Brave New World Rep Presents R.N. Healey's NUN$, Now thru 3/15

Brooklyn's acclaimed Brave New World Repertory Theatre presents R.N. Healey's NUN$, presented over two weekends (today, March 6th-9th and March 11th-15th), marking the first time Brave New World (BNW) takes work to Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

An isolated convent in the woods of Vermont houses women of dubious faith. Their lives are a constant ritual of work, prayer and heavy drinking. A shiny car on the American highway houses air conditioning salesman Thomas "Tom" Bryant. His life is a constant ritual of hustling and love for American food products. An unexpected auto accident forces these seemingly disparate universes together with explosive results.

Featuring Hannah Heller, Miranda Huba and Catherine Mancuso, Healey's work explores the price of an idyllic life at a rural convent and the extreme measures some must take to maintain a self-imposed standard of normalcy. Taking place in 1960's Vermont, NUN$ provides a lens through which to view contemporary issues. Strictures offer freedom and restraint simultaneously and vices abound to combat loneliness. The introduction of a foreign presence forces the residents to confront their individual pasts and their present desires.

Says artistic director Shannon Sindelar: "I was interested in working with R.N. because I believe her to be one of the exciting new comedic voices in playwriting. This extremely dark comedy affords us the opportunity to work with an almost entirely female cast composed of some of our favorite actors. Additionally, I felt this work would appeal to a slightly younger audience and that premiering it in Williamsburg would be welcome territory." This is the first time Brave New World will fully produce a New York premiere of a Brooklyn writer, marking what the company plans to be regular practice in the future.

R.N. Healey (Playwright) has had her work performed/work-shopped/developed in Dublin, New York, Minneapolis, Washington D.C. and Pittsburgh. Recent productions include Sergio Bolero (Meat and Bone Theatre Co. (Brooklyn, NY) and Blintz and the Ketchup People (Bricolage, Pittsburgh, PA). She is the recipient of 2nd place for the Mark Twain Prize for comedic playwriting (2012) as well as the Mary Marlin Fisher Playwriting award (2012). In July of 2012 she served as a playwright fellow at the Eugene O'Neill Center's National Playwright's Conference. She has been an artist in residence at the Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild in Woodstock New York and currently is the writer in residence at Harbor Gallery (Brooklyn). MFA Carnegie Mellon University, 2012.

Shannon Sindelar (Director) is the producing artistic director of Brave New World Rep. Directing credits include the New York premiere of Tennessee Williams' The Remarkable Rooming House of Mme. LeMonde (Target Margin), Sara Farrinton's Requiem for Black Marie (Incubator Arts Project), Miranda Huba's Candy Tastes Nice (HERE; Madame X) and Jason Grote's A Christmas Carol (The Brick). Shannon was the co-Artistic Director of the cross media performance group 31 Down, and for five years directed the company's productions, including Here at Home, Red Over Red, The Assember Dilator, I Used to be Curious [Loud] and Universal Robots.

About Brave New World Repertory Theatre: Over the past ten years in Brooklyn, Brave New World Rep has carved out a site-specific niche presenting reenvisioned classics and works by Brooklyn playwrights. Recent work includes free performances of Elmer Rice's Street Scene, in which the company closed off a street in Park Slope and used a tenement building and the adjacent street as the stage, and Orson Welles' Moby Dick-Rehearsed, presented on a barge in Red Hook. This year the company kicked off NEW WORKS, a new play initiative designed to deepen its relationship with Brooklyn writers (including this year Kristoffer Diaz, Erin Courtney, Gary Winter and Mark Sitko).

The company earned its reputation of delivering unexpectedly immersive works to communities all around Brooklyn with its 2005 production of To Kill a Mockingbird, presented on the front porches and sidewalks of a tree-lined Ditmas Park street. Other work includes On The Waterfront on a Brooklyn barge that toured the waterfronts of New York Bay, The Tempest on the beach and boardwalk in Coney Island, and The Crucible by lantern light for 2 weeks at The Old Stone House in Park Slope. Based in Brooklyn, Brave New World Repertory has been a featured favorite of Celebrate Brooklyn at the Prospect Park band shell, presenting acclaimed productions of Fahrenheit 451, The Great White Hope and Crossing Brooklyn Ferry, based on Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass. For more information, visit www.bravenewworldrep.com.

NUN$ by R.N. Healey, directed by Shannon Sindelar, will play The Brick, 579 Metropolitan Avenue, Brooklyn, NY, for the following performances:

Thursday, March 6 at 8p.m.

Friday, March 7 at 8p.m.

Saturday, March 8 at 8p.m.

Sunday, March 9 at 2p.m.

Tuesday, March 11 at 8p.m.

Wednesday, March 12 at 8p.m.

Thursday, March 13 at 8p.m.

Friday March 14 at 8p.m.

Saturday March 15 at 8p.m.

Tickets $18 General; $15 students/seniors. Visit: https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/pr/932278 or bravenewworldrep.org.

Directions: Take the L train to Lorimer or the G to Metropolitan.

CREATIVE TEAM:

Production Stage Manager: Jesse Penber

Set Design: Josh Smith

Costume Design: Martina Nevermann

Lighting Design: Christina Watanabe

Sound Design: Erik Lawson

CAST: Hannah Heller, Miranda Huba, Catherine Mancuso, Stephanie Hogan, Eleanor Ruth* and John Morgan*

*Members of Actors' Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in America.

For further information and to purchase tickets, visit: www.bravenewworldrep.org.

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