Marin Theatre Company Presents SUNLIGHT, 1/21-4/14, 2010

Marin Theatre Company will produce the world premiere of its 2009 Sky Cooper New American Play Prize winner, Sunlight by Sharr White, January 21 through February 14, 2010. In addition to the Sky Cooper Prize, Sunlight has garnered substantial national recognition. Following MTC's premiere, this searing political thriller will be produced at three other theaters as part of a National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere-Arts West in Seattle, Phoenix Theatre in Indianapolis, and New Jersey Rep. The Edgerton Foundation has also awarded it a New American Play Award.

In Sunlight, Matthew Gibbon, liberal lion and university president, may have finally gone too far in his battle against the conservative dean of the law school-his son-in-law and former protégé. His daughter is caught between them and the entire university community is up in arms. The personal and political collide in this stunning new play about loyalty, power, and torture memos.

Sunlight's stellar cast features stage veteran Charles Dean (Communicating Doors, Misalliance) as the university dean Matthew Gibbon. MTC welcomes back Wanda McCaddon (The Subject Tonight is Love) as Matthew's long-time personal assistant Maryanne, Carrie Paff (A Streetcar Named Desire) as his daughter Charlotte, and Kevin Rolston (What the Butler Saw) as his son-in-law Vincent.

"We are delighted to introduce the Bay Area to Sharr White and his politically-charged thriller Sunlight," said MTC Artistic Director and Sunlight director, Jasson Minadakis. "When Sharr began writing the play two years ago, questions were beginning to surface about the infamous 'torture memos.' His insightful imagination leapt to the future and the fallout from a new administration ripping off the wall of secrecy around those fateful decisions. The play uses the backdrop of a family in crisis to engage in a debate on politics and morality, poignant and viciously relevant today. It is a debate that rages over dinner tables, in town halls, on campuses and in courtrooms. Sunlight presents those debates, distilled and overlapping in a complicated real-time situation, pitting old guard against new blood and fracturing once intimate relationships through differences of opinion and a changing national and international political landscape."

Sharr White's play Six Years premiered at Actor's Theatre of Louisville's 30th Anniversary Humana Festival of New American Plays. Other plays include The Dream Canvas, Safe from the Future, and The Last Orange Dying, each produced off-Broadway. Sharr is a recipient of a New York Foundation for the Arts fellowship, a winner of the Dr. Henry and Lillian Nesburn Award as part of the Julie Harris Award in Playwriting, and a two-time finalist for the Princess Grace Award. He is a member of the Playwrights Unitat at the Ensemble Studio Theatre and a member of Los Angeles' Apartment A Productions. He lives in New York.

Last season, MTC Artistic Director Jasson Minadakis directed Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune, The Seafarer, and Lydia at MTC, and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at Georgia Shakespeare Festival. He will direct Bill Cain's Equivocation this coming spring.

For more information visit www.marintheatre.org or call 415.388.5208.  Marin Theatre Company is located at 397 Miller Ave, Mill Valley CA 94941.
 
Previews run from Thursday, Jan 21 through Sunday, Jan 24, 2010.  Opening Night Gala will be held on Tuesday, Jan 26 at 8:00 pm.

Performances January 21 through February 14, 2010 are Tues, Thu, Fri and Sat 8:00 pm, Wed 7:30 pm and Sun 7:00 pm.  Matinees will be held Thu Feb 4 at 1:00 pm | Sat Jan 30, Feb 13 at 2:00 pm | Sun Jan 24 & 31, Feb 7 & 14 at 2:00 pm.  Please check www.marintheatre.org or call box office at 415.388.5208 for exact performance dates and times.

Ticket Prices range in price from $20–51.  Opening Night (Tues) tickets with Cast Reception are $44 & $51.  Discounts include Pay What You Can Tuesdays (exc. Opening Night), Students $20 tickets for all performances and Rush tickets $10 (based on availability, 1/2 hour prior to curtain).

Marin Theatre Company is the Bay Area's premiere mid-sized theater and the leading professional theater in the North Bay. We produce a five- to six-show season of provocative plays by passionate playwrights from the 20th century and today in two intimate theaters-a 231-seat proscenium and a 99-seat thrust. We are committed to the development and production of new plays by American Playwrights, with a comprehensive New Play Program that includes at least one world premiere each season, two nationally recognized annual playwriting awards, numerous new play readings and workshops by the nation's best emerging playwrights, and a leadership position in the National New Play Network. Our educational programs serve more than 6,000 students each year.
 
Sharr White (Playwright) is the 2009 winner of MTC's Sky Cooper New American Play Prize for Sunlight. It was commissioned by South Coast Repertory, workshopped at SCR's Pacific Playwrights Festival, MTC's New Work series, is a participant in the National New Play Network's Continued Life Fund. Sharr's other plays include Six Years which premiered at the 30th Anniversary Humana Festival of New American Plays at Actors Theatre of Louisville (2006 New York Foundation For the Arts Fellowship); Iris Fields (Lincoln Center Theatre Directors Lab, Key West Theatre Festival); Satellites of the Sun (finalist, Princess Grace Award); The Escape Velocity of Savages (Dr. Henry and Lillian Nesburn Award as part of the Julie Harris Award in Playwriting). White's newest play, The Other Place, has been developed at The Lark Play Development Center in New York and at Oregon Shakespeare Festival's BLACK SWAN reading series. Sharr is a member of the Ensemble Studio Theatre's Playwriting Unit in New York, and a company member of Apartment A Productions in Los Angeles.

