Echo Theater Company Stages Pair of L.A. Premieres in Rep, Now thru 5/31

The multiple award-winning Echo Theater Company, named "Best Bet for Ballsy Original Plays" by the LA Weekly, continues its 2015 season with two Los Angeles premieres scheduled to run in repertory. Row After Row by Jessica Dickey (The Amish Project) opens tonight, April 25 at 5 p.m., with A Small Fire by Obie Award-winner Adam Bock (The Drunken City, The Receptionist) opening that same evening at 8 p.m. The two plays will continue to run in tandem every weekend through May 31 at the Echo's home in Atwater Village Theatre. For a complete schedule of performances, scroll to the end of this release or check online at www.EchoTheaterCompany.com.

Echo associate artistic director Tara Karsian directs Row After Row, Jessica Dickey's dark comedy about choosing one's cause and finding the courage to embrace it. When two civil war re-enactors arrive for their annual Gettysburg beer and find a stranger sitting at their table, their time-honored traditions are called into question. Row After Row was premiered in 2014 by Women's Theatre Project at City Centre in New York City. The New Yorker called it "funny, sad, deep and smart... beautifully written." The Echo Theater production features Jennifer Chambers (Inherit the Wind and School for Scandal on Broadway), Ian Merrigan (Bad Apples at Circle X, The Unfortunates at Oregon Shakespeare Festival) and John Sloan (Stop Kiss at Pasadena Playhouse, RII at Theatre @ Boston Court; School of Night at Mark Taper Forum; King Lear at Antaeus).

Alana Dietze, seen in Echo productions of Fugue, Bob, God's Ear and Everything Will Be Different, makes her directing debut with A Small Fire. In Adam Bock's moving story about the beauty and complexity of enduring relationships, John and Emily Bridges have stumbled their way through three decades as a couple, but must reinvent their marriage when Emily is overcome by a mysterious illness that slowly strips away each of her senses. "Quietly moving, raucous, funny and unexpectedly touching ...a frank demonstration of how much of life, of love and of happiness remain within reach even when so much appears to be lost," wrote Charles Isherwood in The New York Times. A Small Fire was developed at New Dramatists as part of the PlayTime development studio with assistance from the Sundance Institute Theatre Program, and premiered at Playwrights Horizons in 2011, receiving a Drama Desk nomination. Lily Knight (Agnes of God on Broadway; LADCC Award-winning A Delicate Balance at the Odyssey; The Crucible, Peace In Our Time, The Autumn Garden at Antaeus), Mackenzie Kyle (title role in Hedda Gabler at the Raven Theatre in Chicago, Matt Damon in Matt and Ben at the Hollywood Fringe Festival), Steve O'Mahoney (The Normal Heart at the Fountain Theatre, Harvey at Laguna Playhouse), Michael Mantell (Broadway Bound and AfterMath at the Odyssey; L.A. premieres of Orange Flower Water, The Monogamist and And Still the Dogs with EST/LA) and Darrett Sanders (Have You Seen Alice, Burrhead, Wreck Of The Unfathomable at Theatre of NOTE) make up the cast at the Echo.

Set and projection design for both plays is by Amanda Knehans; lighting design is by Matt Richter; sound design is by Corinne Carillo; costume design is by Michael Mullen; and graphic design is by Elizabeth Hale. The production stage manager is Samantha McCann; company manager is Alexandria Freeman; and Chris Fields and Rebecca Eisenberg produce.

Jessica Dickey, an actor who has performed on Broadway, off-Broadway and regionally as well as on television, made her playwriting debut with The Amish Project, which began at the New York International Fringe Festival and transferred to the Cherry Lane before opening at Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre to rave reviews. It has since been produced across the country and all over the world, and is published by Samuel French. Jessica's play Charles Ives Take Me Home premiered at Rattlestick in June 2013, and has since seen productions at City Theatre in Pittsburgh, Strawdog in Chicago and Curious Theatre Company in Denver. She is currently commissioned by Ensemble Studio Theatre and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Ford's Theatre in Washington D.C. and Rising Phoenix Repertory in New York City.

Adam Bock's plays include Phaedra (Shotgun Players), the book for We Have Always Lived in the Castle, with music by Todd Almond (Yale Rep), The Flowers (About Face Theatre), The Receptionist (MTC, 2008 Outer Critics nomination, Best Plays of 2007-2008, the Odyssey Theatre with Megan Mullally), The Drunken City (Playwrights Horizons, 2008 Outer Critics nomination), The Thugs (Soho Rep, 2007 OBIE Award for Playwriting), The Shaker Chair (2005 Humana Festival), Swimming In The Shallows (Shotgun Players, Second Stage Uptown, 2000 BATCC Award, Clauder Prize), Five Flights (Encore Theatre and Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, 2002 Glickman Award, ACTA nomination, Osborn nomination), Marcy Comes Home, and The Typographer's Dream (Encore Theatre/Shotgun Players). Adam is the resident playwright at Encore Theatre, and a Shotgun Players artistic associate. He is a 2012 Guggenheim grantee, an NEA grantee, a Guernsey Award-winner, a three-time resident at Yaddo, a former member of the Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab, an NYTW Usual Suspect and a TDF Open Doors mentor. He is a proud member of New Dramatists.

The Echo Theater Company, under the leadership of founding artistic director Chris Fields, was anointed "Best Bet for Ballsy Original Plays" in the LA Weekly's 2014 Best of LA issue. To date, Fields and the Echo have produced 59 plays, 45 of them world premieres and 29 of them commissioned, and introduced Los Angeles to playwrights David Lindsay-Abaire, Adam Rapp, Sarah Ruhl and Tommy Smith among many others. After a two-decade itinerant existence, the Echo moved to Atwater Village Theatre in 2014 - its first permanent home, where the inaugural season included three critically acclaimed world premieres: Smith's Firemen, named to "Best of 2014" lists by both the Los Angeles Times and Los Angeles theater site Bitter Lemons, and winner of five Los Angeles Drama Critic's Circle Awards including for playwriting, direction and production; Mickey Birnbaum's Backyard, named "Best of 2014" by KCRW and Ticketholders, and Better by Jessica Goldberg, also on KCRW's "Best of 2014" list. Fields is also the founder of the Ojai Playwrights Conference, where he served as artistic director until 2000, and he is a respected acting teacher whose students have included such luminaries as Peter Facinelli, Danny Strong, Dave Giuntoli, Zach Quinto, Christine Estabrook, Kirk Acevedo, Emily Bergl, Sprague Grayden, Mitch Pileggi, Sarah Carter, Emily Rose, Michael Learned, Ethan Embry, Sarah Jane Morris, Meghan Ory, Grant Shaud and Scott Wolf.

Row After Row and A Small Fire run April 25 through May 31, alternating performances on Fridays at 8 p.m.; Saturdays at 5 p.m. and 8 p.m.; and Sundays at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m; scroll down for a complete schedule of performances. There will be one preview performance of A Small Fire on Thursday, April 23 at 8 p.m., and one preview performance of Row After Row on Friday, April 24 at 8 p.m. Tickets are $25 for a single show, or $30 to see both. Atwater Village Theatre is located at 3269 Casitas Ave in Los Angeles, CA 90039. On-site parking is free. For reservations and information, call (310) 307-3753 or go to www.EchoTheaterCompany.com.

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