By Kenneth Jones
24 Sep 2009

Peter Friedman and playwright Annie Baker
photo by Aubrey Reuben

Circle Mirror Transformation, Annie Baker's new play about New Englanders enrolled in a drama class, begins Sept. 24 in a world premiere production by Playwrights Horizons at its Peter Jay Sharp Theater.

Sam Gold directs the Off-Broadway run, which features Obie Award winner Reed Birney (The Savannah Disputation, Blasted), Tony Award nominee Peter Friedman (Ragtime, The Heidi Chronicles), Obie Award winner Deirdre O'Connell (Manic Flight Reaction and Spatter Pattern at Playwrights Horizons), Tracee Chimo (Irena's Vow, 365 Days/365 Plays) and Obie Award winner Heidi Schreck (Drum of the Waves at HERE, Amazons and Their Men at Clubbed Thumb).

Opening night is Oct. 13. The limited engagement will run through Nov. 1 in Manhattan.

According to production notes, "In Circle Mirror Transformation, when four lost New Englanders enrolled in a Shirley, Vermont, community center drama class experiment with harmless games, hearts are quietly torn and tiny wars of epic proportions are waged and won. Annie Baker's new comedy is a beautifully crafted diorama, a petri dish in which we see, with hilarious detail and clarity, the sweet sadness of a motley quintet."

Baker's Body Awareness was produced by Atlantic Theater Company. Gold directed Jollyship the Whizbang at Ars Nova, Rag and Bone at Rattlestick, The Black Eyed at New York Theatre Workshop.

Playwrights Horizons' Peter Jay Sharp Theater (416 West 42nd Street).

The production will feature scenic and costume design by David Zinn, lighting design by Mark Barton and sound design by Leah Gelpe. Production stage manager is Alaina Taylor.

Baker's full-length plays include Body Awareness (Atlantic Theater Company, Time Out New York's Top Ten Plays of 2008, 2008 GLAAD Media Award nomination), Nocturama, The End of the Middle Ages and The Aliens. Her work has been developed and workshopped at SoHo Rep, New York Theatre Workshop, Playwrights Horizons, MCC, the Atlantic Theater Company, Ensemble Studio Theatre, the Ontological-Hysteric, Ars Nova, the Wilma, the Lark, the Magic Theatre, the 2007 Bay Area Playwrights Festival, the 2008 Sundance Institute Theatre Lab and the 2008 Sundance Institute Playwrights Retreat in Ucross, Wyoming. She has an MFA from Mac Wellman's playwriting program at Brooklyn College.

The performance schedule for Circle Mirror Transformation will be Tuesdays through Fridays at 7:30 PM, Saturdays at 2 PM & 7:30 PM and Sundays at 2 PM & 7 PM.

Tickets, $50, may be purchased online via TicketCentral.com, by phone at (212) 279-4200 (Noon-8 PM daily), or in person at the Ticket Central Box Office, 416 West 42nd Street (between Ninth & Tenth Avenues).

Visit www.playwrightshorizons.org.