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Mercy on the Doorstep
World Premiere
Wellfleet, MA, October 12, 2005 - World Premiere!
Mercy on the Doorstep
Written and Directed by Gip Hoppe
WHAT caps its record-breaking 2005 season with the world premiere of Gip Hoppe’s latest play Mercy on the Doorstep. Hoppe — award-winning author of Cuckooland, A New War, and Jackie, An American Life — takes on the neo-nuclear family with this insightful and emotionally compelling drama. Christianity... alcoholism... pornography... In this play, nothing is sacred. An emotional roller-coaster ride.
Description
Rena’s father has died and left her his rambling old house. Unfortunately her boozy, excoriating stepmother, Corinne, is holed up inside. Rena does the Christian thing and asks Corrine to stay – all she has to do is boot the bottle and accept Jesus Christ as her own personal savior.
Details
Mercy on the Doorstep
Written & Directed by Gip Hoppe
Show Dates / Times
October 13 – November 6
(Wednesday - Sunday at 8pm)
Prices
General Admission: $25.00
Student Rush: $12.00
AFCC members: AFCC members qualify for discount! Any member who calls the box office and reserves tickets will get half off the price of admission. $12.50 instead of $25.00. The deal is good for all performances EXCEPT SATURDAY. To qualify, all they have to say is that they are members of your organization.
Call (508) 349-WHAT(9428).
Venue
WHAT Theater
1 Kendrick Ave., Wellfleet (next to the Town Pier)
Reservations
(508) 349-WHAT (9428)
Online: www.what.org
Box Office: 1 Kendrick Ave., Wellfleet (next to the Town Pier)
Visa/MasterCard accepted.
Cast
Corinne — Laura Esterman
Rena — Tanya Clarke
Mark — Mark Rosenthal
Getting Into Character
A Conversation with Playwright / Director Gip Hoppe
WHAT: How would you describe Mercy on the Doorstep?
Gip Hoppe: It’s an intimate play. It’s not a big idea kind of play… not an overtly political one either. It’s an emotionally compelling play.
WHAT: It sounds like it’s very character-driven. How do you create your characters?
Gip Hoppe: I sometimes write very cartoony characters. The characters in this play are more straightforward. They have elements of people I know. One tenth of one person and one tenth of another – ten percent your dad, ten percent the guy who comes and fixes your sink.
WHAT: What does Mercy on the Doorstep have to say about religion?
Gip Hoppe: It’s not really about religion. Religion is an element in the play, but it’s really a story about intransigent beliefs and borders created by these beliefs. It’s about how people get caught up in these self-limiting borders and have trouble escaping.
Playwright Bio
Gip Hoppe is a founding member and Co-Artistic Director of the Wellfleet harbor actors Theater. His plays have been performed on Broadway, Off Broadway, London’s West End, The State Theater of Germany, and various regional theaters across the U.S.
Cast
Laura Esterman
Last worked with Gip Hoppe in Ruby Tuesday and was also at WHAT last summer in Immoral Imperatives. Her New York work includes Marvin’s Room and last season’s Terrorism at the New Group and Outward Bound for the Keen Company. She has worked extensively on and off Broadway.
Tanya Clarke
Previous WHAT productions: Immoral Imperative and Live Girls.
Broadway credits: I’m Not Rappaport (Booth Theater).
Off-Broadway credits: Match (Cherry Lane Theater), Bobbi Boland, The Director (Arclight Theatre) and This side of Paradise (E.S.T.)
Regional credits: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, All My Sons, Coriolanus (Alabama Shakespeare Festival), The Underpants (Cleveland Playhouse), As Bees in Honey Drown (Provincetown REP), I’m Not Rappaport (Coconut grove Playhouse, Ford’s Theatre, Papermill Playhouse), Always... Patsy Cline, Wait Until Dark.
Film credits: Delivery Method (Grand Jury Prize – Best Film/New Haven Film Fest, L.A. Method Fest Best Actress), The Best Thief in the World (HBO, Sundance), A Beautiful Mind (Imagine/Universal, Role: Becky), Elizabeth & Ahmed (Indie short), The Ticking Man (Next Gen. Films).
TV credits: One Life to Live (recurring role: Nurse Betty), other soaps.
Mark Rosenthal
Play credits: After Ashley (Vineyard) The Internationalist (FTC), The Moonlight Room (Lucille Lortel Nomination), Kenneth Lonergan’s This Is Our Youth (N.Y.), & Waverly Gallery (Pasadena Playhouse), Ah Wilderness! (Lincoln Center), Liz Egloff’s Phaedra (Vineyard), The Basement at the Bottom of the End of the World (1996 YPF at the Public), Dark Rapture (ACT), Marvin’s Room (Chicago’s Goodman Studio & Playwrights Horizons N.Y. – Joseph Jefferson Award nomination & Theater World Award, Drama Desk nomination).
Film credits: the upcoming Backseat, Final Draft, Jump, Stiffs.
TV credits: The Mike O’Malley Show (series regular), Tribeca, Joe’s Apartment, The Education of Max Bickford, That’s Life, Law & Order.
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