This Flat Earth
- Written by Lindsey Ferrentino
- Directed by Rebecca Taichman
Lindsey Ferrentino is a New York-based playwright originally from Florida. Lindsey’s critically acclaimed Ugly Lies the Bone premiered at Roundabout Underground, is about to open at The National Theatre in London, and has been produced at theaters across the country. Lindsey’s full length plays include Ugly Lies the Bone, Amy and the Orphans, Kokomo, Moonlight on the Bayou, Magic Man, and Paradise Bar and Grill. They have been developed at Atlantic Theater Company, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, New York Theatre Workshop, Playwrights Horizons, MCC, The O'Neill National Playwrights Conference, Premiere Stages, Florida Studio Theater, The Great Plains Theater Conference, 3LD Art and Technology Center, Manhattan Repertory Theater, and The Marilyn Monroe Theater in New York. Her work has been seen regionally at The Kennedy Center in DC, The Alliance Theater in Georgia, The Blank Theater in LA, and The Institute of Contemporary Arts in London. Lindsey is a recipient of the Edward Albee Playwriting Fellowship and Residency as well as Blue Ridge Playwriting Fellowship. Her short stories have been published in New York Magazine and Aaduna Literary Magazine. She is the recipient of the National Art Club’s Kesserling Prize, Laurents/Hatcher Citation of Excellence, ASCAP Cole Porter Playwriting Prize, Holland New Voices Playwriting Award, Paul Newman Drama Award, made the 2015 Kilroys List, finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn, nominated for the Outer Critics Circle John Gassner Award, and is the only two time finalist for the Kendeda Playwriting Prize. Lindsey is currently under commission for new plays from: Roundabout Theatre Company, The Public, The Tricycle, The Geffen, South Coast Repertory, The National Theatre, and a television series for Big Beach Films/TV. She holds a BFA from New York University and two MFA’s in playwriting from Hunter College and the Yale School of Drama.
Broadway: Indecent by Paula Vogel. Select Off Broadway: How To Transcend A Happy Marriage and The Oldest Boy by Sarah Ruhl (LCT); Luck of the Irish by Kirsten Greenidge (LCT3); Familiar by Danai Gurira, Stage Kiss by Sarah Ruhl, Milk Like Sugar by Kirsten Greenidge (Playwrights Horizons); Orlando by Sarah Ruhl (CSC); Orpheus (NYCO); Dark Sisters (MTG/Gotham); Menopausal Gentleman (The Ohio). Regional includes productions at Yale Rep, La Jolla Playhouse, Shakespeare Theatre Company, The Old Globe, ART, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, McCarter, Woolly Mammoth. Rebecca is a Henry Crown Fellow at The Aspen Institute, and a graduate of the Yale School of Drama. www.rebeccataichman.com
(as of 2/17/17)
"Why’s everybody acting so shocked? …Why don’t the grown-ups just fix it?"
At a middle school in this seaside town, the unthinkable has happened, placing a bewildered community in the national spotlight. Stuck at home in a state of shocked limbo, Julie and Zander, two twelve-year-olds, try to make sense of the chaos they witnessed, their awkward crushes, and an infinitely more complicated future — but the grown-ups are no help at all. An urgent response to our times, This Flat Earth is a startling and deeply felt story of growing up in our confounding world.
Running Time: 90 minutes, no intermission
Featuring
Cassie Beck
Lisa
Ella Kennedy Davis
Julie
Lynda Gravátt
Cloris
Lucas Papaelias
Dan
Ian Saint-Germain
Zander
Christine H. Kim
Cellist
Playwrights Horizons: The Whale, Prayer for My Enemy, The Drunken City (Theatre World Award). Broadway: The Humans (Drama Desk Award, also Off-Broadway and National Tour), Picnic, The Norman Conquests. Other Off-Broadway: By the Water, Happy Hour, Smudge, Oohrah!. Television: “The Accidental Wolf,” “Shameless,” “Chicago Med,” “The Strange Ones,” “Elementary,” “Almost There.”
Playwrights Horizons debut. Los Angeles: Matilda (Fancy Feet Theatre), Mary Poppins (Fancy Feet Theatre), Peter Pan (Fancy Feet Theatre). Television: “Blue Bloods,” “The PET Squad Files,” “Nickelodeon Wildcard.”
Playwrights Horizons: Miss Witherspoon. Broadway: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Doubt, 45 Seconds from Broadway, King Hedley II. Other Off-Broadway: Skeleton Crew (Drama League nomination), The Hummingbird’s Tour, The Little Foxes, Zooman and the Sign (Audelco Award), Diving the Estate, King Hedley II (Audelco nomination), Intimate Apparel (Audelco Award), Crowns (Audelco Award), If Memory Serves, The Old Settler (Theatre World Award). Television: “Madam Secretary,” “She’s Gotta Have It,” “Person of Interest,” “Elementary.”
Playwrights Horizons: Essential Self-Defense (Drama Desk nomination for Best Original Music in a Play). Broadway: Once, Cyrano de Bergerac (also Music). Off-Broadway: These Paper Bullets, Jack’s Precious Moments, Father Comes Home From the Wars (also Music), U.S. Drag, Romeo & Juliet, Cyclone, Walk Two Moons (also Music), Smashing, Cellini. Film/Television: School of Rock, “Blue Bloods,” “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.”
Playwrights Horizons debut. New York: Tamburlaine (Theatre for a New Audience), Flash Gordon (Piper Theater). Television: “The Americans.” Awards: Silver Key, 2016 New York City Scholastic Award for playwriting, BYPN World Dignity Award in Music (sponsored by the U.N.).
