Magic Theatre Stages World Premiere of Linda McLean's EVERY FIVE MINUTES, Beg. Tonight

Magic Theatre will welcome back one of Scotland's leading contemporary playwrights, Linda McLean, with the world premiere of Every Five Minutes, directed by Producing Artistic Director Loretta Greco. Every Five Minutes runs today, March 26 - April 20. Deemed "a gritty, fiercely empathetic realist of great skill" (San Francisco Chronicle), McLean's new play celebrates the miraculous power of the human spirit. Every Five Minutes begins with a simple homecoming dinner that takes a fantastical turn as Mo slips into a dreamscape that even those closest to him can't imagine.

"We couldn't be more proud to have Linda back," declared Greco. "While Any Given Day blew us out of the water with its raw, visceral energy, Every Five Minutes takes Linda's unique structural lens to another level. This play examines the depths of human suffering and the power of restoration in the most enigmatic and theatrical way."

"When I was here in San Francisco working on Any Given Day, Loretta asked if I was working on anything. I tried to describe this crazy patchwork tumbling out of me," explained McLean. "The play itself began with a woman recounting how she came home one day to find her husband had some terrible news. I had no idea that I was about to write a play with political implications but I didn't shy away from it when I realized where it was going. Having read events like Bradley Manning and Brian Keenan's experiences in solitary confinement and the mental fragmentations and delusions they suffered and Joe Simpson and his miraculous survival in the Andes and how his isolation caused his inability to discern the real from the unreal, I became even more interested in how fear, anxiety and insomnia can contribute to altered states."

Magic's stellar cast is comprised of familiar and beloved Bay Area actors starting with Rod Gnapp (Buried Child, Se Llama Cristina, Annapurna, What We're Up Against, Mauritius), Mia Tagano ( Far East, Lincoln Center, M Butterfly, Theatreworks), Sean San José (Bruja, Se Llama Cristina), Carrie Paff (The Other Place), Patrick Alparone (Buried Child, Any Given Day, Mrs. Whitney, Octopus), Jomar Tagatac (The Happy Ones, Jesus in India), Maggie Mason (Why We Have a Body, Or), and making her theatrical debut at Magic Theatre, Shawna Michelle James.

This theatrical odyssey will feature set and light design by Eric Southern, costume design by Alex Jaeger, sound design by Sara Huddleston, and innovative video and projection design by Hana Kim.

For more information or to purchase tickets go online to www.magictheatre.org or call the box office at 415-441-8822.

Linda McLean is a multi-award winning playwright from Scotland. Her plays include Any Given Day (Lessa Rossy Playwrighting Award); Strangers, Babies (Susan Smith Blackburn prize finalist); Shimmer (Herald Angel), One Good Beating (Best One Act Play); Riddance (Fringe First, Herald Angel); What Love Is; This Is Water; Uncertainty Files; Cold Cuts; Doch An Doris; Word For Word; and in 2012, Sex & God. Strangers, Babies (Fractures); Any Given Day (Un Jour Ou 'Autre); The Uncertainty Files (Dossiers Incertidudes); Cold Cuts (Tranche Froide); What Love Is (Ce qu'aimer veut dire); Sex&God (Sex&God); and Every Five Minutes (Toutes les cinq minutes) have been translated into French. Other translations include Spanish, Turkish, Polish, Macedonian and Greek. Linda adapted Like Water for Chocolate, from the novel by Laura Esquivel, which was translated into Spanish; Olga from the Finnish play by Laura Ruohonen; and Le Problem, from the French play by Francois Begadeau. Linda has written plays for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Scotland, the last being Zombie Rule Number 9 in 2013. Linda is Chairwoman of the Playwrights' Studio Scotland and has worked for the British Council in Mexico City, Teluca and Bogota. In 2009 she delivered the keynote speech to the Playwrights' Guild of Canada. Linda was the Creative Fellow at Edinburgh University's Institute of Advanced Studies in Humanities in 2011, where she and the late Prof Susan Manning published their Conversation: Gathering Uncertainties.

