9 CIRCLES Wins Steinberg/ATCA Award

Marin Theatre Company is proud to announce that 9 Circles by Bill Cain received the 2011 Harold and Mimi Steinberg/American Theatre Critics Association New Play Award at a ceremony on April 2 during the 2011 Humana Festival of New American Plays in Louisville, Kentucky. MTC produced the world premiere of 9 Circles in October 2010, after awarding the play its 2010 Sky Cooper New American Play Prize. A local member of the ATCA nominated Cain for the annual Steinberg/ATCA Award, which is the largest of its kind, honoring the best new American play produced at a regional theater outside New York City. Last year, Cain also won the prestigious award for his play Equivocation, which premiered at Oregon Shakespeare Festival and Seattle Repertory Theatre in 2009 and later received its Bay Area premiere at MTC in March 2010.

"It is an honor to have produced Bill's amazing, inspiring 9 Circles at MTC this season," says Artistic Director Jasson Minadakis. "For the second season in a row, Bill became an integral part of the MTC family as he developed the play with our phenomenal Bay Area artists and director Kent Nicholson. Everyone in the company is incredibly proud that the local and national theater critics recognized Bill's profound and important addition to the American canon. The MTC family of artists, patrons, staff and Board wish Bill the best and we all look forward to our next collaboration."

Nominated for four San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Awards, including Best Script and Entire Production, 9 Circles tells the riveting story of a young American soldier on trial for his life. After being honorably discharged, Daniel Reeves is arrested and prosecuted for acts that he may have committed during the war. Thrown into a labyrinth of military bureaucracy, the confused and troubled teenager tries to navigate through layers of commanding officers, public defenders, lawyers, preachers and army psychiatrists. MTC received a 2010Edgerton Foundation New American Play Award to produce the dramatic, visceral thriller that "stands as one of the best and boldest new plays of the year" (North Bay Bohemian).

Cain is the author of the widely produced Stand-Up Tragedy, which earned six L.A. Critics Awards (including Best Production and Distinguished Writing) for its premiere at the Mark Taper Forum, four Helen Hayes Awards (including Outstanding Production) for its production at Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., and the Joe A. Callaway Playwriting Award for its 1990 Broadway engagement. Premiering at Berkeley Rep during the 2011-2012 season, his new play How to Write a New Book for the Bible: a Play for an Older Actress has been developed at Ojai, South Coast Rep and TheatreWorks. Cain's work for television has won the Writers' Guild, Humanitas, and Christopher awards. He was the co-creator/writer/producer of Nothing Sacred, a dramatic television series for ABC that was awarded a George Foster Peabody Award for Outstanding Achievement in Television. He is the founder of the Boston Shakespeare Company, where he was Artistic Director for seven seasons, directing most of the Shakespeare canon.

ABOUT MTC
Marin Theatre Company is the Bay Area's premier mid-sized theater and the leading professional theater in the North Bay. We produce a six-show season of provocative plays by passionate playwrights from the 20th century and today in an intimate 231-seat proscenium theater. We are committed to the development and production of new plays by American Playwrights, with a comprehensive New Play Program that includes at least one world premiere each season, two nationally-recognized annual playwriting awards, numerous new play readings and workshops by the nation's best emerging playwrights and a leadership position in the National New Play Network. Our numerous educational programs serve more than 6,000 students each year. Founded in 1966, we celebrate our 45th Anniversary in 2011-12.

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