The City Theatre Company Presents: W;t

Struggling for survival in the face of cancer, Margaret Edson brings joy, humanity and awareness in her Pulitzer Prize winning play WIT: March 15 – April 8 at City Theatre

 

Austin, Texas – The City Theatre Company proudly brings to the stage Margaret Edson’s award-winning play WIT. Exquisitely written, affecting and often humorous, WIT follows a brilliant and exacting poetry professor as she embarks on a bold journey to save her life, battling a deadly disease which affects eight million people worldwide and takes the lives of over five hundred thousand Americans each year. It is a dazzling and life-affirming play that you will long remember after the curtain has come down.

“No man is an island, entire of itself...any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind.” – John Donne

WIT tells the story of Vivian Bearing, a renowned but uncompromising English professor who has spent years teaching the brilliant and difficult metaphysical sonnets of John Donne. Bearing has been diagnosed with terminal ovarian cancer, the deadly disease in which 21,000 women are diagnosed annually. During the course of her illness — and her stint as a prize patient in an experimental chemotherapy program at a major teaching hospital — she comes to reassess her life and her work with a profundity, grace and humor that are transformative both for her and the audience. The cast and crew hope this production of Wit will bring awareness to the disease. There will be a “Wall of Hope” for audience members to sign in honor and memory of loved ones who have battled cancer. Signatures and messages can also be given online. Got to the Wit facebook event page and include your message. http://www.facebook.com/events/197771190327196/?context=create

"A dazzling and humane play that you will remember till your dying day." —NY Magazine.

Heading the cast is actress and teacher Dr. Judith Laird, who holds a Ph.D in English. “This has been a powerful and joyous experience working on this play,” mentions Laird. “The message is all about hope. My mother died of cancer and, though it was such a difficult experience, the important part is to see the journey of our lives and to accept where those journeys have taken us.” Featured also in the cast are Vanessa Marie, Kristen Bennett, Clay Avery, Craig Kanne, Mario Silva, Barbara Weems and Meg Steiner. The production is directed by Jeff Hinkle whose past productions at City Theatre include Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, This Spring of Love and the Iden Payne nominated Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

About the author

A magna cum laude graduate in Renaissance History and English, Margaret Edson worked in a myriad of jobs ranging from waitressing to painting to clerking in a cancer and AIDS ward, to selling bicycles. In 1991, while teaching in DC public schools, she picked up her pen and wrote her first play Wit. It received its first production in 1995, premiered in New York in 1998 receiving universal acclaim and won the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The play also won the Drama Desk and Dramatists Guild Award, Drama Desk of New York and New York Drama Critics Circle Award, Outer Critics Circle and Los Angeles Drama Critics awards. She currently teaches kindergarten in Atlanta, GA. Read more about the play and playwright.


The City Theatre Company is an Austin-based not for profit arts organization and is sponsored in part by the Greater Austin Creative Alliance, the Austin Cultural Arts Division and the AMD Foundation. Founded in 2006, the company has been recognized by the Austin Critics Table Awards, the B. Iden Payne Awards and was twice voted “Best Theatre Company” by Austin- American Statesman’s Austin 360. CTC is dedicated in providing quality theatre experience and entertainment for Austin artists and its community.

The production does contain adult language and brief nudity. Mature audiences only.

WIT

March 15 – April 8.

Thursday – Saturday 8:00 p.m. Sunday 5:30 p.m.

The City Theatre

3823 Airport Blvd. 78757

East corner of Airport Blvd. and 38 ½ Street.

General Seating $15. Guaranteed Front/2^nd Row Reserved $25.

Students $12. Thursday all seats $10. Group discounts are available.

Reservations 512-524-2870 or info@citytheatreaustin.org

www.citytheatreaustin.org