The Seeing Place Theater to Present Margaret Edson's WIT

THE SEEING PLACE THEATER has announced their production of Margaret Edson's Pulitzer Prize-winning play, WIT, directed by Brynn Asha Walker. WIT will play a three-week limited engagement at The Seeing Place at The Paradise Factory (64 East 4th Street, NYC 10003). Performances begin Thursday, December 30, 2021 and continue through Sunday, January 16, 2022. Opening Night is Sunday, January 2 (2 p.m.). Tickets are $25-$35 and are available at www.TheSeeingPlace.com. 

Margaret Edson's powerfully imagined Pulitzer Prize-winning play examines what makes life worth living through her exploration of one of existence's unifying experiences a?? mortality a?? while she also probes the vital importance of human relationships.

Vivian Bearing, Ph.D., a renowned professor of English who has spent years studying and teaching the brilliant and difficult metaphysical sonnets of John Donne, has been diagnosed with terminal ovarian cancer. Her approach to the study of Donne, and her cancer, is aggressively probing, intensely rational. But during the course of her illness-and her stint as a prize patient in an experimental chemotherapy program at a major teaching hospital-Vivian comes to reassess her life and her work with a profundity and humor that are transformative both for her and the audience.

In this carefully crafted stylized rendition from The Seeing Place Theater two of the performers have their own unique experiences with Cancer. Erin Cronican (Vivian Bearing, PhD) is currently battling Stage 4 (metastatic) Breast Cancer. She was diagnosed with this terminal disease on November 6, 2018. She's on weekly systemic chemo under the care of doctors at Mount Sinai Hospital. Robin Friend (Dr. Jason Posner) is a Testicular Cancer Survivor, who was diagnosed and treated in early-mid 2021.

The Seeing Place Theater works to inspire audiences to "social justice action" by using the themes of its plays to educate and incite change, particularly for women, LGBTQIA+, Global Majority (BIPOC), immigrants, and the disabled/those with chronic illnesses. Working with members of the community and empowering their voices is an important component of their work. In addition to Edson's membership in the LGBTQIA+ community, members of the company include Brynn Asha Walker (Susie Monahan, RN) who is a Trans actress bringing an interesting layer of complexity to the patriarchal "office politics" routinely seen in medicine. (She is also the caregiver to Cronican whom she married in August 2021). Brynn is also a member of the Global Majority (BIPOC). Christopher James Murray (Dr. Kelekian, and others) is both part of the LGBTQIA+ community and a member of the Global Majority (BIPOC).

The production stars Erin Cronican (Off-Broadway’s This One’s For The Girls, Sistas, and Danny and The Deep Blue Sea) as Vivian Bearing, Ph.D., Robin Friend (TSP’s Measure for Measure and Cloud Nine) as Jason Posner, MD, and others, Janice Hall (TSP’s A Lie of the Mind) as Professor EM Ashford, DPhil, Christopher James Murray (Tyrannicide, The Tempest) as Harvey Kelekian, MD, and others, and Brynn Asha Walker (Off Broadway’s Danny and The Deep Blue Sea, TSP’s Measure for Measure) as Susie Monahan, RN, and others.

The production is Associate Produced by Will Ketter, features scenic and costume design by Erin Cronican and lighting will be by a designer to be announced at a later date. Brynn Asha Walker is the sound designer. Stage management will be announced at a later date. Publicity by Katie Rosin/Kampfire PR.

WIT plays the following regular schedule through Sunday, January 16:

Wednesdays at 7 p.m.

Thursdays at 7 p.m.

Fridays at 7 p.m.

Saturdays at 7 p.m.

Sundays at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.

Tickets are $25-$35 and are available at www.TheSeeingPlace.com Tickets may also be purchased in-person at the theater a half-hour prior to the performance.

Running Time: 100 minutes, no intermission

Website: www.seeingplacetheater.com

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