Susan Louise O'Connor and More Join Cast of Abingdon's BODEGA BAY, Now thru 2/17

Abingdon Theatre Company - which has produced more than 78 new American plays in its 20-year history - continues its 2012-2013 Season with the world premiere of BODEGA BAY by Elisabeth Karlin (THE MOONCALF), set to begin previews tonight, January 25, prior to its official press opening February 3, at the Abingdon Theatre Company's Dorothy Strelsin Theatre (312 West 36th Street). Sturgis Warner, who recently helmed Najla Said's PALESTINE, directs. Performances run through February 17.

In BODEGA BAY, nobody notices or remembers Louise Finch (Susan Louise O'Connor). With her life in shambles, this shy and awkward soul who has never ventured beyond Staten Island, sets out into the dangerous unknown to find the mother who left her and her troubled brother years earlier. It is a strange and zany odyssey that hurls Louise across a country populated by the peculiar and turns this insignificant spectator into an active participant in a chaotic world.

The ensemble of BODEGA BAY includes Susan Louise O'Connor (BLITHE SPIRIT, NEVER SWIM ALONE) as Louise, with Peter Brouwer (LOST ON THE Natchez Trace), Brian McManamon, Gerardo Rodriguez, Nancy Rodriguez, and OBIE Award-winner Rae C Wright (Taylor Mac's THE LILY'S REVENGE, THE BREAKS with Deb Margolin).

BODEGA BAY features set design by Andrew Lu; lighting design by Matthew McCarthy; costume design by Isabel Rubio; and sound design by David Margolin Lawson. Craig Rosenthal is Production Stage Manager; NJ Agwuna is Assistant Stage Manager.

Elisabeth Karlin returns to the Abingdon Theatre Company where her play THE MOONCALF was produced, and then represented in The Best Stage Scenes of 2001 (Smith and Kraus). She is a two-time winner of the Jerry Kaufman Award in Playwriting, honored in 2012 for BODEGA BAY, and previously for WILD MEN OF THE WOODS, a play also selected for The Lark's Playwrights Week. LUCY'S LAST DATE was produced at The Third Street Theatre in Los Angeles. Ms. Karlin also writes about the cinema for film journals and is currently a popular contributor to the blog "Alfred Hitchcock Geek," known among film scholars and movie buffs as "The best Hitchcock blog on the internet." An inlet of the Pacific Ocean on the coast of northern California, Bodega Bay was the setting for the 1963 Alfred Hitchcock film "The Birds." In homage to the location, Ms. Karlin's script features nearly 200 Hitchcock references.

Sturgis Warner is a freelance director as well as Artistic Director of Twilight Theatre Company. A long time actor, he works with many playwrights developing new work. For Abingdon, Karlin's THE MOONCALF, as well as SWIMMING WITH STURGEON by Ezra Goldstein. For Twilight, Najla Said's PALESTINE, Ted LoRusso's FIRST DAY. Other directing: The Kitchen (Ithaca,), Adirondack Theatre Festival, Barrington Stage, Actors Theatre of Louisville, New Jersey Rep, Mile Square Theatre, and Encore Theatre (San Francisco), among others. He is a member of New York Theatre Workshop's "Usual Suspects"; is on the Artistic Cabinet of The Lark Play Development Center; and is active with INTAR. He is also currently working on his solo play, FISHING FOR ALASKA.

Abingdon Theatre Company's upcoming 20th season also includes Robert Brustein's THE LAST WILL, directed by Austin Pendleton (April 5-May 5, 2013); and Michael Bonnabel's THE GOOD BOY, directed by Darin Anthony (April 26-May 19, 2013). Dorothy Streslin productions are Equity Approved Showcases.

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