For Immediate Release/Photos Attached

JULY PRODUCTION FROM COMPANY ALSO ANNOUNCED

The Midnight Company will present Tennessee Williams' THE TWO-CHARACTER PLAY as part of the first Tennessee Williams Festival St. Louis, May 11 – 15. The five-day event of plays, readings, lectures and special events celebrates the art and influence of Williams (one of St. Louis' most notorious favorite literary sons), Midnight will present THE TWO-CHARACTER PLAY Wednesday and Thursday, May 11 & 12 at 7:30pm, Friday, May 13 at 8:00pm, and Saturday and Sunday May 14 & 15 at 3:00pm, at the historic Mummers Theatre, housed in the former Learning Center (and former Wednesday Club), 4504 Westminster (at Taylor), 63108 in the Central West End. Tickets are available at metrotix.com, and for more information visit the Festival's site, twstl.org.

THE TWO-CHARACTER PLAY was ten years in the making for Williams, the longest he ever worked on a play. Influenced by Beckett and Pinter, Williams started writing it in the sixties, seeking to expand his style. It is partially autobiographical, the main characters based on Williams himself and his sister Rose, a later echo of his early THE GLASS MENAGERIE, also part of the Festival in a production from Upstream Theatre. (The Festival includes a panel discussion, THE GLASS MENAGERIE And THE TWO-CHARACTER PLAY: Same And Different, on Saturday, May 14, 11am – 12pm at The Kranzberg Studio.)

Premiering in 1975 in San Francisco and moving shortly afterward to Broadway, THE TWO-CHARACTER PLAY was experimental for its time, and its innovative style and language has since gained in power and intrigue.

In the play, Felice, a playwright, and his sister, Clare, are actors in a travelling company. But their troupe has abandoned them in a theater, branding them "insane." Felice is determined to finish his script – The Two-Character Play – a sordid Southern tale of a brother and sister abandoned in crumbling mansion, too frightened and insolvent to try to leave. (Their father has killed their mother, then killed himself, denying them the life insurance money they need to survive.) The play dips in and out, back and forth between the actors and their play, the siblings story and their imagined story. One of Williams' final major statements, it is his desperate ode to the stage, a haunted elegy on his family.

Sarah Whitney, Midnight's Associate Director, will direct THE TWO-CHARACTER PLAY. In addition to directing many Midnight productions (most recently HOUSE at The St. Louis Fringe Festival, and Conor McPherson's THE GOOD THIEF and ST. NICHOLAS in repertory), she has also directed locally for The Orange Girls (THE ROAD TO MECCA) and St. Louis University. She has directed many productions in her native Chicago.

Michelle Hand will play Clare. A founder and artistic force with the late, great Orange Girls, she has worked with Mustard Seed, Actors Studio, The Rep and many other companies in town, and is soon to be seen as Queen Elizabeth in St. Louis Shakespeare's RICHARD III in April.

Joe Hanrahan, Midnight's Artistic Director, portrays Felice. Joe has performed in many Midnight shows, and has also worked with such local groups as Slightly Askew, The Black Rep, Upstream, and Tesseract . Joe will perform Midnight's THOMPAIN (based on nothing) in July.

Mark Wilson will be Technical Director for the show, and Elizabeth Henning will design costumes.

The play will be performed in the historic Mummers Theatre, where some of Williams' first work was seen. In 1936 and 1937, three Williams scripts, HEADLINES, CANDLES TO THE SUN and FUGITIVE KIND, were presented at the Mummers Theatre. Young Williams' refined the scripts during the production process, and considered himself part of the group of amateur theatre artists who regularly worked there.

The Mummers Theatre was part of The Wednesday Club, a woman's group formed in 1890 to continue their intellectual growth and to contribute to the community. The Wednesday Club on Westminster was designed and built in 1908 by Theodore Link, the architect who designed St. Louis Union Station and other significant structures throughout the Midwest. The Wednesday Club left the space in 1973 (with The Learning Center, an innovative, educational organization taking over the Westminster space) and is still active today in St. Louis.

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MIDNIGHT TO PRESENT THOMPAIN (based on nothing) IN JULY AT HERBIE'S

The Midnight Company will present Will Eno's THOMPAIN (based on nothing) at Herbie's Vintage72, 405 N. Euclid, 63108 in the Central West End. (Performance dates are still being finalized.) It will be a 10-year anniversary revival production for Midnight, with Artistic Director Joe Hanrahan once again the performer, and Larry Dell once again directing.

Nearly indescribable, THOMPAIN was described thus by the NYTimes: "A surreal meditation on the empty promises life makes, the way experience never lives up to the weird and awesome fact of being…but also, in its odd, bewitching beauty an affirmation of life's worth…a small masterpiece." Ten years after the show's premiere, the Guardian said of an Edinburgh Festival production, "still one of the best monologues ever seen." Actor Joe Hanrahan calls it "Existential Stand-Up," while director Larry Dell describes it as "Stand-Up Tragedy."

Tickets will be on sale later in the spring at brownpapertickets.com. For more information, visit midnightcompany.com.

PHOTOS: Michelle Hand and Joe Hanrahan in THE TWO-CHARACTER PLAY; Joe Hanrahan in THOMPAIN (based on nothing) Photography by Todd Davis