The Land Of Terra Incognita Comes To Central Square With ON THE VERGE 5/28-6/21

The Nora Theatre Company presents On the Verge (or The Geography of Yearning) May 28 - June 21, 2009, Central Square Theater.

Machetes... Rock ‘n' Roll... Burma Shave... Dwight D. Eisenhower... audiences will discover the unpredictable land of Terra Incognita with three intrepid women explorers who can never be quite sure where - or when - their next steps will lead them when The Nora Theatre Company presents On the Verge (or The Geography of Yearning) at Central Square Theater this spring! Playing Thursday, May 28 through Sunday, June 21, On the Verge is written by Eric Overmyer, directed by Wesley Savick, and stars Deanna Dunmyer, Alicia Kahn, Anna Waldron, and Barlow Adamson. Press Night is set for Sunday, May 31 at 3:00 PM.

Eric Overmyer's vividly imaginative On the Verge (or The Geography of Yearning) follows the adventures of three fiercely independent Victorian women explorers as they spin through time from 1888 to 1955. As they embark on their trek to an unknown land, it becomes apparent that they are not on an ordinary expedition. While traversing the geography of yearning, they discover within themselves a powerful pull towards the future, absorbing knowledge while they travel through time. Through their encounters with a kaleidoscope of unlikely characters, they satisfy their need for adventure in a journey of wildly unpredictable discovery.

Full of pop culture references from the late nineteenth century to the mid 1950's, On the Verge is a play that is both joyfully feminist as well as a masterpiece of rhythm and word. It has become one of Overmyer's most popular works, due to its heightened, dynamic interplay of language and the smart, comic insight into nineteenth century women and culture.

Deanna Dunmyer (Mary) has appeared Off-Off-, Off-, and on Broadway in I Hate Hamlet, Little Women (1998 Richard Rodgers Award), Bill W. and Dr. Bob, 3 by Ionesco, Dose Center, The Star-Spangled Girl, Album, and the Canadian Mounties version of As You Like It. She has performed at Syracuse Stage, The Alley Theatre (1996 Tony Award Outstanding Regional Theatre Company), GeVa Theatre, Florida Conservatory Theatre, The Playmakers, American Stage Festival, Portland Stage, American Repertory Theatre, New Repertory Theatre, and Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theatre.

Alicia Kahn (Fanny) returns to the Boston area after working in Cleveland with a variety of companies including the Cleveland Playhouse, Great Lakes Theater Festival, and the Cleveland Shakespeare Festival, and in Boise with the Idaho Shakespeare Festival. Previous roles in Boston include Jane in Jane Eyre and Ella in After Mrs. Rochester, for which she won an IRNE Award, as well as Charlotte in Brontë, Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing, Elizabeth in Pride & Prejudice, Mabel in Pride's Crossing, Tracy in The Philadelphia Story, and Christina in Dancing at Lughnasa at Wellesley Summer Theatre; Maeve/Lizzie in Ballast at Centastage; and Belinda in The Family of Mann at Boston Playwrights' Theatre.

Anna Waldron (Alexandra) has appeared in Boston in All in the Timing and The Laramie Project with Bad Habit Productions, The Importance of Being Earnest with Longwood Players, Danny and the Deep Blue Sea, Cooking with Elvis, and The Firebugs with Apollinaire Theatre Company, Comedy of Errors with Imaginary Beasts, The B Files at Whistler in the Dark's Feverfest, and the sketch comedy show Tales from the Script at ImprovBoston. Anna is also one of the creators of I'm the Rhoda, an original piece that was performed at The Tribe and The New England Fringe Festival.

Barlow Adamson (Grover, Alphonse, The Gorge Troll, The Yeti, Gus, Madame Nhu, Mr. Coffee, and Nicky Paradise) has performed previously with The Nora Theatre Company in Stop Kiss in 2000 and The Swan in 1999. A Boston-based actor, he has also performed with The Lyric Stage Company (Arms and the Man, Private Lives, Noises Off), SpeakEasy Stage Company (Almost, Maine, Theater District), the Huntington Theatre Company (Maiden's Prayer, A Month in the Country) and Gloucester Stage Company (Dinner with Friends).

Eric Overmyer is a writer and television producer. His stage plays include Alki (an adaption of Peer Gynt by Henrik Ibsen), Dark Rapture, Don Quixote de La Jolla, Kafka's Radio, In Perpetuity throughout the Universe, and Native Speech, among others. He has written for and produced numerous television series, including St. Elsewhere, Homicide: Life on the Street, Law & Order, The Wire and New Amsterdam. He has also written several teleplays, including the 1998 television remake of Rear Window starring Christopher Reeve. Overmyer is the recipient of an Edgar Allen Poe award for Best Television Feature/Mini-Series Teleplay for The Wire (2002), and has been nominated for two Primetime Emmy Awards, the Humanitas Prize, and a Writers Guild of America Award.

Wesley Savick has worked previously at The Nora, directing its productions of The Man Who by Oliver Sacks, Peter Brook, and Marie-Hélène Estienne and Steven Berkoff's The Secret Love Life of Ophelia. He has served as artistic director of the internationally acclaimed experimental company Theatre X in Milwaukee, interim artistic director of the Drama League of New York's Directors Project, artistic associate of Chicago's Organic Theatre and resident guest director of the DARTS/Subaru Theatre in Tokyo, Japan. Mr. Savick has directed or acted in over seventy-five professional productions, almost all new works, including world premieres by Christopher Durang, Shel Silverstein, Derek Walcott, Howard Zinn and Robert Brustein. He has also written, co-written or adapted eighteen produced plays, including Miss Margaret LaRue in Milwaukee which premiered at the Boston Playwrights' Theatre, and the Underground Railway Theater production/adaptation of Alan Lightman's Einstein's Dreams.

The design team for On the Verge includes Ryan McGettigan (set) who designed the set for The Secret Life of Ophelia; Jacqueline Dalley (costumes), who has designed costumes for eight previoUs Productions including Stop Kiss, Dublin Carol, and Van Gogh in Japan; Steven McIntosh (lighting); Matthew Griffin (sound); and Sacha Shawky (props), who most recently designed the props for this season's We Won't Pay! We Won't Pay!

On the Verge (or The Geography of Yearning) plays at the Central Square Theater, 450 Mass. Ave. in Cambridge, Thursday, May 28 through Sunday, June 21, 2009. Performances are Wednesdays and Thursdays at 7:30 PM, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 PM, with matinees on Sundays at 3 PM. Post-performance talkbacks and other related events will take place during the course of the run of the production; information about them can be found at www.centralsquaretheater.org. Tickets, priced at $32; $22 for seniors; and $18 for students with a valid ID, can be purchased by calling (866) 811-4111, online at www.centralsquaretheater.org, or at the Central Square Theater box office. Student rush tickets can be purchased the day of the show for $12 in person at the box office or by calling (617) 576-9278 x213. For box office hours, group discounts, and more info call (617) 576-9278 x213.

 

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