Zeitgeist Stage Presents A BRIGHT NEW BOISE at Boston Center for the Arts, Now thru 10/20

Zeitgeist Stage Company (ZSC) kicks off their 2012/2013 season with the New England premiere of A Bright New Boise by the up-and-coming and OBIE winning playwright Samuel D. Hunter. The production runs from tonight, September 28 through October 20 at the Boston Center for the Arts.

Prepare yourself, in the parking lot of a mega craft store in Idaho, someone is summoning the rapture. Samuel D. Hunter's touchingly funny reckoning between a father and son will shatter your preconceptions about the sacred, the profane, and the internal operations of big-box retailers.

The play takes place in employee break room of a Hobby Lobby, a big-box crafts store in Boise, Idaho. The ensemble of employees working at minimum wage jobs is each struggling to find their way. The play's central character, Will, is a piously religious man who arrives at the Hobby Lobby after fleeing his small hometown where his evangelical church was embroiled in a scandal. He reconciles the disappointing world around him with his belief in the coming rapture. As the play delves into existential questions about religion and the search for meaning, the characters’ journeys are both humorous and heartbreaking.

Playwright Hunter won a 2011 OBIE (Off-Broadway Theater Award) for playwriting, and received a 2011 Drama Desk Nomination for Best Play for A Bright New Boise.

Hunter’s latest play, The Whale, is being presented by Playwrights Horizons this fall in a New York City premiere, with Tony Award winner Shuler Hensley featured as a 600-pound recluse hiding in his apartment eating himself to death.

Last season, the Woolly Mammoth theater company in Washington, DC presented a production of A Bright New Boise which was extended by popular demand. 

The Zeitgeist Stage production features five Boston actors: Victor Shopov (ZSC’s Enron & Farragut North), Zach Winston (ZSC’s Bad Jazz & Tigers Be Still), Dakota Shepard (ZSC’s Farragut North), Janelle Mills (ZSC’s Far Away), and David Lutheran (Bad Habit’s Gross Indecency). The production is directed by ZSC’s Artistic Director David J. Miller.

Zeitgeist Stage presents A Bright New Boise in the Plaza Black Box Theatre at the Boston Center for the Arts from September 28 through October 20, with performances Wednesdays & Thursdays at 7:30 PM, Fridays at 8 PM, Saturdays at 4 & 8 PM, and Sundays at 4 PM. The Press Performance is scheduled for Sunday, September 30 at 4 PM.

Tickets are $25 in advance, $30 when purchased on the day of performance, with discounted tickets for Seniors & Students at $20. Preview performances, tonight, September 28 through September 30, feature $20 discounted tickets in advance, and $25 if purchased on the day of performance. The three Wednesday night performances – 10/3, 10/10, & 10/17 – are Pay-What-You-Can nights, $7 minimum.

Tickets may be purchased at the Calderwood Pavilion box office at 527 Tremont Street or by calling 617-933-8600. Tickets are also available on-line at BostonTheatreScene.com. The Boston Center for the Arts is located at 539 Tremont Street in Boston’s South End and is handicap accessible. For more information visit The company’s web site at www.ZeitgeistStage.com.

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