Los Altos Stage Company to Present MIDDLETOWN

Los Altos Stage Company is thrilled to announce the Bay Area Premiere of Will Eno's whimsical and poetic tale, Middletown. Winner of the inaugural Horton Foote Award for Most Promising New Play in 2010, Middletown opens on January 29 (preview performance on January 28) and runs through February 21 at the Bus Barn Theater in Los Altos.

The strange beauty of life and its sometimes unbearable weight are both considered with a off-beat lyricism in Will Eno's contemporary take on Thornton Wilder's classic Our Town. Eno's Middletown digs acutely into American life, bringing the deeply human journeys of neighbor and stranger together in an "Everytown USA." With an absurdist's wry wit, the play explores how the imponderable mysteries of the universe reveal themselves through the apparently everyday lives and relationships of ordinary people in an ordinary place.

Hailed by the New York Times as "a Samuel Beckett for the Jon Stewart generation," Eno has emerged as a vital force in American theatre. Eno is the recipient of a Residency 5 Fellowship at the Signature Theatre where his play Title and Deed premiered in May 2012. The Realistic Joneses had its world premiere at Yale Repertory Theatre in April 2012. His play Middletown produced at the Vineyard Theatre in New York followed by Steppenwolf in Chicago. His play Thom Pain (based on nothing) was a finalist for the 2005 Pulitzer Prize.

The LASC production is directed by Gary Landis, Los Altos Stage's Company Executive Artistic Director, who previously directed Maple and Vine and The Fantasticks at LASC. It features a talented ensemble of Bus Barn Theater veterans, as well as new faces, including: Dee Baily, Evan Kokkila Schumacher, Ronald Feichtmeir, Kama Fletcher, Michael Meadors, Leslie Newport, Roneet Aliza Rahamim, Michael Sally, Taylor Sanders, and Todd Wright.

Performances are Wednesday through Saturday evenings at 8 pm and Sunday matinees at 3 pm. Ticket prices range from $18 (student) to $36. Opening Night tickets, including a reception with the artists, are also $36. Tickets are available online at www.losaltosstage.org or by calling the Box Office at 650-941-0551.

Los Altos Stage Company is a quintessential American neighborhood playhouse, serving Los Altos and the greater South Bay area, and paying tribute to the full canon of American musicals, comedies, and dramas. This 20-year-old theater company strives to bring together a diversity of theater enthusiasts, practitioners, and supporters to create, explore and celebrate the rich tapestry of American culture and experience through live theater. Los Altos Stage Company produces five to six shows annually at its intimate 99-seat theater located on the Los Altos Civic Center campus.

Photo by Richard Mayer