Trinity Rep Announces MARISOL

Trinity Rep will conclude its dynamic 2018-19 Season with the primal and poetic Marisol by Obie award-winning playwright Jos Rivera. This production focuses on the sensational search for hope among the ruins. Directed by Emmy award-winning Brian Mertes, the show features Brown/Trinity MFA alumna Octavia Chavez-Richmond in the title role, as a woman searching for stability in a maelstrom of chaos. The production also features resident acting company member Mia Ellis (the Angel). Marisol runs May 16 June 16 with press opening on Monday, May 20 at 7:30 pm. Tickets start at $25. More information can be found at www.trinityrep.com/marisol.

Marisol is a young professional used to life on her own in the wilds of the big city. But everything changes on the day she wakes up to find the world has crumbled into a surreal dystopia - the battleground of a war between the angels and God. Frightened, but resolved, she sets out through the turmoil on a journey to protect her friend.

Director Brian Mertes says of the show, This production is about having a human moment with each other where we all can take a breath together and let our guard down. Where we can be vulnerable. What I keep hearing from so many people is that we need a healing space, and that's what I hope to bring with Marisol. I want this to be an intimate experience.

Brian Mertes is the Brown/Trinity Rep Head of the M.F.A. Directing Program and is an Associate Director at Trinity Rep. He has directed Steel Magnolias, Clybourne Park, Crime and Punishment, A Lie of the Mind, The Glass Menagerie, and Appropriate. He has taught directing for both Columbia and NYU film programs, and has been a guest director at North Carolina School of the Arts, SUNY Purchase, NYU Grad, UT Austin, and Yale. He has directed for ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox, garnering three Emmy and three DGA nominations, and an Emmy for directing.

Mertes will be working alongside Eugene Lee (set design), Cait O'Connor (costume design), Cha See (lighting design), and Broken Chord (sound design) with Ashley Frith (Musical Direction).

The cast of this production features resident company members Angela Brazil, Mia Ellis, Mauro Hantman, Brian McEleney, Charlie Thurston, and Joe Wilson, Jr. Brown/Trinity MFA alumna Octavia Chavez-Richmond '18 will play Marisol and local actor and will feature guest artist, Jackie Davis.

Jos Rivera is an Obie award-winning playwright, winning for the play Marisol. He has won multiple awards, fellowships, and grants, including a Fulbright Arts Fellowship in playwriting. His other works include, Massacre (Sing to Your Children), References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot, and many others. He was the first Puerto Rican screenwriter to be nominated for an Oscar, for adapting The Motorcycle Diaries, and currently lives in Los Angeles.

Continuing Trinity Rep's tradition of offering affordable tickets for all, the theater will have discounted previews of Marisol. Thursday, May 16 is a Pay What You Can performance. Pay What You Can tickets go on sale at 6:30 pm that evening, and are limited to one per person.

Other special performances for Marisol include an Open Captioned performance for the show on Sunday, May 19 at 2:00 pm and Wednesday, May 29 at 2:00 and 7:30 pm. The Next Generation Night will be held on Thursday, May 23 and includes a pre-show reception for the next generation of theater-goers. The Teens Talk performance will be held on Friday, May 24, which features Trinity Rep's Teen Ambassadors discussing their perspective on the show following the 7:30 performance.

A Context & Conversation panel discussion will be held on Friday, May 31 at 12:30 pm at Mathewson St. Church and 134 Collaborative at 134 Mathewson Street in Providence. At this free event, panelists from the community will discuss a topic surrounding the show. Christina Bevilacqua, Trinity Rep's conversationalist-in-residence and programs and exhibitions director at Providence Public Library will moderate the discussion.

The production is supported by Brown University. The 2018-19 Season Sponsors are Ocean State Job Lot and Rhode Island Council on the Arts. Southwest Airlines is the official airline of Trinity Rep.

Rhode Island's Tony Award-winning theater, Trinity Rep has created unparalleled professional theater for and with its community since its founding in 1963. Trinity Rep strives to facilitate human connection and has been a driving force behind the creativity that fuels and defines the region for more than 50 years.

Trinity Rep is committed to reinventing the public square and inspiring dialogue by creating emotionally-stimulating live productions that range from classical to contemporary and innovative education programs for all ages and abilities. Its annual production of A Christmas Carol has brought families together for more than four decades and made memories for over a million audience members. It will return again in 2019 for its 42nd year.

The 2018-19 Season included Pride & Prejudice by Kate Hamill, black odyssey by Marcus Gardley, a special limited-engagement of An Iliad by Lisa Peterson and Denis O'Hare, Macbeth by William Shakespeare, The Song of Summer by Lauren Yee, Little Shop of Horrors with book and lyrics by Howard Ashman and music by Alan Menken, and Jos Rivera's Marisol.

The recently-announced 2019-20 Season features the world-premiere of The Prince of Providence by George Brant, based on the book The Prince of Providence by Mike Stanton, Fade by Tanya Saracho, August Wilson's Radio Golf, A Tale of Two Cities by Brian McEleney, based on the novel by Charles Dickens, Sweat by Lynn Nottage, and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by Hugh Wheeler. Subscriptions are on sale now, and single tickets will be available for purchase this summer.

For more information, call the box office at (401) 351-4242 or visit www.TrinityRep.com.

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