ELEMENO PEA Begins Previews at Boston Playwrights' Next Week

Performances of Boston Playwrights' Theatre's (BPT) Elemeno Pea begin next week.

The cast features Lydia Barnett-Mulligan who marks her BPT debut with this production. Barnett-Mulligan is familiar to area audiences as a company member of Actors' Shakespeare Project. She is joined by Amanda Collins (recently in Gloucester Stage Company's To Kill A Mockingbird, and last at BPT in Melinda Lopez's Back the Night); Barlow Adamson (most recently at BPT last season in Leo McGann's The Honey Trap); Jaime Carrillo (SpeakEasy Stage Company's The Motherf**ker with the Hat); and Samantha Richert (Lucky Stiff at Greater Boston Stage Company).

The play centers on Devon (Collins) and Simone (Barnett-Mulligan), working class sisters who reunite at the posh summer home of Simone's wealthy employer on Martha's Vineyard. Their end-of-summer sibs fest takes a turn when Simone's boss Michaela (Richert) unexpectedly returns home after a marital blowout.

The play premiered at Actors Theatre of Louisville's 2011 Humana Festival of New American Plays and went on to productions at South Coast Rep and other theatres around the country. Metzler revisited the script in 2015 to correct what she considered "imperfections," and it is that version of Elemeno Pea that will be produced at BPT.

"BPT is seeing a new play that no one else has seen and is the play I strove to write in 2011 but didn't quite have the perspective to pull off," she says. "I will be watching you, Boston, to see if I did my job!"

Metzler says that this draft of Elemeno Pea is also what broke her into writing for television and film when her agent slipped it to film director Steve McQueen, who was staffing his HBO miniseries in New York. Casual, Orange is the New Black, and Shameless hired her from this draft of the play as well. Despite being busy writing for the screen, Metzler finds herself in demand as a playwright.

"The best thing about working in television as a playwright, besides the never-ending supply of La Croix seltzer on set, is that it takes the pressure off of playwriting," she says. "There's nothing worse than trying to write a play while hoping, hoping, hoping, hoping it will randomly be a wild hit so you can pay your bills. It's incredibly hard to be creative when you are thinking about the cost of diapers. Now I write plays because I want to. I write them because I have something to say. When I finished my newest play [Cry It Out, which debuted at Actors Theatre of Louisville and will be produced by Chicago's Northlight Theatre in May], I expected no one to produce it, and I didn't care at all. I wrote it because I needed to write it. It was urgent and important to me. That's the joy of television. Diapers are paid for! You can write plays again."

Running from November 2-19, Elemeno Pea is directed by Shana Gozansky. A post-show conversation with BPT Artistic Director Kate Snodgrass, Metzler, Gozansky, and the cast will follow the Nov. 4 performance.

ABOUT BOSTON PLAYWRIGHTS' THEATRE

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, internationally, as well as in London's West End. BPT's productions have been honored with numerous national, regional, and Boston awards, including IRNE Awards for Best New Script and Boston Critics' Association Elliot Norton Awards.

INSTITUTIONAL BIOGRAPHY

Founded in 1839, Boston University is an internationally recognized private research university with more than 30,000 students participating in undergraduate, graduate, and professional programs. BU consists of 17 colleges and schools along with a number of multi-disciplinary centers and institutes which are central to the school's research and teaching mission.

ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT

Molly Smith METZLER is a proud alumna of Boston University's graduate playwriting program, where she studied under Derek Walcott and Kate Snodgrass. Her plays include Cry it Out, Elemeno Pea, The May Queen, Carve, Close Up Space, and Training Wisteria, which was first produced at Boston Playwrights' Theatre and then transferred to The Kennedy Center's American College Theater Festival. Regional: Northlight (upcoming), Actors Theatre of Louisville/Humana Festival, South Coast Rep, The O'Neill National Playwrights Conference, Chautauqua Theater Company, City Theatre, Play Makers Rep, Geva Theatre Center, Cape Cod Playhouse, and more. Off-Broadway: Manhattan Theatre Club, Ars Nova, Cherry Lane, SPF (Summer Play Festival). Metzler's awards include the Lecomte du Nouy Prize from Lincoln Center, the National Student Playwriting Award from The Kennedy Center, the Association for Theatre in Higher Education's David Mark Cohen Award, the Mark Twain Comedy Prize, and a finalist nod for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. She is currently under commission at Manhattan Theatre Club and South Coast Repertory. In television, Metzler has written for Orange Is the New Black (Netflix), Casual (Hulu), Codes of Conduct (HBO), and is currently a writer/co-producer on Shameless (Showtime). She is also a screenwriter, currently adapting Ali Benjamin's novel The Thing About Jellyfish into a film for OddLot and Pacific Standard (Reese Witherspoon's company). Metzler was educated at SUNY Geneseo, Boston University, New York University's Tisch School for the Arts, and The Juilliard School.

