The Spare Stage Presents A BODY OF WATER, 11/6-22

The Spare Stage production of Lee Blessing's A Body of Water - a Bay Area premiere - opens November 6 and runs through November 22 at EXIT Theatre in San Francisco, with Spare Stage Artistic Director Stephen Drewes at the helm.

A middle-aged couple awakens in a beautiful country house on a hill, surrounded by trees and glimpses of water. There's just one problem. They can't remember their own names, much less the relationship between them. Their ensuing pursuit of memory yields both terrifying and comic results, setting them adrift on a leaky raft of postmodern anxiety.

For Moss (Val Hendrickson) and Avis (Holly Silk) the loss of memory equates to loss of self, a disorientation that produces a paralyzing loss of agency. Unable to move in any direction, they are at sea without a paddle. We're in Samuel Beckett territory here, with a generous splash of Neil Simon, stuck between a familiar-seeming reality and the terror of a missing "self."

A Body of Water premiered at the Guthrie Theater in 2005 after being work-shopped at the Playlab Festival. Blessing, the author of over 20 plays and screenplays, is perhaps best known for his play A Walk in the Woods, the story of an impossible friendship that grows between an earnest young American arms negotiator and his more cynical Soviet counterpart during their private walks together.

The playwright is considered a major force in post-1960's American theater for plays that are thoughtful and often controversial explorations in the variances of human relationships. His work has been nominated for Tony and Olivier Awards, as well as for the Pulitzer Prize. He currently resides in New York City.

During the final weekend of of A Body of Water Blessing will be in residence at the Playwrights Foundation in San Francisco, leading a writing workshop. He has generously agreed to discuss his work with the audience following the Saturday, Nov. 21 performance

Director Stephen Drewes launched his career as an actor at Berkeley Rep in 1970, and went on to a 35-year career as a professor of Theatre Arts, actor, and stage director. He co-founded Spare Stage in 2008 with AaRon Murphy, the company's executive director. Drewes and Murphy, both native san Franciscans, met as teacher and student in 1993, when Murphy enrolled in one of Drewes' acting classes.

Val Hendrickson (Moss) most recently trod the boards of the Willows Theatre(s) in The Kentucky Cycle, Brighton Beach Memoirs and Love Letters and has enjoyed stints with Shotgun Players (The Birthday Party, Uncle Vanya), Berkeley Rep (The People's Temple) and San Francisco Shakespeare Festival (Henry IV, Julius Caesar). A member of Actors Equity, Val is married to the actress Lorraine Olsen, with whom he produced ten plays under the banner of Theatre Valentine, including the West Coast premiere of John Patrick Shanley's Missing/Kissing (directed by Mark Jackson)

Tickets range in price from $18-$24.  Click here to view a full performance schedule and to purchase tickets.