Cast Announced for Chiara Atik's BUMP

Ensemble Studio Theatre (EST) (William Carden, Artistic Director, Sarah McLellan, Executive Director) and The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation (Doron Weber, Vice-President, Programs) announced today the full cast and creative team for the World Premiere of BUMP, written by Chiara Atik (Five Times in One Night) and directed by Claudia Weill(Girlfriends). Part of the EST/Sloan Science & Technology Project (Graeme Gillis, Program Director; Linsay Firman, Associate Director), BUMP begins previews at EST's Curt Dempster Theatre (549 W. 52nd Street, New York, NY 10019) on May 9, 2018, with an opening night set for May 17, for a limited run through June 4, 2018.

The cast of BUMP will include Gilbert Cruz (Little Children Dream of God) as "Luis," Vanessa Aspillaga (Amy and the Orphans) as "Maria," Ana Nogueira ("The Vampire Diaries") as "Claudia,"Lucy DeVito (Hot Mess) as "Mary," Jenny O'Hara ("Transparent") as "Midwife," Kelly Anne Burns (The Navigator) as "Apple," Kelli Lynn Harrison (Big Girl) as "Grapefruit," Erica Lutz (Of Mice and Men) as "Lemon," Kristen Adele (Myrna in Transit) as "Turnip," Laura Ramadei (The Oregon Trail) as "Avocado," Susan Hyon (Trigger) as "Walnut," and Jonathan Randell Silver(Please Continue) as "YouTube Guy."

BUMP will feature set design by Kristen Robinson ([porto]), lighting design by Gina Scherr (Little Children Dream of God), costume design by Suzanne Chesney (Fast Company), and sound design by M.L. Dogg (Downtown Race Riot).

Chiara Atik's BUMP follows three different stories of three separate quests for knowledge, all about one thing. A girl in colonial New England, expectant mothers on a pregnancy message board, and a mechanic about to become a grandfather all attempt to discover more about the miracle of childbirth. BUMP will be directed by Claudia Weill and is presented in partnership with The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Tickets for BUMP are now on sale and can be purchased at www.ensemblestudiotheatre.org/bump at the highly limited $20 pre-sale rate. Beginning May 9, 2018, tickets will be available for $30, with tickets for students and seniors available for $25. The performance schedule is as follows: Monday at 7pm, Wednesday - Saturday at 7pm, Saturday at 2pm, and Sunday at 5pm.

BUMP was originally commissioned by the EST/Sloan Project in 2014. Since then EST has worked with playwright Chiara Atik on multiple drafts, including a two-week workshop as part of the 2016 First Light Festival and two stints at the program's summer script development intensive at SPACE on Ryder Farm. Atik is a graduate of the Obie Award-winning EST/Youngblood program, and a portion of BUMP had its origins as a short play written for Youngblood's monthly Sunday Brunch series, specifically its annual crossover with the Sloan Project, the Youngblood Science Brunch. The production of BUMP demonstrates the potential of these longstanding play development programs at EST.

Beginning performances March 14 at EST is the World Premiere of DIDO OF IDAHO, presented by EST's YOUNGBLOOD (Graeme Gillis and RJ Tolan, Co-Artistic Directors) and The Radio Drama Network. DIDO OF IDAHO, written by Abby Rosebrock (Singles in Agriculture) and directed by Mikhaela Mahony (Noise of the Future), opens on March 22 for a run through April 8, 2018. The 2018 season began with AGAINST THE HILLSIDE, written by Sylvia Khoury and directed by William Carden.

ABOUT Ensemble Studio Theatre

Ensemble Studio Theatre - commonly known as EST- was founded in 1968 by Curt Dempster on the belief that extraordinary support yields extraordinary work. They are a dynamic and expanding family of member artists committed to the discovery and nurturing of new voices and the continued support and growth of artists throughout their creative lives. Through their unique collaborative process, they develop and produce original, provocative, and authentic new plays that engage and challenge their audience and audiences across the country.

Now with over 600 ensemble artists, EST has been under the artistic direction of William Carden since 2007. The company received two 2017 Drama Desk Award nominations for Where Did We Sit on the Bus? by Brian Quijada and one 2014 Drama Desk nomination for Bobby Moreno in Year of the Rooster by Olivia Dufault, who won the 2014 NY Outer Critics Circle John Gassner Award for a new playwright debut. Hand To God, which originated at EST, was nominated for five Tony Awards for its Broadway run. EST received a special Drama Desk Award for its "unwavering commitment to producing new works" in May of 2015.

ABOUT THE EST/ALFRED P. SLOAN FOUNDATION SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY PROJECT

The EST/Sloan Project (Graeme Gillis, Program Director; Linsay Firman, Associate Director) is designed to stimulate artists to create credible and compelling new theatrical works that explore the worlds of science, technology, and economics in order to challenge existing stereotypes of scientists and engineers in popular culture. Since its inception in 1998, the EST/Sloan Project has commissioned, developed, and produced the work of more than 300 playwrights, choreographers, composers, and theatre companies. Recent notable plays include Isaac's Eye by Lucas Hnath, Please Continue by Frank Basloe, and Photograph 51 by Anna Ziegler.

ABOUT THE ALFRED P. SLOAN FOUNDATION

The New York based Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, founded in 1934, makes grants in science, technology, and economic performance. Sloan's program in Public Understanding of Science and Technology, directed by Doron Weber, supports books, radio, film, television, theater and new media to reach a wide, non-specialized audience.

Over nearly two decades, the Foundation's pioneering theater program, begun with a 1997 grant to Ensemble Studio Theatre for Arthur Giron's play about the Wright Brothers, Flight, has helped usher in the science play as a regular part of the theater canon. Commissioning close to 20 new plays each year through its two flagship partners, EST and Manhattan Theatre Club-and working with the National Theater in London and Playwrights Horizons in New York, among others-the Foundation has made "a Sloan" a coveted commission for any playwright embarking on a new play with a science and technology theme or character. Beginning with such renowned science plays as Proof, Copenhagen and Alan Alda's QED, more recent grants have supported Lucy Kirkwood's Mosquitoes, which recently sold out at the National Theatre in London, Leigh Fondakowski's Spill, Nick Payne's Constellations, a Broadway hit staring Jake Gyllenhaal and Ruth Wilson, Nell Benjamin's The Explorer's Club, Lucas Hnath's Isaac's Eye, and Anna Ziegler's Photograph 51, a 2015 prize-winner in London's West End starring Nicole Kidman.

Sloan also has a nationwide film program that includes support of six film schools, screenplay development programs with The Sundance Institute, Tribeca Film Institute, the San Francisco Film Society, Film Independent and the Black List, and has helped develop and distribute 20 feature films including Ben Lewin's The Catcher Was a Spy, premiering at Sundance this year, Morten Tyldum's The Imitation Game, Michael Almereyda's Experimenter, Andrew Bujalski's Computer Chess, Jake Schreier's Robot & Frank, and Rob Meyer's A Birder's Guide to Everything. The Foundation's book program includes early support for Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race, now the highest grossing Oscar nominated film of 2017 and winner of the San Francisco Film Society Sloan Science in Cinema Prize in December 2016.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT

www.ensemblestudiotheatre.org

Photo by Emilia Aghamirzai

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