Eugene O’Neill’s Pulitzer-prize winning play takes the stage February 9 – March 2, 2014
(Greensboro, NC) — Triad Stage’s Lucky Season continues with Anna Christie by Eugene O’Neill. A coal barge captain spends his days at a dingy waterfront saloon, cursing the old devil sea. A letter arrives from his long lost daughter announcing she is coming to see him. She’s a stranger to the sea, but has devils of her own. She sets to sail with her father searching for a family she has never known. When they rescue a powerful, rough sailor, she falls in love. But as they journey on, her past secrets threaten her hope for a new life. The first great American play by America’s only Nobel Prize-winning playwright is an astonishing love story played out against the tempestuous sea. Anna Christie runs February 9 – March 2, 2014. Opening Night is Friday, February 14. The production is sponsored by Triad Stage’s Producers Circle and Center Stage level donors.
Preston Lane, Triad Stage’s artistic director and the director of Anna Christie, believes that this play, more than any other, changed the American theater landscape. “There is something very political about this play that deals with an America that is caught between its ideals and its reality.” “These characters are controlled by a force that is beyond themselves—the sea,” says Lane. Costume designer, Miwa Ishii continues “They struggle to rise from the bottom and fight for their only hope.” Her designs come from the late 1910's when the society was damaged from the Great War and the women still suffered from distinctive social inequality. Creating costumes that do not look like glamorized representation of the period, but the clothes in which people carried out their daily lives is the goal. Scenic designer, Fred Kinney explains, “I wanted the materials that the set is built from, the weathered wood, steel, rope, to echo the harsh environment, both internal and external, the characters find themselves. With the minimalistic color and texture, I want the set to capture the longing sound of a distant fog horn.”
ABOUT THE PRODUCTION
The creative team includes: scenic designer Fred Kinney (Tennessee Playboy, Ain’t Misbehavin’), costume designer Miwa Ishii (Triad Stage debut), lighting designer Jiyoun Chang (A Doll House, Tennessee Playboy) and sound designer Phillip Owen (Kingdom of Earth). The dramaturg is Bryan Conger, Christine Morris is the resident vocal coach, Jim Wren is the fight director, and Denise Gabriel is the resident movement director. Cindi Rush is the casting director, and the stage manager is Emily J. Mails.
THE CAST
The cast includes a mix of old and new faces to Triad Stage. Gardner Reed and Matthew Flynn Bellows both make their Triad Stage debuts as Anna and her love interest Mat Burke. Gordon Joseph Weiss, best known as Ebenezer Scrooge to Triad audiences, appears as Chris Christopherson, Anna’s father. Josh Foldy (A Christmas Carol, Dial “M” for Murder) is Larry, the bartender. Rounding out the cast is Christine Morris (New Music: Better Days, Providence Gap) as Marthy Owen.
ABOUT TRIAD STAGE
Triad Stage is the professional not-for-profit regional theater company for the Piedmont Triad with performances in downtown Greensboro at The Pyrle and in downtown Winston-Salem at the Hanesbrands Theatre. All Triad Stage productions are created in the Triad using the best of local and national talent. Triad Stage gratefully acknowledges the support of its Season Sponsors: Blue Zoom, the North Carolina Arts Council, Arts Greensboro and The Arts Council of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County.
All Triad Stage productions feature the bold acting and breathtaking design that have been nationally recognized by The Wall Street Journal and by the American Theatre Wing, founder of the Tony Awards®, which named Triad Stage one of the top ten most promising theatres in the country as a recipient of the 2010 National Theatre Company Grant. Triad Stage has also earned accolades including “Best North Carolina Production of 2010” for The Glass Menagerie by Triangle Arts & Entertainment magazine; “One of the Best Regional Theatres in America”, New York’s Drama League; “Best Live Theater” (nine years running), Go Triad/News & Record and The Rhinoceros Times; and “Professional Theater of the Year” (2003, 2011), North Carolina Theatre Conference.