World Premiere of TO THE BONE to be Presented at Open Fist Theatre Company in October

Sometimes you get thrown a curveball. Open Fist Theatre Company will present the world premiere of a dark comedy about family, baseball, genetics - and the unexpected vagaries of life. To the Bone, written and directed by Catherine Butterfield, opens October 1 at Atwater Village Theatre, where performances continue through November 5.

It's 2013 - 20 years since the Red Sox lost their chance at the pennant when a Yankees fan bounded onto the field in the ninth inning, voiding what would have been the game-winning out. Sisters Kelly Moran (Tisha Terrasini Banker) and Maureen Dugan (Amanda Weier) still live on the "Irish Riviera" south of Boston, where they were known as "hard girls" back in high school. Now they're readying the house for a meeting with the daughter Kelly gave up for adoption back when she was 17. But Kelly's teenage son, Sean (Jack Sharpe), is not so sure how he feels about that. And when Geneva (Alice Kors) shows up with her college roommate, Darcy (Kacey Mayeda), things don't go exactly as expected.

"This play is an educated guess at the fate of the 'hard girls' at my high school," laughs Butterfield. "Those years were probably the best of their lives, but they weren't so much fun for the kids who were afraid of them - kids like me. Now they're in their forties, the blush is off the rose, and the dreams didn't pan out. When I began this play, I had a bit of an agenda, but pretty soon I fell in love with my characters and forgot my grudges. Writing is a good way to heal."

Butterfield previously co-authored Open Fist's 2017 evening of political one-acts, Welcome to Your Alternative Reality, with her husband, playwright Ron West (Open Fist productions of DeLEARious, Neil Simon's Musical Fools). Butterfield's other plays, published by Dramatists Play Service, Samuel French and Playscripts, Inc., include Life Expectancy, It Has to Be You, Brownstone, The Sleeper, Joined at the Head, Where the Truth Lies, Snowing at Delphi and Life in the Trees. Joined at the Head won the George E. Oppenheimer/New York Newsday Award for outstanding play by a first-time playwright. She has also received the Kennedy Center-American Express award for outstanding promise as a playwright; the Kaufman & Hart Award for best new American comedy (The Sleeper); and the Davie Award for best new play in regional theater (Life in the Trees). Joined at the Head, in which she also starred at the Manhattan Theatre Club, was nominated for a Drama Desk award and has been produced extensively in this country and abroad. Brownstone was commissioned by the Laguna Playhouse. Top of the World was a semi-finalist in the 2018 Eugene O'Neill playwriting competition and has been optioned for production in New York. Additional new plays include Electra, Revisited, a play with music that takes a post-feminist, darkly comic look at the House of Atreus; Gellhorn, about the famed war correspondent Martha Gellhorn; and an adaptation of the Anthony Trollope novel The Way We Live Now, co-written with West. TV writing/producing credits include Grimm, Ghost Whisperer, Party of Five and Fame LA. Regional directing credits include Brownstone at the Laguna Playhouse, and the film adaptation of her short play John's Hand, which can be found on Youtube and StrikeTV.

The creative team for To the Bone includes scenic designer Jan Munroe, lighting designer Gavan Wyrick, sound designer Marc Antonio Pritchett, costume designer Mylette Nora, prop masters Bruce Dickinson and Ina Shumaker, and scenic painter Stephanie Crothers. The production stage manager is Jennifer Palumbo.

Open Fist Theatre Company is a collective, self-producing artistic enterprise with all facets of its operation run by its artist members. The company's name combines the notion that an open spirit, embracing all people and all ideas, is essential, with the idea that determination, signified by a fist, is necessary if the theater is to remain a vital voice for social change and awareness.

To the Bone runs October 1 through November 5, with performances taking place on Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 7 p.m., except Saturday, Oct. 29 and Sundays, Oct. 23 and Oct. 29, each of which will be a 2 p.m. matinee. General admission to all performances is $30, with $20 tickets available to seniors and $15 tickets available to students with valid ID. Atwater Village Theatre is located at 3269 Casitas Ave in Los Angeles, CA 90039. Parking is free is in the ATX (Atwater Crossing) parking lot one block south of the theater. Appropriate for ages 10 and up.

To purchase tickets and for more information, including up-to-date Covid-19 protocols on the date of each performance, call (323) 882-6912 or go to www.openfist.org.

 

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