47th Season • 449th Production JULIANNE ARGYROS STAGE / JANUARY 9-30, 2011 David Emmes Martin Benson PRODUCING ARTISTIC DIRECTOR ARTISTIC DIRECTOR presents CIRCLE MIRROR TRANSFORMATION BY Annie Baker David Zinn Angela Balogh Calin Mark Barton Leah Gelpe SCENIC DESIGN COSTUME DESIGN LIGHTING DESIGN SOUND DESIGN David Roy Jackie S. Hill Jennifer Ellen Butler* ASSISTANT SOUND DESIGN PRodUctioN MANAgeR StAge MANAgeR DIRECTED BY Sam Gold Larry and Dee Higby HoNoRARY PRodUceRS CIRCLE MIRROR TRANSFORMATION is presented by special arrangement with Dramatists Play Service, Inc., New York. Circle Mirror Transformation • SOUTH COAST REPERTORY P1 CAST OF CHARACTERS (In order of speaking) Theresa ............................................................................................. Marin Hinkle* James ................................................................................................. Brian Kerwin* Lauren .............................................................................................. Lily Holleman* Schultz ................................................................................................... Arye Gross* Marty ............................................................................................ Linda Gehringer* SETTING A windowless dance studio in the town of Shirley, Vermont. Summertime. LENGTH Approximately one hour and 50 minutes with no intermission. PRODUCTION STAFF Casting .................................................................................. Joanne DeNaut, CSA Dramaturg ........................................................................................ Kelly L. Miller Assistant to the Director ..................................................................... Skyler Gray Associate Set Designer ....................................................................... Tim McMath Assistant to the Lighting Designer ................................................ Aaron Mooney Production Assistant ............................................................................ Wendy Leef Stage Management Intern ....................................................................... Liz Dicus Light Board Operator ........................................................................... Lois Bryan Dresser .................................................................................................. Alma Reyes * Member of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers. Please refrain from unwrapping candy or making other noises that may disturb surrounding patrons. The use of cameras and recorders in the theatre is prohibited. Smoking is not permitted anywhere in the theatre. Cellular phones, beepers and watch alarms should be turned off or set to non-audible mode during the performance. P2 SOUTH COAST REPERTORY • Circle Mirror Transformation Annie Baker on Circle Mirror Transformation write this from the MacDowell Colony in New five is. Anyway, there are hundreds of people up there, shire, where I am beginning (or trying to begin) a and I’ve heard of eight of them. There are probably a new play. MacDowell is amazing — they put you few people that I should know about — some cool com- in the middle of the woods and give you a cabin all poser from the 1940s still talked about in composer cir- to yourself, with a fire- cles — but I can guess that Iplace and a big window and most of these artists didn’t a square grand piano that’s end up being “known” in been converted into a desk. the way that they’d hoped They bring lunch to your when they first set foot in door in a picnic basket. this cabin. There are chickens running And so I picture my around (that might be my own name fading as the favorite part). And then seasons pass, until fifty there is the whole day in years from now some other front of you, with nothing emerging female playwright to do but write, and noth- sees my signature and her ing surrounding you but young heart stirs with pity trees. And crippling self- because SHE HAS NO IDEA doubt. Playwright Annie Baker WHO I AM. I spend a lot of time Which brings me, here lying on the floor and kind of, to Circle Mir- questioning what I have ror Transformation. I chosen to do with my life. grew up in a small town in I take fitful naps. I read “I wanted to explore how theater can Massachusetts, and I was Nabokov short stories (“she actually happen to a group of people, not raised by a single mother thought of the incalculable who worked full-time. My amount of tenderness con- just through improvisation and movement mother was very supportive tained in the world; of the exercises (which are, admittedly, pretty of my writing, but I never fate of this tenderness, got the sense that becom- which is either crushed, hilarious, whether