The Gamm Opens Season 30 with Northeast Premiere of GROUNDED Tonight

The Sandra Feinstein-Gamm Theatre (The Gamm) opens its 30th Anniversary Season with the New England premiere of Grounded, American playwright George Brant's suspenseful one-woman drama about an ace fighter pilot reassigned to fly drones over Afghanistan after she becomes unexpectedly pregnant. Gamm Resident Director Judith Swift directs Boston-based actor Liz Hayes in her Gamm debut as "The Pilot". Grounded runs for four weeks only from tonight, September 4 through 28 at The Gamm Theatre, 172 Exchange St., Pawtucket, RI.

Brant's boldly contemporary play has experienced a meteoric rise from the start. It won the National New Play Network's 2012 Smith Prize honoring a new play on American politics, then picked up a Fringe First Award at the 2013 Edinburgh Festival. Even before reaching New York, the squarely American play had a twice-extended run in London, where both the Evening Standard and The Guardian listed it among their top 10 plays of 2013.

The Gamm is privileged to bring Brant's timely new play to the region's audiences, says Gamm Artistic Director Tony Estrella.

"I reached out to George a year ago after reading a Guardian UK review of Grounded from its premiere at the Edinburgh Festival. He was kind enough to send me a copy immediately and we've been talking about bringing it to The Gamm ever since. It is a gorgeous, intense, electrifying piece of theater and a perfect fit for The Gamm. Deeply personal, emotionally draining, intelligent and powerfully resonant, it is a masterpiece in miniature, an incisive state-of-the-nation play dissecting America at an historical crossroads," Estrella said. "Grounded marks George's emergence as a major voice in the American Theater and, after many stops around the world, we are humbled to present its New England premiere."

Tickets are $41 and $49 (depending on day/time); preview performances (Sept. 4-7) just $30. Call 401-723-4266 or order online at gammtheatre.org.

ABOUT GROUNDED The personal and the political are indistinguishable in American playwright George Brant's gripping one-woman play about a hot-rod fighter pilot whose unexpected pregnancy ends her career in the sky. Reassigned to fly remote-controlled drones in Afghanistan from a windowless, air-conditioned trailer near Vegas, "The Pilot" hunts terrorists by day and goes home to her family at night. But what happens when the boundaries blur between the desert in which she lives and the one she patrols? Suspenseful and searing, beautiful and blistering, Brant's multi-award-winning new play explodes our assumptions about modern warfare and unapologetically tells a story of our times. Brant's other plays include The Mourners' Bench and Elephant's Graveyard, among others.

CAST

The Pilot, Liz Hayes*

CREW

Set Design by Sara Ossana

Costume Design by Marilyn Salvatore

Lighting Design by Matthew Terry

Sound Design by Charles Cofone

Stage Management by Stef Work*

Production Manager, Jessica Hill; Assistant Stage Manager, JonPaul Rainville; Scenic Artist, Carrie Capizzano

*Member of Actors' Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.

Founded in 1984 as Alias Stage, the non-profit Sandra Feinstein-Gamm Theatre creates the finest of live theater, engaging the audience intensely in current and recurrent issues of consequence. The Gamm further serves the public with educational outreach programming designed to support the theatrical experience, and help sustain and enhance the intellectual and cultural life of its community. The Gamm is a member of New England Area Theatre (NEAT), a bargaining unit of the Actors' Equity Association.

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