Ackerman and Robinette Are Daughter and Mom in DC Premiere of Well | Playbill

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News Ackerman and Robinette Are Daughter and Mom in DC Premiere of Well Acclaimed Washington, DC, actress Nancy Robinette plays the lumpy mom who spoils her actress-writer daughter's play in the new Arena Stage production of Lisa Kron's Well, directed by Kyle Donnelly, starting Sept. 14.

In the Tony Award-nominated meta-theatrical comedy about "growing up with illness, social activism and the constant fight to fit in," narrator Kron will be played by Emily Ackerman (of Gone Missing). Kron originated the role at The Public Theater, and in a San Francisco run, prior to appearing in a short-lived Broadway run. The tale is based on Kron's own experiences growing up in Lansing, MI, with her mother. In wanting to tell her tale, Kron places her "mother" on stage, but Mom interrupts the action. Audiences have found the play antic, hilarious and heartbreaking.

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Performances of the DC regional premiere will play Arena's Fichandler Stage through Oct. 14. Opening is Sept. 20.

During the play's five-year development, Kron took it to the Sundance Theater Lab where it received feedback from consultants including Arena Stage co-founding director Zelda Fichandler. Kron said that Fichandler "saw through the complex form of the story, went straight to the heart of it and made it what it has come to be."

Playwright Lisa Kron has been writing and performing theatre since coming to New York from Michigan in 1984. Her play 2.5 Minute Ride, a portrait of her father whose parents died at Auschwitz, premiered at La Jolla Playhouse in 1996 and then in New York at The Public Theater in 1999. It has also been presented by theatres around the country and in London and Japan. 2.5 Minute Ride received an Obie Award, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle nominations, an L.A. Drama-Logue Award, and the GLAAD Media Award for Best Play on or Off-Broadway. Kron's other plays include 101 Humiliating Stories (Drama Desk nomination), Charity and Montecore (2006 Humana Festival, New York Fringe) and 43/13 (Dad's Garage, Atlanta). Robinette is a Helen Hayes Award recipient whose credits include Born Yesterday, The Women, Blithe Spirit, Lovers and Executioners, Philadelphia, Here I Come! (at Williamstown Theater Festival), Give Me Your Answer Do! (at Roundabout), State of the Union (at Ford's Theatre), Souvenir (at The Studio Theatre) and The Beaux' Stratagem (at The Shakespeare Theatre Company).

The Well cast also includes Susan Lynskey, Marc Damon Johnson, Donnetta Lavinia Grays and Scott Drummond.

The creative team includes Tom Lynch (set designer), Nan Cibula-Jenkins (costume designer), Nancy Schertler (lighting designer), Lindsay Jones (sound designer) and stage manager Lloyd Davis, Jr.; assistant stage manager is Kurt Hall.

For more information visit www.arenastage.org.

 
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