FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – Wednesday, December 10, 2014
MEDIA CONTACT – Michael Duncan Smith | 617-923-7060 x8205 | [email protected]
NEW REPERTORY THEATRE ANNOUNCES
MUCKRAKERS
WRITTEN BY ZAYD DOHRN
DIRECTED BY BRIDGET KATHLEEN O’LEARY
PART OF THE SECOND ANNUAL NEXT REP BLACK BOX FESTIVAL
JANUARY 10-FEBRUARY 1, 2015
[WATERTOWN] New Repertory Theatre announces MUCKRAKERS by Zayd Dohrn, January
10-February 1, 2015 in the Black Box Theater at the Arsenal Center for the Arts, 321 Arsenal
Street, Watertown, MA. Tickets are $36 and may be purchased by calling the New Rep Box
Office at 617-923-8487 or visiting newrep.org. Student, senior, and group discounts are
available. Subscription packages including MUCKRAKERS are also available.
The press opening will be Monday, January 12 at 7:30pm.
“In the second year of our Next Rep Black Box Festival, we continue to present adventurous,
intimate plays that allow audiences to connect to works on a much more personal level,” says
Artistic Director, Jim Petosa. “MUCKRAKERS embodies those themes, as well as New Rep’s
mission to present work that speaks directly to the issues and ideas of our time. In a world that
has become increasingly interconnected, privacy, the need to know, and the right to
information sits front and center in our collected cultural zeitgeist. MUCKRAKERS deftly
probes those subjects in a fascinating and absorbing manner.”
“Last year we were met with the resounding success of our inaugural Next Rep Black Box
Festival,” says Managing Director, Harriet Sheets. “This year, we hope to continue those
successes as we present four remarkable plays beginning with the evocative area premiere of
Zayd Dohrn’s MUCKRAKERS. We’re pleased to welcome back two outstanding performers
from our 2013-2014 season: Lewis D. Wheeler and Esme Allen. Their work at New Rep and in
the Boston area has delighted audiences, and we’re thrilled to have them with us once again.”
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About MUCKRAKERS
A young activist hosts a famous political journalist/hacker in her apartment. What follows is an
evening full of rich debate over who has the right to information, how much the public needs
to know, and the consequences of power. Dynamics shift when secrets are revealed and each
discovers that there is always a price to pay for privacy. In the wake of controversy surrounding
WikiLeaks and NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden, The Boston Globe calls MUCKRAKERS
“an absorbing play that’s ripped from the headlines.”
About New Repertory Theatre
New Repertory Theatre is the award-winning, professional theatre company in residence at
the Arsenal Center for the Arts in Watertown, MA. Now celebrating its 30th anniversary
season as a leading self-producing theatre in greater Boston, New Rep produces
contemporary and classic dramas, comedies, and musicals in both the 340-seat Charles
Mosesian Theater and the 90-seat Black Box Theater. Annually, New Rep serves over 40,000
patrons, including 2,000 season subscribers. In addition to its mainstage productions, New
Rep produces Next Voices, a program dedicated to developing new plays with four
playwrights through three staged readings and one world premiere production. Under its
Lifelong Enrichment Arts Programs (LEAP), New Rep also produces its Classic Repertory
Company, Page To Stage, Insider Experiences, and Spotlight Symposium Series.
New Rep’s Mission
New Repertory Theatre produces plays that speak powerfully to the essential ideas of our
time. Through the passion and electricity of live theater performed to the highest standards of
excellence, New Rep expands and challenges the human spirit of both artists and audience.
New Rep presents world premieres, contemporary and classic works in several intimate
settings. We are committed to education and outreach, including special dedication to the
creation of innovative in-school programming and providing access to underserved audiences.
New Rep is an active advocate for the arts and a major voice in the national dialogue defining
the role of theater in our culture.
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Artistic Bios
Esme Allen* (Mira) returns to New Repertory Theatre after performing in The Elephant Man
and Amadeus. Other area credits include Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Stoneham Theatre, IRNE
Nomination); North Shore Fish (Gloucester Stage Company); The Cherry Orchard, Middletown
and The Merry Wives of Windsor (Actors’ Shakespeare Project); and Coriolanus
(Commonwealth Shakespeare Company). Other credits include Youth Ink! (McCarter Theatre,
NJ); Jack, or the Submission and The Whole Arrangement (Edinburgh Fringe Festival).
Television credits include The Good Wife (CBS); Ask the Bartender (FOXNEWS). Ms. Allen
earned her MFA in Acting from California Institute of the Arts. She is a Founding Artistic
Associate of The Bridge Repertory Theater of Boston and teaches at Salem State University
and Wheelock College. She also creates collage-based visual art, which has been exhibited in
the North Shore area. She resides in Jamaica Plain and will be set designing Bridge Repertory
Theater’s production of Julius Caesar this spring.
Lewis D. Wheeler* (Stephen) returns to New Repertory Theatre after performing in Pattern of
Life, Rancho Mirage, Long Day’s Journey Into Night, Silence, and Cyrano. Regional credits
include No Man’s Land (IRNE Nomination, Best Supporting Actor, American Repertory
Theater); The Importance of Being Earnest, A Number, and The Glass Menagerie (Lyric Stage
Company); Doubt and An Ideal Husband (Gloucester Stage Company); Arcadia (IRNE
Nomination, Best Actor) and Troilus and Cressida (Publick Theatre); Life of Galileo
(Underground Railway); No Exit (Payomet); Hamlet and Macbeth (Shakespeare Now); The Bald
Soprano, Sexual Perversity in Chicago, What the Butler Saw, and five seasons with Wellfleet
Harbor Actors Theatre. Other credits include work at American Stage, Commonwealth
Shakespeare Company, Huntington Theatre Company, Wellesley Summer Theatre, Stoneham
Theatre, Vineyard Playhouse, and The Center for Arts in Natick. He was a founding member of
the Harbor Stage in Wellfleet, where he performed in The Seagull and Hedda Gabler, and
directed Sticks and Bones. Film and television credits include The Company Men, Pink Panther
2, Underdog, Louisa May Alcott (PBS), Brotherhood, Hatfields & McCoys, and Gilded Lilys,
and the upcoming film about Whitey Bulger, Black Mass. Mr. Wheeler earned his BA in
Theatre and Film Studies at Cornell University and his MFA from the American Film Institute.
