Marin Theatre Company Opens CIRCLE MIRROR TRANSFORMATION, 8/7

Marin Theatre Company, in a co-production with Encore Theatre Company of San Francisco, opens its 2012/13 Season with the regional premiere of Circle Mirror Transformation by Annie Baker, which runs from August 2 to August 26. New York-based director Kip Fagan directs this “absorbing, unblinking and sharply funny” (The New York Times) play that won the 2010 Obie Award for Best New American Play. Opening night is on Tuesday, August 7.

“I am excited to begin our 2012-13 Season with Circle Mirror Transformation, which has a tremendous amount of energy swirling around it because of some new beginnings,” MTC’s artistic director Jasson Minadakis said. “It marks our first co-production collaboration with San Francisco’s Encore Theatre Company and the company's executive artistic director Lisa Steindler. It also marks the MTC debut of the brilliant American playwright Annie Baker, who has taken both the Bay Area and the country by storm with her sensitive, funny writing, and of director Kip Fagan, who comes to us fresh off another successful production at the Humana Festival of New American Plays.”

During a six-week adult Creative Drama class, four strangers and their teacher learn more about themselves than they do about acting in the “biggest hit” by “one of the country's hottest young playwrights,” (San Francisco Chronicle). Listed among the top ten plays of 2009by The New Yorker, The New York Times and Time Out New York, this quirky “indie charmer” (Los Angeles Times) won the 2010 Obie Award for Best New American Play and received a Drama Desk nomination for Best Play. This is the second of three plays that Baker set in the fictional college town of Shirley, Vermont, including Body Awareness, which Aurora Theatre Company in Berkeley closed in March 2012 after an extended run, and The Aliens, which SF Playhouse closed in May 2012. 

New York-based director Kip Fagan makes his MTC debut to direct the co-production. He specializes in directing new plays, and his regional theater credits include the Humana Festival of New American Plays (Actors Theatre of Louisville), Portland Center Stage, Williamstown Theater Festival and Boise Contemporary Theater. The cast features an all-star ensemble of Bay Area actors all returning to MTC’s Boyer Theatre: Arwen Anderson (Bellwether, A Streetcar Named Desire), Julia Brothers (Seagull, Magic Forest Farm), L. Peter Callender (Seven Guitars, My Children! My Africa!), Marissa Keltie (Bellwether) and Robert Parsons (Communicating Doors, Pal Joey). This is Brothers first Bay Area performance since understudying on Broadway for Relatively Speaking, three one-act plays by Ethan Coen, Elaine May and Woody Allen, directed by John Turturro at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre.

Ticket Prices

“MTC Engaged” invites patrons to join MTC’s artistic staff, designers and casts in conversation. A member of MTC’s artistic staff (often with one or more members of the cast) hosts a Q&A talk back after every performance, except Saturday matinees and evenings, and Opening and Closing Nights.

• Theater Lecture Series at Mill Valley Public Library – FREE public lecture by MTC artistic staff, 375 Throckmorton Ave., Tue 7/24, 7:30 p.m.
• After Words – post-show interview with special guest: Sun 8/5, 2:00 p.m.
• Director’s Night – post-show conversation with director: Wed 8/8 & 8/22
• Perspectives – pre-show topical lecture: Thu 8/16, 12:00 p.m.

“MTC All Access” strives to make theater accessible to all audiences. For visually impaired patrons, Large Print playbills are available at the box office at all performances, Digital playbills that are compatible with screen reader software are available online starting one week before the first performance of a production, and Braille playbills are available with two-weeks advance notice through partnership with LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired. To request a Braille playbill, call MTC’s Box Office, (415) 388-5208, or use the California Telecommunications Relay Service by dialing “711.” For hearing impaired patrons, amplified sound Listening Devices are available.

Photo credit: Ed Smith