Will Eno's MIDDLETOWN to Run 3/24-4/23 at Custom Made Theatre

From the author of Broadway's The Realistic Joneses (now playing at ACT) and Thom Paine (based on nothing) comes Middletown, Will Eno's take on Our Town - which follows the lives of the inhabitants of a place called Middletown as they intersect in strange ways. Middletown runs March 24-April 23 at Custom Made Theatre, 533 Sutter Street, San Francisco, 94102.

This modern take on Our Town sets out on a journey -- to somewhere in the middle -- in search of the meaning of life. Middletown holds a microscope to American living.

At the heart of this sweet and disturbing exploration, Eno highlights our tender struggle for human connection and how we're all looking for a little meaning in this mystery we call life. Along the way, Middletown, the winner of the Horton Foote Prize for Outstanding New American Play, reveals universal themes of birth and death, loneliness and elation, disappointment and redemption. These characters are on a journey that takes them from the local library to outer space and points between.

Director Katz says, "I fell in love with Eno's writing when I first saw Tragedy: a tragedy at Berkeley Rep, but there were signs he was still an emerging playwright. Middletown, in my opinion, is the work where he really puts it all together, in a sweet and sad balance between the absurdist and naturalistic traditions. His characters are the people we meet every day, but they all pause to wonder about their place in the universe, and what it means to be human. Finally, there's the lovely, modern Our Town connection, in that it is a snapshot of where we are now, in our American lives. This play has a little something for everyone - it's funny, mysterious, and both heartwarming and heartbreaking."

About Middletown: Newly arrived in town, Mary Swanson (Cary Cronholm Rose, Top Girls) is trying to start a family, but her husband is nowhere to be found. While adjusting to her new life, she meets Middletonians of all sorts, but connects most of all with John Dodge (Fred Pitts, Eurydice), a quiet and compassionate man whose secrets will disrupt the peace and quiet of this average American town.

Middletown is directed by Custom Made's Artistic Director, Brian Katz. It features Ashley Cowan*, Jean Forsman, Justin Gillman*^, Gabriella Jarvie, Neil Higgins, Catherine Luedtke*, Fred Pitts*, Rowan Rivers, Malcolm Rodgers, Cary Cronholm Rose, Jessica Rudholm* and Ted Zoldan.

Creative Team

Cat Howser*, Brooke Jennings*, Maxx Kurzunski*, Stewart Lyle*, Sarah Phykitt*, Rona Siddiqui*, Kitty Torres and Ryan Lee Short.

*member, Custom Made Theatre Co; ^ member, Actors' Equity Association

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