Acclaimed Circle Mirror Transformation Gets Second Extension Off-Broadway

By Kenneth Jones
10 Nov 2009

Reed Birney and Deirdre O'Connell
Reed Birney and Deirdre O'Connell
Photo by Joan Marcus

Playwrights Horizons will extend its world-premiere production of Annie Baker's Circle Mirror Transformation — a comedy about an acting class — for a second time, adding five performances to the run, now to Nov. 21.

Enthusiastic reviews helped to prompt the extra performances at PH's intimate Peter Jay Sharp Theater on West 42nd Street.

The five added performances are Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at 7:30 PM and Saturday Nov. 21 at 2 PM and 7:30 PM.

After the opening on Oct. 13, Playwrights announced a two-week extension to Nov. 15. Positive coverage in the New York Times Arts Section last week stimulated additional sales.

Directed by Sam Gold, the play was originally set to run through Nov. 1. The cast includes Obie Award winner Reed Birney, Tony Award nominee Peter Friedman, Obie Award winner Deirdre O'Connell, Tracee Chimo and Obie Award winner Heidi Schreck.

According to Playwrights Horizons 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 apart 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.

The production features 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.

For more information, visit ticketCentral.com or www.playwrightshorizons.org.