Nora Theatre Kicks Off 2014 with INSIGNIFICANCE, Now thru 2/9

The Nora Theatre Company will present Terry Johnson's Insignificance from today, January 9 - February 9, 2014. Insignificance is directed by Daniel Gidron. The press performance for Insignificance is Monday, January 13 at 7:30PM.

It's 1953. An actress who might be Marilyn Monroe knocks on the door of a New York City hotel room where a Professor - Albert Einstein? - is calculating the shape of the universe. Her husband, a baseball player, is jealous. And a zealous, sweaty Senator is looking for "Reds." Terry Johnson (of The Nora's Hysteria) conjures up a comedic fantasy questioning the moral and political dangers of fame and celebrity worship.

In January 2011, The Nora Theatre Company produced Terry Johnson's Hysteria to critical acclaim. Insignificance reunites Stacy Fischer and director b. For her performance in Hysteria, Ms. Fischer received the Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Actress. Ms. Fischer reunites with Mr. Gidron to perform the role of The Actress. She is joined by Richard McElvain (The Professor), Alexander Platt (The Ballplayer), and Barry M. Press (The Senator).

About INSIGNIFICANCE: Premiering in 1982 at The Royal Court Theatre, Insignificance, was a breakout hit for Terry Johnson. For Insignificance, Johnson received the Plays and Players Award for Best Play and the Evening Standard Award for Most Promising Playwright. The In1985, the film adaptation directed by Nicholas Roeg starred Michael Emil, Theresa Russell, Tony Curtis, and Gary Busey. It was the official British entry in the Cannes Film Festival.

About Terry Johnson: Terry Johnson (Playwright) has written plays that have been performed all over Great Britain and worldwide. He is the recipient of a dozen major theatre awards, including the Tony Award for Best Director of a Musical 2010, Olivier Award for Best Musical Revival, and Critics Circle Best Musical 2009 for La Cage Aux Folles. He also won the Olivier Award for Best Comedy of 1994 and of 1999, Playwright of the Year 1995, Critics Circle Best New Play 1995, The League of American Theatres and Producers Best Touring Play 2001, two Evening Standard Theatre Awards, Time Out Best Play Award 1995, Writers Guild Best Play 1995, Writers Guild Best play 1996, the Mayer-Whitworth Award 1993, and the John Whiting Award 1991. In addition, he has received over a dozen further nominations for various awards. West End credits include: The Duck House, End of The Rainbow, The Prisoner of Second Avenue, The Rise And Fall of Little Voice, La Cage Aux Folles, Rainman, Whipping It Up, One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, Hitchcock Blonde, Entertaining Mr. Sloane, The Graduate, Dead Funny, Hysteria, Elton John's Glasses, and The Memory Of Water. For The Hampstead Theatre, he has recently directed the acclaimed revival of his own play Hysteria, Race by David Mamet and Old Money. He has twice worked with Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago, directing John Malkovitch in The LIbertine, which was nominated for five Jeff Awards, including Best Production, and Lost Land, both plays by Stephen Jeffries. For the Royal National Theatre, he has written and directed three productions: Cleo, Camping, Emmanuelle and Dick, The London Cuckolds, and Sparkleshark (by Philip Ridley). His film Way Upstream was chosen for the London Film Festival and Insignificance was the official British Entry at Cannes in 1985.

About Director Daniel Gidron: Daniel Gidron (Director) recently directed Master Class at Shakespeare & Company and Absurd Person Singular, The How and the Why, and Photograph 51 for The Nora Theatre Company, as well as the immensely popular collaboration between The Nora and Underground Railway Theater, Arabian Nights (2011 IRNE Award, Best Director of a Drama). At Central Square Theater, he has also directed the world premiere of Silver Spoon by Amy Merrill and Si Kahn, Hysteria, The Caretaker, The Lady With All The Answers, The Cherry Orchard in a world premiere translation by George Malko, and We Won't Pay! We Won't Pay! for The Nora. An IRNE Award nominee for Best Director of a Drama for the company's 2007 production of Buried Child, Mr. Gidron has directed 17 other productions for The Nora, including The Unexpected Man, How I Got That Story, Richard McElvain's world premiere adaptation of Sophocles' Antigone, Smelling a Rat, The Countess, Full Gallop, and Mere Mortals, among others. He has also directed for many other companies such as The Lyric Stage Company of Boston, Tremont Theatre, Opera Boston, Merrimack Repertory Theatre, New Repertory Theatre, Gloucester Stage, and La Mama ETC. In Israel, where he was born, he has directed at Habimah National Theater, Haifa Municipal Theatre, Arab Theatre, Beit Lessin, Dror Theatre, and Beersheva Municipal Theatre. He has taught at Tel Aviv University, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and Brandeis University. He currently teaches at UMass Boston. Other productions include The Chosen, Or, Groundswell, and November (Lyric Stage Company of Boston); Picasso at the Lapin Agile (New Repertory Theatre); The Consul at Opera Boston; and Golda's Balcony (Elliot Norton and IRNE Awards, Best Solo Performance, Shakespeare & Company).