He resides in Boston.
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Bridget Kathleen O’Leary (Director) joined New Rep as Artistic and Education Associate in
2008. Most recently, she has directed New Rep’s productions of Pattern of Life, Lungs, Fully
Committed, Collected Stories, DollHouse, boom, Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol,
and Fool for Love. Other directing credits include Reconsidering Hanna(h) and The Devil’s
Teacup. (Boston Playwrights’ Theatre); The Other Place (The Nora Theatre and Underground
Railway Theater); Recent Tragic Events, and Aunt Dan and Lemon (Whistler in the Dark). In
2007, she assisted Artistic Director Wendy C. Goldberg at the National Playwrights’
Conference at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center and worked as an assistant on new plays by
Rebecca Gilman and Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa. Before moving to Boston, Bridget worked in
Washington, DC with the Olney Theatre Center, Theater Alliance, Cherry Red Productions,
Charter Theater, Studio Theatre Second Stage, and Phoenix Theatre DC, of which she was a
founding member. She is the Chair of the Literary Department for the National New Play
Network and a member of the New England New Play Alliance. Bridget received her MFA in
directing at Boston University.
Zayd Dohrn (Playwright) was born underground and raised in New York City. His full-length
plays include Outside People (The Vineyard Theatre/Naked Angels), Want (Steppenwolf First
Look), Sick (Berkshire Theatre Festival), and Reborning (The Public/SPF). His work has been
produced and developed across the country, including at Playwrights Horizons, The Atlantic
Theatre Co, Chautauqua Theater Company, South Coast Rep, Manhattan Theatre Club,
Barrington Stage, Southern Rep, Theatre for One, New York Theatre Workshop, The Orchard
Project, SF Playhouse, Stella Adler Studio, Kitchen Dog Theater, Ars Nova, Boston Playwrights'
Theatre, and the Royal Court Theatre of London. He won Chautauqua's 2015 New Play
Commission, Theatre Masters' Visionary Playwright Award, the Kennedy Center Jean Kennedy
Smith Award, the Sky Cooper American Playwriting Prize, the Dallas Critic's Award, and
Independent Reviewers of New England (IRNE) Award for Best New Play. He has written
screenplays for The American Film Company, Bedlam Productions, and Vox3 Films, and
developed a drama series at HBO. Mr. Dohrn earned his MFA from NYU and was a Lila
Acheson Wallace Fellow at Juilliard, where he twice received Lincoln Center’s Lecomte du
Nouy Prize. He currently teaches in the MFA program in Writing for the Stage and Screen at
Northwestern University.
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MUCKRAKERS at a glance
Company:
New Repertory Theatre
Artistic Director:
Jim Petosa
Managing Director:
Harriet Sheets
Production:
MUCKRAKERS
Venue:
Black Box Theater | Arsenal Center for the Arts
321 Arsenal Street | Watertown, MA 02472
Author:
Zayd Dohrn
Director:
Bridget Kathleen O’Leary
Cast:
Mira
Stephen
Esme Allen*
Lewis D. Wheeler*
Production Team:
Scenic Designer
Costume Designer
Lighting Designer
Sound Designer
Stage Manager
Alexander Grover
Tyler Kinney
Christopher Brusberg
Edward Young
Michele Teevan*
*Denotes member of Actors’ Equity Association (AEA)
Performance Schedule:
Saturday, January 10, 8pm
Sunday, January 11, 4pm
Monday, January 12, 7:30pm
Thursday, January 15, 7:30pm
Friday, January 16, 8pm
Saturday, January 17, 8pm
Sunday, January 18, 2pm
Sunday, January 18, 7:30pm
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Preview
Preview/Symposium
Press Opening
Talk Back
Wednesday, January 21, 7:30pm
Thursday, January 22, 7:30pm
Friday, January 23, 8pm
Saturday, January 24, 3pm
Saturday, January 24, 8pm
Sunday, January 25, 2pm
Thursday, January 29, 2pm
Thursday, January 29, 7:30pm
Friday, January 30, 8pm
Saturday, January 31, 3pm
Saturday, January 31, 8pm
Sunday, February 1, 2pm
Talk Back
Talk Back
Talk Back
Tickets:
Telephone: 617-923-8487, Online: newrep.org
In Person: 12 noon to 6pm, Arsenal Center for the Arts
321 Arsenal Street, Watertown, MA 02472
Parking:
Free, six-level parking garage next to the
Arsenal Center for the Arts
Public Transportation:
#70 or #70A bus to the School Street stop from
Central Square Station, Red Line
Accessibility:
Wheelchair Accessible, Assistive Listening System,
Large-Print and Braille Programs Available
Season Sponsors:
Massachusetts Cultural Council
NCGIT
The Mall at Chestnut Hill
Festival Sponsor:
WBUR
For Media Inquiries:
Michael Duncan Smith | Marketing & PR Director
617-923-7060 x8205 | [email protected]
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