Gamm Theatre Launches Season 27 with Circle Mirror Transformation

The Sandra Feinstein-Gamm Theatre (The Gamm) is set to open Season 27 (2011-2012) with Annie Baker's Off-Broadway hit, Circle Mirror Transformation. This quirky, funny and touching drama about the lives of five students in an adult acting class in rural Vermont won the 2010 Obie Award for "Best New American Play" and helped establish Baker (Body Awareness, The Aliens) as "one of the most promising new stage talents to emerge in the past decade," according to The New York Times.

Director Rachel Walshe (Mauritius) helms a cast of unexpectedly complex characters including a free-spirited acting teacher (Gamm Resident Actor Wendy Overly); her husband (Gamm Resident Actor Jim O'Brien); a flirty former actress (Gamm Resident Actor Karen Carpenter); a recently divorced carpenter (Normand Beauregard); and an angst-filled teenager (Amanda Ruggiero).

Gamm Artistic Director Tony Estrella said "Circle Mirror Transformation is the perfect season opener."

"It's a play about renewal, self-expression and the discovery that the art of life exists in our connection to and recognition of the strangers around us. It's a serious comedy for adults, a moving tale of transformation through empathy and the courage it takes to hold our own gaze in the mirror. In the simple confines of an empty classroom, the murky un-navigable complexities of living emerge: of love, of aging, of regret and the unknowable future," Estrella said. "Annie Baker has written a subtle, wholly original and terrifically moving piece of theater."

Circle Mirror Transformation runs from September 8 through October 9 at The Gamm Theatre, 172 Exchange St., Pawtucket, RI. Tickets are $34 and $42 (depending on day/time), preview and press performances (Sept. 8-12) only $25. Discounts for subscribers, groups of 10 or more, seniors and students. For tickets call 401-723-4266 or go to gammtheatre.org.

Circle Mirror Transformation
by Annie Baker
directed by Rachel Walshe
Creative drama class is in session throughout Annie Baker's poignantly funny, Obie Award-winning "best new American play" (2010). Marty, the indefatigably upbeat teacher at a community center in small-town Vermont, leads four motley students through a series of seemingly banal acting exercises. But the real drama lies beneath the games, where relationships form and fracture, and secrets unfold in comically insightful ways.
"Absorbing, unblinking and sharply funny."
- The New York Times

About this Production of Circle Mirror Transformation

By Annie Baker
Directed by Rachel Walshe

Set Design by Katryne Hecht
Costume Design by David T. Howard
Lighting Design by Jen Rock
Sound Design by Kerry Callery
Stage Management by Stef Work*

CAST
Lauren.....Amanda Ruggiero
Theresa.....Karen Carpenter
Schultz.....Normand Beauregard*
Marty.....Wendy Overly*
James.....Jim O'Brien*

*Member of Actors' Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.

Assistant Director, Susie Schutt; Production Manager/Props Master, Jessica Hill; Dramaturge, Jennifer Madden; Assistant Stage Manager, Helen R. Brennan; Wardrobe Assistant, Emma Haney

CALENDAR OF PERFORMANCES

September
Thursday, Sept. 8, preview performance at 8 p.m.
Friday, Sept. 9, preview performance at 8 p.m.
Saturday, Sept. 10, preview performance at 8 p.m.
Sunday, Sept. 11, preview performance at 7 p.m.
Monday, Sept. 12, press performance at 7 p.m.
Thursday, Sept. 15, regular performance at 8 p.m.
Friday, Sept. 16, regular performance at 8 p.m.
Saturday, Sept. 17, regular performance at 8 p.m.
Sunday, Sept. 18, matinee performance at 2 p.m.*
Sunday, Sept. 18, regular performance at 7 p.m.
Wednesday, Sept. 21, regular performance at 7 p.m.
Thursday, Sept. 22, regular performance at 8 p.m.
Friday, Sept. 23, regular performance at 8 p.m.
Saturday, Sept. 24, regular performance at 8 p.m.
Sunday, Sept. 25, matinee performance at 2 p.m.
Sunday, Sept. 25, regular performance at 7 p.m.
Wednesday, Sept. 28, regular performance at 7 p.m.
Thursday, Sept. 29, regular performance at 8 p.m.
Friday, Sept. 30, regular performance at 8 p.m.
October
Saturday, Oct. 1, regular performance at 8 p.m.
Sunday, Oct. 2, matinee performance at 2 p.m.
Wednesday, Oct. 5, regular performance at 7 p.m.
Thursday, Oct. 6, regular performance at 8 p.m.
Friday, Oct. 7, regular performance at 8 p.m.
Saturday, Oct. 8, regular performance at 8 p.m.
Sunday, Oct. 9, matinee performance at 2 p.m.
Sunday, Oct. 9, regular performance at 7 p.m.

*Followed by discussion with artists & scholars.

About The Gamm Theatre
Founded in 1984 as Alias Stage, the non-profit Sandra Feinstein-Gamm Theatre creates the finest of live theater, engaging the audience intensely in current and recurrent issues of consequence. The Gamm further serves the public with educational outreach programming designed to support the theatrical experience, and help sustain and enhance the intellectual and cultural life of its community. The Gamm is a member of New England Area Theatre (NEAT), a bargaining unit of the Actors Equity Association.

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