CSUSM Arts & Lectures to Present THE WOMAN IN BLACK This Fall

California State University San Marcos Arts & Lectures program will present a special one-weekend engagement of Susan Hill's THE WOMAN IN BLACK, adapted for the stage by Stephen Mallatratt.

Based on Susan Hill's chilling Gothic ghost novel, The Woman in Black is the second-longest running play in England, continuing today in London's West End since premiering in 1989. A film adaptation of the novel starring Daniel Radcliffe was released in 2012.

In this tale, a young lawyer travels to a distant corner of England to put a woman's estate into order. He arrives at her isolated house on the moors and uncovers tragic secrets, not all of which can be explained on the earthly plane. He encounters rustic locals, sudden fogs, shifting quick sands and ultimately, the Woman in Black. Directed by Kim Strassburger and CSUSM Lecturer Jason Heil, the story is told with two actors (Heil and Eric Poppick).

"This piece has a literate theatricality that has always thrilled me," said Heil. "It retains Hill's lush, descriptive language while immersing itself in a rich theatrical vocabulary. By having two actors relate the story using just the found objects in an empty theatre, it gives a simplicity to the narrative. The story is an old-school thriller, utilizing a gradual accumulation of tension that we hope will build to full terror."

"The gothic world is irresistible to delve into," adds Strassburger. "This is a smart highly theatrical play that requires two actors who can play multiple characters at the turn of a dime."

Heil notes, "I'm looking forward to working with Kim in this dual capacity. We first met as fellow actors at Marin Shakespeare Company. Among other projects, she directed me in Passion at ion and we shared the stage again in Noises Off at Cygnet Theatre. We have an established vocabulary that has evolved over time." Additionally, Strassburger directed Poppick in The Man Who Came to Dinner at Coronado Playhouse.

This production is being offered through CSUSM's Arts & Lecture Series with CSUSM Lecturer Jason Heil as the Guest Artist. Teaching Theatre at CSUSM since 2014, Heil's courses include Acting (Beginning and Advanced), Shakespeare, Voice & Public Speaking, Acting on Camera and Introduction to Theatre. He directed CSUSM mainstage productions of Diana Son's Stop Kiss and Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. This Fall he will be teaching Ensemble Acting. In Spring 2018, he will be directing Lauren Gunderson's I & You.

IF YOU GO:

THE WOMAN IN BLACK

DATES: September 15-17.

LOCATION: ARTS 111 on CSUSM Campus - 333 S. Twin Oaks Valley Road, San Marcos 92096 (Paid parking available - parking included with some tickets)

TICKETS: Tickets will be available in late August and can also be purchased at the Door.

Friday 9/15 7:00 pm *Community $10 *CSUM Students Free *CSUSM Faculty/Staff/Alumni $5

Saturday 9/16 7:00 pm *Community $15 *CSUSM Students/Faculty/Staff/Alumni $5

Sunday 9/17 7:00 pm *Community $15 *CSUSM Students/Faculty/Staff/Alumni $5

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

Kim Strassburger (Co-Director): Directing credits include: 8 Songs for a Mad King (Bodhi Tree Concerts/San Diego International Fringe Festival); Sunday in the Park with George (Craig Noel Award-Outstanding Direction of a Musical with Glenn Paris); Master Class, Passion (Craig Noel Nomination-Outstanding Direction of a Musical) Grey Gardens, Gypsy (Craig Noel Nomination-Outstanding Direction of a Musical) and Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde (Ion Theatre); A Civil War Christmas and A New Brain (Diversionary Theatre); Seascape (New Village Arts Theatre). Kim is also an actor and most recently performed in The Normal Heart at Ion Theatre (Outstanding Featured Performance by a Female). Kim became a member of Lincoln Center Theater's Directors Lab in 2014 and training includes study at Catholic University of America and LAMDA.

Jason Heil (KIPPS & Co-Director) Off-Broadway: Sea of Souls (ion theatre). Regional and San Diego: Lucy Simon's Zhivago (La Jolla Playhouse), Twelfth Night, Plaid Tidings (Old Globe), Violet, Clybourne Park, A Christmas Carol (San Diego Repertory Theatre), The Miracle Worker, Wit, The Glass Menagerie, Into the Woods, The Winslow Boy (Lamb's Players Theatre), Art (Intrepid), Noises Off, Cabaret (Cygnet), Passion, Angels in America, Sea of Souls (ion), School for Lies, Dracula (North Coast Rep), The Lion in Winter (Moonlight), Three Days of Rain (Compass), Arkansas & Tennessee Repertory Theatres, Capital Stage, A Noise Within, & nine seasons with the Utah, Lake Tahoe, Marin, & Texas Shakespeare Festivals. Upcoming shows include Hand to God and Beachtown at San Diego Rep. In San Diego, Jason has directed for Moonlight Stage Productions (You Never Can Tell, Ring Round the Moon, Barefoot in the Park, The Mousetrap, Born Yesterday), Intrepid (The Turn of the Screw) and New Village Arts (Plaid Tidings). At CSUSM, he directed Stop Kiss and A Midsummer Night's Dream and will be directing Lauren Gunderson's I & You in February 2018. Jason teaches for Cal State University, San Marcos and Grossmont College, as well as privately. MFA: UC Irvine. www.jasonheil.com

ERIC POPPICK (ACTOR) San Diego Theatre: Bug, In the Heat of the Night (ion theatre), The Man Who Came to Dinner (Coronado Playhouse), Beau Jest, Barefoot in the Park (Moonlight at the Avo), From Another House (Playwrights Project), An Enemy of the People (Intrepid), Awake and Sing!, To Kill A Mockingbird, Golden Boy, Four Dogs and a Bone (New Village Arts), The History Boys (Cygnet Theatre - Patte Award), Mornings at Seven (North Coast Repertory Theatre), The Fantasticks, The Heir Apparent, The Sunshine Boys, How the Other Half Loves, Deathtrap, Not Now, Darling (Scripps Ranch Theatre), One for the Road (Lyceum Theatre). Elsewhere: Awake and Sing!, Scapin, Rhinoceros (Odyssey Theatre) Don't Drink the Water (Glendale Center Theatre), Murder in the First (L.A. Theatre Works). Film & TV: Basic Instinct, Mouse Hunt, Single White Female, Hero (with Dustin Hoffman), Seinfeld, Columbo, Curb Your Enthusiasm, NYPD Blue, L.A. Law, General Hospital, The Young & the Restless. Directing credits: Play It Again, Sam, Over the River & Through the Woods, a feminine ending, Sunset Park, Skin Deep and Good People (Scripps Ranch Theatre), World Premiere of Ripples from Walden Pond (Cygnet Theatre), World Premiere of W.C. Field by Himself! (North Coast Repertory Theatre). BFA: Acting - Boston University, MA: Directing - The State University of New York.

Susan Hill (Author of Novel) CBE. English author of fiction and non-fiction works. Her novels include The Woman in Black (also adapted on film in 2012 with Daniel Radcliffe), The Mist in the Mirror and I'm the King of the Castle (Somerset Maugham Award - 1971). She was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2012 Honours for Services to Literature.

Nigel Stephen Mallatratt (Playwright) English playwright, television screenwriter and actor. He is best known for his television work on the ITV series Coronation Street, The Forsyte Saga and Island at War, and for his stage adaptation of the novel The Woman in Black, which has run in the West End since 1989. He was also an actor, appearing in minor roles in Chariots of Fire and Brideshead Revisited. Mallatratt died of leukemia in 2004.

The Woman in Black is presented by special arrangement with Samuel French, Inc.

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