Location: Studio Theatre

Tickets:
$15 adults / $10 senior citizens and non-Valpo students
free admission for Valpo students, faculty and staff 

Performances: 
Wednesday, February 22, 8 p.m.
Thursday, February 23, 8 p.m.
Friday, February 24, 8 p.m.
Saturday, February 25, 2 p.m.
Sunday, February 26, 2 p.m. 

First produced by Playwright’s Horizons in 2009, Circle Mirror Transformation follows the emotional fortunes of four lost New-Englanders who enroll in a community-center drama class, led by Marty, a creative acting teacher who believes in the transformational power of theatre games.

The class is a mixed bag of personalities: Theresa is a former actress who has just moved to this small Vermont town from New York City.  Schultz is a lonely divorcee who lives in the local condo complex.  Lauren is a pouty teenager who wants to work in theater when she grows up...or maybe be a veterinarian.  James is the drama teacher’s husband.

In 33 brief scenes spread over six weeks, the group members participate in all kinds of acting exercises:  they pose as trees, beds and baseball gloves. They perform emotional scenes using only the words goulash and ak-mak. They pretend to be one another, telling their life stories. They write deep, dark secrets on scraps of paper and listen, sitting in a circle on the floor, as the confessions are read aloud.  They try, as a group, to count to ten.  And, ultimately, they play a game called Circle Mirror Transformation.

"Annie Baker's play is an absolute feast. CIRCLE MIRROR TRANSFORMATION is the kind of unheralded gem that sends people into the streets babbling and bright-eyed with the desire to spread the word.” --New York Times

"Baker develops her characters slowly through their interactions each week in class, which is the only place we see them. Naturally, their real, offstage lives gradually infiltrate the classroom, revealing insights and transformations both humorous and heartbreaking." --Associated Press.

"Smartly, sneakily, Baker gives us the rare theatercentric play that's not self-obsessed.  Circle Mirror Transformation is about real people exploring their lives through tiny leaps of faith and creativity." --BackStage.