Huntington, SpeakEasy, and Company One to visit Shirley, VT this fall

I don't usually copy entire press releases - today is an exception: This is really exciting news!

Company One, Huntington Theatre Company, and SpeakEasy Stage Company Collaborate to Present Annie Baker’s “SHIRLEY, VERMONT PLAYS” in Fall

Three Boston theatre companies will engage in a landmark local collaboration this fall to produce breakout writer Annie Baker’s first three plays – Circle Mirror Transformation, produced by the Huntington Theatre Company (October 15 – November 14), Body Awareness, produced by SpeakEasy Stage Company (October 22 – November 20), and The Aliens, produced by Company One (October 29 – November 20). All set in the fictional town of Shirley, VT, the plays will run together in the first-ever festival dedicated to the work of this wryly observant young writer, which will be curated by the Huntington Theatre Company.

“I fell in love with the characters in these plays and with the idea of creating a fictional New England town at the Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA,” says Huntington Artistic Director Peter DuBois. “Each of Annie’s plays stands on their own with their imagination and subtle humor, and seen together they form a striking portrait of Shirley, Vermont. The same is true for this festival; each company has their own identity and audience, but together they bring out the richness of the work being presented at the Calderwood. Annie’s writing makes you happy to be in the theatre, makes you want to celebrate our art form – I am thrilled we are embarking on this journey.”

This festival presents a special opportunity to examine the rich and varied lives of a small town filled with humor, good intentions, unintended consequences, and accidental beauty. Audiences will experience three miniature portraits of Shirley, VT, a town not found on any map. The plays will have staggered openings beginning October 15 but run concurrently, providing audience members the opportunity see all three between October 30 and November 14. Special same-day “marathon” scheduling is being designed so that one will be able to attend the entire festival in one day. Subscribers to each of the three participating companies will receive discount offers on the other two festival productions; single tickets will go on sale in August and be available on BostonTheatreScene.com. The Huntington will also present a reading of Annie Baker’s Nocturama, her fourth play set in Shirley, VT, in conjunction with the festival.

“We are thrilled to team up with up the Huntington and Company One to introduce Boston theatregoers to the delightful denizens of Shirley, Vermont,” says SpeakEasy Stage Company Producing Artistic Director Paul Daigneault. “Both the partnership and the plays celebrate the importance and spirit of community.”

“Annie Baker’s voice is one of the freshest and most exciting on the American stage today,” says Company One Artistic Director Shawn LaCount. “Company One shares her commitment to establishing community and exploring the fragility of the simple moments that is everyday life.”


CIRCLE MIRROR TRANSFORMATION
October 15 – November 14, 2010
at the Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA (Wimberly Theatre)
Produced by the Huntington Theatre Company

When the four students in Marty’s creative drama class experiment with harmless theatre games, hearts are quietly torn apart and tiny wars of epic proportions are waged and won. Set in the Shirley, Vermont community center, this beautifully crafted new comedy mixes antic sadness and hilarious detail, and became a runaway hit Off Broadway. The New York Times called Circle Mirror Transformation, “Absorbing, unblinking, and sharply funny!” It was twice extended and played to sold-out houses at Playwrights Horizons in September – November 2009 and then remounted and extended once again in December 2009 – January 2010.


BODY AWARENESS
October 22 – November 20, 2010
at the Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA (Roberts Studio Theatre)
Produced by SpeakEasy Stage Company

"Body Awareness Week” on a Vermont college campus is the setting for this smart and touching comedy about ordinary people grasping for connection. Phyllis, the organizer, her partner Joyce and Joyce’s grown son Jared are hosting one of the guest artists in their home, Frank, a photographer famous for his female nude portraits. While Phyllis is outraged by Frank’s photos, Joyce is intrigued enough to consider posing for Frank, sparking a firestorm that could break apart their unconventional family. The New York Times called Body Awareness “an engaging new comedy by a young playwright with a probing understated voice,” and The New Yorker called the play “an impressive and occasionally beautiful meditation on the mysteries of being moved.” Body Awareness was first produced Off-Broadway by the Atlantic Theater Company in May 2008.


