MadLab Announces the World Premiere of COUNTER/TOP

MadLab's world premiere production of Counter/Top by Kirin McCrory will take place Fridays and Saturdays, Aug. 11 - 26, 2017, with a special preview performance on Thursday, Aug. 10, at MadLab, 227 N. 3rd St., in Columbus. Admission is $18 for the general public, $15 for students and seniors and $13 for MadLab members. Tickets are available online at www.madlab.net.

The action of Counter/Top takes place inside "Tea Time!," a greasy spoon run by foul-mouthed matriarch Miss Betty and frequented by regulars like the kindhearted but totally incoherent Brooks. Two pressed and prim professors, Khent and Izzie, stop in for lunch, but they get more than a bad case of heartburn thanks to Liza and Gunner, a pair of teenaged troublemakers. Part raucous societal commentary, part sinister cat-and-mouse tale, Counter/Top forces us to consider what our own upbringings say about us, and to what lengths we'll go to hide them.

Playwright Kirin McCrory's plays and devised pieces have been produced nationally and internationally. Her textual work with performance collective The American Laboratory has been shown in galleries in Brooklyn, N.Y. and Los Angeles, Calif. She served as literary associate for Endstation Theatre's Playwrights' Initiative, and is currently the literary manager for VanguardRep.

"This play is really about who we are and what we hide from ourselves," says McCrory. "Everyone comes from a place, even if that place doesn't necessarily exist in the form of a town. Some of us are proud of the place we're from and some of us are not. Some of us view it as the only place we'll ever belong, and some of us strive to get out. Where you come from shapes so much about how you interact with the world, and unfortunately how the world interacts with you. All of the characters in Counter/Top are dealing with that in some way."

MadLab's production of Counter/Top is directed by Meg Mateer, assistant directed by Dallas Ray, and features actors Chad Anderson as Khent, Cat McAlpine as Izzie, Dustin Schwab as Gunner, Mary Sink as Miss Betty, Kayla Theis as Liza and Ben Tucker as Brooks.

Director Meg Mateer has been a lifelong practitioner of the theatrical arts in every capacity, working with high schools, summer stock companies, community theatres, professional theatres and college theatre departments. Along the way she has acted, designed, built, directed and taught.

MadLab is a non-profit organization that provides an artistic haven for the creation and experience of original works. For more information about events at MadLab, visit www.madlab.net. The Community Arts Fund of The Columbus Foundation, Greater Columbus Arts Council and Ohio Arts Council support MadLab throughout the year.

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