call MTC’s Box Office, (415) 388-5208, or use the California Telecommunications Relay Service by dialing “711.” For hearing impaired patrons, amplified sound Listening Devices are available.
CONTACT
marintheatre.org | (415) 388-5208 | boxoffice@marintheatre.org
ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES
Annie Baker (playwright) grew up in Amherst, Massachusetts. Her full-length plays include Circle Mirror Transformation, which premiered at Playwrights Horizons, won the Obie Award for Best New American Play and received a Drama Desk nomination for Best Play; The Aliens, which premiered at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater and won the Obie Award for Best New American Play; Body Awareness, which premieres at Atlantic Theater Company and received Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle nominations for Best Play/Emerging Playwright; and The Flick which premieres in February at Playwrights Horizon. Her adaptation of Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya premiered at Soho Rep in June 2012. Baker’s plays have also been produced locally by SF Playhouse and Aurora Theatre Company; regionally by South Coast Rep, Guthrie Theater, Victory Gardens, Artists Rep, Huntington Theatre Company, Seattle Rep, Studio Theatre in DC, Hyde Park Theatre and Kansas City Rep; and internationally in London, Melbourne, Sydney,and Buenos Aires. She has developed work at Signature Theatre, MCC, New York Theatre Workshop, Soho Rep, Orchard Project, Ontological-Hysteric, Cape Cod Theatre Project, Bay Area Playwrights Festival and Sundance Institute Theatre Lab in Utah and Ucross, Wyoming. Baker is a member of New Dramatists, MCC’s Playwrights Coalition and EST, and she is an alumna of Youngblood, Ars Nova’s Play Group and the Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab. Recent honors include a New York Drama Critics Circle Award, a Susan Smith Blackburn Prize nomination, a Lilly Award, a Time Warner Storytelling Fellowship, a MacDowell fellowship and a Master Artist Residency at Atlantic Center for the Arts. A published anthology of her work, The Vermont Plays, has been published by TCG.
Kip Fagan (director) makes his MTC debut with Circle Mirror Transformation. He most recently directed Greg Kotis’s Michael Von Siebenberg Melts Through the Floorboards at the Humana Festival and Carlos Murillo’s A Thick Description of Harry Smith at Page 73 Productions. Other New York City credits include Asuncion, There Are No More Big Secrets and That Pretty Pretty; or: The Rape Play at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater; Roadkill Confidential and Quail at Clubbed Thumb); Reborning and Cipher at Summer Play Festival; Recess and Not a Creature Was Stirring at the Flea Theater; Jack’s Precious Moment with Page 73; The Young Left at Cherry Lane Theatre; and Nelson with Partial Comfort Productions. His other regional credits include A Permanent Image at Boise Contemporary Theater, Futura at Portland Center Stage, Limbo Tales at Todd Mountain Theater Project, Neighborhood 3: Requisition of Doom at the Humana Festival, Caravan Man at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, Small Tragedy at the Playwrights’ Center, The Waverly Gallery at Empty Space Theatre and several plays with Printer’s Devil Theater in Seattle, which he co-founded. Fagan has developed new plays with Manhattan Theatre Club, the Public Theater, New York Theatre Workshop, Playwrights Horizons, Vineyard Theatre, New Dramatists, Ars Nova, The Lark and many regional theaters. He has taught and/or directed at SUNY Purchase, the Juilliard School and NYU. He was a 2003-2004 NEA/TCG directing fellow and the 2007 Bill Foeller directing fellow at Williamstown Theatre Festival.
Arwen Anderson (Theresa) has appeared at MTC in the world premiere of Bellwether and as Stella in A Streetcar Named Desire. Other Bay Area theater credits include the world premiere of Amanda Dehnert’s The Verona Project at Cal Shakes; An Accident, Mrs. Whitney, Expedition 6, The Rules of Charity (all world premieres) and Mauritius at Magic Theatre; the world premiere of Love in American Times at San Jose Rep; Lobby Hero and The Shape of Things at Aurora Theatre Company; Tales of the City (workshop) at A.C.T.; T.I.C.(Trenchcoat in Common) and Skin with Encore Theatre Company as well as roles with TheatreWorks, Brava!, Marines Memorial Theatre, Word for Word, Just Theatre, Central Works and Climate Theater. Her film work includes Hog Island, Ashley 22 and Dark Retreat. Anderson graduated with degrees in Theatre and Psychology from Wesleyan University, is a local singer/songwriter and trains and teaches aerial silk and trapeze at the Circus Center of San Francisco.
