The American Conservatory Theater Master of Fine Arts Program Presents O LOVELY GLOWWORM

The American Conservatory Theater Master of Fine Arts Program presents Glen Berger's inventive play O Lovely Glowworm, or Scenes of Great Beauty, directed by Alex Harvey. Award-winning playwright Glen Berger weaves a whimsical, poetic narrative of love-struck soldiers, mermaids, unicorns, a contemplative goat, and a hapless inventor attempting to devise a self-cleaning toilet, all on a fantastical quest for the meaning of existence. Set in a small corner of Ireland circa 1918 and suffused with music from World War I, O Lovely Glowworm is a joyously inventive celebration of humanity. The show features the M.F.A. Program class of 2010 and runs March 4-20, 2010, at Zeum Theater (Yerba Buena Gardens, Fourth and Howard streets, San Francisco). Opening night is Saturday, March 6, 2010, at 8 p.m. Tickets are $15-$20 and are available at www.act-sf.org or by calling A.C.T. Ticket Services at 415.749.2228.

"Glen Berger's plays resonate with my own sensitivities more than any others I have encountered in the past ten years. Prismatic, poetic, twinning self-creation and self-destruction, the expanding universe that Glen initiates always collapses back into the personal whims and oddities of daily human survival," says director Alex Harvey. "I am overwhelmed with gratitude to be sharing another of Glen's miracles of imagination with A.C.T.'s artists and audiences. In a city that's no stranger to poetic license, I am convinced this is the best place to bring Glen's most heartfelt work, O Lovely Glowworm, to life."

"When I first read O Lovely Glowworm, I was thrilled by the playwright's free-wheeling theatrical imagination," says A.C.T. Conservatory Director Melissa Smith. "The play manages to touch on the meaning of life itself while humming a whimsical tune." Regarding the importance of this experience for the student actors from the class of 2010, she adds: "Discovering how this play comes to life in production will be a magical, mind-blowing experience for all the actors involved. I hope taking part in this production whets their appetite for more experimental work and encourages them to explore and promote nontraditional writers and unconventional theater."

Set in a rough and organic landscape revealing little jewel boxes of scenes inspired by Joseph Cornell's famous collages, O Lovely Glowworm is an ambitious undertaking for the conservatory and director Harvey. Berger, who has won two Emmy Awards for his work at PBS (among nine nominations), uses his love of collage and pastiche to examine a moment in cultural history when fracture was in the zeitgeist. Through the eyes of a very unlikely narrator, O Lovely Glowworm takes a close look at the beginnings of the 20th century, when scientific discoveries (from the industrial revolution to quantum physics) and World War I tore apart the norms of family and human relationships. Mixing archaic recordings of opera singer John McCormack's folk songs and the ideals of home and unity from the era's idyllic advertising imagery with Berger's heightened romantic and zany dialogue, director Harvey's production is bound to be a nonlinear and meditative journey through a poetic landscape.

The design team bringing the world of this unique play to life includes scenic designer Melpomene Katakalos, lighting designer Ben Wilhelm, costume designer Callie Floor, sound designer and composer Kevin O'Donnell, and musical director Robert Rutt. O Lovely Glowworm is made possible by a generous grant from The Bernard Osher Foundation. Additional support is provided by The William G. Gilmore Foundation and donors to A.C.T.'s season gala, April 18, 2010.

Ranked as one of the top programs in the nation by U.S. News & World Report, the A.C.T. Master of Fine Arts Program was the first theater training program in the country not affiliated with a college or university accredited to award the master of fine arts degree. The M.F.A. Program functions as the cornerstone of the A.C.T. Conservatory, which also includes the Summer Training Congress, Studio A.C.T., and the Young Conservatory. The third and final year of the program is designed to give students the opportunity to focus primarily on performing for a public audience. Past M.F.A. Program third-year productions have included works by Rebecca Lenkiewicz, Christopher Durang, Charles Busch, Marc Blitzstein, Georg Büchner, Caryl Churchill, George Farquhar, Henrik Ibsen, Robert O'Hara, Harold Pinter, William Shakespeare, George Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde, Maxim Gorky, and Bertolt Brecht.

A.C.T.'s stage at Zeum Theater, a venue distinct from the American Conservatory Theater on Geary Street, is dedicated to the development of new works, new translations, new forms, and new artists. A.C.T.@Zeum was launched in October 2001 with the A.C.T. M.F.A. Program's world premiere staging of Marc Blitzstein's No for an Answer, directed by A.C.T. Artistic Director Carey Perloff. This unprecedented community partnership gives A.C.T. an additional stage for readings, workshops, rehearsals, and other aspects of new play and production development.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES
Glen Berger's (Playwright) plays include Underneath the Lintel (more than 450 performances off Broadway and 90 productions worldwide), The Wooden Breeks (nominated for Best Writing by the L.A. Weekly, 2001), O Lovely Glowworm (2005 Portland Drammy Award for Best Script), Great Men of Science, Nos. 21 & 22 (L.A. Weekly Best Play Award), and I Will Go...I Will Go. Berger has also collaborated with Frank London (of the Klezmatics) on two new musicals: On Words and Onwards, and the Loewe Award-winning A Night in the Old Marketplace. He is currently co-writing the script for the Broadway musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, directed by Julie Taymor. Berger has received commissions from The Children's Theatre Company of Minneapolis and Lookingglass Theatre Company. He was selected for the 2003 Old Vic New Voices program, participated in the 2001 A.S.K. Playwrights Retreat, and was playwright-in-residence at New York Stage and Film. Television credits include more than 100 episodes for children's television series, including Arthur, Big and Small, Curious George, and Fetch, which have earned him two Emmy Awards and nine nominations. Berger is an alumnus of New Dramatists.

Alex Harvey (Director) is a freelance director/adaptor based in Brooklyn. Recent credits include Underneath the Lintel at the Alley Theatre; Mr. Marmalade and I Am My Own Wife for Stages Repertory Theatre, in coproduction with StageWest Theatre Company; Macbeth for The Mirror Repertory Company; The Bird and Mr. Banks for Live Bait Theater; Swifty DuPont for Collaboraction; General Desdemona at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe; and his own adaptations of The Knight of the Burning Pestle for the Wing & Groove Theatre Company and The Mock-Tempest for Shakespeare Santa Cruz. Harvey was the 2008 recipient of The Drama League's New Directors/New Works Fellowship, for which he adapted his own version of Ernst Toller's Hinkemann, entitled Brokenbrow. In 2009, his adaptation of Michael Pollan's The Botany of Desire was developed at the Arts Research Center at UC Berkeley and at the Orchard Project in Hunter, New York. Harvey was a directing resident at Long Wharf Theatre (2005) and has worked in new play development at Steppenwolf Theatre Company and New York Theatre Workshop. He graduated with honors from Northwestern University, where he studied directing and ethnomusicology.

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