Geva's Fielding Nextstage Studio Series Continues with A BODY OF WATER, Now thru 4/5

Geva Theatre Center's 2015 Fielding Studio Series continues with A Body of Water by Lee Blessing. This production comes to Geva from The Kitchen Theatre Company in Ithaca and is directed by Michele Minnick. The production begins performances tonight, March 19 and runs in the Fielding Nextstage through April 5.

A long-married couple wakes one beautiful morning in an idyllic summer house surrounded by lush lawn and a vast body of water. There's only one problem - they have absolutely no memory of who they are, or how they got there. Their world is complicated further when a mysterious young woman arrives, offering information and potential explanations. Without the foundation of memory, life is a never-ending stream of possibilities - and secrets.

Lee Blessing is the author of over twenty plays and screenplays. His play, A Walk in the Woods, was produced on Broadway and in London's West End. Plays produced Off-Broadway include Eleemosynary, Cobb, Thief River, Chesapeake and Down the Road -- plus Fortinbras, Lake Street Extension, Two Rooms, and the world premiere of Patient A - all in the 1992-93 Signature Theatre Season. Recent regional productions include Whores at the Contemporary American Theater Festival and Black Sheep at Florida Stage and Barrington Stage. Other plays include Going to St. Ives, Independence, Riches, Oldtimers Game, and Nice People Dancing to Country Music. Mr. Blessing is the recipient of the American Theatre Critics Association Award, the L.A. Drama Critics Award, the Great American Play Award, the Humanitas Award, and the George and Elisabeth Marton Award, among others. His plays have been nominated for Tony and Olivier Awards, as well as for the Pulitzer Prize. He currently resides in New York City and heads the graduate playwriting program at Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University.

Real-life husband and wife actors Carmen Roman and James Leaming play the long-married Avis and Moss. Ms. Roman returns to Geva where she appeared in Arthur Miller's The Price in 2011. She has appeared Off-Broadway in The Iphigenia Cycle (Theater for a New Audience from The Court Theatre, Chicago), The Mysteries for Classic Stage Company, and Paradise for Gary Allen Productions. Ms. Roman appeared in the national tour of Angels in America. TV viewers will recognize her as Connie Mrozek on ABC's "Betrayal," Savages, The Falcon (a co-production shot in Soviet Georgia), Dr. Gabriella Reyes on "Boss," "All My Children", "Early Edition", as Judge Einhorn in "Law & Order," "Law & Order: SVU" and "Criminal Intent." She is a Company Member at American Blues Theater in Chicago and The Actors' Center, New York. Ms. Roman was a 2002 Fox Fellow and is the recipient of the Sarah Siddons Award, Florence Herscher Award, Joseph Jefferson Awards for Master Class and Wit. Making his Geva Theatre Center debut, Mr. Leaming regularly appears in This Wonderful Life (a solo version of It's a Wonderful Life) at theatres around the country. He has appeared at regional theatres nationwide. TV/Film credits include "Mind Games," "Prison Break," "Early Edition," Running Scared, Code of Silence and numerous commercials and voice-overs. He's a founding member (1985) of American Blues Theater where he appeared in Tobacco Road, It's a Wonderful Life; Live Radio, The Hairy Ape, Two Rooms, Bad Moon, A Lie Of The Mind, Catch 22, American Dead, On The Waterfront, Hank Williams: Lost Highway and others. He is the recipient of the After Dark Award - Best Actor for The Man Who Fell in Love with the Moon; Sarasota Magazine Award- Best Actor and Best Show for This Wonderful Life (also nominated 2014 for Craig Noel award, San Diego) and a Joseph Jefferson Award for the set design of Tobacco Road (American Blues). Lesley Gurule plays Wren and is making her Geva Theatre Center debut. Her theatre credits include The Whale and The K of D at the Adirondack Theatre Festival; The Book Club Play at Cincinnati Playhouse; 24/5, Rhinoceros, Down South and Sexual Perversity in Chicago at Fritz Theater; Rooms at Secondhand Theater and Tape and Spin at AYTB Theater. Ms. Gurule received her M.F.A. at the University of Texas at Austin. She is proud to be part of the sixth cohort of students at the Feldenkrais Training Institute of New York.

A Body of Water is directed by Michele Minnick. The creative team includes David L. Arsenault (Scenery and Lighting Design), Lisa Boquist (Costume Design) and Scott O'Brien (Original Music and Sound Design).

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