BECKY SHAW Plays Round House Theatre, Now thru 6/23

Round House Theatre concludes its 2013 Bethesda season with the area premiere of Becky Shaw, which runs tonight, May 29 thru June 23. Patricia McGregor makes her Round House directing debut with this comedy by Gina Gionfriddo, which was an Off-Broadway smash hit as well as aPulitzer Prize finalist. Opening night is Monday, June 3, 2013.

When Suzanna sets up her best friend Max on a blind date with her husband's co-worker Becky Shaw, she sets into motion a series of cataclysmic events that forever change all of their lives. Like the Victorian upstart Becky Sharp, this modern Becky is unsure, overdressed and socially ambitious. But she's no shrinking violet, as the silkily cynical Max soon learns. Becky Shaw is a comedy of romantic errors that asks what we owe to the people we love most and the strangers who land on our doorstep.

The cast features: Brigid Cleary, Rex Daugherty, Will Gartshore, Alyssa Wilmoth Keegan, and Michelle Six. Creative team: scenic designer Daniel Conway, costume designer Katherine O'Neill, lighting designer Jedidiah Roe, sound designer Eric Shimelonis, props master Rebecca Dieffenbach, and stage manager Bekah Wachenfeld.

Tickets range in price from $10 to $61 and may be purchased by calling 240.644.1100, by ordering online at roundhousetheatre.org, or at Round House's box office in Bethesda. Tickets for everyone age 30 and under are $10 and $15. Round House Theatre Bethesda is located at 4545 East-West Highway, one block from Wisconsin Avenue and the Bethesda station on Metro's Red Line.

All shows play Round House Theatre Bethesda, 4545 East-West Highway (one block from Wisconsin Ave. and Metro's Bethesda station). Becky Shaw runs tonight, May 29 thru June 23, 2013 with performances on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday at 7:30pm, Friday and Saturday at 8pm; with matinees on Saturday and Sunday at 3pm. Opening night is Monday, June 3, 2013. Please note: there is no performance on Tuesday, June 4.

AUDIENCE EVENTS:

Designer Discussion (with the costume, set, lighting, and sound designers): Wednesday, May 29 at 6:45pm

Director Discussion (with Patricia McGregor): Friday, May 31 at 7:15pm

Audio-described performance: Saturday, June 8 at 3pm

Post-Show Talkbacks: Wednesday, May 29 thru Sunday, June 2, Sunday, June 9, and Sunday, June 16

Sign-interpreted performance: Saturday, June 15 at 3pm. Reservations for sign interpreting services must be made by June 1.

Gina Gionfriddo (Playwright) is the author of Becky Shaw (commissioned and first produced by Actors Theatre of Louisville); After Ashley (Humana Festival 2004, Vineyard Theatre, regional theatres throughout the country, and in Poland); U.S. Drag (Off-Broadway by the stageFARM, Clubbed Thumb at HERE and many regional productions); Guinevere (O'Neill Playwrights Conference); and the one-acts Squalor and America's Got Tragedy (commissioned and presented by the stageFARM). Gina has received an Obie Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, The Helen Merrill Award for Emerging Playwrights and an American Theatre Critics Association/Steinberg citation. She is currently a writer/producer for the NBC series Law & Order. She has contributed essays on rock music to the literary journal The Believer, and short fiction to Canteen. A graduate of the M.F.A. Playwriting Program at Brown University, she has taught writing at Brown, Providence College and Rhode Island College.

Patricia McGregor (Director) is a Harlem based director, writer, and deviser of new work. Recent credits include The Mountaintop at Philadelphia Theatre Company, Spunk at Califronia Shakespeare Theatre, and the world premiere of Hurt Village at Signature Theatre Center. As Associate Director of Fela! on Broadway, she coached Patti LaBelle in the role of Funmailayo. Other directing credits include Holding it Down with Grammy Award Nominee Vijay Iyer and Mike Ladd at Harlem Stage, In the Cypher at the Drilling Company, Girl Shake Loose Her Skin with Sonia Sanchez, Zakiyyah Alexander and Imani Uzuri,Jelly's Last Jam, Romeo and Juliet, Four Electric Ghosts, Cloud Tectonics, Eleemosynary, The French Play, Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill,Sidewalk Opera, Dancing in the Dark, The Covering Skyline, In the Meantime. She has worked at venues including Broadway, NYSF Shakespeare in the Park, BAM, Second Stage, The Public Theater, The Kitchen, The O'Neill, Lincoln Center Institute, Exit Art, and Nuyorican Poetry Cafe. She co-founded Angela's Pulse with her sister, choreographer Paloma McGregor. Angela's Pulse creates vital choreoplays and fosters collaboration among artists, educators, organizers, academics and other diverse communities in order to illuminate under told stories, infuse meaning into the audience experience and animate progress through the arts. Patricia attended the Yale School of Drama where she was a Paul and Daisy Soros Fellow and Artistic Director of the Yale Cabaret.