The Strand Opens Its 2nd Season With Neil LaBute's MERCY SEAT 10/4

The Strand opens its second season with Neil LaBute's Mercy Seat, directed by Danielle Young. Mercy Seat runs September 11th to October 4th, 2009. Set on September 12, 2001, The Mercy Seat continues Neil LaBute’s unflinching fascination with the often-brutal realities of the war between the sexes. In a time of national tragedy, the world changes overnight. A man and a woman explore the choices now available to them in an existence different from the one they had lived just The Day Before. Can one be opportunistic in a time of universal selflessness?

The next play in the Strand's line up comes from the Strand's very own dynamic duo Alexandra Hewett and Lynn Morton, entitled Graves in the Water, an adaptation of Edgar Lee Masters' Spoon River Anthology. Graves in the Water runs October 29th to October 31st and is absolutely free thanks to Free Fall Baltimore! The Spoon River Anthology is a classic piece, rarely performed, being re-envisioned by two local artists for the Baltimore stage.  In keeping with the mission of the Strand Theater, theater from a different perspective, this piece will be a generative, ensemble piece that will focus on the stories of the women who lived there.  To be performed over Halloween weekend and in keeping with the nature of the Spoon River Anthology, Graves in the Water will invoke the spirit of the season by taking place in a cemetery and speaking for the dead.

Running from November 20th to December 13th, is [Sic] by Melissa James Gibson. In adjacent apartments that resemble nothing so much as broom closets with windows, the three young, ambitious neighbors of Melissa James Gibson's [SIC] come together to discuss, flirt, argue, share their dreams, and plan their futures with unequal degrees of deep hopefulness and abject despair, all the while pushing the limits of their friendship to the max and demonstrating that language can be both an instrument of intimacy and a weapon of defense. Theo is a composer trying to create a heroic theme for an amusement park ride called the Thrill-o-Rama; Babette is a writer trying to finish—or even start—a book theorizing that temper tantrums are the major motivating force behind historical events; and Frank is a would-be auctioneer preparing for his future career by constantly practicing tongue twisters as "Sally sought some seeds to sow but sadly soon it snowed." By exploring these questing lives in language that alternates between exhilarating structural inventiveness and loony comedy, poignant soul-searching and incisive analysis of the life that may actually exist beyond one's four walls, Melissa James Gibson has created a unique play that is as witty and wise as it is stylistically groundbreaking and unexpected.

 The month of February brings about The Lacy Project by ALena Smith, directed by Josh Bristol. The Lacy Project runs from February 5th to February 28th. Her mother's photographs turned Lacy into an icon of childhood innocence and beauty. Now, on the night of her 22nd birthday, Lacy has to navigate between image and reality, sex and friendship, self-indulgence and responsibility. This wild tragicomedy presents an portrait of a young woman held captive by her own childhood, and a vivid picture of a generation unable to grow up.

The final show of the Strand's second season is Marina Carr's The Mai, directed by Artistic Director, Jayme Kilburn, from April 16th to May 9th. An accomplished, beautiful forty-year-old woman, The Mai has always sought an exceptional life. Robert, her cellist husband, has always felt stifled by The Mai's ideals of perfection. After seventeen years he leaves her, whereupon she sets about building a dream house in the hope that he will one day return to her. From her fairytale castle, The Mai waits by the window for her dark-haired prince to return. Set in the inspiring surrounds of the West of Ireland, on the banks of the legendary Owl Lake, we enter this world on the day of Robert's return after an absence of four years. In the midst of Mai's and Robert's troubled reunion are the idiosyncratic characters that comprise the family. Irreverent and unapologetic, the opium-smoking one-hundred-year-old matriarch, Grandma Fraochlan, presides over all. The "Spanish Beauty," as she is known, with her "ancient and fantastical memory" and mythical presence, reminds us that the past is looming ever present.
 
Tickets can be purchased on the Strand's website, through ticket turtle:  https://www.ticketturtle.com/index.php?theatre=stran.

A season subscription is also available for purchase on the Strand's website:
https://www.ticketturtle.com/index.php?buy_pass=stran.

This Flex Pass is good for 5 tickets that can be used for any of the 5 plays of their 2009-2010 Season of Plays.

The Strand's Open House: May 23rd, 2010, a local favorite featuring some of Baltimore's premier artists.

Friends and Neighbors Festival, works by women: May 28th and running until July 27th. 

For more information, please check out their website: www.strandtheatercompany.org.

The Strand Theater is a community theater dedicated to providing opportunities for women artists, writers, designers and directors. With a focus on producing original works, the Strand hopes to foster a love of theater for a new generation of patrons.

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