GERTRUDE STEIN AND A COMPANION Announced At The Peterborough Players

What do Picasso, Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Sinclair Lewis, Thornton Wilder, and Matisse have in common? They all invented themselves in the famous Paris atelier of two American expats, Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas. Gertrude Stein and a Companion, running from July 3rd - 14th, explores the 40-year love affair between these two great minds and enduring artists of the 20th century.

Win Wells' witty and unconventional love story looks at Stein, an avant-garde novelist, poet, playwright and art collector, and her partner, editor and muse, Alice B. Toklas - whose recipe for hashish brownies in her 1952 cookbook, Thornton Wilder called "the publicity stunt of the year." In the early 1900s these women left behind their privileged American lives and found refuge, and each other, in bohemian Paris. Their encouragement of the "Lost Generation," (a term coined by Stein) indelibly changed the artistic landscape of the time.

In a season full of performances by powerhouse women, two Broadway veterans and Players' favorites return to bring Stein and Toklas to life. Becky London (Broadway's Marlene. Diana Vreeland in Full Gallop, The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life... and more at the Players) plays Stein. Dale Hodges (Broadway's original production of Equus. Arsenic and Old Lace, Outside Mullingar and others at the Players) is Toklas. Gertrude Stein and a Companion won first prize at both the Edinburgh Festival and the Theatre Festival in Sydney, Australia.

"The salon has always fascinated me, that existed in Paris that these two women ran, and where all of the major artists of the early 20th century met, and argued, and conversed, and exchanged ideas", says Artistic Director Gus Kaikkonen, who also directs the piece. "It really was a matrix of so much of 20th century art and literature." The play expounds upon how the relationship between Stein and Toklas, and those who attended their salon, affected their life and work in an enduring way.

Gertrude Stein and a Companion runs from July 3rd-14th and is exclusively sponsored by SoClean. Showtimes are Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays at 7:30pm, Saturdays at 8pm, and Sundays at 4pm. In addition, there is a 2pm matinee on Tuesday, July 9th. Tickets and more information can be found at www.peterboroughplayers.org, or by calling the Box Office at (603) 924-7585. Rated PG-13.

Peterborough Players is New Hampshire's premiere professional regional theater. Known for an annual Summer Season consisting of 7 main stage productions and 2 children's shows, the Players also now produces a 3-play Winter Season and continues to offer the Arts on Screen series that includes screenings of renowned performances from the Metropolitan Opera and London's National Theatre. The Players enriches the human experience by producing quality live professional theatre, developing and training theatre artists, and offering New Hampshire a wide variety of performing arts events. Peterborough Players is sponsored in part by the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts. For more information please visit Peterborough Players, 55 Hadley Road, Peterborough, NH 03458 or www.peterboroughplayers.org

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