Complete Cast Announced For Special Reading Of Susan Glaspell's THE VERGE At Brooklyn Botanic Garden

Classic Stage Company and Fiasco Theater, in collaboration with Hedgepig Ensemble Theatre's Expand The Canon (Emily Lyon, Artistic Director and Corri Oster, Managing Director) has announced complete casting for the one-night-only reading of The Verge by Pulitzer Prize winner Susan Glaspell (Trifles), starring Tony Award winner Miriam Silverman (The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window).

Directed by Jessie Austrian (Fiasco Theater's Pericles), The Verge will be presented at Brooklyn Botanic Garden in the Steinhardt Conservatory (990 Washington Avenue, Brooklyn, New York 11225) on Monday April 8 at 7:30pm. Doors will open at 6:30pm for self-guided tours of the conservatory gardens and tickets are available now at www.showclix.com/event/staged-reading-the-verge/listing.

Joining Silverman in the cast will be Noah Brody (Fiasco Theater's Pericles), Paul L. Coffey (Fiasco Theater's Pericles), Tony Award nominee Andy Groteleuschen (Fiasco Theater's Pericles), Ben Steinfeld (Fiasco Theater's Pericles), Aubrey Lace Taylor (Pair), Paco Tolson (Fiasco Theater's Pericles), and Emily Young (Fiasco Theater's Pericles).

Susan Glaspell's 1921 play The Verge is a post-war portrait of a woman created and creating through destruction. Claire Archer (Miriam Silverman) attempts to transcend the constraints of modern life through the breeding of new plants, despite a literal Tom, Dick, and Harry trying to stop her. As the blossoming of her latest creation approaches, her sanity is called into question and tensions around her unique way of life explode. A piece that is by turns devastating philosophical portraiture, droll farce, and scathing feminist cry, The Verge comes together in a pressure cooker analysis of prescribed womanhood. 

Set in a greenhouse, this rarely-heard play can now be seen in the perfect setting of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden's beautiful plant-life. Audience members will be able to tour the Garden's lush Conservatory with a complimentary glass of wine before watching Glaspell's stunning play. Highlighting this under-appreciated, female-driven dramatic work, particularly in this unique environment, speaks directly to the missions of the three theaters collaborating to share it with audiences.

Tickets for The Verge begin at $41 and are available at www.showclix.com/event/staged-reading-the-verge/listing. All tickets include complimentary wine and self-guided tours of the Garden's Conservatory before the performance. To learn more about the reading, please visit: www.bbg.org/visit/event/staged_reading_the_verge.

CSC is currently presenting Fiasco Theater's Pericles, written by William Shakespeare and directed by Fiasco's Co-Artistic Director and Co-Founder, Ben Steinfeld. The show began previews on February 8, opened on February 26, and is running through March 24, 2024. Tickets are on sale now at www.classicstage.org.

ABOUT Classic Stage Company

Classic Stage Company (CSC) challenges the traditional perception of classic work by exploring and reimagining great stories across the world's repertoire that illuminate our common humanity. As a home for the classics, CSC collaborates with artists to produce work that is inclusive, relevant, and accessible. CSC believes that theater can both reflect and improve society by reaching across cultural divides in order to foster shared empathy and understanding. 

In 1967, director Christopher Martin founded CSC Repertory in a 100-seat theater at Rutgers Presbyterian Church on West 73rd Street. Following short stints in small spaces, CSC grew to the point where it needed a permanent home. In 1973, the theater moved to its present premises on 13th Street, an intimate space that was formerly an East Village carriage house.

In the 55 years since, CSC has become a leading Off-Broadway theater that is a home for new and established artists, as well as audiences seeking epic stories intimately told. Productions have been cited by all major Off-Broadway theater awards including the Obie, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Drama League, and the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Body of Work.

ABOUT FIASCO THEATER

Fiasco Theater is an ensemble theater company based in NYC. The co-artistic directors of Fiasco met in graduate school during the first years of the Brown/Trinity MFA acting program. They connected through discussing how actor training and collaboration work best; together, they sought to define what makes for the most effective, exciting rehearsal. At Brown, they wore many hats in their collaborations, as actors, directors and writers. After school, they wanted to keep working this way: as an ensemble of artists with a shared vocabulary and love of making great theater through dynamic rehearsal. Fiasco was born out of that desire. They have a non-hierarchical leadership structure with 3 ADs sharing power; their classes and productions often have co-teachers and co-directors, modeling collaboration and multiple perspectives, inviting ensemble members to bring their holistic selves to the conversation.

