William Inge's PICNIC Opens Triad Stage's Ninth Season, Runs September 6-27

Triad Stage opens its 2009-2010 Season - "A Season Together" - with Picnic, William Inge's portrait of life in the American heartland. The greatest risk is love. It's a peaceful time for a quiet Kansas town in the early 1950s and summer is drawing to a close with the excitement of the annual Labor Day picnic. But the sudden arrival of Hal Carter, a handsome young drifter, stirs the emotions of a group of neighbors as he develops an instant attraction with Madge, one of the most beautiful girls in town. As Hal hides deep insecurities with grand shows of bravado, Madge is torn between her heart and her head in this Pulitzer Prize-winning drama where passions turn one small community upside down. Picnic runs September 6 through 27, 2009. Opening Night is Friday, September 11. The production is sponsored by the Lincoln Financial Foundation.

William Inge (Playwright) was born in 1913 in Independence, Kansas where his childhood life would influence many of his future works. In 1943, he became the St. Louis-Times' theatre critic, and there he met Tennessee Williams. After joining Williams at a performance of The Glass Menagerie in Chicago, Inge was inspired to become a playwright himself. Within three months he had completed Farther Off from Heaven. While teaching at Washington University in St. Louis, he began work on what would become Come Back, Little Sheba, the play that earned him the title of most promising playwright of the 1950 Broadway season. His next Broadway play, Picnic (1953), won numerous awards. Inge's Broadway success continued with Bus Stop (1955) and The Dark at the Top of the Stairs (1957) until a short string of failures prompted him to leave playwriting in the mid 1960s. His first screenplay, Splendor in the Grass (1960) earned him the Academy Award® for Best Screenplay. He returned to teaching in 1968 but increasing depression led him to quit after only two years. He managed to write two novels, Good Luck, Miss Wycoff (1970) and My Son is a Splendid Driver (1971), before committing suicide in 1973. He was buried in his hometown, where his headstone simply reads "Playwright."

Picnic was based on one of William Inge's earliest attempts at playwriting - Front Porch - which he had written in 1952. In it, he unevenly wove together a character study about several women and the idea of "porch culture", basing it on three real-life school teacher boarders who lived at his mother's boarding house when he was a child. He later expanded the plot and included several male characters. By doing this, he effectively created an exploration into small town life and produced an interesting contrast of sexual impropriety and the American Dream. The play opened on Broadway in February 1953 and went on to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the Outer Circle Award, the New York Drama Critic's Award, the Donaldson Award and the Theatre Club Award. The movie adaptation received two Academy Awards® and a Golden Globe Award, and was listed as one of the ten best films of 1955. Picnic was revived on Broadway in 1994 with Ashley Judd in the role of Madge. The revival was nominated for three Tony Awards®.

Preston Lane, Triad Stage Artistic Director/Co-founder and the production's director, is thrilled to be at the helm. "It has been on our short list of plays to produce for the past eight years. I've had a great fondness for Picnic ever since I starred in a production as a teenager, and I'm glad we've finally managed to find a home for it." Lane explains why he chose to bring the Midwestern tale to the Triad region. "I find an authentic regional voice in Inge. He's a writer who places his work firmly in a specific context but he reaches out beyond his small corner of Kansas toward the universal and the true. He is a tremendous talent who created characters who deserve their places alongside Tennessee Williams' Blanche Dubois and Arthur Miller's Willy Loman." Picnic is the second play by William Inge to be produced by Triad Stage. The first was Bus Stop in September 2004.

For Triad Stage's production of Picnic, Lane has assembled a cast of talents from New York and the Triad area. The 11-member ensemble includes: Lorraine Shackelford as Helen Potts, Joe Tippett as Hal, Cheryl Koski as Millie, Philip Eggers as Bomber, Meg Steedle as Madge, Elisabeth Ritson as Flo Owens, Amy da Luz as Rosemary, Matthew Carlson as Alan, Joby Lee Strachan as Irma Kronkite, Emily Mark as Christine Schoenwalder and James Crawford as Howard Bevans.

