Avant Bard Announces Full Cast and Design Team for Lauren Gunderson's EMILIE

Avant Bard announces full casting and creative team for its first production of the season, Lauren Gunderson's Emilie: La Marquise Du Châtelet Defends Her Life Tonight--a witty reincarnation of a passionate and defiant woman who in 18th-century France dazzled Voltaire and blazed a trail for women in science.

Lauren Gunderson (left) was recently ranked most-produced playwright in the 2017/2018 season by American Theatre magazine in a national survey of nonprofit theaters. She has been on the Top 20 list for three years running and is now number one. "It's Gunderson's America," writes American Theatre; "we just live in it." Said Avant Bard Artistic Director Tom Prewitt: "We are especially proud to present the area premiere of this insightful woman-centered work by one of theatre's hottest young writers. It was an audience favorite when we gave it a reading during our Scripts in Play Festival, and we expect it to be even more delightful when fully staged."

Starring as Emilie is Sara Barker, recently seen at Avant Bard in King Lear, Othello, and Orlando and a company member with Avant Bard, Factory 449, Rorschach Theatre, and The Klunch.

The other cast members, all newcomers to Avant Bard's stage, are Brit Herring as Emilie's lover Voltaire, Lisa Hodsoll as Madam, Billie Krishawn as Soubrette, and Steve Lebens as Gentleman.

Emilie is directed by Helen Hayes Award winner Rick Hammerly, the Producing Artistic Director of Factory 449. The creative team includes Set Designer Greg Stevens, Lighting Designer Joseph R. Walls, Costume Designer Danielle Preston, Movement Coach Elena Day, Dramaturg JoAn Cummins, and Rehearsal Stage Manager Solomon HailieSelassie.

VENUE: Gunston Arts Center, Theatre Two 2700 South Lang Street, Arlington, VA 22206

WSC Avant Bard is supported by the Arlington Commission for the Arts and Arlington Cultural Affairs, a division of Arlington Economic Development; and by the Virginia Commission for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Photo credit: DJ Photography