Repertory Theatre of St. Louis Launches 2009 - 2010 Season with SECRET ORDER, 10/28

The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis (The Rep) begins its 2009-2010 Studio Theatre series with Bob Clyman's Secret Order.

Performances of Secret Order will be given in the Emerson Studio Theatre of the Loretto-Hilton Center for the Performing Arts, 130 Edgar Road (on the campus of Webster University), Webster Groves, October 28-November 15, 2009.

Curtain times are Tuesday at 7 pm; Wednesday-Friday at 8 pm; Saturday evenings at 5 pm; selected Saturday nights at 9 pm; Sunday matinees at 2 pm and Sunday evenings at 7 pm.

Ticket prices start at just $35. To purchase, visit The Rep Box Office, located inside the Loretto-Hilton Center, charge by phone by calling (314) 968-4925, or visit The Rep's online box office at www.repstl.org.

William Shumway is a young, promising scientist at the University of Illinois who believes he has discovered the "holy grail" of biomedical research: a cure for cancer. His engineered "R-cell" in essence "tells cancer no", halting its reproduction in the body.

Shumway's work attracts the attention of Dr. Robert Brock who, promising expanded resources and a state-of-the-art lab in which to work, offers him a job at the prestigious Hill-Matheson Institute in New York.

Once there, Shumway encounters Alice Curiton, an energetic, intelligent, intensely curious undergraduate student who charms her way onto his research team, and Saul Roth, the institute's Chairman of Toxicology, who's engaged in a never-ending political power struggle with Brock.

Fueled by pharmaceutical money, personal ambition and media frenzy, the halls of science twist and turn in surprising ways, and the earnest Shumway soon finds his work in cellular biology taking a backseat to internecine squabbles, ethical quandries and very real questions about the purity of science in a relentlessly conflicted "publish or perish" world.

The cast of Secret Order at The Rep is Todd Lawson as William Shumway, Richmond Hoxie as Robert Brock, Angela Lin as Alice Curiton and Stan Lachow as Saul Roth.

Secret Order is directed by Risa Brainin, who returns to St. Louis after directing the 2004 Shakespeare Festival St. Louis production of As You Like It.

The creative staff also includes Mark Wilson, scenic and lighting designer; Lou Bird, costume designer; Rusty Wandall, sound designer; and Champe Leary, stage manager.

Playwright Bob Clyman's plays have been performed Off-Broadway and in such theatres as the Laguna Playhouse, Denver Center Theatre, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Los Angeles' Colony Studio Theatre, Kansas City Rep and Mill Mountain Theatre (Roanoke, Virginia), in addition to touring in Scotland. His play, Famous Ali, was commissioned by Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey for Rowing to America: The Immigrant Project. Two other plays by Dr. Clyman have also been developed by PTNJ: Where The Sun Never Sets, a staged reading in the fall of 1994, and Sigmund Freud: The Untold Story, which has since been presented in New York by the Abingdon Theatre Company under the title of Siggy. The Lower Cortex was presented in a workshop production at Playwrights Theatre in May of 1996, after first being developed at a lab production at The Circle Repertory Company in New York City. Secret Order was first staged as part of the "First Light" festival of New York's Ensemble Studio Theater in 2002. Dr. Clyman is also a clinical psychologist with a practice in Oldwick, New Jersey.

For more information about The Rep's production of Secret Order, including a guide introducing the characters, plot and background on the play; photos and video related to the production; and more, visit The Rep's comprehensive public website at www.repstl.org.

Founded in 1966, The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis is a fully professional theatrical operation belonging to the League of Resident Theatres, The League of St. Louis Theatres and is a constituent member of Theatre Communications Group, Inc., the national service organization for the not-for-profit professional theatre. It operates independently of, but under a mutually beneficial agreement with, Webster University. The Rep operates under an agreement between the League of Resident Theatres and Actors'Äô Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States. The Rep hires directors and choreographers who are members of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers and stagehands who are members of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees. Financial assistance for this theatre has been provided by the Arts and Education Council of Greater St. Louis; the St. Louis Regional Arts Commission and the Missouri Arts Council, a state agency. This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency, which believes that a great nation deserves great art. The Rep is also grateful for support by more than 1,100 generous individuals, families, corporations and foundations throughout the communities we serve. Thank you.