Even in the most magical of waters, can you ever truly wash away the past?
Premiering October 4-20
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HERE
145 Sixth Avenue
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General admission: $25
Run time: 95 minutes
THE WORTH OF WATER
a new play by Tira Palmquist
directed by Mêlisa Annis
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Elle is a struggling singer-songwriter in California. Rebecca is an unhappy homemaker in Wisconsin. And Ethel is bringing her daughters together for her 70th birthday to be momentary mermaids in the springs of Weeki Wachee. But as the fantasy dissipates, will they be able to swim back to shore?
CREATIVE TEAM
TIRA PALMQUIST (playwright) is known for plays that merge the personal, the political and the poetic. Her most produced play, Two Degrees, premiered at the Denver Center, and was subsequently produced by Tesseract Theater in St. Louis and Prime Productions at the Guthrie (among others). Her newest play The Way North was a Finalist for the O’Neill and an Honorable Mention for the 2019 Kilroys List.
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While working on The Worth of Water for Clutch Productions, Tira was also working on a commission for Lower Depth Theater Ensemble in Los Angeles. Safe Harbor, a play about sex trafficking, which will premiere in November in LA. Tira has also been commissioned to write new work for the UCI graduate acting students. Her play Hold Steady was workshopped at UCI in January 2019, and she is currently working All We Ever Wanted Was Everything, to be workshopped in January 2020.
Her other plays include Ten Mile Lake (Serenbe Playhouse), Age of Bees (NYU Stella Adler Studio, MadLab Theater, Tesseract), And Then They Fell (MadLab, Brimmer Street, New York Film Academy) and This Floating World.
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MÊLISA ANNIS (director and dramaturg)
As a director and dramaturge, Mêlisa has had the pleasure of working with and at Primary Stages, The Ambassadors Theatre Group (London), The Arcola Theater (London), Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, Shadowland Stages, Tangent Theater, Queens College, Rebellious Subjects, The Playground Experiment, New York University, and Theater Masters FL.
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As a writer, Melisa's plays have been developed at and with Parity Productions, The Lark and Dorset Theater Festival at the Theresa Rebeck Writers Colony, The New School, Primary Stages, ESPA*Drills (2014), The Lark, The National Arts Club NYC, The Playground Experiment, and RAL. She also had the joy of writing an episode for Amazon Studio's upcoming series for children (to be announced soon). Mêlisa is currently working on a new musical with Grammy Award Nominee Jamie Floyd (details to be announced soon).
Personal essays have been published in several major publications, and she is a frequent contributor to the BBC. Mêlisa also teaches at the NYU Tisch Dramatic Writing program in NYC.
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Mêlisa is also a fluent Welsh speaker, and a total TV addict.​
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JESSIE BONAVENTURE
scenic design
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KELLEY SHIH
lighting design
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JOSIAH GRIMM
associate producer and assistant director
JOHANNA PAN
costume design
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BRIAN HEVERON-SMITH
sound design
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SARAH MATTEUCCI
production manager and associate producer
CAST
CLARE LATHAM*, KIM CROW*, CHRISTIANNE GREIERT*, MIRANDA NOELLE WILSON*, MICHAEL BILLINGSLEY*, MORGAN SULLIVAN, and BECCA BALLENGER*
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LISA R. STAFFORD*
production stage manager
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TYLER McCOMBE
assistant stage manager
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*Appearing courtesy of Actors' Equity Association. Equity Approved Showcase.
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