Amy Herzog's 4000 MILES to Open Shakespeare & Company's 40th Season

Shakespeare & Company opens their 40th Anniversary Season with 4000 Miles written by Amy Herzog, and directed by Nicole Ricciardi. This Pulitzer Prize finalist and Winner of the 2012 Obie Award for Best New Play explores growing up, growing old and the moments in between. The acclaimed comic drama runs at the Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre from May 25 to July 16, 2017.

After suffering a major loss while he was on a cross-country bike trip, 21 year-old Leo seeks solace from his feisty 91 year-old grandmother, Vera, in her West Village apartment. Over the course of a single month, these unlikely roommates infuriate, bewilder, and ultimately reach each other. 4000 Miles looks at how two outsiders find their way in today's world.

"In Ms. Herzog's play, Leo is miles from home, lost, avoiding the familiar," says returning Shakespeare & Company Director Nicole Ricciardi. "Vera is just as aimless, shuffling into a life of meaningless small details. They are distant relatives, generationally divided. Both yearn for human connection and understanding. And yet...they struggle to communicate. They bicker. They joust. They leave things unsaid. And after weeks of close physical proximity, the dam breaks and everything begins to change."

Riccardi's production of 4000 Miles features award-winning actress Annette Miller
and Company member Gregory Boover, along with Zoe Laiz and Shakespeare & Company newcomer Emma Geer. The creative team includes John McDermott (Set Design), James W. Bilnoski (Lighting Design), Stella Schwartz (Costume Design) and Amy Altadonna (Sound Design).

"Unlike many of the woman I have had the privileged to portray, Vera Joseph in 4000 Miles is not a larger than life woman," says Miller. "She isn't a woman who is driven to make her mark in the world, so to speak, but she is like all of those women we know who have lived very full lives, and who are dedicated to creating a more just society. Vera values love, wisdom, and humor - which are all part of the essential core of who she is - I can't wait to enter that simple truth of her life."

Tickets for 4000 Miles are available online at shakespeare.org, or by calling Shakespeare & Company's box office at (413) 637-3353. The Bernstein Theatre is air-conditioned and wheelchair accessible. Shakespeare & Company is located at 70 Kemble Street in Lenox, Massachusetts. The performance is generously sponsored by Jerry and Honie Berko.

About Annette Miller (Vera) Twentieth season with S&Co. Bemedette in Sotto Voce (2016); Elliot Norton and Irne Award for best actress as Golda Meir (2003); Elliot Norton best actress nomination for Martha in Martha Mitchell Calling (2006). Florida Carbonell Award best actress nomination for Vi in August Osage County (2012). Now is Our Time - the Pleasures and Perils of our Third Chapter, (Brandeis Women's Studies Research Center). Favorite roles: Maria Callas, Master Class; Duchess, Richard III; Marjorie Taub, The Allergist's Wife; Queen Elinor, King John; Maria, 12th Night; Ruth Steiner, Collected Stories (S&Co). Paula Strasberg, Nobody Dies on Friday; Lillian Hellman, Cake Walk (U/S Elaine Stritch); Arkadina, The Seagull (American Rep. Co). B'Way: The Odd Couple Female Version.

About Nicole Ricciardi (Director) Fifth season with S&Co: Director of The Taming in 2016; The How and the Why in 2015; Cassandra Speaks in 2012, and Richard II in 2013 (Assistant Director). Nicole is a New York City-based director, actress, and instructor, who has directed, assisted, and/or developed work at Youngblood/Ensemble Studio Theatre, #serials at the Flea, Circle East Repertory, Two River Theater Company, Primary Stages, Bushwick Arts, the Nora Theater Company, Shadow Lawn Stage, Irish Repertory, New Century Theatre (Time Stands Still, July 2016), and with her own company, The Wild Court. She currently teaches for the National Theater Institute at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center. Nicole received her M.F.A. from Carnegie Mellon University.

About Amy Herzog (Playwright) First season with S&Co. Herzog's plays include After the Revolution (Williamstown Theater Festival; Playwrights Horizons; Lilly Award), 4000 Miles (Lincoln Center; Obie Award for the Best New American Play, Pulitzer Prize Finalist), The Great God Pan (Playwrights Horizons), and Belleville (Yale Rep; New York Theatre Workshop; Susan Smith Blackburn Prize Finalist; Drama Desk Nomination). Amy is a recipient of the Whiting Writers Award, the Benjamin H. Danks Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Helen Merrill,

the Joan and Joseph Cullman Award for Extraordinary Creativity, and the New York Times Outstanding Playwright Award. She is a Usual Suspect at NYTW and an alumna of Youngblood, Play Group at Ars Nova, and the Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab. She has taught playwriting at Bryn Mawr and Yale. MFA, Yale School of Drama.

About Shakespeare & Company: Located in the Berkshires of Western Massachusetts, Shakespeare & Company is one of the largest Shakespeare Festivals in the country. Founded in 1978, the organization attracts over 30,000 patrons annually. The Company is also home to Shakespeare & Company's internationally renowned Center for Actor Training and nationally renowned and an award- winning Education Program. More information is available at www.shakespeare.org.

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