About the Cast & Creative Team of INSIGNIFICANCE:

Stacy Fischer (The Actress) was last seen at CST in URT's Distracted and The Nora's Hysteria (Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Actress). Previously, she also played Ophelia in The Nora's production of The Secret Life of Ophelia. Other recent credits include Robert Brustein's The Last Will (Commonwealth Shakespeare) and Our Town (Huntington Theatre Company). Stacy has performed in numerous theaters in the Boston area, including Boston Art Theatre, Boston Playwrights' Theatre, Gloucester Stage, Lyric Stage Company of Boston, New Repertory Theatre, North Shore Music Theatre, Publick Theatre Boston, SpeakEasy Stage Company, Stoneham Theatre, The Súgán, and Village Theatre Project. Stacy is a graduate of Emerson College and is a founding member of Harbor Stage Company in Wellfleet, MA.

Richard McElvain (The Professor) is just back from New York City, where he performed the role of Norman in the American premiere of Playing Sinatra with Austin Pendleton at Theater for the New City. At CST, he has played the title role in URT's Galileo and directed The Nora's A Moon For The Misbegotten. Previously for The Nora, he also created his own adaptation of Sophocles' Antigone, in which he played Creon. Other notable work includes The Luck of the Irish (Huntington Theatre Company), The Critic in Saint Nicholas (Elliot Norton award, Súgán Theatre), and Roy Cohn in Angels In America (Boston Theatreworks). He has translated and directed four plays by Moliere. His film and television credits include Mermaids, What's The Worst That Could Happen, Mister North, and Spenser For Hire. With his colleagues, he has created an award-winning theater program at Fitchburg State University.

Alexander Platt (The Ballplayer) is making his debut at CST. He has recently appeared in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Stoneham Theatre) and Far Away (Gamm Theatre). Other credits include Chinglish (Lyric Stage Company of Boston); Social Creatures, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, The Mourners' Bench, Love Alone (Trinity Repertory Company); Festen, Paul, Why Torture is Wrong..., Don Carlos (Gamm Theatre); The Etymology of Bird (Providence Black Rep); King Stag, Possible Worlds (Elemental Theatre Collective); Bad Money, Falling Up (Perishable Theatre); and The Pathological Passion of the Christ (La Mama ETC). Mr. Platt has an MFA from Trinity Rep Conservatory and is the artistic director of Elemental Theatre Collective.

Barry M. Press (The Senator) is delighted to be making his debut at CST. He most recently appeared in House and Garden (Trinity Rep), and has performed Off-Broadway and in regional theaters from Alaska to Florida, including Seattle, Merrimack, and Yale Repertory Theatres. Some of his favorite roles include: Ben Hecht in Moonlight And Magnolias; Niels Bohr in Copenhagen, Azdak in The Caucasian Chalk Circle, and Falstaff in Henry IV. Mr. Press has an MFA from the Yale School of Drama and is artistic director of Living Literature, a RI based literacy program dramatizing non-dramatic writing, which he founded in 1996.

The creative team for Insignificance are Scenic Designer Brynna Bloomfield, , Costume Designer Gail Astrid Buckley, Lighting Designer Scott Pinkney, Composer and Sound Designer Dewey Dellay, and Assistant to the Director Hatem Adell. Megan Kinneen is the Properties Artisan and Dominique D. Burford is the production Stage Manager, and Fatimah Mateen is the production Assistant Stage Manager.

Insignificance plays at Central Square Theater, 450 Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge, Thursday, January 9 through Sunday, February 9, 2014. Performances are Wednesdays and Thursdays at 7:30PM, Fridays at 8PM, Saturdays at 3PM and 8PM, and Sundays at 2PM. There is a performance on Monday, January 13 at 7:30PM. There is no performance on Wednesday, January 15. Tickets may be purchased by calling (866) 811-4111, at the Central Square Theater box office, or online at CentralSquareTheater.org. For box office hours, group discounts, and more information call (617) 576-9278 x210.

Central Square Theater (CST) opened in 2008 through a groundbreaking partnership between The Nora Theatre Company (The Nora) and Underground Railway Theater (URT). This collaboration has been called a model for the arts community (The Boston Foundation, Culture is our Commonwealth, and The National Collaboration Prize), as it has paired two like-minded performing arts organizations in a strategic alliance with the City of Cambridge and MIT, resulting in the development of a state-of-the-art performing arts center in the heart of Central Square. CST has a mission to support its two theaters-in-residence while maintaining a shared vision of artists and audiences creating theater vital to their communities. The Nora and URT have a combined track record of over 50 years producing award-winning theater. Located in Central Square, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and steeped in its multiracial, intergenerational, ethnically and economically diverse neighborhoods, the CST theater experience exudes a democratic energy where classes, races and age groups come together to be inspired, entertained and energized.

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