Open Stage Opens Season 26 with A LIE OF THE MIND 10/7-29

Open Stage of Harrisburg, the capital's processional regional theatre, is set to open its 26th Season with Sam Shepherd's A LIE OF THE MIND. The drama, running October 7-29, 2011, is the story of two families in full meltdown, armed against each other and divided amongst themselves.

Winner of the New York Drama Critics Circle Award, the Outer Critics Circle Award, and the Drama Desk Award, the play has been hailed by critics as "a landmark," "mesmerizing, emotionally raw," with "enormous emotional power and intellectual strength."

The deeply talented cast of local professional actors features Bobby Belche, Adam Gingrich, Kimorie Cherry, Anthony C. Leukus, Anne Alsedek, Trish Baillie, Brian Schreffler and Ann Rhoads.

A LIE OF THE MIND explores the consequences of domestic violence on two families in the gritty American West. Varying degrees of parental ignorance, insanity, and the youthful and ancient desire to be loved permeate each character's quest for truth. The destructive Jake (Belche) deals with what he believes to be his own murder of his wife, Beth (Cherry), now brain-damaged and barely coherent. Seeking protection from her husband's abuse, Beth forges a strange connection with Jake's brother, Frankie (Gingrich), who winds up stranded in her Montana home. Here, Beth's parents, Baylor (Schreffler) and Meg (Rhoads), seek to reestablish a stable life for Beth and for their aging selves. Beth's brother Mike (Leukus) seeks to be heard in this increasingly distraught home, with a bitter determination to rid Beth of Jake and his loathsome family. Jake's dysfunctional nature, which later drives him to escape the confines of his California home, directly affects his lost and trepidatious sister Sally (Baillie) and his nearsightedly protective mother Lorraine (Alsedek). The play explores two distinctly volatile American families and the natural habits of our deceitful minds in an America far less connected and franchised than that of today.

"A LIE OF THE MIND is one of Shepard's masterpieces. It is a true ensemble piece with complex and contradictory characters," says Don Alsedek, Open Stage Executive Artistic Director and the director of the three act play. "It is an exciting production to open Season 26."

Sam Shepard's career as a major American playwright is now entering its sixth decade. Many of his early plays, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning BURIED CHILD, were written in San Francisco when he was the resident playwright at Magic Theatre from the 1970s to the '80s. Shepard's voice continues to be potent today due to the immortality of his themes: violence, family, love, lust, identity, dreams, and rock and roll. In 2006, the Guardian asserted: "At his best, Shepard articulates the strange divided self that is the American psyche, born of fear and puritanism, the progenitor of exciting, decadent, secular iconography, awash with violence, cruelty, and destructiveness, yet continually yearning for spiritual release.

A LIE OF THE MIND was first staged at the off-Broadway Promenade Theater in 1985. The play was directed by Shepard himself with stars Harvey Keitel, Amanda Plummer, Aidan Quinn, Geraldine Page, and Will Patton. In 2010, the first major Off-Broadway revival of the play was staged by The New Group at the Acorn Theatre, directed by Ethan Hawke.

The Open Stage production creative team includes Gwen Alsedek (costume and set design), Nick Marino (lighting design) and TJ Boyer (music).

A LIE OF THE MIND plays October 7-29 in the intimate Angino Family Theatre at Open Stage of Harrisburg, 223 Walnut Street, located on the street level of the Walnut Street Parking Garage in downtown Harrisburg. Join Open Stage for 3rd in the Burg on September 16 for an open rehearsal and October 21 for a performance of A LIE OF THE MIND!

Admission to A LIE OF THE MIND is $29 ($21 for Students with ID). Purchase Advance Tickets ONLINE at www.openstagehbg.com, by CALLING 717-232-OPEN (6736) or WALK-UP Monday-Friday 12:30 to 3:00 pm to our box office, located in the Open Stage lobby. Single tickets to A LIE OF THE MIND go on sale September 12.

The theatre lobby opens one hour prior to performance. This season is funded, in part, by the Cultural Enrichment Fund, the capital region's united arts fund. Open Stage of Harrisburg is a Constituent of Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for American theatre.