Crowded Fire Theater Launches 2013 Season with THE BEREAVED, Now thru 4/27

Crowded Fire Theater (CFT) presents the West Coast Premiere of Thomas Bradshaw's THE BEREAVED a wickedly funny take on Sex, Drugs, and the American Dream which opens with a press night on Monday April 8 at 8 PM at Thick House in San Francisco, (previews April 4-7) and runs through April 27.

This production marks the first fully staged production of a play in San Francisco by the satirical provocateur, playwright Thomas Bradshaw. Bradshaw's aggressive voice undermines our cultural comfort and refuge inside of naturalism, taking well-worn tropes of the white middle class drama, and reframing them to reveal jarring truths.

In THE BEREAVED the wife and breadwinner Carol realizes she is on borrowed time. Before she goes, you can be damn sure she will put her affairs in order. After all, what is more important than being certain her family maintain their upper-class-private-school Manhattan lifestyle? The play was a New York Times Critics' Pick and named one of the Best Plays of 09' by Time Out New York.
"Thomas Bradshaw's fast-paced, fierce and satiric THE BEREAVED is a dark comedy that reveals an unseemly side of upper-middle-class liberal America with its base desires and trenchant prejudices... " - Sonia Fernandez, Dramaturg.

Marissa Wolf directs this West Coast Premiere of Thomas Bradshaw's THE BEREAVED featuring featuring Jeremy Falla as Policeman, Denmo Ibrahim* as Katy, Michele Leavy* as Carol, Geoffrey Nolan as Doctor/Policeman, Lawrence Radecker* as Michael, Olivia Rosaldo as Melissa, Josh Schell as Teddy, and Reggie D. White* as Jamal ( *member Actors Equity). The production features scenic design by Maya Linke, lighting by Darl Andrew Packard, costumes by Maggie Whitacker, sound by Brendan Aanes and props by Ali Dineen.

Crowded Fire Theater (CFT) presents the West Coast Premiere of Thomas Bradshaw's THE BEREAVED, April 8-27 Press Night Monday April 8 (Previews April 4, 5 & 6) at Thick House, 1695 18th St., SF (between Carolina St.& Arkansas St. in Potrero Hill). Performances: Wed-Saturdays 8 PM. Special Opening Night Monday, April 8, 8 PM.

Tickets: Prices range from $10-$35 progressively during the course of the run. We offer Pay-What-You-Can Preview performances and student/senior/group rates. Visit www.crowdedfire.org for more information and to purchase tickets. Box Office by phone (415) 746-9238, www.crowdedfire.org or (415) 655-3866.

"Where my work departs from traditional drama is the fact that my characters pretty much have no self-awareness and are almost acting on pure id. There is never any subtext in my plays. The characters are always saying exactly what they mean. In every instance when one of my characters says something, they are doing it in the next scene" - Thomas Bradshaw

Thomas Bradshaw's plays have been produced at regional theaters, in NYC as as well as in Europe. Commissions and productions from Soho Theatre (London),The Goodman Theater, Soho Repertory Theater (New York), The Flea Theater, Theater Bielefeld (Germany), and Partial Comfort Productions have garnered his work annual "best of year" inclusions in both the The New Yorker and Time Out New York. In 2012 Off-Off-Broadway the The Flea Theater's production of Bradshaw's play JOB was described at its opening as "A jolting treat.... a bloody, Quentin Tarantino-esque tale, laced with graphic violence and fillips of frat-house humor." (NY Times) JOB then went SRO and resulted this year in a remounted production in NY. In 2011, his play BURNING ran to rave reviews Off- Broadway at The New Group/NYC and the Goodman Theater produced his play MARY, which they had previously commissioned.

His play THE BEREAVED, produced by Partial Comfort, was named one of the Best Plays of 2009 in Time Out New York. In 2008, two of his plays premiered in NYC: SOUTHERN PROMISES, at Performance Space 122 in September, and DAWN, at The Flea Theater in November, and both were listed among the Best Performances of Stage and Screen for 2008 in The New Yorker. Bradshaw has been featured as one of Time Out New York's ten playwrights to watch, and as Best Provocative Playwright in the Village Voice. He is the recipient of a 2009 Guggenheim Fellowship, the 2010 Prince Charitable Trust Prize, The Lark's NVNY Fellowship for 2011, and the 2012 Foundation for Contemporary Arts Award. He is creating a television series for HBO and Harpo Films. Thomas is also a Professor at Northwestern University.

All three playwrights in this 2013 Season have participated in CFT's Matchbox Readings Series, with these productions receiving development support through Crowded Fire. The Matchbox: Commissioning and Developing New Plays grew out of CFT's commitment to the playwrights' revision processes, to strengthen the scripts before rehearsals for the professional productions began. The Matchbox programming includes three different initiatives, including Commissions, in-house Workshops, and slots in the annual Matchbox Readings Series - public staged readings of plays in development.

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