BACK THE NIGHT Opens Tonight at Boston Playwrights' Theatre

The Boston Playwrights' Theatre (BPT) production of BACK THE NIGHT opens tonight.

The cast of the new drama by Melinda Lopez features Melissa Jesser and Amanda Collins as college students who find themselves at the center of a sexual assault investigation at their prestigious school. Collins recently appeared in the Nora Theatre Company's Saving Kitty and in HBO's Olive Kitteridge. BPT audiences will remember Jesser-who last appeared in The Flick at Gloucester Stage-from the various roles she played in last season's Chosen Child.

The cast of BACK THE NIGHT features other faces familiar to BPT audiences including Stephanie Clayman who was last seen here in Five Down, One Across during the 2010-11 season and John Kooi, who played the title role in last season's Uncle Jack. Evan Horwitz and Michael Underhill complete the cast.

Running from tonight, February 4, through February 28, BACK THE NIGHT is directed by Daniela Varon. A post-show conversation with the playwright, director, and cast will follow the opening 8 p.m. performance on Feb. 6. Boston Playwrights' Theatre is located at 949 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA 02215. Tickets: Adults ($30); BU Faculty/Staff ($25); Seniors-62+ ($25); Students with valid ID ($10). Call 866.811.4111 or go online.

Playwright Lopez is an adjunct assistant professor in Boston University's MFA Playwriting Program whose award-winning plays have been seen in theatres and at festivals throughout the country including the Huntington Theatre Company, Coconut Grove Playhouse, the Contemporary American Theatre Festival, Laguna Playhouse, the Summer Playwrights Festival (NY), the Milagro Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, the Williamstown Theatre Festival, and many others. She is among the first cohort to receive a three-year playwright-in-residence grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Founded in 1981 at Boston University by Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott, Boston Playwrights' Theatre (BPT) is an award-winning professional theatre dedicated to new works. At the heart of BPT's mission is the production of new plays by alumni of its M.F.A. Playwriting Program, the latter in collaboration with Boston University's renowned School of Theatre. The program's award-winning alumni have been produced in regional and New York houses, as well as in London's West End. BPT's productions have been honored with numerous regional and Boston awards, including 12 IRNE Awards for Best New Script and six Boston Critics' Association Elliot Norton Awards.

MELINDA LOPEZ is a playwright, actress, and educator. She is the inaugural playwright-in-residence at the Huntington Theatre Company and a past Huntington Playwriting Fellow. Her play Sonia Flew (Elliot Norton and IRNE Awards, dir. Nicholas Martin) inaugurated the Huntington's home for new work, the Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA in 2004. It has subsequently been produced at Coconut Grove Playhouse, the Contemporary American Theatre Festival, Laguna Playhouse, the Summer Playwrights Festival (NY), the Milagro Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, and many others, and was broadcast on NPR's "The Play's The Thing!" Other plays includeCaroline in Jersey (Williamstown Theatre Festival), Orchids to Octopi (IRNE Award, Central Square Theatre, commissioned by the National Institute of Health), Gary (Steppenwolf's First Look Repertory of New Work, Boston Playwrights Theatre), Alexandros (Laguna Playhouse), a new translation of Blood Wedding (Suffolk University), God Smells Like A Roast Pig (Women on Top Festival, Elliot Norton Award-Outstanding Solo Performance), Midnight Sandwich / Medianoche (Coconut Grove Playhouse), The Order of Things (CentaStage, Kennedy Center Fund for New Plays), How Do You Spell Hope? (Underground Railway Theater), and Becoming Cuba (Huntington Theatre Company and North Coast Repertory Theatre). She is among the first cohort to receive a three-year-playwright-in-residency grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and was the first recipient of the Charlotte Woolard Award, given by the Kennedy Center to a "promising new voice in American Theatre."

As an actress, Ms. Lopez previously appeared at the Huntington in Our Town, Persephone, A Month in the Country, and The Rose Tattoo. Other credits include The Motherf**ker with the Hat, Anna in the Tropics and Theatre District (SpeakEasy Stage Company), The Oil Thief and A Girl's War (Boston Playwrights' Theatre), Romeo and Juliet (Portland Stage), and Many Colors Make the Thunder-king (Guthrie Theater). She is featured in the movie Fever Pitch. She has appeared in regional theatres across the country and also works in film and radio. She has served as a panel member for the National Endowment for the Arts and the Cambridge Arts Panel and has enjoyed residencies with Sundance, the Lark, the New York Theatre Workshop, and Harvard University.