they happen at Juilliard ing a writer, let alone a or wasted, or transformed or in a basement in Vermont), but through well-known writer, was an into madness”) and then achievable goal. After all, I weep performatively for the sound of sneakers skidding on the floor, I’d never met any of these the chickens’ benefit. I the awkward silences during a bathroom strange, mythical creatures also stare at these wooden called professional writers. tablets on the walls that break, the pain of an inappropriate crush.” They probably had tusks or have all the names and sig- winged feet. Or rich par- natures of the people who ents. But I pursued writing have written or composed music in this cabin before me. and theater anyway, for no reason other than it was the They call these tablets “tombstones.” There are some only thing that made me happy. And the only way to pretty cool signatures from people I admire, like Suzan- pursue it was through local classes taught by local peo- Lori Parks and John Jesurun. A bunch of my heroes — ple with dubious qualifications, with a motley crew of Thornton Wilder, James Baldwin — wrote in some of the fellow students ranging from janitors to housewives to other studios, too. But there are seventeen tombstones retirees. We improvised scenes in the back of the library. on my wall, going all the way back to 1930, and twenty- We tangoed in the basement of the community center. five faded signatures per tombstone, which means…oh We read our “free writes” out loud in our teacher’s living god, I’m terrible at math and I don’t have a pen and the room. And when I look back on all this, years later, my chickens refuse to tell me what seventeen times twenty- instinct is often to laugh at my former self and my fellow Circle Mirror Transformation • SOUTH COAST REPERTORY P3 students, and the earnestness with on the floor, the awk- which we approached our artistic ward silences during endeavors. a bathroom break, the It’s the same instinct that pain of an inappropri- makes me waste time at MacDow- ate crush. Some of the weird stuff I wit- nessed in those classes Circle Mirror Transformation is set in the fictional town of Shirley, Vermont. was a lot more theatri- cal — intentionally or not — than plays I’ve ell worrying that I won’t be as seen (and written) in “known” as I want to be. It’s the New York. And so I’m hungry, recognition-seeking side happy, and honored, to of myself, and when I write from show that strange little it, I write badly. So two years ago, world to an audience, as a kind of personal test, I forced myself to write a por- and to celebrate all the people who make art together trait — not a satire — of a Creative Drama class in a small and don’t stop to worry about whether or not their New England town, and I made myself set the entire names will be remembered. thing within the confines of a windowless dance studio. —Annie Baker, July 2009 I wanted to explore how theater can actually happen to a group of people, not just through improvisation and Written in anticipation of the world premiere of Circle movement exercises (which are, admittedly, pretty hilari- Mirror Transformation at Playwrights Horizons in New ous, whether they happen at Juilliard or in a basement in York, 2009. (Reprinted courtesy of Playwrights Hori- Vermont), but through the sound of sneakers skidding zons.) tion”—which is improvised on stage anew each night. Director Sam Gold encouraged the actors to play cre- Creative Drama 101 ative theatre games in rehearsal, not only to prepare for their roles, but to mirror the real-life, cumulative he story of Circle Mirror Transformation un- experience of the play—disparate strangers engaging folds through a series of popular acting exercises their own imagination and creativity to find a greater performed by five people in a creative drama connection to their own lives and to each other. class. Whether you’ve never Ttaken an acting class in your life—or you’ve taken twen- Playwright Annie Baker and ty—the goal of the exer- director Sam Gold took cises remains the same: New York by storm last to help participants hone season, winning OBIE their listening and com- awards for their off- munication skills and to Broadway collaborations build a sense of trust on Circle Mirror and ensemble. Transformation and The There are numer- Aliens (Best New American Plays ous theatre games and Director, in the play, includ- respectively). ing classics like SCR is thrilled to “Greetings,” “One reunite them to Word Story” and stage the West “Explosion Tag.” Coast premiere And one exer- of Ms. Baker’s cise—“Circle Mir- intimate comedy. ror Transforma- P4 SOUTH COAST REPERTORY • Circle Mirror Transformation Artist Biographies LINDA GEHRINGER* MARIN HINKLE* Marty Theresa has appeared at