Virago Theatre to Premiere Trieschmann's CROOKED, 2/20-3/1

Virago Theatre Company presents the Bay Area Premiere of award-winning playwright Catherine Treischmann's "Crooked," Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays February 20 - March 1 at The Flight Deck, 1540 Broadway in Oakland. The production is directed by Virago Co-Founder Robert Lundy-Paine.

The Story: Fourteen year old Laney arrives in Oxford, Mississippi with a twisted back, a mother in crisis and a burning desire to be writer. When she befriends Maribel Purdy, a fervent believer in the power of Jesus Christ to save her from the humiliations of high school, Laney embarks on a spiritual and sexual journey that challenges her mother's secular worldview and threatens to tear their fragile relationship apart.

While Virago Theatre Company premieres Trieschmann's Crooked at the Flight Deck in Oakland, Custom Made Theatre Company premieres the playwright's How the World Began in San Francisco. How the World Began, directed by Leah S. Abrams, runs February 12-March 8. Crooked, directed by Robert Lundy-Paine runs February 20 - March 1. Both theatre companies are eager to give Bay Area audiences a "double measure" of the work of this fascinatingly talented writer. Therefore, anyone who attends one of the productions can see the other for half price with presentation of their ticket stub.

Catherine Trieschmann (Playwright) Trieschmann's plays include The Bridegroom of Blowing Rock, Crooked, How the World Began, Hot Georgia Sunday, and The Most Deserving. Her work has been produced Off-Broadway at the Women's Project, the Bush Theatre (London), Out of Joint at the Arcola Theatre (London), South Coast Repertory, Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, Actor's Theatre of Louisville, American Theatre Company, and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, among others. She has received commissions from South Coast Repertory, Manhattan Theatre Club, and the Denver Theatre Center. She is the recipient of the Weissberger Award, the Otis Guernsey New Voices Playwriting Award from the Inge Theatre Festival, and the Edgerton New Play Award. Originally from Athens, Georgia, she now lives in a small town in western Kansas.

Robert Lundy-Paine (Director) is an actor, director, filmmaker, puppeteer, playwright and a founding member of Virago Theatre Company. Robert recently directed the short film "Zombie Detective" for Earth Industries Productions. As a puppeteer, Robert toured throughout North America with Tears of Joy Puppet Theatre and won an UNIMA award for "Jumping Mouse". He has acted extensively in Portland, OR, The Bay Area, and appeared with Shakespeare et Firenze in productions of "Macbeth" and "A Midsummer Night's Dream" in Florence, Italy. Robert wrote and directed "An Original Christmas Carol" for the Altarena Playhouse, "Frankenstein, the Modern Prometheus" for the 2001 San Francisco Fringe Festival and "Alice" for Alameda Children's Theatre. He directed Virago Theatre Company's production of "Orphans," and the world premieres of John Byrd's "The Death of Ayn Rand" and "Zombie Vixens from Hell the Musical," as well as Dan Brodnitz and Jeff Green's "Mankind's Last Hope," Shakespeare's "Taming of the Shrew," and the operas "La Boheme" and "Madama Butterfly." Robert is a native of Portland and currently lives in Alameda, California with his wife and two children.

Photo Credit Laura Lundy-Paine