Performers Under Stress Presents San Francisco Premiere Of THERE IS A HAPPINESS THAT MORNING IS
Performers Under Stress produces the San Francisco Premiere of THERE IS A HAPPINESS THAT MORNING IS by Mickle Maher. 'Happiness' tracks fallout after two classics professors, teaching William Blake's "Songs of Innocence and Experience", get caught having sex on the campus green. Dramatic argument, declarations of passion and celebration of this fleeting, and ridiculous, trip of life ensue--in verse. Blake lovers, Unite--or, perhaps, Untie!
Katja Rivera (Shotgun Players, Quantum Dragon, Theatre First, Custom Made) helms this production. Technical direction and lighting design provided by Colin Johnson. Valerie Façhman and Scott Baker are the Blakean lovers with Geo Epsilanty as a creepy small college president.
Of "THERE IS A HAPPINESS THAT MORNING IS", TimeOut Chicago said: "In subtly, smartly rhymed verse, Maher's play serves as both a primer on Blake and a critical inquiry into his work's themes. In the afterglow of what he experienced as an act of ecstasy, Bernard practically beams with infant joy himself, while Ellen seethes with dark knowledge and doubt. How do innocence and experience reconcile themselves in the everyday of a 20-year love?...Maher's text is almost endlessly engaging and frequently hilarious...tantalizing examination of love's dark secrets."
Andrew Bailes in Howl Round calls "THERE IS A HAPPINESS THAT MORNING IS" "...quite simply, a masterpiece."
Mickle Maher, a co-founder of Theatre Oobleck, is author to numerous plays produced off-Broadway and in theatres across the US and in Europe. These include The Strangerer, The Cabinet, Lady Madeline, Spirits To Enforce, and Hunchback Variations, which was adapted into an opera with composer Mark Messing. His play, An Apology for the Course and Outcome of Certain Events Delivered by Dr. John Faustus on This His Final Evening, was produced by Performers Under Stress in 2010.
Lauded for their cutting-edge productions of new American plays, Performers Under Stress (PUS) was founded in Chicago over 20 years ago by Joseph Jefferson Citation winners, actor/writer/director Scott Baker and New Mexico actor/playwright Charles Pike. "The Beckett Boys" were critically acclaimed for their productions of shorter works by Samuel Beckett, and original works which included Dead Soldier Walks Home, Glory Hole, and Pound Bound. Producing in San Francisco since 2006, PUS concentrates on barebones productions of Samuel Beckett's works, re-imagined select classics, and projects of their own creation. PUS is dedicated to explore the unknown, the undocumented, the unspoken, and the unexpected.
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