Asolo Repertory Theatre to Present GOOD PEOPLE in 2015

Asolo Rep's 2014-15 season continues with GOOD PEOPLE, David Lindsay-Abaire's 2011 Tony nominated play that cracks open the gritty world of the blue collar worker to reveal America's often rigid social strata. Academy Award-winning actress Frances McDormand received a Tony Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of the play's central character, Margie Walsh, in 2011. This sharp comedy-infused drama opens Friday, January 16, 2015 at 8pm, with previews Wednesday, January 14 and Thursday, January 15 at 8pm. Directed by Greg Leaming, Associate Artistic Director of Asolo Rep and the Director of the FSU/Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training, GOOD PEOPLE will close on Sunday, March 1, 2015.

Margie Walsh has just been fired from yet another minimum-wage paying job in the impoverished South Boston neighborhood she never escaped. With an adult child with disabilities to care for, she lives paycheck to paycheck and is desperate to make ends meet. Her brief high school flame, Dr. Mike Dillon, has managed to break the "Southie" chain and is a successful, wealthy physician with a beautiful young wife and daughter. After more than 30 years apart, she visits Mike hoping to find a job and, instead, slowly unravels the tightly wound web of their messy, wrong-side-of-the-tracks adolescence.

"What makes this play so thrilling for me is that playwright David Lindsay-Abaire brings to it the same kind of absurd sense of humor and enormous heart that overflows in his plays like Fuddy Meers, Kimberly Akimbo, and the musicals Shrek and High Fidelity," said Leaming. "Lindsay-Abaire has a winning sense of humor and such a passionate connection to his characters that, no matter where the plot might take them, these people always seem to have the kind of spirit that allows them to find hope in the darkest of situations. Margie may be struggling, but she has a sharp, edgy sense of humor that keeps her afloat at all times."

Playwright, screenwriter and lyricist David Lindsay-Abaire is one of the most provocative and raw voices in American theatre and film. His 2006 play Rabbit Hole received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. He also wrote the screenplay for the film version of the play, which starred Nicole Kidman. Mr. Lindsay-Abaire wrote the book and lyrics for Shrek: The Musical.

GOOD PEOPLE continues the third season of Asolo Rep's in-depth American Character Project, a five-year exploration of where the U.S. is as a nation and where it came from. GOOD PEOPLE poignantly delves into the explosive collision of class and race, an issue that remains a national and global hot topic.

"GOOD PEOPLE is a striking contemporary piece that deals with a very present economic reality," said Michael Donald Edwards, producing artistic director of Asolo Rep. "Margie represents so many who are constrained by their upbringings and must truly fight to climb to another socioeconomic class. Playwright David Lindsay-Abaire has placed a magnifying glass on an impoverished South Boston neighborhood and, in turn, has artfully illuminated the challenges that this country must still overcome."

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