Another premiere from the
Women Playwrights Series!

"You must pay attention to consistency as you stir. Each ingredient
must be lovingly joined with the next. Don’t whip, don’t kill,
don’t annihilate. Just love. You love it until it’s together."

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Pictured above, left to right:  Katrina Ferguson as “Dottie”,    Steven L. Barron as Robert, Quinn Warren as “Betty”    and Phil E. Eichinger as “Philip”.

"White icing is not yellow, it's white. That's why you only allow only the whites into the bowl," Dottie tells her daughter as she tries to prepare her daughter with all the skills for happiness in Bekah Brunstetter's darkly comic new play You May Go Now: a Marriage Play, which will premiere Feb 20th through March 8 at the Centenary Stage Company ( CSC) in Hackettstown.

In this striking new play, daughter Betty has lived a protected life, alone with her mother in their house for many years. As her 18th birthday approaches, Dottie tries to prepare her daughter for her transition into the wide world, but will she be ready? The surprising reappearance of Dottie's husband, and the arrival of a mysterious visitor who follows Betty home from the bus station suggest a less than perfect past in this domestic domicile, and one that will require much more than the recipe for a good cake to navigate. You May Go Now is a blender of a contemporary fable full of secrets and revelations, guaranteed to shake up ideas about love, how we create identity and what constitutes "family."

You May Go Now received development as part of CSC's Women Playwrights Series (WPS) , a workshop and reading series now in it's 17th year of providing a working forum for women writing for the theatre. "This play is part of what I call CSC's 'Adventure Series'," stated WPS Program Director Catherine Rust. "Plays in this series feature dynamic new voices in the world of off- and off-off Broadway theatre, where playwrights are still able to take the greatest risks with their work. The work pays off with exciting and thought-provoking new territory in the theatre world, and we are thrilled to be a small part of that." You May Go Now is recommended for audiences age 18 and up.

About The Cast

Katrina Ferguson
Morristown resident Katrina Ferguson is also no stranger to Centenary, where she created the lead role in Debra Brevoort's "Poetry of Pizza" and played the role of Anita Manchip in CSC's well-received revival of Simon Gray's "Quartermaine's Terms." Around NJ Ferguson has been seen often at the Bickford Theatre and NJ Rep. She has toured the US with the National Shakespeare Company, appeared with Austin Pendleton in "Othello", and has toured Europe five times with the American Drama Group's production of "A Christmas Carol." Ferguson will portray the role of "Dottie, " a mother with a singular idea of what comprises the key to happiness for her daughter.

Steven L. Barron
A veteran of several CSC performances, from his debut in "While the Sun Shines" to the critically acclaimed "Sight Unseen," and this season's "A Laughing Matter," Metuchen resident Steven L. Barron is a mainstay of professional in New Jersey. A émigré from Seattle, Baron has been acting professionally for over twenty years, and recently returned from the Florida Studio Theatre, where he performed in "Moonlight and Magnolias." His New York work includes "The Brothers Karamozov" at LaMama. Barron will play the role of "Robert", who reappears out of nowhere in this surprising play to visit his wife.

Phil E. Eichinger
Howell, NJ resident and CSC newcomer Phil E. Eichinger will create the role of "Philip", a mysterious young man who throws a wrench into the workings of a happy household, when he arrives with a gun and a secret. Eichinger graduated from Monmouth University in Fine Arts, and after a stint as a semi-pro Ice Hockey Player, has been acting for three years in the tri-state area. He can be seen in the movies "Nacho Mountain, and "Men's Affair", and recently on "Flight of the Conchords," "Guiding Light", and "As the World Turns," among other programs.

Quinn Warren
New York actress, Quinn Warren (originally from Kansas) will play daughter "Betty", who has learned everything she knows about the world from her secret stashes of Readers Digest magazines. Quinn Warren most recently appeared with the Alliance Rep. as Karen in Boys’ Life and with the Axial Theatre Company in the premiere of Angel Beast. She has had the good fortune to have worked at the McCarter Theatre in the world premier of Mrs. Packard, written and directed by Emily Mann. Mrs. Packard was the recipient of the Kennedy Center Award for New American Plays providing Quinn with the opportunity to perform at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. She is a member of KAD, Blueberry Pond Theatre Ensemble, and NYC Playwrights. Quinn is a Magna Cum Laude graduate of  Stephens College in Missouri with a BFA in theatre Arts.

