SALT LAKE ACTING COMPANY PRESENTS THE 2010 OBIE AWARD WINNER FOR BEST NEW AMERICAN PLAY “CIRCLE MIRROR TRANSFORMATION” BY ANNIE BAKER, DIRECTED BY ADRIANNE MOORE.
“I….Took….This….Class….Because….It….Was….In….The….Paper.”
SLAC happily announces its upcoming production of the Obie Award-winning comedy CIRCLE MIRROR TRANSFORMATION by Annie Baker running April 13 – May 8, 2011. This playful, yet poignant play took New York City by storm and SLAC is proud to bring it to Salt Lake City.
Meet Marty, the free-spirited teacher of an adult creative drama class in Vermont and her pupils: her own hippy husband, a flirtatious former actress, a recently divorced carpenter, and an over-achieving 16-year-old. All in the class for different reasons, and through a series of seemingly silly theatrical games (like having an entire conversation using only the word ‘goulash’), this motley crew gains insight into their own lives and the lives of their unlikely peers. Laugh-out-loud funny and acutely human, CIRCLE MIRROR TRANSFORMATION sheds a little light on our idiosyncrasies before every blackout.
Playwright Annie Baker, 29, was recently dubbed “one of the most promising new stage talents to emerge in the past decade” by The New York Times. In an interview with Playwrights Horizons about CIRCLE MIRROR TRANSFORMATION, Baker said: “I knew I wanted the audience to learn about the characters through formal theater exercises. I knew I wanted there to be excruciating silences. I knew I wanted information about these people to come out in the strangest places, and I wanted us to know them all intimately by the end of the play. I also wanted to show how beautiful (and noble!) it is when people throw themselves earnestly and unselfconsciously into something, even if it's a therapeutic reenactment.”
Director Adrianne Moore says: “Annie Baker talks about the fine line between art-making and group therapy, which I think is really fascinating. And when you meet the characters in CIRCLE MIRROR TRANSFORMATION there are both aspects of that – certainly some of them want to know about making art, and some have got issues. The characters for me are utterly recognizable, yet there’s nothing generic about them. The other thing that I love about the play is that while there is a little bit of a dig at the extreme aspects of theatre people, it also really celebrates the kind of redeeming power of these sorts of exercises and games where people are really focused on each other.”
Moore has served as dialect coach for many SLAC productions including Charm, The Caretaker, End Days, The Clean House, Skin in Flames, and many others. She also directed Hold Please for SLAC. She has worked with Pioneer Theatre Company, Utah Contemporary Theatre, The Egyptian Theatre Company, Pygmalion, and Old Lyric Repertory and is currently a professor of Voice and Directing at Utah State University.
The cast includes past SLAC favorites Colleen Baum (Angels in America, Go, Dog. Go!, End Days, Sex Sting, Rabbit Hole), Michael Todd Behrens (Six Years, Rounding Third, Polish Joke, Lobby Hero, Saturday’s Voyeur), Alexandra Harbold (Six Years, Ice Glen, and director of The Persian Quarter), Morgan Lund (Too Much Memory, Skin in Flames, Moonlight & Magnolias, Water Project, Polish Joke), and SLAC newcomer Shelby Andersen - a student in Weber State University’s Musical Theatre program.
CIRCLE MIRROR TRANSFORMATION was nominated for the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play, and won the 2010 Obie Award for Best New American Play.
In conjunction with the run of CIRCLE MIRROR TRANSFORMATION, Salt Lake Acting Company proudly recognizes and honors Keven Myhre for 25 Years of Transformations. In addition to being joint Executive Producer, Keven is SLAC’s resident set designer and has transformed SLAC’s stages more than one hundred times. During the run of CIRCLE MIRROR TRANSFORMATION, SLAC’s lobby will feature a display celebrating Keven’s transformative work as a set designer.
FACT SHEET
SLAC PRODUCTION Circle Mirror Transformation
PLAYWRIGHT Annie Baker
DIRECTOR Adrianne Moore
CAST Shelby Andersen, Colleen Baum, Michael Todd Behrens, Alexandra Harbold, Morgan Lund
SET DESIGN Keven Myhre
COSTUME DESIGN K.L. Alberts
LIGHTING DESIGN Jesse Portillo
SOUND DESIGN Cynthia L. Kehr Rees
PRODUCTION STAGE MANAGER Janice Jenson
DATES Previews: April 13 & 14, 2011
Opening: April 15, 2011
Closing: May 8, 2011
TIMES Previews: Wednesday & Thursday- 7:30 p.m.
Regular: Wednesday – Saturday- 7:30 p.m.
Sunday- 2:00 p.m. & 7:00 p.m.
Tuesday, April 12 @ 7 PM – ZAPped Tuesday. A free performance sponsored by the Zoo, Arts, & Parks Program. To reserve a seat call 801.363.7522
Friday, April 15 @ 7:30 PM – Opening Night Celebration
Sunday, April 17 @ 4 PM – Talkback with Director Adrianne Moore and the cast of CIRCLE MIRROR TRANSFORMATION following the matinee performance.
Sunday, April 24 @ 7 PM – Theatre Student Series performance.
Monday, April 25 @ 7 PM – New Play Sounding Series. SLAC presents a free reading of a new play by Elaine Jarvik and Kate Jarvik Birch.
SLAC NOTES
The 2010-2011 Season is dedicated to the Playwrights, Subscribers, Actors, Board Members, Directors, Donors, Theatre Artists, Volunteers and Employees that have contributed to SLAC throughout the past 40 years.
SLAC was founded in 1970 and is dedicated to producing, commissioning and developing new works and to supporting a community of professional artists. SLAC has been nationally recognized by the Shubert Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Edgerton Foundation, among others. SLAC is a Constituent Member of Theatre Communications Group, a national organization for non-profit professional regional theatres, and the National New Play Network.
Tickets range from $15-$41 depending on performance. Discounts available for students, 30 & under, and groups of ten or more.
Tickets available at 801-363-SLAC (7522), at www.saltlakeactingcompany.org, or in person at 168 West 500 North, Salt Lake City, Utah 84103
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