Circle Mirror Transformation

July 10 – 26, 2015

by Annie Baker

COLORADO SPRINGS, CO – May 26, 2015 – Springs Ensemble Theatre (SET), in conjunction with Pikes Peak Community College Downtown Studio Art Gallery, present Circle Mirror Transformation, an Obie-Award winning play by Annie Baker, July 10th-26th.

In 2014 Annie Baker won the Pulitzer Prize for The Flick, a play which details the tiny battles and not-so-tiny heartaches of three employees of a rundown old movie theatre somewhere in Massachusetts, home to one of the last functioning 35mm projectors in the state. Part of Annie Baker’s considerable talent lies in bringing the prosaic to life in a way that is touching, sophisticated, and wonderfully engaging. In Circle Mirror Transformation she turns her eye to a similarly unlikely locale, an adult acting class at a community center in small-town Vermont.

Acting instructor Marty Kriesberg (played by Nan Rubley) has four students: her husband James (Steven Slarditz), the recently divorced Schultz (Bob Morsch), Theresa (Holly Haverkorn) an actress from New York, and Lauren (Savannah Nusser) a local high school student. An unlikely fivesome, the four students gamely participate in the exercises and activities Marty has planned, revealing bits of themselves along the way to self-discovery. Over the course of the six weeks of the class, we watch as tentatively at first and then with increasing confidence, the characters in the play find a voice and build a small world for themselves, full of secrets, intrigue, heartache, and ultimately a kind of bittersweet redemption.

A unique challenge for Director/Producer Max Ferguson in producing Circle Mirror Transformation is that the script calls for the play to take place in a dance studio surrounded by mirrors. Through a serendipitous happenstance, the Downtown Studio Art Gallery Director Laura BenAmots was seeking a collaboration with some sort of non-profit performance group for an upcoming gallery exhibition, Voicing the Voiceless. Sarah S. Shaver, SET Board Vice-President and the chair of PPCC’s Theatre Department, put the pieces and people together and a beautiful partnership and perfect solution were born. The Downtown Studio Art Gallery abuts the PPCC Dance Studio with a removable wall between the two, so seating in the gallery allows audience to snoop on this slice of life in this intimate classroom setting.

Meet-The-Artists Exhibit Reception: July 17th, 5:00-7:30pm. Join SET and our collaborators for refreshments and conversation to celebrate the visual artists who are part of the Voicing the Voiceless Exhibit and stay for the performance at 7:30pm.

All performances will take place at Pikes Peak Community College Downtown Studio Art Gallery, 100 West Pikes Peak Avenue, Colorado Springs, CO 80903. Street parking available.

Cast and Production Team

Cast:

Marty: Nan Rubley

James: Steven Slarditz

Theresa: Holly Haverkorn

Schultz: Bob Morsch

Lauren: Savannah Nusser

Production Team:

Co-producers: Max Ferguson, Sarah S. Shaver, Crystal Carter

Director: Max Ferguson

SET/PPCC Liaison: Sarah S. Shaver

Downtown Studio Art Gallery Director: Laura BenAmots

Stage Manager: Gabriel Espinoza-Lira

Sound Designer: Brianna G. Pilon

Light Designer: Jenny Maloney

Playbill Design: Matt Radcliffe

Poster Design: Claire Swinford

Trailer Design: Jessica Weaver and Steve Emily

Photographer: Emory John Collinson

Our Colorado Springs Independent review.