CIRCLE MIRROR TRANSFORMATION to Open Parish Players' 60th Season in Vermont
Performances will run from June 11 - 21 at the Eclipse Grange Theater on Thetford Hill.
Parish Players will present Circle Mirror Transformation, a quietly poignant story by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Annie Baker, directed by J. Bailey Burcham, to kick off its 60th Season.
Running June 11 - 21 at the Eclipse Grange Theater on Thetford Hill, Circle Mirror Transformation takes place in the fictional small town of Shirley, Vermont, where five strangers gather for an adult acting class at a small community center. What begins as a simple creative escape slowly turns into something much more personal as the group reveals parts of themselves they never expected to share. Annie Baker's Circle Mirror Transformation is funny, tender, and quietly profound, capturing the awkwardness and beauty of human connection with remarkable honesty.
"This play feels like the perfect introduction to making theater in the Upper Valley," says J. Bailey Burcham, who's making his directing debut in the Upper Valley at Parish Players. Burcham is a longtime performer and director who recently relocated to Vermont from Los Angeles, where he served as Executive Director of the Shakespeare Youth Festival and Operations Manager at Pasadena Playhouse. He currently serves as Director of Sales and Marketing at Northern Stage and appeared this past season in the company's production of Come From Away as Oz Fudge, the warmhearted local constable in Gander, Newfoundland.
"Circle Mirror is small and simple on the outside, but underneath that simplicity is this deeply funny, aching exploration of loneliness, time, reinvention, and the quiet ways people change each other. It's exactly the kind of intimate, actor-driven storytelling that makes live theater feel magical and I'm proud to have found a theater community that celebrates that."
Serendipitously, Circle Mirror Transformation takes place in Vermont. Established in 1966, Parish Players was one of the first theater communities in the Upper Valley, paving way for many other organizations down the line, including Opera North and Shaker Bridge Theater Company. With many connections to theater artists and lovers in this region, and now Burcham's involvement as the director, Parish Players will open its 60th season with a piece that explores the power of theater in shaping inter-human connectivity, celebrating 60 years of community-based theatermaking in the heart of Vermont.
Parish Player's production features a cast beloved to the local theater community:
Darby Hiebert (The Art of Dining at BarnArts, Other Desert Cities, Brighton Beach Memoirs) will play Marty, the theater class instructor who leads the group. Jon Protas, who was most recently seen in Eureka Day at Shake Bridge, will play Marty's husband James. Gwendolyn Dae Roland will make her Parish Players debut with the role of Theresa, the disillusioned actor from NYC seeking respite. Sean Dabney and Chloe Jung will return to Parish Players after sharing the stage for King Lear, playing the shy woodworker Schultz and the eager teen Lauren, respectively.
The creative team, led by Burcham, includes Brandy (Yijin) Zhang (Producer), Hannah O'Neil (Scenic Designer), Bella Granlund (Costume Designer), Jason Monmaney (Lighting Designer), and Eva Hymes (Stage Manager).
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