Bay Area Premiere Of HICKORYDICKORY Opens In Redwood City In September

What if we all had a literal internal clock that counted down to our time of death? This is the premise of Marisa Wegrzyn's award winning play Hickorydickory. Cari Lee's mortal clock was tinkered with, so she's stuck at age 17 for eternity. Now she's the same age as her daughter, Dale, whose time may be literally running out. Hickorydickory is a funny, heartbreaking story about family, and mortality, and sacrifice. Part of the Main Stage Series.

Marisa Wegrzyn was 28 years old when Hickorydickory won the Wasserstein Prize in 2009. The $25,000 prize honors the playwright Wendy Wasserstein, who died in 2006, and goes to a woman aged 32 or younger whose work has not received national attention. Upon winning the award, Ms. Wegrzyn told the New York Times "I just got canned from my day job so this is great."

Of the play, Co-Artistic Director Alika Spencer-Koknar says "In the end, it is love that tethers us together. Hickorydickory is a beast of a play. It is full of theatrical magic, immense emotional stakes, and lots of words. But in the end, it is about one simple thing; love. This production has been loved since the beginning when our founder, Meredith gifted it to us as the new artistic directors. And it was with so much love and generosity that she entrusted us, along with the amazing direction of Kimberly Ridgeway, with bringing the script to life on the Dragon stage. The love is there in every rehearsal we visit, and every production meeting we attend. It is an unconditional sort of love that radiates from everyone working on this show that persists despite all the challenges. It's that sort of love that makes a room feel like home, and a team feel like family."

Director Kimberly Ridgeway asks "What would you do if you, a friend, or a family member, knew exactly how much time they had left to live? That's the question the five characters in Hickorydickory have to answer for themselves.

When this play was first presented to me, I do what I normally do, sit at the kitchen table with an oversized cup of coffee, reggae music in the background, and delve in. Sometimes I have to force myself to finish a script. Sometimes a script will speak to me so strongly that I'm am transported to that world with those characters. Hickorydickory was the latter. I could not stop reading Marisa Wegrzyn's heartfelt, magical and inventive comedy. I was astonished by the playwright's use of dialogue, mystery and fantasy to tell a story that is thought-provoking, captivating, relatable and delightfully imaginative.

I did not hesitate to say yes when I was asked to direct this show for Dragon. It's rare to experience a piece of work where, just on paper alone I could see the humor, the thoughtfulness, the supernatural, the nostalgia. Then entering the rehearsal process with five remarkably talented actors whose timing and skillfulness caused us to laugh out loud, showed vulnerability, and made us reminiscence."

ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT: Marisa Wegrzyn (born 1981) is an American playwright based in Chicago, Illinois. She grew up in Wilmette, Illinois. Born to an anesthesiologist and former flight attendant, she began writing plays at 18. While at Washington University in St. Louis, Wegrzyn won the university's A.E. Hotchner playwriting award after finishing second the preceding year.

The next year, her play Killing Women, about female hitmen, won the award and was produced by the University's A.E. Hotchner Play Development Lab. After graduation in 2003, she was put in touch with the Steppenwolf Theatre Company's director of new play development.

Wegrzyn's black comedy The Butcher of Baraboo debuted by Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Company in 2006 and ran again at the Second Stage Theater in New York City a year later. The play went on to receive its West Coast premiere in San Diego, CA, in 2009 where it was then hailed by critics as a success.

In 2009, Wergzyn won the third annual Wasserstein Prize for her play Hickorydickory, which had not yet been produced. The award, named in honor of Wendy Wasserstein, is given to a female playwright under 32 who has yet to receive national attention.

She has been commissioned by Steppenwolf (twice), Yale Repertory Theatre, and Theatre Seven. She is a founding member of Theatre Seven in Chicago and is currently writing for TV (Goliath, Amazon) while continuing her work in theater around the country.

Featuring the talents of: Allie Bailey (as Kate/Helen), Jonathan Covey (as Rowen/Young Jimmy), Sarah Haas (as Cari Lee), Troy Johnson (as Jimmy/Richard), Zoey Lytle (as Dale/Young Kate)

Designers & Production Team: Kimberly Ridgeway (Director), Miranda Whipple (Stage Manager), Karl Haller (Technical Director), Tom Shamrell (Scenic Designer), Nathanael Card (Lighting Designer), Lana Palmer (Sound Designer), Kathleen Qiu (Costume Designer), Kate Martin (Properties Designer), Lance Huntley (Photographer), Maggie Ziomek (Graphic Design)

HICKORYDICKORY RUNS: Sept 6 - Sept 29, 2019

Thursdays - Saturdays, 8pm, Sundays, 2pm. Doors open 30 minutes before the show.

Pay what you will preview on Thurs., Sept 5th at 8p
Opening night performance on Fri., Sept 6th at 8p with post-show reception
Post-show discussion with the cast on Sun., Sept 15th

This show is rated PG-13 for adult language, medical violence, talk about drugs, and sexual innuendo.

The run time is approximately 3 hours, with TWO 10 minute intermissions.