Harold Clurman Laboratory Theater Company In Association With Theatre East Presents ANNA

The Stella Adler Studio of Acting's Harold Clurman Laboratory Theater Company, in association with Theatre East, will present annA, an intimate and explosive new take on Leo Tolstoy's novel Anna Karenina, adapted by Matt Minnicino and directed by Nick Piacente.

As Tolstoy's doomed heroine wrestles with self-realization, Minnicino's adaptation queers the classic tale with a resonant exploration of sexual and social identity. annA is an experimental workshop production, presented in a black box theater, with minimal lighting, tech, and costumes. It makes use of highly physical acting and magical realism to focus on telling this timeless and timely tale about choice, love, and if we can truly write the book of our own lives.

Executive Producer Christa Kimlicko Jones, said, "I commissioned playwright Matt Minnicino, with the question-- "what if she didn't jump?" and with that idea, how does that shift the characters in this story? I'm interested in the choices that we make--how the world seems to write our stories for us, but the possibility of writing it ourselves more fully and that "regardless of all that may happen to me, every minute of it, is not only not meaningless, as it was before but has the unquestionable meaning of the good which it is in my power to put into it". And now, through 8 years of development, we have found ourselves...here." Stella Adler Studio Artistic Director Tom Oppenheim states, "One of the things I love about Matt Minnicino's annA is that it's fresh as a daisy. It takes on Tolstoy's classic with new eyes, eyes that are looking reverentially backwards but also adventurously forwards."

The ensemble includes Shaun Bennet Fauntleroy, Christa Kimlicko Jones, Maurice Jones, Dean Linnard, Pete McElligott, Lauren Pisano, and Vanessa (V) Sterling.

Performances begin March 7 and run through March 22 with talkbacks following Sunday performances.

The mission of the HCLAB is to provide the community, through theater and discussion, with a place of exploration and experimentation of what it means to be a human being.

The Lab produces or, reproduces, the spirit, voice and theatrical sensibilities of The Stella Adler Studio on a professional level in New York and Los Angeles. The Lab serves as a launching pad for students and an artistic home for faculty to grow and evolve. It also includes actors, directors, and designers from outside the immediate community, who share our humanitarian impulse and vision.

The Stella Adler Studio celebrates 75 years of creating an environment with the purpose of nurturing theater artists and audiences who value humanity, their own and others, as their first and most precious priority by providing art and education to the greater community.

annA was developed through the Anti-Isolation Arts Factory in 2021; the Powerhouse Theater in 2022; and the HCLAB in 2022.