- 2023-10-08
Marjorie Prime | BAY AREA PREMIERE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE MARIN THEATRE COMPANY Marjorie Prime MILL VALLEY, CA—Marin Theatre Company (MTC) launches into Spring with the Bay Area Premiere of Jordan Harrison’s pensive new play—Marjorie Prime. It’s 2062, the age of artificial intelligence, and 85-year-old Marjorie lives with her daughter, Tess, and son-in-law, Jon. Thanks to a company called Senior Serenity, she also has a new, attentive confidant: a sophisticated computer application—a prime—programmed to learn her memories and feed the story of her life back to her. To make it easier, the prime is designed to appear as a 30-year-old version of Marjorie’s deceased husband—as young and attentive as when they first met and the perfect soundboard for her fading mind. As Marjorie declines, Tess and Jon wrestle with what this companion actually offers the family: mere palliation, or a chance to rewrite Marjorie's life, without its most painful events? In this richly spare, wondrous new play—a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize—Jordan Harrison explores the mysteries of human identity and the limits, if any, of what technology can replace. What would we remember, and what would we forget, if given the chance? New York-based director and Obie award-winner, Ken Rus Schmoll, will direct this vividly intelligent piece with an incomparable cast of Bay Area talent: Joy Carlin as the titular, aging matriarch, Marjorie; Thomas Gorrebeeck as her digital companion, designed in the likeness of her husband, Walter; Julie Eccles as Tess, Marjorie’s headstrong and stubborn daughter; and Anthony Fusco as Jon, Tess’ supplicant and deep-hearted husband. Compelling, nostalgic and deeply imaginative, Marjorie Prime probes the muddled terrain of human memory, and the ways in which technology pervades our relationships, our emotions, and the identities we build. Ken Rus Schmoll to Direct Ken Rus Schmoll is a two-time Obie Award-winning director. This past season he directed The Women of Padilla at Two River Theater; Annie Baker’s John at the American Conservatory Theatre; Max Posner's Judy for Page 73; and Anne Washburn's Antlia Pneumatica at Playwrights Horizons. Recent credits include Kate E. Ryan’s Card and Gift (Clubbed Thumb); Jenny Schwartz and Todd Almond’s Iowa (Playwrights Horizons); Ayad Akhtar’s The Invisible Hand (New York Theatre Workshop, Lortel nomination); John Banville’s Love in the Wars (Bard SummerScape); Jordan Harrison’s The Grown-up (Humana Festival); and George Brant's Grounded for Page 73. His work has also been seen at the Foundry Theatre, Vineyard Theatre, Long Wharf Theatre, Two River Theatre, Talking Band, Tanglewood, Guggenheim, BAM Next Wave, EST, 13P, LCT3, SPF, and PS 122. He is co-chair of the Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab, co-mentor of the Clubbed Thumb Directors Fellowship, an affiliated artist with Clubbed Thumb, a Usual Suspect at New York Theatre Workshop, and a three-time Sundance Theatre Institute alum. Upcoming productions include The Bridge of San Luis/Greenspan at the Two River Theater; Catch As Catch Can at Page 73; and Marjorie Prime at the Marin Theater Company. More About Playwright, Jordan Harrison Jordan Harrison was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for Marjorie Prime, which premiered at the Mark Taper Forum and had its New York premiere at Playwrights Horizons. A film adaptation by Michael Almereyda debuted at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. Jordan’s other plays include The Amateurs (Currently playing at The Vineyard Theatre); Maple and Vine (Playwrights Horizons, Humana Festival); The Grown-up (Humana Festival); Amazon and Their Men (Clubbed Thumb); Doris to Darlene (Playwrights Horizons); Act a Lady (Portland Center Stage); Finn in the Underworld (Berkeley Repertory Theatre); Futura (NAATCO); Kid-Simple (Humana Festival); and a children’s musical, The Flea and the Professor (Arden Theatre). His new play, Log Cabin, will premiere at Playwrights Horizons this spring. Jordan is the recipient of the Horton Foote Prize, Guggenheim and Hodder Fellowships, the Kesselring Prize, the Roe Green Award, the Heideman Award, and an NEA/TCG Residency. A graduate of the Brown MFA program, he is an alumnus of New Dramatists. Jordan has developed TV series for Sundance and TNT, and wrote for three seasons of Netflix’s “Orange in the New Black.” CALENDAR LISTING WHAT WHO FEATURING * Denotes member of Actors’ Equity Association WHEN PERFORMANCES Evenings Matinees WHERE ABOUT Jordan Harrison was a 2015 Pulitzer Prize finalist for Marjorie Prime, which premiered at the Mark Taper Forum and had its New York premiere at Playwrights Horizons. Harrison is also the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Hodder Fellowship, the Horton Foote Prize, the Kesselring Prize, the Roe Green Award from Cleveland Play House, the Heideman Award, a Theater Masters Innovative Playwright Award, the Loewe Award for Musical Theater, Jerome and McKnight Fellowships, a NYSCA grant, and an NEA/TCG Residency with The Empty Space Theater. Tickets $22 - $60 Discounts for seniors, teens, military families, and Marin County teachers are available. Group Discounts: Purchase 8 or more tickets and receive a $6 discount off each ticket, and we'll waive the $7 order fee. As the organizer of the group, your ticket is free! Contact the Box Office for more details and to book. Press Photos will be available for Marjorie Prime on Friday, May 4, 2018. MTC ENGAGEMENT EVENTS ACCESS 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. CONTACT ABOUT MTC PRESS CONTACT
Friday, March 23, 2018
TO PRODUCE BAY AREA PREMIERE
OF JORDAN HARRISON’S
CEREBRAL & FUTURISTIC FAMILY DRAMA
Theatre | Performing Arts
Marjorie Prime
By Jordan Harrison
Directed by Ken Rus Schmoll
*Joy Carlin: MARJORIE
*Thomas Gorrebeeck: WALTER
*Julie Eccles: TESS
*Anthony Fusco: JON
May 3 - May 27
OPENING NIGHT: Tuesday, May 8, 2018 at 7:30pm
Tuesday - Sunday, 7:30pm
Sunday (Preview), May 6, 4:00pm
Thursday (Perspectives), May 17, 1:00pm
Saturday, May 12 & 26, 2:00pm
Sunday, May 13, 20 & 27, 2:00pm
Marin Theatre Company | 397 Miller Ave | Mill Valley, CA 94941
It’s 2062, the age of artificial intelligence, and 85-year-old Marjorie — a jumble of disparate, fading memories — has a handsome new companion who’s programmed to feed the story of her life back to her. What would we remember, and what would we forget, if given the chance? In this richly spare, wondrous new play, Jordan Harrison explores the mysteries of human identity and the limits — if any — of what technology can replace.
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 Marjorie Prime will be Thursday, May 17, at 1:00pm.
marintheatre.org | (415) 388-5208 | boxoffice@marintheatre.org
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 10,000 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.
Kate Robinson, Communications & Public Relations Associate
(415) 322-6029 | kater@marintheatre.org