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR

Shana Gozansky is a freelance director and teaching artist. She recently directed Paradise at Central Square Theater. Her work has been produced at Trinity Repertory Company, The Hangar Theatre, The Calderwood Arts Pavilion, Clark University, College of the Holy Cross, The Bowery Poetry Club, Dickinson College, Manhattan Theatre Source, and The Red Room. She has assisted on productions at Berkeley Rep, The Geffen, Manhattan Ensemble Theatre, Henry Miller's Theater, and Trinity Repertory Company and has taught acting and directing A. Brown University, College of the Holy Cross, the Hangar Theatre, and Trinity Repertory Company. Shana holds a M.F.A. in Directing from the Brown University/Trinity Repertory Company M.F.A. Programs and a B.A. in Theater from Bard College, was an Artistic Associate at The Hangar Theatre, an Artist-in-Residence at chashama and The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. She is a member of the Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab and is a Drama League Directing Fellow.

ABOUT THE CAST

barlow adamson (Ethan) is always happy to return to Boston Playwrights' Theatre where he was last seen in The Honey Trap. He has performed on many other local stages including SpeakEasy Stage Company (Kurt Vonnegut's Make Up Your Mind, Reckless, Almost Maine, Fuddy Meers); Huntington Theatre Company (The Maiden's Prayer, A Month In The Country); Lyric Stage Company (Chinglish, Time Stands Still, The Scene, Private Lives, Noises Off, Red Herring); Bridge Repertory Theater (Sixty Miles To Silver Lake); Underground Railway (Paradise, Yesterday Happened: Remembering H.M.); Nora Theatre Company (Marjorie Prime, Operation Epsilon, On The Verge, The Swan, Stop Kiss); Gloucester Stage Company (The Norman Conquests, Dinner With Friends); New Repertory Theatre (A Christmas Story). Barlow directed the Mill 6 Collaborative's productions of Shakespeare's R+J, Bunbury: A Serious Play For Trivial People, and The Monster Tales, as well as the world premieres of John J King's From Denmark With Love and Bear Patrol for Vaquero Playground.

Lydia Barnett-Mulligan (Simone) is a Resident Acting Company member of Actors' Shakespeare Project and has performed and trained at Shakespeare & Company in Lenox since the age of 15. She has worked across the country on new and classical works at Williamstown Theatre Festival, Tennessee Shakespeare Company, Elm Shakespeare Company, Gloucester Stage, Central Square Theater, Stoneham Theatre, Fresh Ink Theatre, Commonwealth Shakespeare, Bay Colony Shakespeare, Holland Productions, and the Salon at the Mount. Lydia is a graduate of Williams College and a proud member of Actors' Equity. She can be seen next onstage at Shakespeare & Company in Miss Bennet, Christmas at Pemberly and at Actors' Shakespeare Project in Much Ado About Nothing. www.lydiabarnettmulligan.com

Jaime Carrillo (Jos-B) performed in King Lear, MARAT/SADE, Macbeth, Mother Courage and Her Children, and Dream on Monkey Mountain during his six years as a company member of the Classical Theatre of Harlem. Regional credits include Woolly Mammoth Theatre (Helen Hayes Nomination), GALA Hispanic Theatre, and Studio Theatre. In Boston, Jaime has performed with Actors' Shakespeare Project, Central Square Theater, Lyric Stage, and SpeakEasy Stage (Winner, Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Production). TV credits: Saturday Night Live! Training: The William Esper Studio; BA with honors in Theater Arts, Brandeis University. Jaime is a Lucille Lortel Award-winning producer and was assistant producer on Waiting for Godot In New Orleans.

Amanda Collins (Devon) previously appeared at Boston Playwrights' Theatre in Melinda Lopez's Back The Night. Regional theatre: To Kill A Mockingbird, The Totalitarians, Out of Sterno (IRNE Nomination, Best Actress), 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, 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 Boston); Men on Boats, My Name is Asher Lev (Cape Rep); The Weird (Off The Grid); The Island of Slaves (Orfeo Group); Brecht's The Life of Galileo (Underground Railway); and Jester's Dead (The Outfit in NYC). Amanda is a graduate of Regis College where she earned a BA in History and Theatre. She is also a company member of Theatre Espresso, performing interactive dramas exploring issues of social justice in American history. Television: Olive Kitteridge (HBO), Castle Rock (Hulu) and Boston's Finest (ABC Pilot). Film: Sea of Trees.

Samantha Richert (Michaela) is beyond thrilled to be making her Boston Playwrights' Theatre debut. She currently teaches for the Theatre Department at Northeastern University and is a Boston-based director, movement/fight choreographer, and educator for various schools and youth programs in and around the area. She was recently seen as Ariel in The Tempest with Actor's Shakespeare Project, Lucky Stiff at Greater Boston Stage Company, and has also acted with The Gold Dust Orphans, Huntington Theatre Company, Lyric Stage Company, Nora Theatre Company, and Berkshire Theatre Group among various new play workshops and festivals. She recently directed Peter and the Starcatcher with Stoneham's young company this past summer and will be appearing in Hold These Truths with Lyric Stage Company this winter. She holds an MFA from Brandeis University and is a proud member of Actors' Equity Association. www.samantharichert.com­

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