- 2023-10-08
Love | WORLD PREMIERE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, January 30th, 2020
MARIN THEATRE COMPANY
PRODUCES WORLD PREMIERE
OF KATE CORTESI’S NUANCED AND ELECTRIFYING NEW PLAY
Love
MILL VALLEY, CA—Marin Theatre Company (MTC) is proud to produce the World Premiere of Kate Cortesi’s vital new drama—Love, and thrilled to welcome back Mike Donahue as director (Wink and Swimmers at MTC; The Legend of Georgia McBride at The Geffen Playhouse and Denver Center; Collective Rage at MCC and Woolly Mammoth; The Moors at Playwrights Realm).
When Penelope is approached about joining a group of women making harassment allegations against her former boss, she finds herself at an uncomfortable crossroads—the man accused was a former lover and remains a dear friend. As the women’s stories unfold, Penelope questions what happened to her, what she enabled, and her very identity. Love examines what accountability looks like when an abuser of power is one of our favorite men, and poses a radical question: Can we place love at the center of these reckonings?
Developed at the Ojai Playwrights Conference and featured on the 2019 Kilroys List, Love tackles accountability in a richly human and complicated way. Playwright Kate Cortesi—a current Huntington Playwriting Fellow and recent Playwrights Horizons Commission awardee—describes the spark behind writing this piece:
"I wrote this play because there is a conversation around sex and power that I believe people want to have that we're not having, not in public anyway. Do we want dark truth to come to light? Yes. Do we want justice for abuses? Yes. Do we want to acknowledge and correct the exploits of patriarchy? Absolutely. AND we also want to delve into the relationships where this reckoning is complicated, murky, and colored by, among other things, love. I believe love belongs at the center of these reckonings, right next to justice and truth."
New York-based director Mike Donahue helms his third World Premiere production at MTC, featuring newcomers Clea Alsip (Penelope), Rebecca Schweitzer (Vanessa), R. Ward Duffy (Otis), Bobak Cyrus Bakhtiari (Jaime) Mari Vial-Golden (Whitney/Rebecca) and MTC veteran Robert Sicular (Ron/Ken).
The creative team for Love includes Stephanie Osin Cohen (Scenic Designer), Katie Nowacki (Costume Designer), Scott Zielinski (Lighting Designer), Madeleine Oldham (Sound Designer), and Teddy Hulsker (Projection Designer).
More on Playwright, Kate Cortesi
Kate Cortesi is a Brooklyn and Boston based playwright from Washington, D.C. Her play Love, which tackles #metoo in a richly human and complicated way, will have its world premiere at Marin Theatre Company in 2020, directed by Mike Donahue. Love was developed at the Ojai Playwrights Conference, WP Theatre/Colt Coeur Parity Fest and at South Coast Rep, and is featured on the 2019 Kilroy’s List. Her examination of how the American psyche has been deformed by police violence, One More Less earned Kate a NYFA fellowship, was a finalist for the 2017 Relentless Award, and was performed at the Playwrights Horizons New Works Lab under the direction of Robert O’Hara. A Patron of the Arts, her fine arts and drug dealing play set in a Northern California trailer park, was produced by the Cherry Lane Theatre Mentor Project, directed by Mike Donahue, mentored by Anne Washburn, and again in Rome as part of the KIT Italia In Scena Festival; Patron was developed at The Lark, South Coast Rep and the Colt Coeur Parity Fest. Is Edward Snowden Single? is Kate’s most formally innovative work and was the inaugural play of the Dorset Theatre Festival’s Pipeline Series in 2018. Edward Snowden will have its New York premiere with The Pool 2020, a consortium of playwrights producing plays in rep at the New Ohio Theatre in the fall of 2020. Citizens United, Kate’s one act for young people about the Supreme Court ruling commissioned by Keen Theater, was performed by high school girls from the tristate area at Theatre Row in 2019. Great Kills, winner of the 2014-15 Princess Grace Award, tells the story of an ambitious Staten Island achiever who lies about her family background to impress colleges. Great Kills is in development as a feature film to be written by the playwright. Kate is a proud resident of New Dramatists and a 2020-2022 Huntington Playwriting Fellow. She has been commissioned by Playwrights Horizons and South Coast Rep, and she is creating a TV show based on Robin Green’s memoir The Only Girl, about being the only woman on the Rolling Stone Magazine masthead in the early 70s. katecortesi.com.
More on Director, Mike Donahue
Mike Donahue is a New York-based director. NYC credits include: world premieres of Matthew Lopez’s The Legend of Georgia McBride (MCC, The Geffen and Denver Center, Joe A. Callaway Award, Outer Critics Circle Nomination, Ovation Award Nomination); Jen Silverman’s Collective Rage (MCC, Woolly Mammoth, Drama League Nomination), The Moors (Playwrights Realm – NYC premiere), Phoebe in Winter (Clubbed Thumb) and The Hunters (Cherry Lane Mentor Project); Jordan Seavey’s Homos, Or Everyone In America (Labyrinth); and Ethan Lipton’s Red-Handed Otter (Playwrights Realm). Regionally: Little Shop of Horrors with MJ Rodriguez, George Salazar and Amber Riley (Pasadena Playhouse), world premieres of Jen Silverman’s The Roommate (Humana, Williamstown, Long Wharf), Wink (Marin); Rachel Bonds’ Curve of Departure (South Coast Rep, Studio Theatre), The Wolfe Twins (Studio Theatre) and Swimmers (Marin); Matthew Lopez’s Zoey’s Perfect Wedding and Lauren Feldman’s Grace, or The Art of Climbing (Denver Center); and Shostakovich’s Moscow, Cheryomushki in a new libretto by Meg Miroshnik (Chicago Opera Theatre). Select readings/workshops: MTC, Roundabout Underground, NYTW, Soho Rep (Writer/Director Lab), McCarter, The O’Neill, Berkley Rep Ground Floor, South Coast Rep’s Pacific Playwrights Festival, New Dramatists, The Lark, Ars Nova, Primary Stages, Chautauqua, Cape Cod Theatre Project and Studio 42. Mike is recipient of a Fulbright to Berlin, the Dramaleague Fall Fellowship, The Boris Sagal Fellowship at Williamstown, winner of the Inaugural Opera America Director-Designer Showcase Award, and was the artistic director of the Yale Summer Cabaret for two seasons. Mike is a graduate of Harvard University and the Yale School of Drama. Upcoming: Euripides’ The Bakkhai (Baltimore Center Stage).
