The Washington Avenue Players Project, St. Louis’ urban theatre project, jumps into its 8th season of unexpected theatre for St Louis audiences, with the Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway drama Rabbit Hole by David Lindsay-Abaire, running Dec 2-11, 2010, on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings at 8:00 p.m., at the Black Cat Theatre, 2810 Sutton in Maplewood.

Rabbit Hole is a brilliant and insightful exploration into the way we cope with tragedies, like the unexpected death of a young child. At times heart wrenching, this clever, funny and biting drama takes the audience down multiple rabbit holes into a universe of pain and misunderstanding, a world where conversations stab with unintentional double meanings, and relationships burn with frustration instead of passion. In a culture of therapy, group talking, and religious comfort this play shows a way out of the holes we inhabit. When the show debuted at the Biltmore Theater in New York the critics raved. The New York Times wrote “This anatomy of grief doesn't so much jerk tears as tap them, from a reservoir of feelings common to anyone who has experienced the landscape-shifting vacuum left by a death in the family.”

Always eager to take risks and try new things, WAPP’s exciting new production features a courageous multiracial cast of young actors from Webster Groves High School, bringing an inescapable innocence to this riveting story about the loss of innocence. These young, powerful actors will open your eyes to the fundamental human truths about connecting with family and living past death in a time of blurry beliefs. WAPP artistic director Todd Schaefer says, “We saw some things in the script we thought would have a much stronger impact with a nontraditional approach to the casting.”

The evening will feature the exceptional talents of newcomer Brandace Anderson, as the emotionally restricted Becca, Brandon Smith as the husband Howie, Madisyn Falls as Becca’s wild sister Izzy, Chasity James as Mother Nat, and baby faced Nathan Eswine as Jason. Nathan was just seen playing a small role of Showtime’s The Big C.

Schaefer knew he had his hands full with the complexities of the script the first time he read it. But that wasn’t enough. “I wanted to find another truth in the story,” he says. The Black awareness group on campus, SAA (Students for Awareness and Action) co-produces and Schaefer claims “by introducing subtextual racial tensions into the story we've discovered even more questions about human connections and the difficulties we all have sometimes in moving forward.”

The Washington Avenue Players Project is St. Louis’s most exciting urban theatre project, a professional theatre company using performing and technical talent from all over the St. Louis metro region in a collaborative urban theater experience. WAPP gives local performers a chance to take control of projects, to explore their talents and shine in ways they never have before, the kind of opportunity that is essential in a well rounded theatre community, both for the development and expression of local talent and also for the full exploration of good theatre by local audiences.

Rabbit Hole runs December 2-11, 2010, at the Black Cat Theatre,  2810 Sutton Avenue in Maplewood, on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings, at 8:00 p.m. Tickets are $7 for students and seniors, and $10 for adults, and are available now through The Black Cat Theatre. To reserve tickets by phone, call 314-781-8300. All programs are subject to change.

For more info, visit the Black Cat Theatre online at www.blackcattheatre.org

WANT TO EXPLORE MORE? We recommend:

A quantum mechanical view of bi-location
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About wormholes
http://library.thinkquest.org/10122/data/ETHWHIN.HTM