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Thursday, May 19, 2011

Marsha Mason, Paxton Whitehead Circle Over to Westport Playhouse

Westport Country Playhouse’s “The Circle,” features, from left, seated, Gretchen Hall, Nicholas Martin (director), Marsha Mason, Bryce Pinkham; standing, John Horton, Paxton Whitehead, Christina Rouner, Marc Vietor, James J. O’Neil. Photo by Carol Rosegg

Golden Globe Award winner and Academy Award nominee Marsha Mason and Drama Desk Award winner and Tony Award nominee Paxton Whitehead will head the cast of Westport Country Playhouse’s scintillating comedy of manners, The Circle, written by W. Somerset Maugham and directed by Nicholas Martin, playing June 7 - 25.


Many years ago, Lord Champion-Cheney (Whitehead) was abandoned by his wife, Lady Catherine (Mason), who ran off to Italy with her lover. Bringing matters full circle, his stuffy son Arnold is now involved in a love triangle of his own as his bored wife is smitten with a handsome house guest. “The Circle” explores how history often is destined to repeat itself.

In addition to Mason (films “The Goodbye Girl” and “Cinderella Liberty”) and Whitehead (Broadway’s The Importance of Being Earnest, My Fair Lady and Noises Off), the cast includes Gretchen Hall as Elizabeth; John Horton as Lord Porteous; James J. O’Neilas Butler; Bryce Pinkham as Edward Luton; Christina Rouner as Mrs. Shenstone; and Marc Vietor as Arnold Champion-Cheney.

Director Nicholas Martin previously directed Westport Country Playhouse’s The Substance of Fire and A Cheever Evening. On Broadway, he directed Present Laughter, Butley, Match, Hedda Gabler, The Rehearsal and You Never Can Tell. He is the former artistic director of the Williamstown Theatre Festival and Boston’s Huntington Theatre Company.

Westport Country Playhouse’s five-play 2011 season continues with Lips Together, Teeth Apart, a perceptive comedy about people struggling against their limitations, written by Terrence McNally and directed by Mark Lamos, Playhouse artistic director, July 12 – July 30; Suddenly Last Summer, the poetic, sensual and evocative drama, written by Tennessee Williams and directed by David Kennedy, Playhouse associate artistic director, Aug. 23 – Sept. 10; and Twelfth Night, or What You Will, the beguiling comedy/romance, written by William Shakespeare and directed by Lamos, Oct. 11 – Nov. 5.

Subscriptions to all four plays are available for preferred seating and discounts up to 45% off single ticket pricing. Students and educators are eligible for 50% discounts. All Friday evening performances are $25 for patrons aged 35 and under. Groups of 10 or more save up to 30%. For group sales information call 203-227-5137, x120.

For more information or tickets, call the box office at 203-227-4177, or toll-free at 1-888-927-7529, or visit Westport Country Playhouse, 25 Powers Court, off Route 1, Westport. Tickets are available online at http://www.westportplayhouse.org/.
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Lauren Yarger with playwright Alfred Uhry at the Mark Twain House. Photo: Jacques Lamarre)

My Bio

Lauren Yarger has written, directed and produced
numerous shows and special events for both secular and Christian audiences. She co-wrote a Christian musical version of “A Christmas Carol” which played to sold-out audiences of over 3,000 in Vermont and was awarded the 2000 Vermont
Bessie (theater and film awards) for “People’s Choice for Theatre.”

Yarger trained for three years in the Broadway
League’s Producer Development Program, completed the Commercial Theater Institute's Producing Three-Day Training and produced a one-woman musical about Mary Magdalene that toured nationally and closed with an off-Broadway
run.

She was a Fellow at the National Critics Institute at the O'Neill
Theater Center in Waterford, CT. She writes reviews of Broadway and off-Broadway theater (the only ones you can find in the US with an added Christian perspective) at http://reflectionsinthelight.blogspot.com/. She
is editor of The Connecticut Arts Connection (http://ctarts.blogspot.com), CT Press Club's award winner of first place for web editing and second place in feature writing for the web in 2012.

She is a contributing editor for BroadwayWorld.com and is a theater reviewer for the Manchester Journal-Inquirer. She previously served as Connecticut theater editor
for CurtainUp.com and as Connecticut and New York reviewer for American Theater Web. Yarger is a book reviewer for Publishers Weekly and freelances for other sites. She is a member of the National Book Critics Circle.

She is a freelance writer and playwright and member of The Drama Desk, The Outer Critics Circle, The American Theater Critics Association and The League of Professional Theatre Women. She served as a judge for the SDX Awards presented
by the Society of Professional Journalists. She also is a member of the Connecticut Critics Circle (awards committee).

A former newspaper editor and graduate of the University of Missouri’s School of Journalism, Yarger also worked in arts management for the Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts,
the Hartford Symphony Orchestra and served for nine years as the Executive Director of Masterwork Productions, Inc. She lives with her husband in West Granby, CT. They have two adult children.

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