Julia Brothers (Marty) has appeared at MTC in the world premieres of Seagull (as adapted by Libby Appel), Magic Forest Farm and Fortune; the West Coast premieres Love Song and The Subject Tonight Is Love; a workshop production of Found Objects; and Life x 3. She most recently understudied on Broadway for Relatively Speaking, three one act plays by Ethan Coen, Elaine May and Woody Allen, directed by John Turturro at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre. Bay Area credits include Superior Donuts, Theophilus North, Ambition Facing West, Nickel and Dimed and Be Aggressive at TheatreWorks; The First Grade and Salome at Aurora Theatre Company, Medea (title role) directed by Joseph Chaikin at Pacific Repertory Theatre; The Lily's Revenge, Evie’s Waltz, The Long Christmas Ride Home, Triptych and The Hopper Collection at Magic Theatre; Wit and The Beauty Queen of Leenane at San Jose Stage Company; and Guantanamo: Honor Bound To Defend Freedom at Brava! Brothers appeared in George is Dead (written and directed by Elaine May, co-starring Marlo Thomas) at Magic Theatre, Arizona Theatre Company and George Street Playhouse. She was named MVP for Theater in 2006 by the San Francisco Chronicle.
L. Peter Callender (James) has appeared at MTC in Seven Guitars and My Children! My Africa! He is currently the artistic director of African-American Shakespeare Company in San Francisco and an associate artist at Cal Shakes, where he has acted in over 20 productions. Other Bay Area credits include roles at A.C.T., Berkeley Rep, Brava!, Magic Theatre, Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, Aurora Theatre Company, Diablo Actors Ensemble, San Jose Repertory Theatre, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, TheatreWorks and San Francisco Symphony. In New York, Callender appeared on Broadway in Prelude to a Kiss and Julie Taymor’s The Tempest at Classic Stage Company, as well as in roles at the Manhattan Theater Club, New York Shakespeare Festival and Circle Rep. Other regional theater credits include Arena Stage, The Rep in Milwaukee, Pittsburgh Public, Cincinnati Playhouse, Syracuse Stage and Pennsylvania Stage Company. He has appeared in the films Sweet November, Dr. Doolittle, The Kite Runner and voices in The Nightmare Before Christmas.
Marissa Keltie (Lauren) has appeared at MTC in the world premiere of Bellwether, as well as New Works Series script-in-hand readings. She recently appeared in Crevice at Impact Theatre, A Lie of the Mind at Boxcar Theatre and Josh Costello’s adaptation of Little Brother at Custom Made Theatre Company. Her Bay Area credits include productions with Cal Shakes, SF Playhouse, Shotgun Players, Crowded Fire Theater, Central Works, California Theatre Center and Berkeley Playhouse. She is an Impact Theatre company member. She is a proud new member of Actors’ Equity Association.
Robert Parsons (Schultz) has appeared at MTC in Communicating Doors, Visions of Kerouac and Pal Joey. He most recently appeared in Emilie: La Marquise Du Chatelet Defends Her Life Tonight at Symmetry Theatre Company. Other Bay Area credits include Rock ‘n’ Roll, The Little Foxes, The Black Rider and Buried Child at A.C.T., Tir Na Nog, Pleasure and Pain, The Right Kind of People, The Lonesome West, Schrödinger’s Girlfriend and The American in Me at Magic Theatre, I Am My Own Wife at the Stage in San Jose, as well as appearances at Word for Word, Shotgun Players, Aurora Theatre Company, SF Playhouse and TheatreWorks. Parsons has appeared regionally and internationally in L.A. Theatre Works’s national tour of The Rivalry and Radio Theatre Series recording of Buried Child, The Rivalry at Ford’s Theatre in Washington D.C., The Black Rider at Sydney Festival in Australia and Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles, Rock ’n’ Roll at the Huntington Theatre Company in Boston, Misalliance at the Alley Theatre in Houston, The Heiress at Arizona Theatre Company and Cyrano de Bergerac and Two Gentlemen of Verona at Oregon Shakespeare Festival. He has also appeared in the films Black August and This is Hamlet.
ABOUT MTC
Marin Theatre Company is the Bay Area’s premier mid-sized theater and the leading professional theater in the North Bay. We produce a six-show season of provocative plays by passionate playwrights from the 20th century and today in our intimate 231-seat proscenium theater. We are committed to the development and production of new plays by American playwrights, with a comprehensive New Play Program that includes at least one premiere each season, two nationally recognized annual playwriting awards, new play readings and workshops by the nation’s best emerging playwrights and a National New Play Network Playwright in Residence. Our numerous education programs serve more than 6,000 students each year. Founded in 1966.
PRESS CONTACT
Sasha Hnatkovich, Communications Director
(415) 388-5200, ext. 3313 | email
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