Ms. Lopez teaches theatre and performance at Wellesley College and playwriting at Boston University. She is a founding member of Munroe Saturday Nights, which produces free high quality arts performances in the Boston area, and makes her home in Boston where she is active in the Cuban American community and helps with local charities to bring humanitarian aid to Cuba. In her free time, she enjoys long distance running, backcountry hiking, and sneaking into movie matinees on rainy days with her daughter.

DANIELA VARON is a New York-based theater director and acting teacher. Her work has been seen at some 40 theater companies around the country. Daniela is a long-time member of Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, MA, where she has directed 13 productions to date, most recently Red Velvet starring John Douglas Thompson. She was Associate Director and co-founder, with Kristin Linklater and Carol Gilligan, of The Company of Women. She has been a Drama League Directing Fellow and was a member of the first official delegation of the Drama League U.S./Bulgaria Stage Directors Exchange Program. She has twice been selected for play development retreats with Voice & Vision, and was chosen as an Associate Artist at the Atlantic Center for the Arts. She is a Usual Suspect at New York Theatre Workshop, an alumna of the Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab, and a member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society.

She has directed plays by established and emerging women writers including Jenny Lyn Bader, Lolita Chakrabarti, Emily DeVoti, Margaret Edson, Maria Irene Fornes, Jennifer Gibbs, Sally-Jane Heit, Oni Faida Lampley, Jessica Litwak, Liz Lochhead, Heather MacDonald, Emily Mann, Lynn Nottage, Louise Page, Suzan-Lori Parks, Jodi Rothe, Elaine Smith, Naomi Wallace, Wendy Wasserstein, and Shannon Woolley, as well as plays by Robert Brustein, Manfred Karge, Tony Kushner, Jon Lipsky, Donald Margulies, Martin McDonagh, Gardner McKay, Terrence McNally, Harold Pinter, Luis Santeiro, J.M. Synge, and Vern Thiessen. And Shakespeare!

With author Rhona Silverbush, Daniela was co-producer, director and moderator of the series Conversations with Shakespeare, which played three seasons at Symphony Space and is in development for public radio.

Daniela has taught acting and directing at Columbia University School of the Arts, Dartmouth College, Emerson College, Smith College, SUNY-Purchase, and as a guest artist at schools, colleges, conservatories, and theater companies around the country. She has been a guest director at Barnard, Bennington, Dartmouth and Emerson Colleges and the University of Connecticut. For 10 years she was a Shakespeare specialist with Lincoln Center Theater's Open Stages program. She is a founding faculty member of the Linklater Center for Voice and Language in New York, and maintains a private teaching and coaching practice for professional and student actors. In 2013 she taught a Shakespeare workshop for the Sfumato Theater Laboratory in Sofia, Bulgaria, one of the country's foremost theater companies and its most experimental.

Daniela was born in Jerusalem, raised in Latin America, and educated at Brookline High School and Dartmouth College. She began working professionally in the theater at age fourteen as an actress with Boston's Hispanic Theater Company.

Recent projects include Red Velvet and Shakespeare's Will at Shakespeare & Company, the premiere of Elaine Smith's The Looking Glass at the Wharton Salon in Lenox, a Shakespeare Works residency with The Shakespeare Society in New York exploring Measure for Measure, and the first New York production of Lynn Nottage's Las Meninas at Barnard College.

ABOUT THE CAST:

STEPHANIE CLAYMAN (The Doctor/Dolores/The Dean/The Senator) has worked Off-Broadway with the Women's Project and the Vineyard Theatre, and regionally at The Kennedy Center, Trinity Rep, Huntington Theatre, Nora, Gloucester Stage, Merrimack Rep, Lyric Stage, and New Rep. Favorite roles include Eppie Lederer (The Lady With All the Answers - IRNE Nomination), Flora (Humble Boy), Lady Macbeth (Macbeth), Gertrude (The Underpants), Marlene (Top Girls), Lusia (A Shayna Maidel), and Kate (The Taming of the Shrew). She is a proud cast member of Shear Madness, Boston's longest running show. Stephanie is featured in the films The Women, Orphan, and A Simple Question and can be seen putting her Deaf Studies degree to good use in What's the Worst That Could Happen? as her character gleefully interprets a string of invective into American Sign Language. As a teacher, Ms. Clayman has worked in venues ranging from inner city housing projects and schools to universities, teaching acting, improvisation, Shakespeare, and playwriting. More information at StephanieClayman.com.