Jasson Minadakis (Director) is in his fourth season as Artistic Director of MTC where he has directed Lydia, The Seafarer, Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune, A Streetcar Named Desire, said Saïd, Love Song, and The Subject Tonight is Love. He directed Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at Georgia Shakespeare Festival this past summer. As Artistic Director at Actor's Express Theatre Company, he directed The Pillowman, Bug, The Love Song of J. Robert Oppenheimer, Echoes of Another Man, Killer Joe, Burn This, The Goat or, Who is Sylvia?, Blue/Orange, and Bel Canto. As Producing Artistic Director of Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival, he directed Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train, Chagrin Falls, The Beard of Avon, Arcadia, Nocturne, Fuddy Meers, Lovers & Executioners, Jacob Marley's Christmas Carol, Betrayal, The Weir, Waiting for Godot, The Misanthrope, A Chance of Lightning, The Three Musketeers, Dracula, The Color Wheel, and 19 productions of Shakespeare. Regional credits include Hamlet at Georgia Shakespeare, Copenhagen at Playhouse on the Square, and Bedroom Farce at Wayside Theatre. The Atlanta Journal Constitution, Creative Loafing, and Southern Voice named him Best Director of 2004. He has won "Production of the Year" awards for The Pillowman and Bug (Actor's Express), Copenhagen (Playhouse on the Square), and Chagrin Falls (Cincinnati).
 
Charles Dean (Matthew) was last seen at MTC in Communicating Doors. He has appeared recently at Aurora Theatre Company in The Best Man, Hysteria, Private Jokes, Public Places, and The Price (Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle award). He was a company member and associate artist at Berkeley Rep for nearly 20 years where he appeared in 80 productions including Alan Ayckbourn's The Norman Conquests and Sam Shepard's Tooth of Crime. He has worked at almost every theater company in the Bay Area including A.C.T., Magic Theatre, and San Jose Repertory Theatre. Regional credits include The Old Globe, The Guthrie, Seattle Rep, Milwaukee Rep, and ALLIANCE THEATRE Company. Charles made his Broadway debut last season as General Waverly in Irving Berlin's White Christmas.
 
Wanda McCaddon returns to MTC where she appeared previously in The Subject Tonight is Love, Visions of Kerouac, Morning's at Seven, and Kindertransport. Recent Bay Area roles include Mrs. Graves in Enchanted April at Center Rep; Mrs. Hager in Killing Trotsky, Nanny in George is Dead (with Marlo Thomas), and Myrna in 3F4F at Magic Theatre; Stage Manager in Our Town at SF Playhouse; Mag in Beauty Queen of Linane at B Street Theatre; Monica in By the Bog of Cats (with Holly Hunter) at San Jose Rep; Mrs. Higgins in My Fair Lady at Diablo Light Opera; and Miss Lynch in Grease at American Musical Theatre San Jose. She has also performed at A.C.T., Cal Shakes, and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Wanda is a well-known audio-book narrator with over 600 titles and 25 Earphones awards to her credit.

Carrie Paff returns to MTC after appearing in A Streetcar Named Desire in 2008 (Critic's Circle Award nomination-Best Actress). Regional credits include the world premiere of After the War at A.C.T.; A Picasso and The Haunting of Winchester at San Jose Rep; Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde at Arizona Theatre Company and San Jose Rep; Small Tragedy and Betrayal  (San Francisco Bay Guardian-Best Cast of 2004) at Aurora Theatre Company; Witness for the Prosecution, The Mousetrap, How the Other Half Loves (Shellie Award-Best Actress), and Picasso at the Lapin Agile at Center REPertory Theatre; and The Right Kind of People at Magic Theatre. Last season, she played London's West End in Joan Rivers: A Work In Progress by a Life In Progress. Film credits include Presque Isle and Opal's Diary. She holds a master's degree in educational theater from New York University and is the cofounder of StageWrite, Building Literacy through Theatre.

Kevin Rolston (Vincent) was seen last season at MTC as Sergeant Match in What the Butler Saw. He has appeared in three world premieres at Magic Theatre, including Rebecca Gilman's The Crowd You're In With, and two tours with the San Francisco Mime Troupe. Other credits include 'Tis Pity She's a Whore at A.C.T., The Violet Hour at SF Playhouse, and productions at PCPA Theaterfest, foolsFury, and Word for Word. As a company member of The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey from 2000 to 2003, he appeared in The Glass Menagerie, Enrico IV, Hamlet, Antony and Cleopatra, The Comedy of Errors, and Twelfth Night.  He made his off-Broadway debut in Whose Family Values, directed by Philip Rose, the Broadway pioneer behind the original production of A Raisin in the Sun. Kevin is the Lead Writer for OutLook Theater Project.

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