New Hampshire Theatre Project's 25th Season to Open with SIX CHARACTERS IN SEARCH OF AN AUTHOR, 11/15-12/1

New Hampshire Theatre Project's 25th Anniversary Seasonopens with Six Characters in Search of an Author, written by Luigi Pirandello. With its startling originality, Six Characters is now considered one of the most influential plays in the history of world literature, although it incited audience rioting at its 1921 debut in Rome. In what begins as a realistic play, six figures arrive who make the extraordinary claim that they are the incomplete but independent products of an author's imagination - "characters" the author abandoned when he couldn't complete their story. These "characters" have come in search of someone who will give them the fullness of literary life. Furthermore, these "characters" outrageously claim that they are more "real" than the actors who eventually want to portray them. Pirandello showed how illusion mixes with reality and how people see the same thing in many different ways. Considered the forerunner of Theatre of the Absurd, Pirandello was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1934.

NHTP resident company member Blair Hundertmark directs this provocative exploration on the nature of art, infusing it with his unique style of humor and passionate drama. Costume design is by Michele Macadaeg; lighting & set design by Matt Cost. The cast of Six Characters includes NHTP regulars CJ Lewis, Heather Glenn Wixson, Robin Fowler, Peter Josephson, Kate Kirkwood, Linda Chase and Fred Calcinari, along with newcomers Gabrielle Archambeault, Kyle Milner and Eric St. Cyr. Rounding out the cast are NHTP Youth Repertory Company member Van Wile, age 14, of Portsmouth, andGabriella Iafolla, age 9, of Barrington.

Six Characters in Search of an Author runs November 15 to December 1, 2013, Fridays & Saturdays at 8 pm, Sundays at 2 pm. General admission is $24; students and seniors re $20. Reservations are recommended. Call 603-431-6644 ext. 5 or email reservations@nhtheatreproject.org.

Photo by Meghann Beauchamp