Brown/Trinity Rep Presents Spring Thesis Production THE GOOD PERSON OF SZECHWAN

The Brown/Trinity Rep MFA Program presents its spring thesis show, The Good Person of Szechwan by Bertolt Brecht, directed by Addie Gorlin, a third year student in the Brown/Trinity Rep MFA Directing program. One of Brecht's most well-known plays, The Good Person of Szechwan is a parable about balancing moral goodness and monetary success. Performances run February 28 through March 10 at the Pell Chafee Performance Center, 87 Empire St., Providence. General admission is $15 with a discounted price of $10 for seniors and $7 for students. Tickets are on sale now at Trinity Rep's box office, by phone (401) 351-4242, or online at www.TrinityRep.com /The-Good-Person-of-Szechwan.

The Good Person of Szechwan tells the story of Shen Teh, a prostitute, who is rewarded a small fortune from the gods for her kind deeds. She quickly finds that with her newfound wealth come challenges. Troubled by this revelation, Shen Teh decides the only way to succeed in society is to create a hardened male alter ego to advocate for herself. Suddenly, she must navigate her fortune as both male and female, while trying to decide just what it means to be a good person no matter your gender.

Director Addie Gorlin says: The most obvious question that this play asks is: can someone be good and still succeed in a capitalist society? I'm asking this question with a particular lens on gender. Addie has cast an all-female production to call out the fa ade of masculinity these women are forced into in order to be taken seriously. Additionally, the play's setting has been moved from eastern Asia to an American Midwestern basement.

Addie Gorlin is a Senior Fellow graduate of Dartmouth College where she studied theater, history, and Native American studies. She is currently a third-year MFA directing candidate at Brown/Trinity Rep. After graduating from Dartmouth, Gorlin obtained a teaching credential through Teach for America, teaching English and Drama in the California Bay Area. While teaching, she served as the Directing Fellow at Cutting Ball Theater. Shortly after, Gorlin was the national New Play Network Producer-in-Residence at Mixed Blood Theatre in Minneapolis and directed at The Children's Theater, Playwright's Center, and Mixed Blood. During the 2016-17 Season, she worked with Joseph Haj, the Guthrie Theater's artistic director, on their production of Sunday in the Park with George. She has assisted director Mark Valdez on productions at both Mixed Blood and Trinity Repertory Company. In 2018, Gorlin worked on Marissa Wolf's production of Fire in Dreamland at The Public Theater. As a director, Addie brings a warm approach to weighty themes: her productions have been described as imaginative, bare-bones, whimsical, elegant, playful, tender, politically poignant, and heart you'd find in the young adult section of the library.

The Brown/Trinity Rep MFA Programs provide a three-year professional training program for eighteen students under the auspices of an Ivy League university and Rhode Island's Tony Award-winning theater company. Brown University's Department of Theater and Performance Studies is internationally recognized for the quality of its faculty and instruction. Trinity Rep, with its deep tradition of resident artists, provides powerful artistic assets and creates a firm foundation for a new generation of theater artists. The Brown/Trinity Rep Directing MFA is a three year program in which students participate in studio course work and direct a variety of productions. Students direct Brown/Trinity Rep actors in a workshop of a contemporary/modern play as well as three full productions of plays with moderate technical support. These productions include one classical verse play, and several plays of the directors' choosing. Their final directing thesis project, an opportunity for directing students to showcase their abilities and vision and bring attention to a work they believe is important, includes full production support.

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