WaterTower Theatre Producing Artistic Director Terry Martin today announced casting details for Circle Mirror Transformation which will be performed in the Studio Theatre, November 4 - 21, 2010. The cast features Lynn Blackburn as Theresa, Kayla Carlyle as Lauren, Lisa Hassler as Marty, Bill Jenkins as James and Ted Wold as Schultz.
Circle Mirror Transformation follows five small town Vermonters as they take a community acting class, each with their own expectations. They soon learn more about each other and themselves than they bargained for. Circle Mirror Transformation premiered at Playwrights Horizons in New York City in October 2009. The New York Times called it "absorbing, unblinking and sharply funny." Baker's comedy won many awards, including an Obie Award for Best New American Play, the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Emerging New Talent, and a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play.
Annie Baker's full-length plays include Body Awareness (Atlantic Theater Company, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle nominations for Best Play/Emerging Playwright), Circle Mirror Transformation (Playwrights Horizons, OBIE Award for Best New American Play, Drama Desk nomination for Best Play), The Aliens (Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, OBIE Award for Best New American Play), The End of the Middle Ages (commission for Soho Rep) and Nocturama. Her work has also been developed and produced at New York Theatre Workshop, MCC Theater, Soho Repertory, The Orchard Project, Ontological-Hysteric Theater, Ars Nova, Huntington Theatre Company, Magic Theatre, Cape Cod Theatre Project, Bay Area Playwrights Festival and The Sundance Institute Theatre Lab in Utah and Ucross, Wyoming. Baker is a member of New Dramatists, MCC's Playwrights Coalition and EST, and an alumna of Youngblood, Ars Nova's Play Group, and the Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab. Recent honors include a New York Drama Critics Circle Special Citation, a Susan Smith Blackburn Prize nomination, a Time Warner Storytelling Fellowship, a MacDowell Fellowship and commissions from Center Theatre Group and Playwrights Horizons.
Amy Anders Corcoran, director and choreographer, recently completed her Masters of Fine Arts in Directing at Penn State University under the tutelage of Tony Award-nominated Susan H. Schulman. Amy was the 2009 SDC Noel Coward Fellow for Comedic Direction, which placed her on a production of Private Lives at California Shakespeare Theater. Favorite directing credits include two productions of Smokey Joe's Café, The Little Dog Laughed, Rabbit Hole, In Trousers and All Night Strut. Favorite choreography credits include Crazy For You, Company and this summer's off-Broadway production of Thank You for Being a Friend: The Unauthorized Golden Girls Parody Musical. She has assisted on productions in London, Ontario, Canada at the Grand and at Goodspeed Opera House under Mark Rucker, Michael Lichtefeld and Christopher Gattelli.
Lynn Blackburn (Theresa) has performed at WaterTower Theatre in Noises Off and The Foreigner. She has acted at Dallas Theater Center, Dallas Children's Theater, Uptown Players, Theatre Three, Kentucky Repertory Theatre, The Kennedy Center and Genesis Shakespeare Festival. She recently completed filming a recurring role in the NBC television series, Friday Night Lights.
Kayla Carlyle (Lauren) makes her WaterTower Theatre debut in Circle Mirror Transformation. She has performed at theatres throughout the DFW metroplex, including Casa Mañana, Uptown Players, Second Thought Theatre, Shakespeare Dallas and Dallas Theater Center.
Lisa Hassler (Marty) is a veteran stage actress having appeared in numerous local productions at Kitchen Dog Theater (Slasher, Sick), Theatre Three (Pygmalion) and Uptown Players (Sordid Lives, Valhalla) to name a few. She has appeared on stage at WaterTower Theatre in The Crucible and An Inspector Calls.
Bill Jenkins (James) is a veteran film, television and stage actor. He has appeared many times at WaterTower Theatre in such plays as I Hate Hamlet, Ravenscroft, The Laramie Project, and Beautiful Star: An Appalachian Nativity. His other stage work includes productions by Stage West, Circle Theatre, Casa Mañana and Kitchen Dog Theater. His film work includes roles in W, Mad Money and the NBC television series, Friday Night Lights.
Ted Wold (Schultz) most recently appeared at WaterTower Theatre in Laughter on the 23rd Floor and previously in WTT's productions of The Santaland Diaries, Take Me Out (for which he won a Rabin Award), Noises Off, The Spitfire Grill and You Can't Take It With You. Ted is a frequent performer with such theatres as Theatre Three, Theatre Arlington, Second Thought Theatre, Contemporary Theatre of Dallas and Uptown Players.
WaterTower Theatre is celebrating its 15th anniversary with its 2010-2011 season. The Company is one of the leading regional theatres in North Dallas and Texas. It is consistently recognized for its artistic excellence by the Dallas Theatre League, Dallas/Fort Worth Theatre Critics Forum, The Dallas Morning News, The Dallas Observer, D Magazine and The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, among others. WaterTower Theatre has a subscription base of more than 2,100 subscribers and serves an audience of over 35,000 patrons annually.
WaterTower Theatre gratefully acknowledges the support of The Town of Addison, TACA, Texas Commission on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts. WaterTower Theatre is supported, in part, through the generosity of The 500 Inc., Ackley Financial Group, Inc., Atmos Energy, AT&T Yellow Pages, Liberty Capital Bank, Rainmaker Advertising, Target, The Shubert Foundation, and Media Sponsors Dallas Voice and WFAA.
Terry Martin is WaterTower Theatre's Producing Artistic Director, a position he has held for 12 years. Terry has directed 38 productions for WaterTower Theatre. Some of his directing credits at WTT include Man of La Mancha, Humble Boy, The Crucible, Take Me Out, A Country Life (which he adapted from Chekhov's Uncle Vanya and which won the 2005 Rabin Award - Best New Play), Cabaret, It Ain't Nothin' But The Blues, Company, An Inspector Calls, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, The Laramie Project, You Can't Take It With You, Book of Days, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (2002 Rabin Award - Director of a Play), Sweeney Todd (2002 Rabin Award Nomination - Director of a Musical), Desire Under the Elms, Ravenscroft, Rockin' Christmas Party (2000, 2001), Enter the Guardsman (2001 Rabin Award Nomination - Director of a Musical), Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill and Little Shop of Horrors (2000 Rabin Award Nomination - Director of a Musical) among others. For Plano Repertory Theatre, he has directed Journey's End (2000 Rabin Award - Director of a Play), Dracula, La Bête, Little Shop of Horrors and Pump Boys and Dinettes.
