“The Fiancé" at Riverside Theatre -- April 16 through May 3.
Thursday, April 16, through Sunday, May 3
Riverside Theatre, 119 East College Street, Iowa City IA
With Riverside Theatre's producing artistic director Adam Knight raving that “Emily Bohannon’s writing is one of the real pleasures of theatre today,” the playwright's stage piece The Fiancé enjoys a world-premiere April 16 through May 3 run at the Iowa City venue, Knight adding that Bohannon’s work "sheds light on characters seldom seen onstage, driven by a search for meaning in a vastness beyond the confines of New York, or even America.”
In Bohannon's newest play, Bea moves to a retirement home to finally live the city life she dreamed of as a girl. It's there that she meets Doug, a new friend and unexpected suitor. But when sparks fly (and Doug proposes!), Bea must overcome her family’s objections and decide how she wants to spend the rest of her life ... and with whom.
With Actors' Equity Association members and Riverside Theatre favorites Jody Hovland and Ron Clark respectively portraying Bea and Doug, The Fiancé cast is completed by Martin Andrews, Jessica Link, and Christina Sullivan. Adam Knight will direct the world premiere, his other recent Riverside productions including Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The Lifespan of a Fact, and Romeo & Juliet, and additional members of the show's creative team include: scenic designer Robert Sunderman; costume designer Abigail Mansfield Coleman; lighting designer Audrey Wubbena; sound designer Dakota Parobek; props designer Stephen Polchert; intimacy director Carrie Pozdol; stage manager Meenakshi Chinmai; assistant stage manager Brody Butler; board operator Hannah Green; and poster/art designer Stacia Stonerook.
In her biography at Emily Bohannon.com, the playwright states: "An internship at Manhattan Theatre Club threw me headfirst into the world of new play development, and I wrote my first full-length play in the patrons’ lounge of the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre during Act One before serving wine and cheese at intermission. Everything changed when I found my mentor, the incomparable Tanya Barfield, who believed in me before I believed in myself. I claimed the title 'playwright.' Turns out that’s when the real work started.
"I studied with every writer I could take a class with. Won writing fellowships and attended the Juilliard Playwrights Program. Honed my craft through workshops and productions. Most importantly, I kept writing plays. Then stories started coming to me that couldn’t be contained by a stage – stories that needed a landscape. So I started writing screenplays and TV shows, too, often working alongside the same playwrights who mentored me in theatre.
"My work is about the stuff we don’t talk about at dinner parties: the violence we inherit and the violence we choose. I write about people who are trying – and often failing – to be good. I write about where I’m from because the way we speak in my part of Georgia is the music I sing. I write about women who refuse to be likable if the cost of doing so is their voice. I write about what happens when you grow up poor and weird and different, and how you carry that with you even after you’ve 'made it.' (Whatever 'making it' means.)
"I believe in original stories. Not revamps, retreads, or retellings. There is no art that captures the essence of our time unless there are artists living as Saint Mary Oliver instructed, 'Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.' Mostly, I believe in showing up to the page every single day and doing the work, even when – especially when – it feels impossible.
The Fiancé runs in Iowa City from April 16 through May 3, with performances Thursdays through Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. (Preview performances are on April 16 and 17 in advance of opening night on Saturday, April 18). There will be a talkback with the performers hosted by Miriam Gilbert following the April 19 matinee performance, as well as an April 26 talkback hosted in collaboration with Johnson County Livable Community for Successful Aging, featuring chair, John Kalohn, aging life coach and researcher Mary McCall, and FeatherStone’s Jordan Pahl. Both events are free and open to the public, and you do not need to attend those days' performance to attend the talkbacks.
Admission to The Fiancé is $22.50-46.50, and more information and tickets are available by calling (319)259-7099 and visiting RiversideTheatre.org.