Playwrights debut. Tours and performances with East Village Opera Company (Grammy nomination), Sheryl Crow, Bruno Mars, Adele, David Foster, Mary J. Blige, Andrea Bocelli, Mick Jagger, U2, Fergie. Film: Annie. TV: “Saturday Night Live,” “Late Night with David Letterman,” “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon,” and “The View.” Kim is also a musical coordinator and a graduate from the Juilliard School.
Creative Team
Dane Laffrey
Scenic DesignPaloma Young
Costume DesignChristopher Akerlind
Lighting DesignMikhail Fiksel
Sound DesignChristian Frederickson
Music DirectorCole P. Bonenberger
Production Stage ManagerShane Schnetzler
Assistant Stage ManagerPlaywrights: Rancho Viejo, Indian Summer, Iowa, The Christians. Broadway: set for the current revival of Once On This Island, set and costumes for Deaf West’s Spring Awakening, set for Fool For Love. Other Off-Broadway: MTC, Roundabout, Atlantic, BAM Harvey, Labyrinth, Second Stage, Vineyard, LCT, MCC, Soho Rep., Rattlestick, Transport Group, others. Regional: Humana Festival, Mark Taper Forum, Old Globe, Geffen, Williamstown, Huntington, Goodspeed, Denver Center, Center Stage, Dallas Theatre Center, others. International work in Tokyo, Oslo, Osaka, and throughout Australia. 2017 Obie for Sustained Excellence in set and costume design; nominations for a Drama Desk Award and five ATW Henry Hewes Awards.
Playwrights: Fly By Night, The Patron Saint of Sea Monsters. Broadway: Peter and the Starcatcher (Tony Award); Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 (Tony nomination); Bandstand (Drama Desk nomination); Time and the Conways; Lobby Hero. Other Off-Broadway: Natasha, Pierre… (Kazino, Lucille Lortel Award); Recall (Colt Coeur); Permission (MCC); BrooklynBabylon (BAM). Regional: ART, Dallas Theatre Center, South Coast Rep, Arena Stage, La Jolla Playhouse, Old Globe, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, among others. MFA: UC San Diego. @secondpigeon, palomayoung.com
Playwrights: Freedomland, The Butterfly Collection. With Rebecca Taichman: Indecent (Broadway/Tony and Drama Desk Awards), Time and the Conways (Broadway), Twelfth Night (The Shakespeare Theater/McCarter), Cymbeline (The Shakespeare Theater), Marie Antoinette (ART/Yale Rep), Sleeping Beauty Wakes (McCarter/La Jolla Playhouse), The Winter’s Tale (McCarter), etc. Recently: The House without a Christmas Tree (Houston Grand Opera). Awards: Obie for Sustained Excellence, Michael Merritt Award for Design and Collaboration.
Playwrights: A Life (Lortel Award, Drama Desk nomination). Other Off-Broadway: The Undertaking (The Civilians/BAM), World Of Extreme Happiness (MTC), Fulfillment (The Flea, Drama Desk nomination), Stupid F*#king Bird (The Pearl), The Old Man and The Old Moon (New Victory, Williamstown), My Mañana Comes (Playwrights Realm, Lortel nomination), The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity (Second Stage, Lortel Award). Regional: La Jolla Playhouse, Old Globe, Third Rail Projects, Center Theatre Group, Goodman Theatre. mikhailfiksel.com
Playwrights debut. Off-Broadway: Glory of the World, Steel Hammer, The Master Builder, Trojan Women (After Euripides) (BAM); Nibbler, Through the Yellow Hour (Rattlestick, Drama Desk nomination); A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Unnatural Acts, Orlando, Three Sisters, The Tempest (CSC); The Purple Lights of Joppa Illinois (Atlantic); The Emperor Jones (Irish Repertory Theatre, Lortel nomination); The Awake (59E59, NYIT Award). Regional: The Absolute Brightness of Leonard Pelkey (Old Globe); Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, The Edge of Our Bodies, Seven Guitars, The Tempest (Actors Theatre of Louisville); The Painted Bird Trilogy (Wexner Center); Custodians of Beauty (Walker Art Center). christianfrederickson.com
Playwrights: Aubergine, Familiar, The Qualms, Stage Kiss, The Great God Pan. Broadway: Dividing the Estate. Other Off-Broadway: Napoli, Brooklyn (Roundabout); Linda (MTC); The Taming of the Shrew, King Lear, The Comedy of Errors (The Public/Delacorte); February House, Yellowface, Wrecks (The Public); He Brought Her Heart Back in a Box, Tamburlaine Parts I & II, The Killer (TFANA); Night Is a Room, The Liquid Plain, The Old Friends, The Dance and the Railroad, The Orphans’ Home Cycle, Landscape of the Body, The Trip to Bountiful (Signature). Regional: Hartford Stage, Long Wharf Theatre, The Acting Company, Trinity Rep, Westport Country Playhouse.
WCP: Doubt, Don Juan, A Flea in Her Ear, Flyin’ West, The Invisible Hand, Bedroom Farce. Off-Broadway: Fairview, The Merchant of Venice, Timon of Athens, Why?, Julius Caesar, Heart/Box, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Tamburlaine (TFANA); Seven Deadly Sins (Tectonic), Noura, This Flat Earth, The Profane, Rancho Viejo, Familiar (Playwrights Horizons). Napoli, Brooklyn, Look Back in Anger (Roundabout); The Taming of the Shrew, King Lear, The Comedy of Errors (NYSF); Detroit ’67 (Public); Night is a Room, The Liquid Plain, The Old Friends (Signature); Cymbeline (Fiasco), Red Dog Howls (NYTW); Uncle Vanya (Soho Rep).
Lindsey Ferrentino’s most daring play to date, with profound and essential subjects. There’s no denying the urgency of this work.
Subtle and eerily timely, This Flat Earth provides a personal echo to current events.