THE ALIENS
October 29 – November 20, 2010
at the Boston Center for the Arts (Plaza Theatre)
Produced by Company One

In the town of Shirley, two 30-something dropouts hang out by the dumpster behind the coffee shop where they meditate on music, philosophy, shrooms, and Bukowski. When a teenage employee asks them to relocate, these disillusioned young men find the disciple they’ve been waiting for. A beat-tinged, psychotropic journey, Annie Baker’s The Aliens is a funny and heartening look at friendship, ritual, and small town New England. Company One is proud to join the Huntington Theatre Company and SpeakEasy Stage Company in exploring the tiny spaces of our small towns.

Additional information about each of these productions and each company’s 2010-2011 Season will be announced shortly.

Annie Baker’s other full-length plays include The End of the Middle Ages and Nocturama. Her work has been developed and produced at New York Theatre Workshop, Playwrights Horizons, MCC, Atlantic Theater Company, Soho Rep, the Orchard Project, the Ontological-Hysteric, Ars Nova, the Wilma Theatre, the Lark, the Magic Theatre, the Cape Cod Theatre Project, the Bay Area Playwrights Festival, and the Sundance Institute Theatre Lab in Utah and Ucross, Wyoming. She is a member of MCC’s Playwrights Coalition, Ars Nova’s Play Group, and EST, and is an alumna of Youngblood and the Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab. Recent honors include a Time Warner Storytelling Fellowship, a MacDowell Fellowship, and commissions from Center Theatre Group and Playwrights Horizons. She received her M.F.A. from Mac Wellman’s playwriting program at Brooklyn College.

About Company One
Company One’s mission is to redefine the typical theatrical experience by developing, producing, and promoting socially relevant plays and innovative educational programming that appeal to, represent, and include Boston’s diverse urban communities. Since it’s inception in 1998, Company One has become known in the media and in the community for providing the most progressive, racially, and socially relevant programming in Boston. For the past 11 years, Company One has been instrumental in diversifying Boston’s theatre community of artists and audiences through producing innovative, award-winning theatre and theatrical training programs. Company One is a Resident Theatre Company at the Boston Center for the Arts. For more information, visit companyone.org


About the Huntington Theatre Company
The Huntington Theatre Company is Boston’s largest and most popular theatre company, hosting more than 64 Tony Award-winning artists, garnering 36 Elliot Norton Awards, and sending over a dozen shows to Broadway since its founding in 1982. In July 2008, Peter DuBois became the Huntington’s third artistic leader and works in partnership with longtime Managing Director Michael Maso. In residence at and in partnership with Boston University, the Huntington is renowned for presenting seven outstanding productions each season, created by world-class artists and the most promising emerging talent, and reaching an annual audience of over 130,000. The Huntington has transferred more productions to Broadway than any other theatre in Boston, including the Broadway hit and Tony Award-winner Alfred Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps.

In 2004, the Huntington opened the state-of-the-art Stanford Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts, which includes 370-seat and 200-seat theatres to support the company’s new works activities and to complement the company’s 890-seat, Broadway-style main stage, the Boston University Theatre. By operating the Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA, the Huntington provides first-class facilities and audience services at significantly subsidized rates to dozens of Boston’s most exciting small and mid-sized theatre companies. The Huntington also operates BostonTheatreScene.com, which provides all productions at the BCA or the B.U. Theatre with box office and online marketing services.

The Huntington is a national leader in the development and support of new plays, producing more than 50 New England, American, or world premieres in its 27-year history. The Huntington’s nationally-recognized education programs have served more than 250,000 middle school and high school students in individual and group settings and community programs bring theatre to the Deaf and blind communities, the elderly, and other underserved populations in the Greater Boston area. For more information, visit huntingtontheatre.org

About SpeakEasy Stage Company
Since 1992, SpeakEasy Stage Company has distinguished itself as Boston's premiere theater staging Boston premiers, consistently winning acclaim for presenting top-quality productions of vital, cutting-edge plays and musicals that might not otherwise play the Hub. Our mission is to connect, inspire, and challenge our audience with the most socially relevant theatrical premieres featuring the most talented artists in Boston. Ware also committed to supporting local actors, directors, and designers by providing a nurturing environment in which they can practice and develop their craft. In 2007, SpeakEasy was named the Calderwood Pavilion Resident Theater for the Boston Center for the Arts. For more information, visit speakeasystage.com.

About the Boston Center for the Arts’ ResCo Program
For more than a decade, the Boston Center for the Arts' Resident Theatre Company (ResCo) Program has offered multi-year residencies to some of Boston’s most innovative and groundbreaking performing arts groups. The ResCo Program offers theatrical companies a stable home so they can focus on artistic excellence, audience development and organizational growth.

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