WHAT MAKES YOU YOU? New Churchill play explores identity

Caryl Churchill's compelling drama A Number receives its Baltimore premiere at Everyman Theatre from March 17 to April 23, 2006.

What would happen if you woke up one day to discover that you were not the only you? Bernard (Kyle Prue) finds out that he is one of "a number." His father Salter (Bill Hamlin) has secrets that peel away like the layers of an onion to reveal a beginning of Bernard's life that is quite different from anything he could have imagined. Human cloning is the backdrop of Churchill's play that delves so much deeper and asks the questions: What makes you unique? Is it the way you look? Is it more than skin deep? Is it the environment you're raised in or your genetic make-up?

"Caryl Churchill has her finger on the pulse of the world today," says Director Vincent M. Lancisi. "She has something important to say that we haven't really contemplated before. Her writing style is vastly different with each new play. She literally reinvents her style to best fit the subject matter. In A Number, the language is economical and exact. There is not an extraneous word in the script. The intrigue and humor comes in between the lines, in what's not said but clearly thought.

Adventurous British dramatist Caryl Churchill constantly reinvents herself and tackles diverse subject matters. Born in London in 1938, Churchill grew up in Canada and returned to London to attend Oxford University. She was the Resident Dramatist at the Royal Court Theater in London in 1974 and 1975. Churchill is known for her collaboration and worked with theatre companies such as Joint Stock and Monstrous Regiment, which conducted an extended workshop period in their development of new plays. She won an Obie awards for Best Play for Cloud Nine, Top Girls, and Serious Money. Churchill won an Evening Standard Theater Award for Best Play in 2002 for A Number .

A Number marks the return of Everyman Theatre Resident Acting Company Member Kyle Prue to the Everyman stage. It's been three years since he last appeared as Major Arnold in Taking Sides. A founding company member, Prue has appeared in over 20 Everyman productions including Mozart in Amadeus, Joe Farkas in The Last Night of Ballyhoo, Tom in The Glass Menagerie, Ross in Visiting Mr. Green, Proctor in The Crucible, Teck in Watch on the Rhine, and Clifford in Sideman. He has also performed at many other theatres in the Washington DC/Baltimore area including The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Arena Stage, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Signature Theatre, Studio Theatre, Rep Stage and Theatre of the First Amendment. Joining Prue is Bill Hamlin who last appeared at Everyman as Tobias in A Delicate Balance for which he received the Best Stage Actor Award in City Paper's Best of Baltimore. He was nominated for a Helen Hayes Award for his Old Gentlemen in Mad Dancers at Washington's Theater J, where he was also seen in Hannah and Martin, The Last Seder, and The Chosen. He has also appeared in The Comedy of Errors at Folger Theater and The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Richard II, Coriolanus and King Lear at the Shakespeare Theatre Company.

A Number is directed by Everyman Theatre Artistic Director Vincent M. Lancisi who founded Everyman Theatre in October of 1990. Lancisi most recently directed The Last Five Years, Everyman's critically acclaimed and highest grossing production in its history. He also directed a revival of his Everyman production of Proof at Totem Pole Playhouse. At Everyman, he has directed over 20 productions including Amadeus, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Buried Child, Oleanna, The Last Night at Ballyhoo, A Delicate Balance, Hedda Gabler, Uncle Vanya and Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune.

A Number will run Wednesdays through Sundays from March 17 to April 23, 2006. A Pay-What-You-Can preview performance will be held Tuesday, March 14, and preview performances are March 15 and 16. A Talk-Back with the actors and designers will be Thursday, April 20 after the performance. Tickets may be purchased by calling the Box Office at (410) 752-2208 or on-line at www.everymantheatre.org.

Everyman Theatre is a professional Equity theatre company with a resident ensemble of artists from the Baltimore/Washington area dedicated to presenting high quality plays that are affordable and accessible to everyone.

 

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