Photo Flash: SpeakEasy Stage Co. Presents 'BLACKBIRD'

Winner of the 2007 Olivier Award for Best New Play, BLACKBIRD tells the story of a meeting between two people, Ray and Una, who fifteen years ago had a passionate affair. Emotions run high as the pair recalls their scandalous relationship and attempt to come to terms with the shattering truth of their abandoned love.

Elliot Norton Award-winning director David R. Gammons (Titus Andronicus) will helm this production, his first for SpeakEasy Stage. A graduate of the Directing Program of The American Repertory Theatre Institute for Advanced Theatre Training at Harvard University, David has an impressive list of local directing credits including recent productions of The Duchess of Malfi for Actors' Shakespeare Project, and The Lieutenant of Inishmore and My Name is Rachel Corrie for New Repertory Theatre. Mr. Gammons is also Director of the Theater Program at Concord Academy.

Marianna Bassham will be making her SpeakEasy debut in the role of Una. A graduate of the Masters program at Brandeis University, Ms. Bassham most recently played Nerissa in the Actors' Shakespeare Project production of The Merchant of Venice. She has also been seen locally in The Tempest, Hamlet and Love Labour's Lost (Actors' Shakespeare Project); Miss Witherspoon and Talley's Folly (Lyric Stage); and as Stella in the New Repertory Theatre's production of A Streetcar Named Desire.

Scituate resident Bates Wilder will make his SpeakEasy debut in the role of Ray. MR. Wilder won the 2008 Independent Reviewers of New England (IRNE) Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Mitch in the New Rep production of Streetcar. He also earned a 2007 Best Actor IRNE for his work in New Rep's Frozen. In addition to his many TV, film and commercial credits, MR. Wilder also works regularly as the Production Stage Manager for the long-running hit comedy, Shear Madness.

BLACKBIRD was first commissioned and presented by the Edinburgh International Festival at the King's Theatre, Edinburgh, in August 2005. Subsequently, BLACKBIRD played in London's West End at the Albery Theatre where it won the 2007 Olivier Award for Best New Play, beating out Rock ‘n' Roll, The Seafarer, and Frost/Nixon for top honors.

BLACKBIRD made its American debut in New York in April 2007 at the Manhattan Theatre Club in a production which featured Jeff Daniels and Alison Pill.

Playwright David Harrower was born in Edinburgh in 1966. His first play, Knives in Hens, was produced at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, in 1995. He is also the author of the plays Kill the Old Torture Their Young, The Chrysalids, Presence, and Dark Earth. He has also recently written a new version of Odon von Horvath's Tales from the Vienna Woods for The National Theatre, London. Harrower is also working on a screen adaptation of the novel White Male Heart, and of BLACKBIRD for Jean Doumanian Productions.

The SpeakEasy Stage Company production of BLACKBRID will be performed in the Nancy and Edward Roberts Studio Theatre in the Stanford Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts, 527 Tremont Street in Boston.

Ticket prices range from $30-$50, with discounts available for both students and seniors at all times excluding gallery seating. Student rush seats, when available, are just $14.

For tickets or more information on BLACKBIRD, the public is invited to call 617-933-8600 or go online to www.SpeakEasyStage.com.

Please note that Blackbird contains adult content and is recommended for mature audiences.

SpeakEasy Stage is a proud resident theater company at the The Boston Center for the Arts (BCA), the nonprofit performing and visual arts center whose mission is to support working artists to create, perform, and exhibit new work; to develop new audiences; and to connect the arts to a broad public. 

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