TheatreSquared's THE HALF-LIFE OF MARIE CURIE Extends

Hailed by The Wall Street Journal and now streamed by thousands of streaming audience members across the nation, TheatreSquared's The Half-Life of Marie Curie will extend nationwide streaming through January 17, 2021 to meet demand.

Breaking streaming records for the company, The Half-Life of Marie Curie is the first brand-new production to be staged at the theatre since the onset of the public health crisis, and only the second production of the play since its acclaimed 2019 New York debut and features a newly revised script by Lauren Gunderson. Dawn Monique Williams directs, with Rebecca Harris (Bad Dates, Mauritius, Good People) returning to TheatreSquared to play Marie Curie, and Leontyne Mbele-Mbong playing scientist and suffragist Hertha Ayrton in her T2 debut.

On-demand streaming is available for an additional three weeks for any date through January 17 at just $20 per ticket. For tickets, call (479) 777-7777 or visit theatre2.org.

In reviewing the T2 production, Wall Street Journal critic Terry Teachout praised the performances of Harris ("compelling and entirely believable-so fully does she embody her role that it hardly seems as if she's acting at all") and Mbele-Mbong, as well as the "beautifully staged" and "exceedingly handsome" production. "TheatreSquared is clearly worthy of its fine reputation - outstanding," Teachout wrote.

"With four productions streaming at once, it is wonderful to see this remarkable artistic work continue even as in-person gatherings are curtailed," said T2 Executive Director Martin Miller, referring as well to the concurrent productions of Sarah Gancher's Russian Troll Farm (NYTimes "Best Theatre of 2020"), the newly revised rock opera Weightless by the Kilbanes, and the company's new adaptation of A Christmas Carol which opened December 8.

Lauren Gunderson is the nation's top-produced contemporary playwright and the author of TheatreSquared's 2018 production of Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley-a record-setting favorite that year. The Half-Life of Marie Curie revels in the power of female friendship between two fearless scientists at the heights and depths of their careers and lives. In 1911, Marie Curie won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for her discovery of the elements radium and polonium. By 1912, she was the object of ruthless gossip over an alleged affair with a married Frenchman, all but erasing her achievements from public memory. Weakened and demoralized by an unrelenting and unforgiving press, Marie joins her friend and colleague Hertha Ayrton, an electromechanical engineer and suffragist, to recover from the scandal at Hertha's seaside retreat on the British coast.

Access to stream The Half-Life of Marie Curie starts at just $20, and can be purchased online at theatre2.org or by calling 479.777.7477.

Lauren Gunderson (Playwright) has been one of the most produced playwrights in America since 2015, topping the list twice including in the 2019/20 season. She is a two-time winner of the Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award for I and You and The Book of Will, the winner of the Lanford Wilson Award and the Otis Guernsey New Voices Award, a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and John Gassner Award for Playwriting, and a recipient of the Mellon Foundation's Residency with Marin Theatre Company. She studied Southern Literature and Drama at Emory University, and Dramatic Writing at NYU's Tisch School where she was a Reynolds Fellow in Social Entrepreneurship. She co-authored the Miss Bennet plays with Margot Melcon, and her play The Half-Life of Marie Curie is available on Audible.com. Her work is published at Playscripts (I and You; Exit Pursued By A Bear; The Taming and Toil and Trouble), Dramatists Play Service (The Revolutionists; The Book of Will; Silent Sky; Bauer, Natural Shocks, The Wickhams and Miss Bennet) and Samuel French (Emilie). Her picture book Dr Wonderful: Blast Off to the Moon is available from Two Lions/Amazon.

Cast and Creative Team

The Half-Life of Marie Curie is helmed by Dawn Monique Williams, making her TheatreSquared debut with this project. She is the associate artistic director at Aurora Theatre Company in Berkeley, Calif. Her recent directing credits include Bull in a China Shop (Aurora Theatre Company, Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts); Earthrise (Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts); The Merry Wives of Windsor (Oregon Shakespeare Festival); Moon Man Walk, Tijean and His Brothers, A Midsummer Night's Dream (American Conservatory Theatre, MFA program); Letters To Kamala (American Stage); The Secretaries (Profile Theatre); Romeo & Juliet (Chautauqua Theatre); August Wilson's The Piano Lesson (Le Petit and UNCO); Lynn Nottage's By the Way, Meet Stark (Douglas Morrisson and UNCO); and Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (Town Hall). She is currently directing an audio version of Lynn Nottage's Las Meninas for Profile Theatre. Her awards include a Princess Grace Theatre Fellowship, a TCG Leadership U Residency Grant, and a Drama League Directing Fellowship. She holds an M.A. in dramatic literature and an M.F.A. in directing. She is a proud member of SDC.

The play features Rebecca Harris (Bad Dates, Mauritius, Good People) returning to TheatreSquared to play Marie Curie, and Leontyne Mbele-Mbong, who plays Hertha Ayrton in her T2 debut.

Additional members of the creative team for The Half-Life of Marie Curie include Ashleigh Burns (Scenic Design), Ruby Kemph (Costume Design), Jason Lynch (Lighting Design), Michael Prieto ( Sound Design), Christopher Smith (Camera Director), and Kris Washington (Film Editor).

The Half-Life of Marie Curie was captured live at TheatreSquared and offered as an on-demand, streamed performance. Patrons can reserve a 24-hour on-demand window for any date through January 17, with access beginning at noon each day and continuing through noon the following day.

For tickets, visit theatre2.org. For additional ticket assistance, contact the Box Office at TheatreSquared at 479.777.7477 or email tix@theatre2.org.

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