(CHESTER, Mass.) – Body Awareness, a comedy by Amherst native Annie Baker, runs at Chester Theatre Company through Sunday, August 11, 2013. The play tells the story of an unconventional, modern American nuclear family.

Phyllis is professor at a college where she has organized a series of events for “Body Awareness Week”. She and her partner, Joyce, are hosting Frank, a guest artist whose nude photos are being shown at the campus gallery. When Joyce’s grown son Jared – who swears he doesn’t have Asperger’s Syndrome – turns to Frank for advice, and Joyce considers posing for Frank, tensions rise in this comedy about family ties, political correctness on campus and putting labels on people who are different from us.

Annie Baker is one of America’s foremost young playwrights. Her full length plays include Circle Mirror Transformation (Playwrights Horizons, OBIE Award for Best New American Play), The Aliens (Rattlestick Theater, OBIE Award for Best New American Play), Body Awareness (Atlantic Theater Company, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle nominations for Best Play/Emerging Playwright). Baker’s plays have been performed at over 100 theatres across the USA and in Europe and South America. Recent honors include a New York Drama Critics Circle Award, a Susan Smith Blackburn Prize nomination, and a MacDowell fellowship. The Vermont Plays, an anthology of her work, is available from TCG books.

Tickets are available at Chester Theatre Company or by phone at 1-800-595-4TIX. CTC performances take place at Chester’s Historic Town Hall, 15 Middlefield Road, Chester, Mass. Performances are Wednesday through Saturday at 8pm, with matinees Thursdays and Sundays at 2pm. Tickets are $30 for weekday performances (Wed-Fri), $35 for weekend (Sat & Sun). Student, Chester Resident, and Saturday Night Rush tickets available; group rates for 10 or more are also available.