Bluebarn Theater Revives 2001 Award Winning Play WIT 3/19

To help celebrate our 20th season, BLUEBARN THEATRE will revive our 2001 award-winning play, Wit, which opens March 19 and runs through April 11, 2009. BLUEBARN founding member, Kevin Lawler, returns to direct the Pulitzer Prize-winning drama, with Phyllis Doughman recreating the role that won her rave reviews, as well as a Theatre Arts Guild Award for Best Actress. The BLUEBARN's 2008 production will also feature local theatre veterans, Melissa Jarecke, Mary Kelly, Benjamin Beck, Paul Schneider, Jennifer McGill, Chris Elston, Eric Grant-Leanna, and Danielle Smith. The compelling drama showcases costumes by Jenny Pool, with scenic design by Martin Scott Marchitto and lighting design by Carol Wisner. Shows run Thursdays-Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, March 29 and Sunday, April 5 at 6 p.m. Tickets prices are $25 for adults; and $20 for students, TAG members, seniors 65+, and groups of 10 or more.

About Wit

Wit marked the debut of American playwright, Margaret Edson. The play is a poignant look at The Life of English Literature professor, "Dr. Vivian Bearing," as she struggles with her recent diagnosis of ovarian cancer. Edson used her work experience in a hospital as part of the inspiration for her play. Wit received its world premiere at South Coast Repertory, Costa Mesa, California, in 1995 and received its first New York City production in September 1998, at the MCC Theater, with Kathleen Chalfant reprising her lead performance as "Vivian Bearing." Chalfant incorporated her own life experience into her work on the play, including the final illness and death of her brother Alan Palmer from cancer.

Wit won the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The play also received the "Best New Play" award for 1999 from the New York Drama Critics' Circle. Chalfant received an award from the Village Voice Obies for her performance. In 2001, the play was adapted into a cable television film with Emma Thompson as Vivian Bearing. The film won Emmy Awards for Best Made for Television Movie, as well as for Director, Mike Nichols.

The BLUEBARN first presented Wit in 2001 starring Phyllis Doughman in the lead role of "Vivian Bearing." The show went on that season to win a Theatre Arts Guild Award for Outstanding Comedy/Drama, as well as earning Doughman a Best Actress Award, and additional nominations for Director, Lawler, and late actress, Joan Hennecke.

About the star of Wit

Phyllis Doughman has been active in the theatre scene for 25 years. Her first appearance in the metropolitan area was as "Blanche" in A Streetcar Named Desire at the Chanticleer Theatre. Since then, she has also been seen in shows at the Omaha Playhouse, Norton Theatre, Center Stage, Brigit Saint Brigit Theatre Company, and the BLUEBARN Theatre. Some of her favorite roles include "Emily Dickinson" in The Belle of Amherst, "Louise" in Always...Patsy Cline," M'Lynn" in Steel Magnolias, " Amanda" in The Glass Menagerie, and" Hecuba" in The Trojan Women. Of her role, Doughman was quoted in 2001 as saying, "Although all roles present challenges of one sort or another, the role of Dr. Vivian Bearing contains emotional and intellectual challenges that have been uniquely difficult, but at the same time, I have found deeply personal and spiritual strength in her portrayal."

About BLUEBARN Theatre

The BLUEBARN Theatre began in the late 1980s with graduates from the Professional Theatre Training Conservatory at the State University of New York at Purchase. Seeking to continue the deeply shared artistic aesthetic and practice that they had developed from their conservatory training, and also create theatre outside the constraints of New York City's commercial market, founding members Mary Theresa Green, Nils Haaland, Kevin Lawler, and Hughston Walkinshaw joined forces with Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts to produce their first play.

In 1998, the 10th anniversary season, the BLUEBARN moved into its current home, a beautiful ninety-seat proscenium arch theatre in Omaha's Old Market. The BLUEBARN also opened the Abbott/Pinkoff Gallery, providing local visual artists a place to display their work.

Now in its 20th season, the BLUEBARN has established itself as Omaha's premier contemporary theatre company. After producing over 80 plays since 1989, the BLUEBARN's reputation for high quality entertainment and pursuit of stories that challenge both the theatre artists and patrons is solid.

Theatre without boundaries...
The Downtown Space
614 South 11th Street n Omaha, NE 68102 n
tel (402) 345-1576
www.bluebarn.org

 

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