TECHNICOLOR LIFE to Premiere at Rep Stage as Part of Women's Voices Theater Festival

Rep Stage, the regional theatre in residence at Howard Community College (HCC), continues its 23rd season with Jami Brandli's "Technicolor Life," directed by Joseph W. Ritsch, Rep Stage's co-producing artistic director. Maxine, a book smart teenager, is caught between her older sister, a wounded soldier who just returned from the war in Iraq, and her ailing grandmother with a flair for American movie musicals. With the help of her new imaginary friends-Lorelei Lee and Dorothy Shaw from "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes"-Maxine secretly creates a dating profile for her sister and successfully sets her up with another wounded vet. Life takes a turn when her grandmother announces she'll be ending her life and wants her family to support her final wish by throwing her a good-bye party. With that, Maxine has to grow up fast. Rep Stage is honored to produce this world premiere as part of the Women's Voices Theater Festival.

"Technicolor Life" opens October 21, 2015, with a limited run through November 8 in the Smith Theatre of the Horowitz Visual and Performing Arts Center (HVPA) on the campus of HCC. For tickets and additional information, visit www.repstage.org or call the box office at 443-518-1500. Press performance is Friday, October 23 at 8 p.m. For press reservations, contact Zheyan Damavandi in the Rep Stage office at 443-518-1510 or email zdamavandi@howardcc.edu.

Jami Brandli's plays include "Technicolor Life," "S.O.E.," "M-Theory," "¡SOLDADERA!," "Sisters Three," as well as "BLISS (or Emily Post is Dead!)," which was named to The Kilroys THE LIST 2014 as one of 46 most recommended new female-authored plays for that year. Brandli's work has been produced and developed at HotCity Theatre, WordBRIDGE, Ashland New Plays Festival, The Lark, New York Theatre Workshop, Great Plains Theatre Conference, The Aurora Theatre Company, Launch Pad, Milwaukee Rep, and Rogue Machine Theatre, among other venues. Her short plays are published with Smith & Kraus. Brandli has received the John Gassner Memorial Playwriting Award, the Holland New Voices Award and, most recently, The Aurora Theatre Company's 2014 Global Age Project (GAP) Prize. She was a finalist for the Playwrights' Center Core Writer Fellowship, Princess Grace Foundation Award, O'Neill National Playwrights Conference, the Disney ABC TV Fellowship, and nominated for the 2013 Susan Smith Blackburn Award. A proud member of the Playwrights Union and Moving Arts, Brandli teaches dramatic writing at Lesley University's low-residency MFA program and is represented by The Gersh Agency (www.jamibrandli.com).

"Technicolor Life" is a part of The Women's Voices Theater Festival, the largest collaboration of theater companies working simultaneously to produce original works by female writers in history. Rep Stage joins over 50 of the Washington, D.C. region's professional theaters to each present, in the fall of 2015, a world premiere production of a work by one or more female playwrights, highlighting both the scope of plays being written by women, and the range of professional theater being produced in and around the nation's capital. The festival's honorary chair is our nation's First Lady Michele Obama.

CAST

Susan: Grace Bauer*

Billie: Shayna Blass*

Woman #1: Shea-Mikal Green**

Maxine: Isa Guitian**

Frannie: Valerie Lash

Peter/Jake: Thony Mena*

Woman #2: Heather Lynn Peacock**

Capt. Rye/Mike: James Whalen*

ARTISTIC TEAM

Playwright: Jami Brandli

Director: Joseph W. Ritsch

Set Design: Daniel Ettinger++

Light Design: Dan Covey++

Associate Lighting Designer: William D'Eugenio

Sound Design: Bryan S. Schlein

Costume Designer: Ben Kress

Props Designer: Mollie Singer

Stage Manager: Julie DeBakey Smith*

Assistant Stage Manager: Niew Bharyaguntra**

* Members Actor's Equity Association

** Equity Membership Candidate

++ Member of United Scenic Artists, IATSE