Open Fist's 'wicked good' comedy 'To the Bone' re-opens for 4-week run at Theatre 68 Arts Complex

Open Fist Theatre Company's world premiere production of To the Bone, written and directed by Catherine Butterfield, will get a four-week remount March 4 through March 26 at the Theatre 68 Arts Complex in NoHo.

Tisha Terrasini Banker, Alice Kors, Kacey Mayeda, Jack David Sharpe and Amanda Weier reprise their roles in Butterfield's dark comedy about family, baseball and genetics called "one of the year's best new plays" by Stage Scene LA; "crude, hilarious and unequivocally acute" by Gia On The Move; "hilarious and heartwarming" by Larchmont Buzz; and "wicked good" by Stage and Cinema.

Sometimes life throws us a curve ball. It's been 20 years since the Red Sox lost their chance at the pennant when a Yankees fan ran onto the field and voided the final out, but the Dugan sisters are still mad about it. Kelly and Maureen live on the south shore of Boston, where they were known as "hard girls" back in the glory days of high school. Now they're readying the house for a meeting with the daughter Kelly gave up for adoption when she was 17. But when Geneva shows up, things don't go exactly as expected.

"I'm delighted that this play has resonated so deeply with people this far away from the source of my inspiration, and I can't wait to share it with even more Angelenos," says Butterfield. "When I was 13 years old, my parents uprooted our family from our heavily Scandinavian little enclave in Minnesota, where 'being nice' was the creed of the land, and moved us to a far more metropolitan and diverse town on the south shore of Boston, where niceness marked you as an easy target for bullying. When I began this play, a part of me was interested in gaining revenge over the 'hard girls' in my school all those many years ago by writing some kind of retrospective hatchet job on them. Almost immediately, that desire fell away as I became more and more invested in their fates, finally falling in love with them completely and kind of forgetting that I ever had a grudge in the first place."

The creative team for To the Bone includes scenic designer Jan Munroe, lighting designer Gavan Wyrick, sound designer Marc Antonio Pritchett, costume designer Mylette Nora, prop masters Bruce Dickinson and Ina Shumaker, and scenic painter Stephanie Crothers. The production stage manager is Roella Dellosa.

Butterfield's other plays, published by Dramatists Play Service, Samuel French and Playscripts, Inc., include Life Expectancy, It Has to Be You, Brownstone, The Sleeper, Joined at the Head, Where the Truth Lies, Snowing at Delphi and Life in the Tree.

Open Fist Theatre Company is a collective, self-producing artistic enterprise with all facets of its operation run by its artist members. The company's name combines the notion that an open spirit, embracing all people and all ideas, is essential with the idea that determination, signified by a fist, is necessary if the theater is to remain a vital voice for social change and awareness.

Performances of To the Bone take place March 4 through March 26, with performances every Saturday at 8 p.m. There will be three Sunday matinees on March 12, March 19 and March 26, each at 2 p.m .; three Sunday evening performances on March 5, March 19 and March 26, each at 7 p.m .; and one Friday night performance on March 10 at 8 p.m.

Theatre 68 Arts Complex is located at 5112 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood, CA 91601. General admission to all performances is $30, with a $10 discount available to students and seniors.

For more information and to purchase tickets, go to http://www.theatre68artscomplex.com.

"WICKED GOOD" - Stage and Cinema

"BRASH, VIBRANT PERFORMANCES" - Angeles Stage

"CRUDE, HILARIOUS, AND UNEQUIVOCALLY ACUTE" - Gia on the Move

"HILARIOUS AND HEARTWARMING" - Larchmont Buzz

"CLEVER, ABSORBING, FUNNY AND ENTERTAINING" - Splash Magazines

"ENGAGING AND ENTERTAINING" - Glamgical

"WOW!... ONE OF THE YEAR'S BEST NEW PLAYS" - Stage Scene LA