The creative team includes: scenic designer Howard C. Jones, costume designer Kelsey Hunt, lighting designer John Wolf and sound designer David E. Smith. The dramaturg is Drew Barker, the dialect coach is Christine Morris, the fight director is Jim Wren and the choreographer is Donna Baldwin Bradby. Cindi Rush is the casting director, the stage manager is Eric Tysinger and the assistant stage manager is Christy Weikel.

Triad Stage audiences will find the Picnic set particularly interesting as designer Howard Jones has turned the stage floor into a wall-to-wall carpet of real sod, burned out by a long, hot summer. Many patrons will be able to walk across the set to get to their seats. Kelsey Hunt's costumes recreate the fashion styles and clothing materials of the 1940s and early 1950s.

Biographies for the cast and creative team, and more information on the production can be found online at www.triadstage.org.

Performance and special event information
Tickets for Preview performances of Picnic, on September 6, 8, 9 and 10, are all $16 each. From Opening Night, September 11, single ticket prices range from $10 to $42. Prices vary depending on the day of the week and seat location desired.

All performances are at Triad Stage at The Pyrle Theater, located at 232 South Elm Street in downtown Greensboro, North Carolina (between Market and Washington Streets).

Show times for Picnic are 7:30 pm on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday evenings and 8:00 pm on Friday and Saturday evenings. Sunday matinees are at 2:00 pm. There are no matinee performances during previews. Pay-What-You-Can performances are Sunday, September 13, and Tuesday, September 15, at 7:30 pm. Wine Tasting Friday is September 18, prior to the evening's 8:00 pm performance, with wines provided by Stonefield Cellars. A Sign-Interpreted performance is on Tuesday, September 22, at 7:30 pm, with services provided by the Greensboro Communication Services for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.

Technically Talking,a behind-the-scenes discussion with members of the design team is Tuesday, September 8, immediately following the 7:30 pm preview performance. The InSight Series, the free humanities program that brings a noted speaker to the Triad to discuss the world of the play and its subject matter, will be held on Sunday, September 13, immediately following the 2:00 pm matinee performance. PostScript, a lively, open discussion with members of the cast, will be held on Thursday, September 17, immediately following the 7:30 pm performance.

Triad Stage is a professional not-for-profit regional theater company based in Greensboro's downtown historic district. All Triad Stage productions are created in Greensboro using the best of local and national talent. Triad Stage gratefully acknowledges the support of its Season Sponsors: Mitre Agency, the North Carolina Arts Council and the United Arts Council of Greater Greensboro. The starring sponsor for Picnic is the Lincoln Financial Foundation.

Triad Stage's 2009-2010 Season - "A Season Together" - continues with Oleanna, a power play by David Mamet (October 18 - November 8, 2009), Around the World in 80 Days, a comic adventure by Mark Brown, based on the novel by Jules Verne (February 7 - 28, 2010), Ethel Waters: His Eye Is on the Sparrow, a life in music by Larry Parr (April 11 - May 2, 2010) and the world premiere of Providence Gap, an Appalachian saga by Preston Lane, with original music by Laurelyn Dossett (June 6 - July 4, 2010). Beautiful Star: An Appalachian Nativity, a seasonal celebration by Preston Lane, with original music by Laurelyn Dossett, returns for a fourth season as the holiday special (November 27 - December 23, 2009). The holiday season also sees the return of David Sedaris' hilarious The Santaland Diaries (November 19 - December 19, 2009) in The UpStage Cabaret. 2009-2010 Season Passes and single tickets for all productions are on sale now.

All Triad Stage productions feature the bold acting and breathtaking design that have been nationally recognized by The Wall Street Journal and haveearned the theater accolades including "One of the Best Regional Theatres in America", New York's Drama League; "Best Live Theater", Go Triad/News & Record and The Rhinoceros Times; and "Professional Theater of the Year", North Carolina Theatre Conference.

To purchase tickets or for performance information on Picnic, call the Triad Stage Box Office at 336.272.0160 or toll-free at 866.579.TIXX (8499), or visit www.triadstage.org.

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