Theater with a View Brings CIRCLE MIRROR TRANSFORMATION to Sycamore Hill Tonight

Theater with a View is bringing a production of Circle Mirror Transformation by Annie Baker to Pottstown, PA. The play will open tonight, July 23 for an eight-performance run outdoors at Sycamore Hill, the home of Drs. Veronica Covalesky and Nick Leasure, at 481 Ebelhare Road. Directed by Seth Reich, the production features a cast of New York actors.

Circle Mirror Transformation is the second production for Theater with a View, which staged a site-specific production of David Auburn's Proof in Pottstown last summer. The production used Sycamore Hill's stone porch to stand in for the Chicago porch of Auburn's acclaimed play.

Circle Mirror Transformation will run Thursdays through Saturdays at 7:30pm with an additional Saturday performance at 2pm. There is a suggested donation of $25 for audience members, and seating is limited.

Winner of the Obie Award for best new American play in 2010, Circle Mirror Transformation takes place in fictional Shirley, Vermont and follows four non-actors enrolled in Marty's summer acting class. They play seemingly harmless theater games, and the results are sometimes funny, sometimes awkward, as the games unexpectedly reveal the characters' secret hopes, quiet heartbreaks, and fumbles toward happiness. The play is humorous, bittersweet, and full of little revelations both quietly devastating and sharply funny. The cast of Circle Mirror Transformation is Nina Covalesky, Steven Fogelman, Michael Hajek, JC Sullivan, and Jaz Zepatos.

"We are thrilled to be returning to Chester County with Annie Baker's beautiful play. " said director Seth Reich. "The communities of Pottstown and the surrounding neighborhoods were incredibly enthusiastic and supportive last year for our intimate site-specific production of Proof. It was a deeply gratifying experience for everyone involved. We have added four performances to meet the demand for this kind of a theater experience, and we are very much looking forward to sharing this play."

Circle Mirror Transformation was originally produced Off-Broadway by Playwrights Horizons in 2009, directed by Sam Gold.

Seth Reich most recently directed Danny and the Deep Blue Sea at Columbia University. Select directing credits include: Proof (Theater With a View); Romeo and Juliet (Columbia University); A Midsummer Night's Dream (Actor's Shakespeare Company); Short Kutz and Forks (newFangled theatReR). Film: The Moment After. Seth has worked at several regional theatres including the American Repertory Theatre, Classic Stage Company, Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, and the Publick Theatre. He is especially proud of the program he developed for Actor's Shakespeare Company that utilized Shakespeare's works to develop communication skills for students with disabilities; a program that was critically acclaimed by the Folger Shakespeare Library. Seth has worked with and studied under many renowned artists including: Peter Brook, Jason Robert Brown, Rinde Eckert, Sam Gold, Whoopi Goldberg, Michael Hammond, Brian Kulick, Kristin Linklater, Gregory Mosher, Christian Parker, Anthony Rapp, Peter Sellars, John Douglas Thompson, and Robert Woodruff. He is also an actor, musician, and educator. BA: Emerson College, MFA: Columbia University.

Annie Baker grew up in Amherst, Massachusetts. Her full-length plays include The Flick (Playwrights Horizons, Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Hull-Warriner Award, Susan Smith Blackburn Award, Obie Award for Playwriting), Circle Mirror Transformation (Playwrights Horizons, Obie Award for Best New American Play, Drama Desk nomination for Best New American Play), The Aliens (Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, Obie Award for Best New American Play), Body Awareness (Atlantic Theater Company, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle nominations for Best Play/Emerging Playwright), and an adaptation of Chekhov's Uncle Vanya (Soho Rep, Drama Desk nomination for Best Revival), for which she also designed the costumes. Her plays have been produced at over 150 theaters throughout the U.S., and have been produced internationally in over a dozen countries. Other recent honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship, New York Drama Critics Circle Award, Lilly Award, a MacDowell Fellowship, and a Time Warner Storytelling Fellowship. She is a resident playwright at the Signature Theatre.

Theater with a View was launched in 2014 with the goal of providing an artistic home for the development and production of site-specific, environmental, and other non-traditional stagings of contemporary plays to engage a diverse audience. It is a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a 501(c)(3) organization. Circle Mirror Transformation is the second production for Theater with a View. www.theaterwithaview.com

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