Loretta Greco+ (Director/Producing Artistic Director) is proud to be launching her sixth season as Magic's Producing Artistic Director where in the last five seasons she has developed and produced more than a dozen new plays. Her selected directing credits while at Magic include: Buried Child, Se Llama Cristina, The Other Place, Bruja, Annapurna,What We're Up Against, Or, Oedipus el Rey, Goldfish, and Mauritius. Ms. Greco's New York premieres include: Tracey Scott Wilson's The Story, the Obie Award-winning Lackawanna Blues by Ruben Santiago Hudson, and Nilo Cruz's Two Sisters and a Piano at The Public Theater; Katherine Walat's Victoria Martin Math Team Queen, Karen Hartman's Gum, Toni Press Coffman's Touch, and Rinne Groff's Inky at Women's Project; Emily Mann's Meshugah at Naked Angels; Laura Cahill's Mercy at The Vineyard Theatre and Nilo Cruz's A Park in Our House at New York Theatre Workshop. Additional regional credits include the critically acclaimed revival of David Mamet's Speed-the-Plow and the West Coast premiere of David Harrower's Blackbird at American Conservatory Theater; Romeo and Juliet and Stop Kiss at Oregon Shakespeare Festival as well as productions at LaJolla Playhouse, South Coast Repertory, McCarter Theatre Center, Long Wharf Theatre, Studio Theater, Intiman Theatre, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, The Repertory Theatre of St Louis, Area Stage, Coconut Grove Playhouse, Playmakers Repertory Company, and The Cleveland Play House. She directed the national tour of Emily Mann's Having Our Say as well as the international premiere at the Market Theatre in Johannesburg, South Africa. Ms. Greco has developed work with dozens of writers at Sundance, The O'Neill, South Coast Repertory, The Mark Taper Forum, New Harmony, New York Stage and Film, The Cherry Lane, New Dramatists, and The Public. Prior to her Magic post, she served as Producing Artistic Director of New York's Women's Project and as the Associate Director/Resident Producer at the McCarter Theatre in Princeton where she conceived and launched their Second Stage-On-Stage Initiative and commissioned the work of Doug Wright, Nilo Cruz, and Joyce Carol Oates, among others. Ms. Greco received her MFA from Catholic University, her BA from Loyola University, New Orleans and is the recipient of two Drama League Fellowships and a Princess Grace Award.

ABOUT MAGIC THEATRE: Now in its 47th year, Magic Theatre is dedicated to the cultivation of bold new plays, playwrights, and audiences - and to producing explosive, entertaining, and ideologically robust stories that ask substantive questions about our place in humanity. Magic provides a nurturing yet rigorous artistic home where innovative writers can create a body of work. We believe that developing an evolved artistic vocabulary with the playwright at our side, over a long period of time, greatly improves a playwright's chances to thrive.

The list of playwrights cultivated and premiered at Magic Theatre is a veritable who's who of American theatre: Sam Shepard, Michael McClure, Octavio Solis, Nilo Cruz, Paula Vogel, Rebecca Gilman, Lloyd Suh, Taylor Mac, Theresa Rebeck, Sharr White, and Luis Alfaro, to name a few.

With its intimate thrust stage, it is the perfect venue for audiences to experience new work up close. This intimacy extends beyond the stage through a number of special events -TalkBACKs, Magic Next Gen, Free High School Matinee, New Work Development Dialogues with playwrights and directors, and the Martha Heasley Cox Virgin Play Series. Enjoy unparalleled access to new plays, playwrights, and the process of taking a play from the page to the stage at Magic Theatre.

*Member of Actors' Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers.
+ Member of Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, the union for stage directors and choreographers.

Pictured: Mia Tagano* and Rod Gnapp* in Linda McLean's Every Five Minutes. Photo courtesy of the Magic Theatre.

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