The Cutting Ball Theater to Present PHEDRE This April

In the final production of its 2016-17 Season, Cutting Ball Theater will present Jean Racine's great tragedy of illicit love and revenge, PHÈDRE, in a new translation by the Theater's Founding Artistic Director Rob Melrose. Associate Artistic Director Ariel Craft directs a cast of eight with Courtney Walsh featured in the title role.

Phèdre opens in previews on April 20 and runs through May 21, 2017. Opening night is scheduled for Saturday, April 22 at 8 p.m. The press opening will take place the following Monday, April 24 at 7 p.m. Tickets are $15 - $45, and may be purchased online at cuttingball.com/productions/phedre or by phone at 415-525-1205.

"I'm excited to direct Courtney [Walsh] as Phèdre because she's a truly uninhibited performer, and this play hinges on the release of inhibitions," said Craft. "Phèdre is the story of a woman who has always policed her feelings finally letting go. As Phèdre, Courtney allows herself to be furious and fearful, while also full of joy and delight. At bottom, this is a play about living in passion and then living with the consequences."

In collaboration with scenic designer Nina Ball, Sound Designer Brian Hickey, costume designer Brooke Jennings, and lighting designer Nick Kumamoto, Craft sets the story in a world with aesthetic overtures to 1950s Americana. "So much of the play's framework revolves around purity and social expectation in a way that is deeply gendered, and the decade of the 1950s is filled with iconography and tropes that are useful to this end, even as they are in need of investigation," Craft explained.

In addition to her work at Cutting Ball, Craft is the founder and artistic director of The Breadbox. Recent Breadbox directing credits include a critically acclaimed production of The Awakening based on Kate Chopin's novel of the same name, and radical re-imaginings of Federico Garcia Lorca's Blood Wedding and John Ford's 'Tis Pity She's a Whore. Craft holds a BFA with honors from New York University where she studied directing and multidisciplinary theater-making at the Playwrights Horizons Theater School. She was an Artistic Fellow at the American Conservatory Theater, and previously served as Assistant Artistic Director at The Custom Made Theatre Co. Theatre Bay Area recently honored Craft with a Titan Award.

In Phèdre Walsh will make her Cutting Ball Theater debut. She currently appears in the West Coast premiere of Native Son at Marin Theatre Company. She recently performed the title role of Clytemnestra in Tangled Justice which toured in Athens, Berlin, Amsterdam, Cardiff, Sydney, Auckland, and eight other cities. Other recent credits include Winnie in a bilingual production of Samuel Beckett's Happy Days, and Mrs. Robinson in Sixth Street Playhouse's The Graduate. Walsh also appeared in San Francisco Playhouse's Jerusalem and Stanford Repertory Theater's Moby Dick - Rehearsed, which she co-directed. Walsh is a member of the professional core Acting Company of Stanford Repertory Theater, where she has appeared for the last nine seasons. She has a BA from Yale University, and is an equestrienne and mother of four.

Joining Walsh in Phèdre are actors Ed Berkeley, Kenneth Heaton, Karen Offereins, Brennan Pickman-Thoon, Emily Radosevich, Neiry Rojo and Cecily Bednar Schmidt. For more information visit cuttingball.com/productions/phedre.

Co-founded in 1999 by Rob Melrose and Paige Rogers, Cutting Ball Theater presents avant-garde works of the past, present and future by re-envisioning classics, exploring seminal avant-garde texts and developing new experimental plays. In addition to producing West Coast premieres and re-imagining the classics, Cutting Ball Theater has produced nine world premieres and seven world premiere translations. Over the years Cutting Ball has received recognition and honors from numerous grant makers and media outlets including the San Francisco Bay Guardian, SF Weekly, San Francisco magazine, the Acker Awards, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the American Theatre Wing.

Pictured: Courtney Walsh is Phèdre. Photo by Debra Singer.

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