About The Playwright
Winner of the 2008 Innovative Theatre Award in NYC, Bekah Brunstetter hails from North Carolina, and received BA in Theater with an Honors Thesis in Fiction Writing from UNC Chapel Hill in 2004, and an MFA Dramatic Writing from The New School for Drama. Her plays have been read and staged by The Rattlestick Playwright's theater, NYU's HotINK Festival of New Plays, Canada's NEXTFEST, The Alliance Theater, SPF, The Emerging Artists' Theatre, Boston Theater Works, Working Mans Clothes Productions, Manhattan Theatre Source, the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival, Old Vic New Voices, the Soho Think tank, and in venues such as the Ohio Theater, the Atlantic, and Galapagos Art Space.

Her works have been honored by the Cherry Lane Mentorship Program, The Jane Chambers Student Playwriting Award, The Tennessee Williams New Orleans Literary Festival, KCACTF, Actor's Theater of Louisville, and the Alliance Theater. Her play To Nineveh received Six New York Innovative Theatre Awards in September 2006, including Best New Full Length Play. Her play Sick won the 2006 Samuel French Short Play Competition. She was a semi-finalist for the 2007 O'Neill Playwright's Conference, and the 2007 Princess Grace Award.

A founding member of Working Man's Clothes Productions, she currently serves as its Director of New Play Development. Her plays are published by Samuel French, United Stages and Smith & Krauss. She is a contributing member of Working Man's Clothes Productions, Old Vic New Voices, the Dramatist's Guild and the Playwright's Center. She is proudly the most recent addition to the Ars Nova Play Group.
 

Brunstetter is currently working on a self-commissioned commission for Brunstetter, Inc. about Elephant violence. She lives in Williamsburg with her bikes (yes, bicycles), Roberta and Tony, and her cat, the Baby Kitty.

Open Caption (Sunday, March 1 at 2:30 p.m.) and
Audio Described Performances (each production)

As part of a continuing effort to improve Access Services for all Americans, the Centenary Stage Company (CSC), a professional, Equity theatre in residence on the campus of Centenary College in Hackettstown, NJ, will offer an Open Captioning performance of the new dark comic mystery, You May Go Now: A Marriage Play written by Rebekah Brunstetter, on Sunday, March 1 at 2:30 p.m. Often referred to as OC, Open Captioning is designed to assist patrons with hearing impairment. Its name derives from the text-based access to broadcast programs, 'closed captioning,' offered on may television programs, and which requires special equipment for viewing. By contrast, Open Captioning provides the same service, while requiring no special equipment, and is 'Open to all' participants.

In 1996 Open Captioning was first introduced inside a theatre at the Paper Mill Playhouse production of "Gigi." This came at the request of Arlene Romoff, advocate for the Hard of Hearing, and author of "Hear Again - Back to Life with a Cochlear Implant." The service was first provided by a company called C2, founded by David Chu and Donald DePew. Open Captioning in theatre has gained world-wide attention and support for its universal appeal, ease of integration and program enhancement. It has introduced a wave of new audiences and, especially, offered opportunities to those who can finally return to the theatre. The Open Captioned performances at CSC will be also provided by C2.

For You May Go Now: A Marriage Play, A special ticket discount price of $10 is available for patrons with hearing impairment wishing to use the service. For more information, interested parties should contact the CSC ADA coordinator, Catherine Rust at 908-979-0900 x5 or at rustc@centenarycollege.edu, with OPEN CAPTION in the subject line.

With a mission of improving access to the arts for all patrons, Centenary Stage Company also offers Audio Described performances of each production for patrons with visual disabilities and Listening Assistance devices for patrons with hearing disabilities.

L-R: Katrina Ferguson and Katrina Ferguson in   rehearsal photo

Schedule

Feb. - Mar. 2009 - You May Go Now
Wed. Mat. 2:30pm	Thurs. Eve. 7:30pm	Fri. Mat. 2:30pm	Fri. Eve. 8pm	Sat. Eve. 8pm	Sun. Mat. 2:30pm
		20	20	21	22 Meet The Playwright
25	26 Family Night ____ Women's Leadership Council	x	27 Theatre Rocks	28	1 Open Captioning
4	5 Family Night	x	6	7	8

Recommended for Mature Audiences – ages 17 and up
 

Tickets
Individual Tickets are:

www.centenarystageco.org           boxoffice@centenarystageco.org
400 Jefferson Street, Hackettstown, NJ 07840       908-979-0900
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Revised: December 23, 2008
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