New Repertory Theater Presents COLLECTED STORIES 10/9-30

New Repertory Theatre, in residence at the Arsenal Center for the Arts has announced Collected Stories by 2000 Pulitzer Prize playwright Donald Margulies. Collected Stories will run from October 9 through October 30, 2011 in the Charles Mosesian Theater. The Press Opening will be held on Monday, October 10, 2011 at 7:30pm.

"Collected Stories is an absorbing play," states Harriet Sheets, Managing Director, New Repertory Theatre. "Margulies' brilliant exploration of the dynamic relationship between a mentor and her mentee, and how the balance of power shifts between these two characters is sure to enthrall our audience."

"I am really looking forward to delving into this process and exploring these incredibly complex, beautiful characters." says Bridget Kathleen O'Leary. "I think the evolution of Ruth and Lisa's relationship is inevitable and I am fascinated by the decisions each of these women make over the course of the play."

O'Leary adds, "I am most fortunate to work with Liz Hayes and Bobbie Steinbach, two exceptional actors who I've had the great privilege to follow over the past several years. I am also really excited to work with this design team. They will bring Marguiles' world to life in a way that I think our audiences will find rich and compelling.

Collected Stories will be directed by Bridget Kathleen O'Leary. The cast features New Rep favorite Bobbie Steinbach (Darling Divas Deck the Holidays, The Clean House, Romeo and Juliet, A Girl's War, The Waverly Gallery, Stonewall Jackson's House) as Ruth and introduces to the New Rep stage Liz Hayes as Lisa.

Ruth Steiner, a critically acclaimed, seasoned author, takes her student, Lisa, under her wing. What begins as a mentorship flourishes into a deeper maternal friendship. When Lisa becomes a much-admired published writer and uses Ruth's secretive life story for her own novel, the balance of power shifts and the boundaries of their relationship is called into question. Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Donald Margulies challenges audiences to answer the questions: Does your story belong to you? Does someone else have the right to tell your story?

New Repertory Theatre presents provocative and intelligent works of both established and emerging playwrights in an intimate setting that involves and engages the audience. New Rep has earned a reputation for Dynamic Productions that honor the writers and feature talented professional actors from the New England Theatre community as well as guest artists from around the U.S. New Rep has received Elliot Norton and IRNE Awards for outstanding acting, scenic design, directions, and production. Programming for New Repertory Theatre is supported in part by a grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council.

ARTISTS

Liz Hayes is thrilled to be making her New Rep debut working with Bridget and this talented design team while appearing alongside her friend Bobbie Steinbach! A founding member of the Boston-based theatre company Orfeo Group, Liz played Joan in their recent production of Love Song and has appeared with many local companies including the Lyric Stage Company (where she first worked with Bobbie in The Spitfire Grill), SpeakEasy Stage, Underground Railway Theater, Stoneham Theatre, Fort Point Theatre Channel and Boston Theatre Works. She was nominated for 2010 Elliot Norton and IRNE Awards for her performance as Daisy in SpeakEasy's production of Adding Machine: A Musical. Liz is a proud member of Actors' Equity and SAG, as well as a certified yoga instructor. She is a graduate oF Brown University, received her MFA from The Shakespeare Theatre Company's Academy for Classical Acting and teaches at The Boston Conservatory.

Bobbie Steinbach is delighted to be back at New Rep where she was last seen in 2010's holiday cabaret, Darling Divas Deck the Holidays. Also at New Rep: The Clean House (Elliot Norton Award for Best Production), Romeo and Juliet, A Girl's War, The Waverly Gallery, Stonewall Jackson's House. She is a Founding Member and is in the Resident Company of Actors' Shakespeare Project, where she has performed in 10 productions including Coriolanus, Macbeth and Henry IV 1 & 2. Regional credits include: Michigan Opera Theatre; Boston Pops at Boston Symphony Hall & Tanglewood: A Little Night Music; Huntington Theatre Company: Rose Tattoo, Dead End, The Corn is Green; Commonwealth Shakespeare Company: Romeo and Juliet, Much Ado About Nothing; Lyric Stage Company of Boston: Follies, The Importance of Being Ernest, Arms and the Man, A Little Night Music, Spitfire Grill, Assassins, Lend Me a Tenor, Beyond Belief, Present Laughter; SpeakEasy Stage Company: Anna in the Tropics; Christmas Revels at Sanders Theatre; Boston TheatreWorks: Our Town, Coyote on a Fence; Merrimack Rep: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, A Christmas Carol, Ring Round the Moon; Vineyard Playhouse and Jewish Theatre of NE: The Last Night of Ballyhoo. She is the recipient of the Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Actress and the Independent Reviewers Best Supporting Actress award. Bobbie also offers private audition coaching. Bobbiesteinbach.com

