![Two River Theater Presents World Premiere of "Hurricane Diane"](https://www.newjerseystage.com/events2017/HurricaneDianeLogo.jpg "Two River Theater Presents World Premiere of "Hurricane Diane"")
(RED BANK, NJ) -- Two River Theater continues its 2016/17 Season with Hurricane Diane, a commissioned world-premiere play written by Madeleine George and directed by Leigh Silverman. In the play, the playwright turns the Greek god Dionysus into Diane (Becca Blackwell), a lesbian separatist permaculture gardener from Vermont whose mission is restoring the Earth to its natural state—and gathering acolytes. Performances run January 14 through February 12.
Where better to begin her mission than a tidy suburban cul-de-sac in Red Bank, New Jersey, populated by four women: Sandy (Mia Barron), Renee (Nikiya Mathis), Pam (Danielle Skraastad) and Beth (Kate Wetherhead)? As Diane changes their yards into a wild wonderland of paw-paw trees and chokeberry bushes, she sets out to draw the women into her ultimate plan: to stage a bacchanal in her forest garden, and usher in a new era of Dionysian worship in the dying days of the American empire, as the planet warms and the oceans rise.
“Red Bank is a coastal community, and climate change is as much an issue on the Jersey Shore as anywhere,” says George, who wrote Hurricane Diane as a commission for Two River Theater. “I was eager to write a play that both rolls out a welcome mat in front of the theater, inviting people in and making jokes that specifically enfranchise them, and also offers people the chance to interrogate their own feelings about these climatic shifts that are happening whether we’re ready for them or not.”
Madeleine George is the Pulitzer Prize-nominated author of The (curious case of the) Watson Intelligence. Her other plays include Seven Homeless Mammoths Wander New England, which had its world premiere at Two River in 2011. She is currently Two River’s first Playwright-in Residence, funded through The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation’s National Playwrights Residency Program (NPRP). Leigh Silverman, a two-time Obie Award-winner, most recently directed Sweet Charity starring Sutton Foster for The New Group. She earned a Tony Award nomination for her production of Violet. She directed Ethan Lipton’s No Place to Go at Two River in 2012.
Choreographer Sonya Tayeh has garnered acclaim for her work in the worlds of dance and theater, including two Emmy nominations for So You Think You Can Dance (2015 and 2013) and the 2014 Lucille Lortel Award and an Obie Award for her work on David Henry Hwang’s dance-play Kung Fu. American folk/rock duo The Bengsons have performed their music worldwide. Their recent credits include you'll still call me by name (New York Live Arts), Hundred Days (Under the Radar Festival), and So You Think You Can Dance (2012-2015).
The creative team for Hurricane Diane includes music director Matthew Dean Marsh, scenic designer Rachel Hauck, costume designer Kaye Voyce, lighting designer Jen Schriever, and sound designer Bray Poor. The stage manager is Melanie J. Lisby.
Performances will begin in Two River’s Marion Huber Theater, 21 Bridge Avenue in Red Bank, on Saturday, January 14 and continue through Sunday, February 12. . Tickets are available from 732.345.1400 or tworivertheater.org.