CALENDAR LISTING
Theatre | Performing Arts
WHAT
Love
WHO
By Kate Cortesi
Directed by Mike Donahue
FEATURING
*Clea Alsip: PENELOPE
*Rebecca Schweitzer: VANESSA (VEE)
*Bobak Cyrus Bakhtiari: JAIME
*R. Ward Duffy: OTIS
*Robert Sicular: RON / KEN
*Mari Vial-Golden: WHITNEY / REBECCA / CITY HALL INTERN
* Denotes member of Actors’ Equity Association
WHEN
March 5 - March 29
PERFORMANCES
OPENING NIGHT: Tuesday, March 10th
Evenings
Tuesday - Sunday, 7:30PM
Matinees
Sunday (Preview) March 8th, 4PM
Thursday (Perspectives) March 26th, 1PM
Saturdays, March 14th, 21st and 28th, 2PM
Sundays, March 15th, 22nd and 29th, 2PM
WHERE
397 Miller Ave | Mill Valley, CA 94941
ABOUT
When Penelope is approached about joining a group of women making harassment allegations against her former boss, she finds herself at an uncomfortable crossroads—the man accused was a former lover and remains a dear friend. As the women’s stories unfold, Penelope questions what happened to her, what she enabled, and her very identity. Love examines what accountability looks like when an abuser of power is one of our favorite men, and poses a radical question: Can we place love at the center of these reckonings?
Tickets $25 - $70
Discounts for seniors, under 35, teens, military families, and teachers are available.
Group Discounts: Purchase 8 or more tickets and receive a $7 discount off each ticket. MTC will also waive any applicable order fees. As the organizer of a group, your ticket is free! Contact kater@marintheatre.org for more information.
Press Photos will be available for Love on Friday, March 6th.
MTC ENGAGEMENT EVENTS
- Window on the Work: Join members of MTC’s artistic staff and cast of the show to discuss artistic and production elements of MTC’s production of Love at 7:00pm on Thursday, February 27th, at the Mill Valley Public Library.
- W.I.N.E Night: #BeAnInfluencer and join us pre-show for a glass (or two) of W.I.N.E. + snax at our Wednesday Influencers Networking Event for Love on Wednesday, March 11th at 6:45pm! See the best new theatre in the Bay without breaking the bank, and mingle with other top-fan theatre-goers. Get access to the pre-show reception + your ticket to the show for only $10 using promo code: INFLUENCER. PLUS: if you post about your experience after the show and tag MTC, we’ll give you a complimentary ticket voucher to come back and see the show again, or to bring a friend with you to the next show!
- Perspectives: The fourth Thursday of each show is the Perspectives matinee performance which includes a pre-show topical lecture. For Love, the Perspectives matinee is scheduled for Thursday, March 26th, with the pre-show lecture beginning at 12:00pm, and the performance beginning at 1:00pm.
- Pre-Show Discussions: Join members of MTC’s artistic staff to discuss the play, playwright and play’s themes on Wednesdays before the 7:30pm performances.
- After Words: Join a member of MTC’s artistic staff (often with one or more members of the cast) for a Q&A talkback after every performance, except Saturday evenings and Opening and Closing Nights.
ACCESS
Marin Theatre Company provides open captioned performances of each of the plays in our mainstage series on the Thursday matinee. The open captioned performance for Love will be Thursday, March 26th, at 1:00pm.
For visually impaired patrons, Large Print playbills are available with one week’s advance notice. To request a Large Print 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 Assistive Listening Devices are available. Our system will also work with personal assistive hearing devices equipped with a T-coil.
BOX OFFICE CONTACT
marintheatre.org | (415) 388-5208 | boxoffice@marintheatre.org
ABOUT MTC
Marin Theatre Company is the Bay Area’s premier mid-sized theatre and the leading professional theatre in the North Bay. We produce a six-show season focused on new American plays. We are committed to the development and production of new plays, with a comprehensive New Play Program that includes productions of world premieres, two nationally recognized annual playwriting awards and readings and workshops by the nation’s best emerging and established playwrights. Our numerous education programs serve more than 4,500 students from over 40 Bay Area schools each year. MTC strives to create intimate, powerful and emotional experiences that engage audiences to discuss new ideas and adopt a broader point of view. We believe in taking risks and inspiring people to participate in live theatre, regardless of personal means. MTC celebrates the intellectual curiosity of our community, and we believe that theatre is an important tool to help build empathy. MTC was founded in 1966 and is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization.
PRESS CONTACT
Kate Robinson, Director of Ticketing and Communications Associate
(415) 322-6029 | kater@marintheatre.org