Donald Margulies received the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Dinner with Friends (Actors Theatre of Louisville [KY], South Coast Repertory [Costa Mesa, CA], Variety Arts Theatre [New York], Comedie des Champs-Elysees [Paris], Hampstead Theatre [London]; American Theatre Critics' Association New Play Citation, Dramatists Guild/Hull-Warriner Award, Lucille Lortel Award, Outer Critics Circle Award, Drama Desk nominee; a Burns Mantle Best Play). His many plays include Time Stands Still (Geffen Playhouse [Los Angeles], Manhattan Theatre Club/Friedman Theatre, Cort Theatre; nominated for Tony, Outer Critics Circle, and L.A. Ovation Awards; American Theatre Critics' Association New Play Citation, a Burns Mantle Best Play); Shipwrecked! An Entertainment - The Amazing Adventures of Louis de Rougemont (As Told By Himself) (South Coast Repertory, Long Wharf Theatre [New Haven], Geffen Playhouse, Primary Stages [New York]; Outer Critics Circle Award nomination); Brooklyn Boy (South Coast Repertory, Manhattan Theatre Club/Biltmore Theatre, Comedie des Champs-Elysees; American Theatre Critics' Association New Play Award finalist, Outer Critics Circle nominee, a Burns Mantle Best Play); Sight Unseen (South Coast Repertory, Manhattan Theatre Club/Biltmore Theatre [Broadway, 2004], Manhattan Theatre Club/Orpheum Theatre [1992], Comedie des Champs-Elysees; OBIE Award, Dramatists Guild/Hull-Warriner Award, Drama Desk nominee, Pulitzer Prize finalist, a Burns Mantle Best Play); Collected Stories (South Coast Repertory, Manhattan Theatre Club [1996], HB Studio/Lucille Lortel Theatre, Theatre Royal Haymarket [London]; Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle/Ted Schmitt Awards, L.A. Ovation Award, Drama Desk nominee, Dramatists Guild/Hull-Warriner Award finalist, Pulitzer Prize finalist, Drama Desk nominee; MTC/Friedman [Broadway, 2010]); God of Vengeance (based on the Yiddish classic by Sholem Asch), (ACT Theatre [Seattle], Williamstown [MA] Theatre Festival); Two Days (Long Wharf Theatre); The Model Apartment (Los Angeles Theatre Center, Primary Stages, La Jolla [CA] Playhouse, Long Wharf Theatre; OBIE Award, Drama-Logue Award, Dramatists Guild/Hull-Warriner Award finalist, Drama Desk nominee); The Loman Family Picnic (Manhattan Theatre Club [1989, 1993]; Drama Desk nominee; a Burns Mantle Best Play); What's Wrong with This Picture? (Manhattan Theatre Club, Jewish Repertory Theatre [New York], Brooks Atkinson Theatre); Broken Sleep: Three Plays (Williamstown Theatre Festival); July 7, 1994 (Actors Theatre of Louisville); Found a Peanut (Joseph Papp/New York Shakespeare Festival); Pitching to the Star (West Bank Café); Resting Place (Theatre for the New City); Gifted Children, Zimmer and Luna Park (Jewish Repertory Theatre). His plays have been performed at major theatres across the United States and around the world. Theatre Communications Group has published seven volumes of his work. Dinner with Friends was made into an Emmy Award-nominated film for HBO, and Collected Stories was presented on PBS. Currently, he is adapting the novel Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides into an HBO miniseries. Mr. Margulies has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, The New York Foundation for the Arts, and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. He was the recipient of the 2000 Sidney Kingsley Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Theatre by a playwright. In 2005 he was honored by the American Academy of Arts and Letters with an Award in Literature and by the National Foundation for Jewish Culture with its Award in Literary Arts. Mr. Margulies is an alumnus of New Dramatists and serves on the council of The Dramatists Guild of America. Born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1954, Mr. Margulies now lives with his wife, Lynn Street, a physician, and their son, Miles, in New Haven, Connecticut, where he is an adjunct professor of English and Theatre Studies at Yale University.

Bridget Kathleen O'Leary is in her fourth season at New Rep as Artistic Associate. Most recently, she directed New Rep's productions of DollHouse, boom, Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol and Fool for Love. Other directing credits include: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead for Summer Festival Theatre at Roxbury Latin; Aunt Dan and Lemon at Whistler in the Dark; The Boys of Winter (IRNE Nomination, Best New Play, 2008) for BKS productions; The Devil's Teacup (IRNE Nomination, Best New Play, 2007) at Boston Playwrights' Theatre; and Rosencrantzand Guildenstern are Dead, The American Clock, Much Ado About Nothing, Curse of the Starving Class, Dancing at Lughnasa, and Sarah Kane's Crave and 4.48 Psychosis, all at Boston University. 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. Ms. O'Leary has directed IRNE and Elliot Norton Award-nominated actors and productions as well as students graduating from Boston University's School of Theatre at the College of Fine Arts. Before moving to Boston, Bridget worked in Washington, D.C. 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. Selected D.C. directing credits include Independence, Parallel Lives, and the creations of Unwrapped and Lulu Fabulous by area playwrights. Bridget received her MFA in directing at Boston University.

Company: New Repertory Theatre

Where: In residence at the Arsenal Center for the Arts, Charles Mosesian Theater, 321
Arsenal Street, Watertown, MA 02472

Production: Collected Stories

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