Central Works 27th Season Launches with YEARS IN THE HUNDREDS

Central Works 27th Season, launches February 18 with Years in the Hundreds by Jesse Potterveld (Feb 18-Mar 12), a mystery, "a sis-story" really, about twin sisters who spent years fooling the outside world, but now everything changes. Directed by Gary Graves, Years in the Hundreds was developed in the Central Works Writers Workshop and features actors Tamar Cohn, Anne Hallinan and Adam Roy.

In this bizarre probe of identical twins, playwright Jesse Potterveld's mystery pivots on the identical twin sisters Jessie and Inez. For over half a century the twins have concealed a series of illicit secrets behind the locked door of their neatly arranged apartment. But then Marcus arrives, and their carefully constructed life begins to unravel. Peculiar intimacies, unabashed love, and criminal misconduct make for the strangest of bedfellows in this quirky new look at "twin nature."

"In my 20's, I lived with two women in their 80's," says Potterveld. "What I imagined would be a quiet cohabitation, became a fun-filled life with big, shared meals and raucous conversations about love, loss, and lives lived to the utmost. We often found ourselves discussing how personal stories were overwritten by age - or by the quiet respectability that comes with being an 'elder.' Years later, I wanted to write a play that included these larger-than-life characters.

"Years in the Hundreds allowed me to explore relationships and 'Love Stories' that veered away from the purely romantic. By examining other forms of intimacy (the intense love of siblings, the platonic intimacy of housemates, the incongruent love of intergenerational relationships), this work considers how alternate love stories can stand-up to the lures of traditional romance."

THE TEAM

Jesse Potterveld (playwright) has been a member of the Central Works Writers Workshop since 2013, and his plays have been developed at Central Works, the Kenyon Playwrights Conference and the Sewanee Writers' Conference. He has a BA from New College of Florida, where he studied Creative Writing and Art History, and spent the remainder of is 20's as a touring musician with the art/punk band GDT. He is Chief of Staff at Wingtip where he also directs Arts Programming for members and the general public. Years in the Hundreds at Central Works is the first professional production of his work.

Tamar Cohn (actor), since her last play at Central Works (Recipe), Tamar has worked with Ubuntu Theater Project (The Grapes of Wrath), TheatreFIRST (Much Ado About Nothing), Theatre Rhinoceros (The Anarchist; A Song at Twilight), Ross Valley Players (The Clean House; Emilie la Marquise du Chatelet Defends Her Life Tonight), College of Marin (Dead Accounts) and the One-Minute Play Festival. Previous companies include Cutting Ball, Center REP, AlterTheater, 6th St. Playhouse, plus several no longer in business (not her fault!). She lives in San Rafael with the most supportive husband, and is so happy to be a Central Worker again.

Gary Graves (director) has been a resident playwright and company co-director at Central Works since 1998. He has been a part of developing 53 world premiere productions with the company, many of which he has either written and/or directed. Some of the other productions he has directed for the company include Into the Beautiful North, Hearts of Palm, Enemies: Foreign and Domestic, Machiavelli's The Prince, Lola Montez, Enemy Combatant, The Mysterious Mr. Looney, Misanthrope, Mata Hari, and Pyrate Story. He directed the company's first collaboratively developed script, Roux, at the City Club in 1997. Since 2002, he has taught playwriting year-round at the Berkeley Rep School of Theater. Currently, he leads the Central Works Writers Workshop, an ongoing commissioning program that develops new works and offers a variety of playwriting classes.

Anne Hallinan (actor) is delighted to be working with Central Works for the first time. Most recently seen at Center Rep, she has worked with Shotgun Players, Cutting Ball, Berkeley Rep, Boxcar, Stanford Rep, El Teatro Campesino, TheatreFIRST, Those Women and Bay Area Children's Theater, among others, and is a former company member of Woman's Will and the San Francisco Mime Troupe. Film credits include the award-winning White Rabbit. She can be seen next in Utopia Theater's The Seagull.

Adam Roy (actor) is excited to be making his debut with Central Works. Recent Bay Area credits include SF Oasis, Golden Thread Productions, PlayGround, 42nd Street Moon, AlterTheater, Marin Shakespeare, New Conservatory Theatre and Circus Center. Adam is a resident teaching artist with Marin Shakespeare and a company member with PlayGround.

Central Works 2017 Season

Years in the Hundreds

Written by Jesse Potterveld

A mystery...a sis-story...twin sisters spent years

fooling the outside world, but today everything changes

Feb 18-Mar 12 (previews Feb 16 & 17)

World Premiere #54: from the Central Works Writers Workshop

Edward King

Written by Gary Graves

A new comedy, based on A VERY OLD story

May 13-Jun 11

World Premiere #55: a new Central Works Method comedy

Winter

Written by Julie Jensen

Funny, touching, and very timely,

A thought-provoking look at the right to die

July 15-Aug 13

World Premiere #56: a National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere

inspired by Robeck by Margaret Pabst Battin

Strange Ladies

Written by Susan Sobeloff

"Shout the revolution of women!"

The struggle to get the vote

Oct 14-Nov 12

World Premiere #57: A Central Works Method Musical

Subscriptions Starting At ONLY $54

At: The Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Avenue, Berkeley.

Performances: Thurs., Fri.& Sat. 8 pm, Sun. 5 pm

Ticket prices: $30 online at centralworks.org, $30-$15 sliding scale at the door.

Tickets: 510.558.1381 or centralworks.org