Convergence-Continuum Presents GRACE, Opening 6/29

convergence-continuum continues its 2012 Season with the Ohio premiere of GRACE, a darkly comic, eerily tragic, sometimes hilarious, wholly timely play. It dives headfirst into questions of faith and religion (not necessarily the same thing at all).

This is the third play in convergence-continuum’s three-play series “Cosmic Conundrums Curiously Considered.” Each play in the series deals with big issues (our place in the universe, relationship to the infinite, is anyone out there, existence itself) in a different, cutting-edge, engaging manner: from the dense linguistic gymnastics of poet/playwright Mac Wellman’s The Hyacinth Macaw, to the camp hilarity of Buddy Thomas and Kenneth Elliott’s Devil Boys from Beyond, to Craig Wright’s space/time-bending dark comedy Grace.

Grace is a tragicomedy that explores human assumptions about how God, goodness, faith and causality operate in the cosmic machinery. A devoutly Christian couple is on the brink of a huge Florida real estate deal worth millions. But as the business deal starts to fray around The Edges, their faith begins to unravel as well. Throw in a reclusive NASA engineer and a bug-obsessed German caretaker, and you've got a darkly funny, sometimes serious and definitely provocative play about where we choose to place our faith.

Grace is directed by converge-continuum company member, Geoffrey Hoffman and features actors Doug Kusak, John Busser, Laurel Hoffman and Clyde Simon.

Grace is by award-winning playwright Craig Wright whose plays include Orange Flower Water, Mistakes Were Made, The Pavilion, Recent Tragic Events among others. He has also written for television, penning episodes for Six Feet Under, Lost, Brothers & Sisters and Dirty Sexy Money. Grace will be opening on Broadway in October this year starring Paul Rudd, Michael Shannon, Kate Arrington and Ed Asner.

Grace opens Friday, June 29 and runs at 8 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays through July 21 at the Liminis, 2438 Scranton Rd., Cleveland, OH 44113. Tickets are $15 general admission, $12 for seniors and $10 for students. For reservations and information visit www.convergence- continuum.org or call 216-687-0074.

Grace premiered in fall 2005 at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in Washington, D.C. Since then it has been produced in Los Angeles, San Diego, Chicago, Vancouver, Philadelphia and Portland. The convergence-continuum production will be its Ohio premiere. In October this year, Grace will make its Broadway debut.

convergence-continuum was founded in 2001 by Clyde Simon (Artistic Director) and Brian Breth. After completion of the renovations of the Liminis, the company’s artistic home in the Tremont neighborhood of Cleveland, into an intimate, versatile, storefront performance space, the company then transformed it into an 18th century French asylum for its first production, a
four-weekend run of Quills by Doug Wright, in August 2002. For the company’s second production (Oct. 2002), the Liminis was converted into a junkyard outside the city of Azusa for a four-weekend run of Sam Shepard’s The Unseen Hand. Since then, the company has continued to produce alternative/experimental theatre work by living playwrights, and to completely transform the Liminis for each show, immersing audiences in the world of the play in up-close productions. (Maximum seating is 40-50 depending on the set-up for each show.)

Grace, the company’s 48th production, is the third of six in the 2012 Season (our eleventh). The company’s season runs from Spring through Fall, with a hiatus over the Winter.

Most of the cast and crew for Grace have been involved in previous convergence-continuum productions in many and various capacities. The company seeks to create a core ensemble that continues to work together over the long term in exploring and developing its artistic voice, and performance and production practices to create up-close, environmentally staged productions that challenge the status quo and extend the boundaries of theatre.