Convergence-Continuum Presents FINN IN THE UNDERWORLD At The Liminis Theatre, Opens 9/18

Tremont's resident theatre company, convergence-continuum, continues its 2009 season at the Liminis theatre with the psychological thriller FINN IN THE UNDERWORLD by JorDan Harrison, which premiered in 2005 at tBerkely Repertory Theatre.

In this contemporary Gothic tale, Gwen and her sister Rhoda are packing up the belongings -- and the secrets -- in their crooked childhood house. When Gwen's wayward son Finn arrives to harvest the more fashionable heirlooms, he meets a neighbor who is not what he seems. Finn's sexual curiosity draws him down into the fallout shelter, and into the heart of an unfinished ghost story, which becomes. a psychosexual horror story about what can happen when grief goes unspoken. "There is something deliciously creepy about JorDan Harrison's new play, Finn in the Underworld, a time-bending little thriller that reveals family secrets, real or imagined." ---Contra Costa Times
For this production, the Liminis has been transformed into the home of the Rockford family, a strange house with secret strange corners. Company member Geoffrey Hoffman (who directed last year's hit production of FREAKSHOW), directs the ensemble cast which includes convergence-continuum regulars Lucy Bredeson-Smith, Lauri Hammer and artistic director Clyde Simon, with Scott Gorbach returning from BIG LOVE to make his second appearance at the Liminis as Finn..
FINN IN THE UNDERWORLD opens Friday, Sept. 18 and runs at 8 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays through Oct. 17, at the Liminis, 2438 Scranton Rd., Cleveland, OH 44113. Tickets are $12 general admission, $9 for students and seniors (65+). For reservations and information call 216-687-0074 or visit www.convergence-continuum.org on the web.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION
The Playwright: JorDan Harrison
JorDan Harrison's plays include Act a Lady (produced by convergence-continuum in our 2007 season), Finn in the Underworld, The Museum Play and Kid Simple. JorDan Harrison grew up on Bainbridge Island near Seattle. His first play, Kid-Simple, premiered in the 2004 Humana Festival at Actors Theatre of Louisville and has been produced in Providence, San Diego, Seattle, Chicago, Los Angeles, and off Broadway at the 1st Summer Play Festival. His play Finn In The Underworld, developed at Seattle Repertory Theatre, premiered in 2005 at Berkeley Repertory Theatre. His other plays, which include The Museum Play and Act A Lady, have been developed at the Illusion Theater, the Jungle Theater, Playwrights Horizons, Portland Center Stage, Signature Theatre Company, Soho Rep, Theatre de la Jeune Lune, and the Williamstown Theatre Festival, among others. Harrison is the recipient of the Heideman Award, two Jerome Fellowships and a McKnight Grant from The Playwrights' Center, and a New Works grant from the Rhode Island Foundation. He has written commissions for the Guthrie Theater/Children's Theatre Company and the National New Play Network. A graduate of Stanford University and the Brown M.F.A. Playwriting program, Harrison is a resident playwright at New Dramatists. With Sally Oswald, he co-edits the annual "Play: A Journal of Plays," dedicated to re-imagining the life of plays on the page.

The Play: FINN IN THE UNDERWORLD
Finn in the Underworld is produced by special arrangement with Playscripts, Inc. Finn in the Underworld was written with the support of the Jerome Foundation and the Djerassi Resident Artist Progrm, and was further developed at the Playwrights' Center PlayLabs and at Seattle Repertory Theatre. I received its world premiere at Berkley Repertory Theatre in October 2005. Since its publication by Playscripts in 2008, it has been produced by Actors Express in Atlanta, and now by convergence-continuum.
"Finn in the Underworld" is a fugue of paranoia, a dark remembrance of things past, and a dangerous, passionate sexual dalliance that courts disaster and death. It is, to quote the playwright, "a psychosexual gothic horror story" that keeps the audience guessing about everything. "Present fears are less than horrible imaginings," said Shakespeare in "Macbeth"; Mr. Harrison's play lives and breathes that unsettling idea, which is bestowed upon each of the four characters in the play." - Manning Harris, Atlanta InTown.

"One of the pleasures of Harrison's spare, crisp writing is the way he lets us in on the decades-old tensions in this family without over-dramatizing them... Harrison blends time and characters in fascinating, confusing, revelatory ways." -- Chad Jones, Oakland Times

The Company: convergence-continuum
convergence-continuum was founded in 2001 by Clyde Simon (Artistic Director) and Brian Breth. After completion of the renovations of the Liminis, the company's artistic home in the Tremont neighborhood of Cleveland, into an intimate, versatile, storefront performance space, the company then transformed it into an 18th century French asylum for its first production, a four-weekend run of QUILLS by Doug Wright, in August 2002. For the company's second production (Oct. 2002), the Liminis was converted into a junkyard outside the city of Azusa for a four-weekend run of Sam Shepard's THE UNSEEN HAND. Since then, the company has continued to produce alternative/experimental theatre work, and to completely transform the Liminis for each show, immersing audiences in the world of the play in up-close productions. (Maximum seating is 40-50 depending on the set-up for each show.)

FINN IN THE UNDERWORLD, the company's 31st production, is the fourth show of the 2009 season, following Paula Vogel's THE MINEOLA TWINS, Melanie Marnich's QUAKE, and Charles Mee's BIG LOVE. The company's season runs from Spring through Fall, with a hiatus over the Winter. This season we will be presenting six shows, the fifth and sixth being two versions of OUROBOROS by Tom Jacobson to run in rep in Nov./Dec.

Nearly all of the cast and crew for FINN have been involved in previous convergence-continuum productions in many and various capacities. The company seeks to create a core ensemble that continues to work together over the long term in exploring and developing its artistic voice and performance and production practIce To create up-close, environmentally staged productions that challenge the status quo and extend the boundaries of theatre.

 

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