Douglas Morrisson Theatre to Present Craig Wright's GRACE, 1/7

The Douglas Morrisson Theatre (DMT) has announced the fifth production in the 2013-2014 "Bare Bones" staged reading series: "GRACE" by Craig Wright, a darkly comic play exploring the changing nature of faith, time and space.

The play will have one performance, Tuesday, January 7, 2014, at 8:00pm, at the Douglas Morrisson Theatre, 22311 N. Third St. in Hayward, CA. Tickets are $10 (open seating), and are available through the Box Office at (510) 881-6777 or online at www.dmtonline.org.

Scene 1 of Craig Wright's play "GRACE" starts with a shock. Scene 2, the playwright hits "rewind/replay," and we are introduced to Steve and Sara, an evangelical Christian couple who have just moved from Minnesota to a Florida condo to fulfill Steve's vision of launching a chain of gospel hotels. Their next-door neighbor, Sam, has been the victim of a terrible car accident. As the play unfolds, we watch the increasingly simmering interaction between the couple and slowly recovering Sam, with the occasional intrusion of Karl, the German bug exterminator, who's still angry about the Allied bombing of Hamburg in World War II. "GRACE" explores a minefield topic but refuses to either sermonize or mock, and rather opens up the debate in a creative and provocative way.

"GRACE" was originally commissioned and produced by Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company at The Warehouse Theater in Washington, D.C., on October 25, 2004. It was subsequently produced by Northlight Theatre in Chicago in February 2006, and opened at Broadway's Cort Theatre in October of 2012. The Broadway cast featured Paul Rudd as Steve, Kate Arrington as Sara, Michael Shannon as Sam and Ed Asner as Karl.

Craig Wright's plays include "Melissa Arctic" (a contemporary adaptation of "The Winter's Tale" and winner of the 2005 Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding New Play); "Orange Flower Water" (Chicago Sun-Times named it one of the Best of the Year); "The Pavilion" (Drama Desk nomination for Outstanding New Play); "Recent Tragic Events" (finalist for the American Theatre Critics New Play Award and the Helen Hayes Charles MacArthur Award for Outstanding New Play); "Molly's Delicious" (Barrymore nomination for Best New Play); "Mistakes Were Made"; and "The Unseen." Mr. Wright's plays have been produced by the Actors Theater of Louisville, Folger Theatre, Barrow Street Theatre, Hartford Stage, Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre, Woolly Mammoth and Steppenwolf, among others. As a television writer and producer, his work includes "Six Feet Under" (for which he received an Emmy nomination), "Lost," "Brothers & Sisters," "Dirty Sexy Money" and "Underemployed." A graduate of United Theological Seminary and a member of the ensemble of the Chicago-based A Red Orchid Theatre, Mr. Wright lives in Los Angeles.

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