Company of Fools Presents GROUNDED by George Brant

This fall, Company of Fools (COF) will present Grounded, the gripping drama by award-winning playwright George Brant. The play will run Sept. 28-Oct. 13 at the Liberty Theatre in Hailey. Hailed by The New York Times as "A scorching, sharp-eyed, timely script ... (that) lets no one off easy," this heartbreaking, beautiful, and necessary story is one of courage, motherhood and modern warfare. COF will present this play with the audience seated onstage in the round, and seating is limited to 60 patrons at each performance.?

Named a top-10 London play of 2013 by The Guardian and the London Evening Standard, George Brant's Grounded is the story of an ace fighter pilot whose career in the sky ends early due to an unexpected pregnancy. Reassigned to operate military drones from a windowless trailer in the desert outside Las Vegas, she hunts terrorists by day and returns to her family each night. As the pressure mounts to track a high-profile target, the boundaries begin to blur between the desert in which she lives and the one she patrols half a world away.

Tickets are $35 for full price, $25 for seniors and members of The Center, and $15 for students (18 and under). These ticket prices do not include the "Pay What You Feel" preview (Sept. 28), 10 for $10, and Educators Night (Sept. 30). There is also a SPECIAL GROUP RATE-groups of eight or more receive $25 tickets!

Tickets may be purchased online at sunvalleycenter.org, by phone at 208.578.9122 or at the Liberty Theatre box office starting one hour before curtain. Company of Fools' box office is located at the Liberty Theatre, 110 N. Main Street in Hailey, with hours from 10am to4pm, Monday through Friday. All seats are reserved, with the exception of our "Pay What You Feel" preview.

The Creative Team

COF's Core Company Artist John Glenn directs guest artist Hanna Cheek as The Pilot. A New York City resident, Cheek was named one ofTime Out New York's "Future Legends of NYC Theatre" in 2013 and has appeared in COF's productions of Proof, Other Desert Cities andCommencement. Rounding out the creative team for Grounded are Joe Lavigne (Set Design), Russell Simone Wilson (Music Design) and K.O. Ogilvie (Stage Manager).

A central scenic element of COF's production will be a new piece by visual artist Mahwish Chishty. Ms. Chishty has designed a large drone that will hang over the playing space. Initially trained as a miniature painter at the National College of Arts in Lahore, Pakistan, Chishty has aggressively combined new media and conceptual work with her traditional practice. She has exhibited her work nationally and internationally at venues including the University of Technology (UTS Gallery) Sydney, Australia; Boghossian Foundation - Villa Empain, Brussels, Belgium; Utah Museum of Contemporary Art; Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts (MOCADA), Brooklyn, New York; University of Michigan - Ann Arbor; and Gandhara Art Gallery, Karachi, Pakistan, among others. By camouflaging modern war machines with folk imagery, Ms. Chishty sheds light on the complexity of acculturation, politics and power. (http://www.mahachishty.com/)

The Playwright

George Brant's plays include Grounded, Marie and Rosetta, Elephant's Graveyard, The Mourners' Bench, Any Other Name, Salvage,Grizzly Mama, Three Voyages of the Lobotomobile and Dark Room. He is an Affiliate Writer at the Playwrights' Center in Minneapolis, and his scripts have been produced internationally by The Public Theater, the Atlantic Theater Company, Cleveland Play House, the Alley Theatre, Trinity Repertory Company, the Studio Theatre, City Theatre, the Gate Theatre of London, Page 73, and the Traverse Theatre, among others. His plays have received a Lucille Lortel Award, a Kennedy Center National Playwriting Award, the Smith Prize, an Edinburgh Fringe First Award, a Creative Workforce Fellowship, three OAC Individual Excellence Awards and the Keene Prize for Literature. He has been awarded writing fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, the McCarter Theatre Center, Blue Mountain Center, the Djerassi Resident Artists Program, and the Michener Center for Writers. He is published by Samuel French, Oberon Books and Smith & Kraus.

Company of Fools' 21st Season sponsors are Ali Long, The Shubert Foundation, Ken Lewis, High Country Fusion, Priscilla Pittiglio, Mary Ann and John Underwood, Linda and Bob Edwards, Arrow R Storage, Scott Miley Roofing and media sponsor, The Weekly Sun.

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