Centenary Stage Company's THE NETHER to Run 10/9-25

Casting has been completed and rehearsals are well under way for Centenary Stage Company's highly anticipated New Jersey premiere of Jennifer Haley's gripping and critically acclaimed, The Nether, opening October 9 and running until October 25 in the Lackland Center in Hackettstown, NJ.

According to the New York Times, "Imagine an episode of 'Law & Order: SVU,' written by a futurist fiction writer like Ray Bradbury or Iain Banks" and you have Jennifer Haley's provocative The Nether. Winner of seven Ovation Awards in L.A, nominated for an Olivier Award for Best New play, and winner of the 2012 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, The Nether was hailed as a "haunting and highly original" (Telegraph) modern crime drama that hacks into urgent questions of desire, technology, and morality.

Set in the not - so - distant future, a new virtual wonderland provides total sensory immersion. Just log in, choose an identity and indulge your every whim. But when a young detective uncovers a disturbing brand of entertainment, she triggers a dark battle over technology and human desire. The Nether is both serpentine crime drama and haunting sci-fi thriller that explores the consequences of living out our private dreams.

Jennifer Haley is a playwright whose work delves into ethics in virtual reality and the impact of technology on our human relationships, identity, and desire. Other plays include Neighborhood 3: Requisition of Doom, a horror story about suburban video game addiction, and Froggy, a noir thriller with interactive media design and a live soundtrack. Haley has worked with Center Theatre Group, Royal Court Theatre, Headlong, Sonia Friedman Productions, the Humana Festival of New Plays, American Conservatory Theater, The Banff Centre, Sundance Theatre Lab, O'Neill National Playwrights Conference, Lark Play Development Center, PlayPenn, and Page 73. She is a member of New Dramatists in New York City and lives in Los Angeles, where she founded the Playwrights Union.

The Nether at Centenary Stage Company will be directed by CSC's own award winning Artistic Director Carl Wallnau. Emmy Award winning set designer Bob Phillips returns for the final design of his celebrated career to transform the Sitnik Stage into the lush imaginative virtual wonderland of The Nether. Implementing practical design elements with various forms of technology, media and projections, the design boasts a set that literally transforms seamlessly as the action unfolds.

The cast consists of several CSC veteran artists returning to the Sitnik stage. The cast is led by Erica Knight (Morris) and Craig MacDonald (Papa/Sims). Audiences will recognize Knight from CSC productions of The Liar and Harvey, as well as, her time spent with The Shakespeare Theatre of NJ. Veteran actor MacDonald returns to CSC and has performed in over a hundred and fifty professional productions from Off - Broadway to Regional Theaters, as well as, on camera for film and television. No stranger to CSC audiences, Peter Levine (Doyle) returns after his acclaimed performance in last season's world premiere In the Car with Blossom and Len. Rounding out the cast is CSC's own Christopher J. Young (Mr. Woodnut), previously seen in The Liar and Harvey, and making her professional debut is local talent and Long Valley middle schooler Olivia Mancuso (Iris).

Performances for The Nether are Thursday at 7:30pm, Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm and Sundays at 2pm. There are 2pm Matinees on Wednesdays October 14 and 21 and for the Friday preview on October 9. Tickets for The Nether range from $25.00 to $27.50. Thursday evening performances are $25.00 for ALL SEATS with a buy one/get one free rush ticket special. To take advantage of the Thursday evening rush ticket special tickets must be purchased in person at the box office the evening of the performance.

For more information or to purchase tickets visit us online at centenarystageco.org or call the box office at (908) 979 - 0900. Tickets may also be purchase in person at the CSC box office located in the David and Carol Lackland Center on the campus of Centenary College; 715 Grand Ave. Hackettstown, NJ. The box office is open Monday through Friday from 1 - 5pm and two hours prior to every performance.

The 2015-16 season of performing arts events at the Centenary Stage Company is made possible through the generous support of the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, the NJ State Council on the Arts, the Shubert Foundation, the Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation, the Sandra Kupperman Foundation, and CSC corporate sponsors, including Premier Season Sponsor Heath Village Retirement Community, Silver Sponsors Hackettstown Regional Medical Center, Home Instead Senior Care (Washington), The Holiday Inn in Budd Lake, and Fulton Bank of New Jersey, and Centenary Stage Company members and supporters.

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