AlterTheater Ensemble Announces Casting for 'The Horses'

As part of its new season, AlterTheater Ensemble, an artist-driven company known for performing deeply intimate theater in downtown San Rafael storefronts, will produce its first play developed entirely from within, and starring Anne Darragh, Will Marchetti, Frances Lee McCain, and Michael Ray Wisely. This is also the first play the company is producing under an Equity contract.

“It’s very exciting, in this economy, to be creating 11 new jobs,” says co-founder and executive director Jeanette Harrison. “I don’t know of another arts organization that’s doing this.”

Workshopped during the summer with the cast, playwright Brian Thorstenson, and dramaturg Jayne Wenger, The Horses premieres in October. “Commissioning new work, written specifically by our artists, for our artists, has always been a goal,” says Harrison. “I’m thrilled that we’re producing our first-ever commission, and that it’s our first show on an Equity contract.” 

While AlterTheater has always offered artists a stipend under Equity’s waiver policy, this is the first contract the company has offered, and more than doubles the company’s cost for each actor. The contract pays a weekly salary, plus pension benefits. “An arts organization, growing in the midst of the worst recession in memory? Only time will tell if we’re nuts or visionaries!” says Harrison. AlterTheater remains committed to producing work in storefronts along downtown San Rafael’s Fourth Street, in its signature bare bones style.

Written for San Francisco native Will Marchetti and veteran stage/TV/film actress Frances Lee McCain, The Horses is a world-premiere play by AlterTheater associate artist and award-winning San Francisco playwright Brian Thorstenson.

Frances Lee McCain has originated a number of roles in new plays, including the off-Broadway premiere of Lanford Wilson’s Lemon Sky. A San Anselmo resident and AlterTheater ensemble artist almost since the beginning of the company, she is best known for her 1980s film roles, most famously for killing gremlins using various kitchen appliances. “When I first saw Frances in the movie Gremlins, as I saw the way she mowed down all those little monsters to save the day, I thought that if I ever had the opportunity to act with her, I hoped she wouldn’t do me that way,” says Marchetti, who first acted with Frances in Berkeley Rep’s production of A View From The Bridge. “She makes the process effortless and real; sharing moments rather than exchanging lines. An actor playing a scene with Ms. McCain really cannot ask for more than that; it is a great privilege.” 

McCain and Marchetti will share the stage in the new play as husband and wife. Bay Area native Will Marchetti is the main character, who is celebrating his 75th birthday, and Marchetti will also celebrate a birthday during the run. The original Old Man in Sam Shepard’s hit Fool for Love at the Magic Theatre as well as the father in the long-running Sharon and Billy, also at the Magic, Marchetti takes birthdays in stride. “There’s no need to shower me with gifts, I just ask that after viewing my performance in this wonderful play, to recall that memorable line from Robert Anderson’s classic play, Tea and Sympathy, just before Laura--the mature woman who offers herself to Tom, the young student--utters the final line of the play, “Years from now when you think of this…and you will…be kind.”

Anne Darragh is familiar to Bay Area audiences: she originated the role of Harper in the Pulitizer-Prize winning play Angels in America by Tony Kushner. More recently, she appeared in AlterTheater’s west coast premier of Summerland, also penned by Thorstenson. Ms. Darragh, as well as Mr. Marchetti and Ms. McCain, is an associate artist with AlterTheater and a longtime resident of Marin County. 

Michael Ray Wisely is one of the founding members of AlterTheater, and has appeared onstage with Berkeley Rep, Aurora Theatre, Marin Theatre Company, and other theaters around the Bay Area. The production will be directed by Tracy Ward, a longtime collaborator of Mr. Thorstenson’s and the director of the critically acclaimed Hunters Gatherers, a world premiere which won the 2006 Will Glickman Award.

The Horses begins previews October 22nd, opening October 24th, and running until November 15th, Thursday through Saturday at 8 p.m., Sunday at 2 p.m. Tickets are $25, with discounts available the first two weeks of the run. More details and tickets are available at www.altertheater.org. “This is going to be a huge show for us, and we want to make sure that everyone can afford to come see it. So, we’ve started a come early and save program,” says Harrison. “Our most popular program right now is buy 2, get 1 free, for new Season Subscribers.”

About AlterTheater Ensemble:
A four-year-old company managed by artists and modeled organizationally after Chicago’s famed Steppenwolf Theatre, AlterTheater has a bottom-up approach to making art. Rather than having a single artistic director choosing a season and hiring artists separately for each show, decisions about what material AlterTheater will produce and which artists to support are made by a core ensemble of artists. In addition to the core ensemble artists, AlterTheater expanded this past year to include associate artists. 

The 2009-2010 AlterTheater season at a glance:

The Horses (Working Title) by Brian Thorstenson 
Runs Oct. 22 through Nov. 15

Owners by Caryl Churchill
Runs April 22 through May 16 

Ticket information:
Season Passes are available for $40 at www.altertheater.org . Individual tickets are $25

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