AMANDA COLLINS (Cassie) has performed regionally in Out of Sterno, This Is Our Youth, 9 Circles(Gloucester Stage Company); The Seagull (Harbor Stage/Modern Theatre); A Behanding in Spokane, The Bald Soprano, Speech and Debate, Shortstack, Colorado, and What Then (Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater);When The World Was Green, An Ideal Husband (American Stage in Florida); Taste of Sunrise (Wheelock Family Theater); 9 Circles (Publick Theatre); The Island of Slaves (Orfeo Group); No Exit (Payomet); Brecht'sThe Life of Galileo (Underground Railway); Saving Kitty with Jennifer Coolidge (Nora Theatre Company); andJester's Dead (The Outfit in NYC.) Television: Olive Kitteridge (HBO), Boston's Finest (ABC Pilot) Film:Sea of Trees. Amanda is a member of Theatre Espresso, performing interactive, historical dramas at schools and courthouses across New England. She received her BA in History and Theatre from Regis College and is a proud member of Actors' Equity and SAG-AFTRA.

EVAN HORWITZ (Sean) is a New York based actor delighted to make his Boston theater début. He is a recent graduate of Bowdoin College, where he studied English literature. At Bowdoin, Evan appeared in such plays as End of Summer (dir. Davis Robinson), The Imaginary Invalid (dir. Abigail Killeen), Twelfth Night (dir. Sam Plattus), The History Boys, The Importance of Being Earnest, and the solo play I Am My Own Wife. He also devises original work, most notably a silent clown musical with frequent collaborator Sarah Chalfie. His television credits include High Maintenance on HBO. He is an ensemble member of The Seeing Place Theater, now in residency at the Culture Project in New York City. Evan has studied acting at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, the British American Drama Academy in Oxford, England, and the Educational Center for the Arts in New Haven.

MELISSA JESSER (Em) is thrilled to be returning to Boston Playwrights' Theatre for BACK THE NIGHT! Previous credits include: The Flick (Gloucester Stage), Mr. g (Underground Railway Theater), The Seagull(Huntington Theatre Company: Elliot Norton Award-Best Ensemble), Chosen Child (Boston Playwrights' Theatre), and The Hobbit (Wheelock Family Theatre). She holds a BFA in Acting from Emerson College and studied at Interlochen Arts Academy. melissajesser.com

JOHN KOOI (Officer Sam/The Reporter/The President/The Other Reporter) previously appeared in BPT's productions of Uncle Jack (in association with the Boston Center for American Performance) and The Company We Keep. Other area credits include the IRNE Award winning Operation Epsilon (Nora Theatre Company); Rancho Mirage (New Repertory Theatre); A Moon for the Misbegotten, Dinah Was, Betrayal,and As You Like It (Merrimack Repertory Theatre); Romance (Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater) and Hamlet(The Commonwealth Shakespeare Company). Among his New York credits are Othello (John Montgomery Theatre Company); Twelfth Night (The Actors' Company Theatre) and Romeo and Juliet (Metropolitan Playhouse of New York). Regionally, John has appeared in The Little Foxes and Clybourne Park (New Century Theatre); The Glass Menagerie and The Woman In Black (Shadowland Theatre); Romeo and Juliet(The Cleveland Orchestra); Beyond Therapy (Long Beach Playhouse); and Much Ado About Nothing(Pasadena Shakespeare Company). His film and television work includes The Minister's Wife and Labor Day.

MICHAEL UNDERHILL (Brandon) is pleased as punch to be making his BPT debut! He has been proudly working on the fringe with imaginary beasts as an Artistic Associate since 2009. He has also served on the Artistic Board of Happy Medium Theater since 2012. Recent credits include: Winter Panto 2016: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (imaginary beasts), A Midsummer Night's Dream and Much Ado About Nothing(Magnificent Bastards), Eyes Shut Door Open (Wax Wings), and Dying City (Happy Medium Theatre). Other local credits include: SpeakEasy Stage Company, Heart and Dagger, Stoneham Theatre, Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, Whistler in the Dark, Shakespeare NOW! and Theatre on Fire. Coming up next: The School for Scandal (Actors' Shakespeare Project) Eyes Shut Door Open (Wax Wings & Cassie M. Seinuk Remount) and Brendan (Happy Medium Theater). Thanks to Mom, Dad, Brian, Meghan, the Samkos and especially his wife, Kiki! michaeljamesunderhill.com

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