- 2023-10-08
The Invisible Hand | Bay Area Premiere
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 27, 2016
MARIN THEATRE COMPANY PRODUCES
Ayad Akhtar’s The Invisible Hand
Production Dates: June 2, 2016 - June 26, 2016
Opening Night: Tuesday, June 7, 2016
Marin Theatre Company to Produce Razor Sharp Thriller and Bay Area
Premiere for its 2015-16 Season Finale
MILL VALLEY, CA—Marin Theatre Company closes its 49th Season with Ayad Akhtar’s The Invisible Hand. The play had its world premiere at the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis in March 2012, and was nominated for the Steinberg/ACTA Best New Play Award that same year. The play was produced at ACT Theatre in Seattle in September 2014, and opened Off-Broadway at the New York Theater Workshop on December 7, 2014. In association with ACT Theatre, Artists Repertory Theatre in Portland presented the play in March 2015. It received both the 2015 Outer Critics Circle Award and the John Gassner Award. Berkeley Rep produced Akhtar’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Disgraced this past fall, to great acclaim.
American banker Nick Bright finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time when an Islamist militant group kidnaps him in Pakistan. When the United States won’t negotiate for his release, Nick offers to raise the $10 million ransom on his own by teaching his quick-tempered captor Bashir how to play the stock market. But it's the teacher that turns student when Nick quickly learns he must decide if the price of freedom is something he is willing to pay.
Marin Theatre Company’s own Jasson Minadakis to Direct
MTC’s own Jasson Minadakis is directing this stealthly and seductive play in this his tenth season as artistic director of MTC. His directing credits here include Anne Boleyn, The Convert, The Whale, Failure: A Love Story, the world premiere of Lasso of Truth,The Whipping Man (San Francisco Bay Area Critics Circle Awards for best production and best acting ensemble), Waiting for Godot, Othello, the Moor of Venice, The Glass Menagerie, Edward Albee's Tiny Alice, the world premiere of Seagull, Happy Now, Equivocation (SFBATCC Award for best director), the world premiere of Sunlight, Lydia, The Seafarer, Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune, A Streetcar Named Desire, said Saïd, Love Song and The Subject Tonight is Love.
Partnership with UrbanSitter Helps More People Attend Plays at MTC
MTC is pleased to partner with UrbanSitter, a website and app that helps busy parents find trusted babysitters and nannies, to enable the numerous young families in the Bay Area to attend live theater more easily. For the fifth time this season UrbanSitter will provide babysitters for MTC’s Sitter Saturday event on Saturday, June 25, at 2:00 pm. Read David Templeton’s feature about this partnership in the North Bay Stage and Screen here.
More about Playwright Ayad Akhtar
AYAD AKHTAR was born in New York City and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He is a novelist and author of “American Dervish,” published in over 20 languages worldwide and named a 2012 Best Book of the Year by Kirkus Reviews, Toronto's Globe and Mail, Shelf Awareness, and O, The Oprah Magazine. His play Disgraced won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, ran on Broadway at the Lyceum Theatre and is currently the most produced play in the country. In addition to Disgraced, his plays The Who & The What and The Invisible Hand received Off-Broadway runs and are currently being produced at theaters across the country. Ayad was listed as the most produced playwright for the 2015/16 season by American Theatre. As a screenwriter, he was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Screenplay for The War Within. He has been the recipient of fellowships from MacDowell, Djerassi, the Sundance Institute, Ucross, and Yaddo, where he currently serves as a Board Director. He is also a Board Trustee at PEN/America.
CALENDAR LISTING
Theatre/Performing Arts
WHAT
The Invisible Hand | Bay Area Premiere
WHO
By Ayad Akhtar
WHEN
June 2 - June 26, 2016
PERFORMANCES
OPENING NIGHT: Tuesday, June 7, 2016
EVENINGS
Tue - Sun 7:30pm
MATINEES
Sun (Preview) June 5, 4:00pm
Thu (Perspectives) June 16, 1:00pm
Sat, June 11 & 25, 2:00pm
Sun June 12, 19 & 26, 2:00pm
WHERE
Marin Theatre Company | 397 Miller Ave | Mill Valley, CA 94941
ABOUT
Ayad Akhtar, author of the Pulitzer-Prize winning Disgraced, spins a provocative drama about how fanatical devotion—whether it’s to the Koran or to the dollar—can lead to devastating consequences.
TICKETS $10-$58 Group discounts available for groups of 15 or more. Discounts for seniors, teens, military families and Marin County teachers are available. Contact the Box Office for more details and to purchase, or visit us online at marintheatre.org
(415) 388-5208 | Email: boxoffice@marintheatre.org
MTC ENGAGED SPECIAL EVENTS
- Pre-Show Discussions: Join members of MTC’s artistic staff and cast of the show to discuss the play, playwright and play’s themes and enjoy a complimentary glass of wine on Wednesdays at 7:10pm, prior to the 7:30pm performances. #winewednesdays
- Library Lecture: Join members of MTC’s artistic staff to discuss themes in the play, Thursday, May 12 at 7:00pm at the Corte Madera Public Library.
- 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 the play, Tuesday, May 24 at 7:30pm at the Mill Valley Public Library.
- 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.
- Sitter Saturday: MTC is pleased to partner with UrbanSitter, a website and app that helps busy parents find trusted babysitters and nannies, to enable the numerous young families in the Bay Area to attend live theater more easily. For the fourth time this season UrbanSitter will provide babysitters for the matinee performance of The Invisible Hand on Saturday, June 25, at 2:00 pm.
- Perspectives: The third Thursday of each show is the Perspectives matinee performance which includes a pre-show topical lecture. The Perspectives performance of The Invisible Hand is scheduled for Thursday, June 16, the pre-show lecture will begin at 12:30pm, and the performance will begin at 1:00pm.
- MTC After Hours: Following the Saturday, June 18, 7:30pm performance, join members of the audience and cast in the lobby to continue the conversation. Featuring the musical stylings of jazz trio Mood Swing and drink specials.
ACCESS
Marin Theatre Company is proud to partner with the Theatre Development Fund's Open Captioning Initiative to provide open captioned performances of each of the plays in our mainstage series on the Thursday matinee. The open captioned performance for The Invisible Hand will be during the scheduled Perspectives matinee, Thursday, June 16, 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.
CONTACT
marintheatre.org | (415) 388-5208 | boxoffice@marintheatre.org
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 focused on new American plays, and a four-show Family Series. 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 8,500 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 theater, regardless of personal means. MTC celebrates the intellectual curiosity of our community, and we believe that theater is an important tool to help build empathy. MTC was founded in 1966 and is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization.
PRESS CONTACT
Sara Waugh, Marketing Director
(415) 322-6022 | saraw@marintheatre.org
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