Magic Theatre Launches First Season With New AD Greco

 Magic Theatre launches its 2008-09 Season of New Plays, artistic director Loretta Greco's first with the company, with The K of D, an urban legend, a new play by Laura Schellhardt and directed by local favorite Rebecca Novick.  One young girl embodies the entire population of her small town to spin the story of young Charlotte McGrew and the summer that inexplicably changed her life.  From one of the brightest emerging voices in American Theatre, this quirky and touching play offers the unexpected perspective of a child on the big questions of life and death.  The K of D performs September 20 – October 19, 2008 at Magic's Northside Theatre (Bldg D, Fort Mason Center, San Francisco, CA – parking lot entrance at Marina Blvd. and Buchanan St.). Tickets are $20-$45 and available at (415) 441-8822 or www.magictheatre.org.

"Shellhardt's The K of D is an astounding piece of writing: its highly muscular language, bold imagination, and emotional vitality captivated me completely," says Artistic Director Loretta Greco.  "The Magic's intimate environment is the perfect place to celebrate Laura's vital new voice and this quintessential piece of theatre—going back to our earliest traditions of great storytelling that shakes the hearts and souls of an audience and reminds them what it means to be human."

Maya Lawson takes on the role of the young storyteller bringing to life the dozen inhabitants and rich atmosphere of Schellhardt's small Midwestern world where the legend unfolds.  Director Rebecca Novick, who directed the critically acclaimed Anna Bella Eema at Crowded Fire last season, will be making her Magic Theatre debut.   The production team for The K of D features set designer Melpomene Katakalos (Territories), light designer Kate Boyd (Expedition 6), and costume designer Brandin Barón (Monkey Room).   The soundscape that evokes the atmosphere of the Midwestern town as a second character in the play will be created by Magic's resident sound designer Sara Huddleston (Octopus, Expedition 6).

Laura Schellhardt received her MFA in playwriting from Brown University under the direction of Paula Vogel. Her plays have been produced in New York (SPF, The Hangar), Washington, DC (The Kennedy Center), Seattle (ACT, Seattle Repertory Theatre), Chicago (Northlight Theatre, Citadel Theatre, New Leaf Theatre, Serendipity Theatre, Piven Theatre Workshop), Providence (Trinity Repertory Company, Brown University), Minneapolis (Theatre Limina), North Carolina (Center for Performing Arts), and Provincetown, MA (Provincetown Theatre Company, Provincetown Rep). Original works include The K of D, The Chair, Counting Vampires, Shapeshifter, The Outfit (Jeff Award Nominee), Inheritance, Je Ne Sais Quoi, and Searching for Lochness. Adaptations include The Phantom Tollbooth, The Mysteries of Harris Burdick, and Creole Folktales. She is a 2007-08 Jerome Playwriting Fellow, a recipient of the New Play Award from ACT in Seattle, a 2005 Dramatist Guild Playwriting Fellow; she also participated in the 2006 SoHo Rep Writer/Director Lab. The K of D was workshopped as part of the 2006 O'Neill National Playwright's Conference and received its world premiere at Washington D.C.'s Woolly Mammoth Theatre in 2008. Her play, The Chair, will receive a workshop at Trinity Repertory Company in Providence as part of the 2007-08 TCG Playwriting Residency. She is also the author of "Screenwriting for Dummies." Laura currently teaches playwriting at Northwestern University, and is the director of Northlight Theatre's education academy.

Rebecca Novick is a theatre director and dramaturg, with a focus on new, experimental work.  She was the founder of Crowded Fire Theater Company and served as its Artistic Director for ten years, during which time she produced twenty-three plays and directed fifteen including such highly successful world premieres as 'Maid by Erik Ehn, One Big Lie by Liz Duffy Adams, and Juan Gelion Dances for the Sun by Dominic Orlando. In the Bay Area she has also worked with Intersection for the Arts, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, Magic Theatre, Aurora Theatre, San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, Exit Theatre, Shotgun Players, Berkeley Opera, Playground, and Woman's Will. Her work was recently seen at Theatre Emory's Brave New Works Festival in Atlanta, GA.  Her directing has been recognized with many awards including the SF Bay Guardian's Goldie Award for Outstanding Local Artists and she was a finalist for the TCG/NEA Director Fellowship.  She has a BA in Theatre from the University of Michigan and trained at the Royal Court Theatre with Ian Rickson.

Maya Lawson, a native of San Francisco, is elated to appear for the first time at Magic Theatre in The K of D: an urban legend.  Favorite roles include: Katherine Bennet in Pride and Prejudice at Portland Center Stage (directed by Jane Jones); Queen Elizabeth I in Notorious Women (directed by Margot Bordelon); Hermia in A Midsummer Night's Dream (directed by Sheila Daniels); Francoise in Museum (directed by Kathryn Mesney); Narcissus in Metamorphosis (directed by Bonnie Sheilds); Frau Griebel in The Brecht Project (directed by Richard E.T. White); and The Vagina Monologues at The Hudson Theatre in Los Angeles.  Maya recently understudied the role of Emma in Curse of the Starving Class at American Conservatory Theater (directed by Peter Dubois).  Film credits include Guy Maddin's Brand Upon the Brain! with Isabella Rossellini. She holds a BFA in acting from Cornish College of the Arts.

Founded in 1967, Magic Theatre is one of the most prominent theatres in the nation solely dedicated to development and production of new plays. Under the leadership of artistic director Loretta Greco and managing director David Jobin, Magic Theatre operates with a budget of $1.9 million in San Francisco's historic Fort Mason Center.  Magic Theatre plays and playwrights have won numerous awards, including Pulitzer Prizes, Kennedy Center Award, NAACP Image Award, Obie Awards, Pen-West Awards, Bay Area Critics' Circle Awards, and Los Angeles Drama-Logue Awards. The list of playwrights whose works have premiered at the Magic reads like a "Who's Who of American Theatre": David Mamet, Sam Shepard, Paula Vogel, Nilo Cruz, Charles Mee, Anne Bogart, and Rebecca Gilman amongst many others.  In addition to its production calendar, Magic Theatre is instrumental in the development of works in the Bay Area and beyond, with its Sloan Foundation Science & Technology Initiative (now in its second three-year cycle, the program is developing and commissioning over 25 new works), Magic/Z Space New Works Initiative (also in its second three-year program, a consortium of fourteen Bay Area theatres commissioning, developing and producing 18 new plays), Martha Heasley Cox Raw Play Series, education program Young California Writers Project amongst others. For more information, visit the Magic Theatre website at www.magictheatre.org.

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