'The Mystery of Love & Sex' Opens Feb. 21 at Taper
BATHSHEBA DORAN’S “THE MYSTERY OF LOVE & SEX” OPENS THIS SUNDAY
WEST COAST PREMIERE PLAYS THROUGH MARCH 20 AT CTG/MARK TAPER FORUM
“Ms. Doran’s drama is so packed with humanity that it seems infinitely larger, like a chart depicting the sexual and emotional anatomy of us all.” – Charles Isherwood, The New York Times
Award-winning playwright Bathsheba Doran’s heartfelt new work, “The Mystery of Love & Sex,” opens Sunday, February 21, 2016, at 7 p.m. at the Center Theatre Group/Mark Taper Forum. Performances continue through March 20. (Previews began February 10.)
Directed by Robert Egan (Artistic Director/Producer of the Ojai Playwrights Conference), the production features, in alphabetical order, Sharon Lawrence (“NYPD Blue,” “Rizzoli and Isles,” “Poor Behavior” at the Taper), David Pittu (“Is He Dead?” and “LoveMusik,” Broadway; “Parade,” national tour), Robert Towers (“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” “1776,” national tour), York Walker (“One Night in Miami,” Denver Center; “Napoli,” ACT; “A Raisin In The Sun,” California Shakespeare Theater) and Mae Whitman (“Speech and Debate,” The Blank Theatre; the film “The Duff” and TV’s “Parenthood”).
Insightful and compassionate, “The Mystery of Love & Sex” is the story of four people whose lives are inextricably intertwined. Charlotte and Jonny are two college students who have been friends since they were nine years old. Attending college together, they contemplate taking their relationship to a romantic level, but Charlotte’s parents don’t take the news very well, and an onslaught of uncomfortable truths about all four of them is unleashed.
Scenic design is by Takeshi Kata, costume design is by Laura Bauer, lighting design is by Rui Rita, original music and sound design is by Karl Fredrik Lundeberg and casting is by Meg Fister. The production stage manager is David S. Franklin.
Bathsheba Doran holds a B.A. and an M.A. from Cambridge University, an M.A. from Oxford University and an MFA from Columbia University. Her critically acclaimed play “Kin” received its world premiere in 2011 at Playwrights Horizons. Doran’s television work includes “Codes of Conduct” (HBO), “Masters of Sex,” “Smash” and “Boardwalk Empire.” She is a 2009 recipient of the Helen Merrill Playwriting Award, three Lecomte du Nouy Lincoln Center playwriting awards and she is a Susan Smith Blackburn Award Finalist.
Robert Egan is Artistic Director/Producer of the Ojai Playwrights Conference, and President and CEO of RHEgan Productions and EYE Street Media. He is the former Producing Director of the Mark Taper Forum, where he founded the Taper’s New Work Festival, and was Associate Artistic Director of Seattle Repertory, where he created its new play development program, The Other Season. He recently returned from Zimbabwe where he created the first African New Play Festival in that country. Throughout his career, Egan has directed and developed hundreds of new plays for the international theatre.
“The Mystery of Love & Sex” had its world premiere at Lincoln Center Theatre in April, 2015.
Tickets for “The Mystery of Love & Sex” are available by calling (213) 628-2772 or online at www.CenterTheatreGroup.org. Tickets range from $25 - $85 (ticket prices are subject to change). The Mark Taper Forum is located at the Music Center, 135 N. Grand Avenue in Downtown L.A. 90012.
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February 17, 2016