Fiasco produces annual programming in four categories: They are presented by partner theaters. They produce stripped-down, actor-driven productions through their new series Without a Net. They develop new work through year-round readings and workshops (free and open to the public). They conduct education programs, including Master Classes, their Free Training Initiative and their Conservatory program. 

Presenting partner theaters in NYC have included Classic Stage Co, TFANA, New Victory and Roundabout Theatre, where Fiasco serves as the first-ever Company in Residence. The Fiasco Conservatory training program offers emerging artists the chance to train full-time in Fiasco's joy-based, actor-centered approach to theater-making. Fiasco's Free Training Initiative offers students a primer in Fiasco's rehearsal approach completely free of charge to all. Fiasco's production of Merrily We Roll Along at Roundabout (2019) was nominated for two Drama Desk awards (Best Revival/Best Director) as well as an Off-Broadway Alliance award (Best Revival). Cymbeline was presented Off-Broadway twice, for nearly 200 performances, and was honored with the 2012 Off-Broadway Alliance Award for best revival. Into the Woods garnered the 2015 Lucille Lortel Award for Best Revival and the 2016-17 national tour won the Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Visiting Production and LA Drama Critics Circle Awards for Best Direction and Best Ensemble. Cymbeline, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Measure for Measure and Into the Woods have all been NYT Critic's Picks. To date, their award-winning work has been seen by over 200,000 audience members in NYC, including over 12,000 school children, and The New York Times has called Fiasco “a force to reckon with in the American theater.” They are currently also in residence with NYU-Gallatin, have been commissioned by The Old Globe and just completed a podcast of Aditi Brennan Kapil's Measure for Measure in collaboration with Next Chapter Podcasts. Their most recent production was the critically acclaimed The Knight of the Burning Pestle at the Lucille Lortel Theatre, co-produced with Red Bull Theater. Fiasco has been in residence with TFANA, New Vic Labworks, Duke University, Marquette University and LSU. They have developed work with the Sundance Theatre Lab, the Orchard Project, SPACE on Ryder Farm and the Shakespeare Society. Fiasco receives generous support from Howard Gilman Foundation, SHS Foundation, Lucille Lortel Foundation, Actors Equity Foundation, The Harold & Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust, New York State Council on the Arts and The Shubert Foundation.

ABOUT HEDGEPIG ENSEMBLE THEATRE

Founded in 2012, Hedgepig Ensemble Theatre's mission is to reimagine the classics, creating a legacy of storytelling with gender equity at its core. To make that mission even more profound and impactful, Hedgepig created Expand the Canon (www.expandthecanon.com) in 2020 as a call to action for theatres to embrace and produce plays by women and non-binary writers as classics. Plays on the Expand the Canon lists have since been seen at major companies like Roundabout Theatre, Repertorio Español, The Classical Theatre of Harlem, Island Shakespeare Festival, TheStratford Festival, and Theatre for a New Audience. The lists have helped shape curricula of universities across the country. Additionally, Hedgepig Ensemble Theatre has grown their research database to 6,000+ historic plays by women and non-binary writers. Subscriptions to access these classic plays and more information about Hedgepig Ensemble Theatre and Expand the Canon can be found at hedegpigensemble.org. 

ABOUT EXPAND THE CANON

Both a celebration and a call to action, Expand the Canon demands space in the canon of classics for more diverse women playwrights, many of whom were underproduced or utterly un-produced in their lifetimes. How? Each year, we release a curated list of 9 excellent classic plays by women from 1600-1980, curated by a committee of 30+ professionals and educators. Why Expand the Canon? Because by re-casting the past, we can re-shape the future. So long as the only stories revered as classics are by men, we will continue to prioritize the male lens and point of view culturally. Women's perspectives will always be secondary. We are intentional about having our lists strive for 50% Global Majority female playwrights; we hope that in the future, more of these titles will be known, translated, and available. By insisting that excellent works by a diverse group of women playwrights be regarded as classics, we can redefine theatre's values. And by staging these stories in our communities, we can shift culture. Visit expandthecanon.com to view all 36 classic plays you should know!

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