(CHESTER, Mass.) – Annapurna, an intimate, two-character play by hot young playwright Sharr White, begins its run at Chester Theatre Company on Thursday, July 10, 2014, concluding on Sunday, July 20, at the Chester Town Hall. The comic duet finds a couple reunited after twenty years of separation; their reunion, alternately comic and conflicted, is full of razor sharp wit and brutal honesty. To their surprise, the more they understand what drove them apart, the more they are drawn together.

Twenty years ago, in the middle of the night, Emma walked out on Ulysses, her cowboy-poet husband. Now, hearing he’s in dire straits, she tracks him down to a trailer park in the wilds of Colorado where she finds him hooked to an oxygen tank and cooking sausages in the buff.

The play features Westfield-native Michelle Joyner and Daniel Riordan, and is directed by Robert Egan.

“CTC’s 25th season is a celebration of contemporary playwrights across the spectrum of career accomplishment, ” says CTC Artistic Director Byam Stevens, “Sharr White is a young American writer with a fast-rising international profile. In the past year he has had Broadway, Off Broadway, European and Australian productions. He has a unique and unmistakable gift for crackling dialogue that veers back and forth from the hilarious to the poetic. The result is a play with depth that is a fun ride.”

Annapurna premiered at the Magic Theatre in San Francisco and was a finalist for the Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award. The play made its Off Broadway premiere with New Group in NYC, featuring Los Angeles cast members Megan Mulally and Nick Offerman. “Mr. White writes crisp, sometimes darkly funny, naturalistic dialogue. His two characters, offer talent-stretching rewards,” according to The New York Times. The Huffington Post also praised White’s writing: “Sharr White has created two fine and ferociously damaged people caught in the emotional whirlpool of not being able to live with or without each other.”

Robert Egan will be making his directing debut at CTC with Annapurna. Egan is the Founding Artistic Director/Producer of the Ojai Playwright’s Conference (OPC), one of the most prestigious summer new play development conferences in America. Before OPC, he served for twenty years as the Producing Artistic Director of the Mark Taper Forum, one of the country’s leading theatre companies.

Sharr White’s (Playwright) play The Other Place was an Outer Critics Circle Award nominee for Outstanding New Off-Broadway Play. White’s newest play, The Snow Geese, premiered on Broadway at the Samuel J. Friedman theatre this October. White’s other plays include Sunlight, Six Years, and Achilles in Sparta.

Robert Egan (Director) is an award-winning producer, director and dramaturg. He is the Artistic Director/Producer of the Ojai Playwrights Conference and was the Producing Artistic Director of the Mark Taper Forum and Founding Artistic Director of its New Work Festival where he produced and developed Pulitzer Prize winners Angels in America and The Kentucky Cycle. Robert was the Associate Artistic Director of the Seattle Repertory Theatre and created their new play program, The Other Season. Directing and producing credits include productions at theatres throughout the U.S. including: South Coast Rep; La Jolla Playhouse; Berkeley Rep; Public Theatre; Playwrights Horizons; A Contemporary Theatre; Signature Theatre; and the Kennedy Center.

Michelle Joyner (Emma) Originally from Westfield, Mass., Michelle will be making her CTC debut. Recent theatre credits include her original solo piece Winter (Ojai Playwrights Conference), Life Sentences (with Edward Herrmann, Second Stage, NY), Romeo and Juliet (with Michael Cerveris and Viggo Mortensen, Indiana Repertory), A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Measure for Measure (LA Women’s Shakespeare Co), and 8 The Play (Public Theater, Long Beach). Recent TV credits:  Perception, Bones, and Lie to Me. Films credits: A Fresh Coat Of A Paint and They Also Serve.

Daniel Riordan (Ulysses) will be making his CTC debut. Daniel’s theater credits include, The Bear (Center Theatre Group), as well as revivals of The Boys of Syracuse and Leave it to Jane (Ricardo Montalban Theatre). Film credits: Dream Girls, Tales of Desperaux, Authors Anonymous, and Route 30 Part 3. Recent TV credits: Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Parenthood, Kirby Buckets, Zeke and Luther, and Good Luck Charlie.

Set Design by Vicki Davis, Lighting Design by Lara Dubin, Costume Design by Charles Schoonmaker, and Sound Design by Tom Shread.

Tickets are available at Chester Theatre Company, or by phone at 1­800­595­4TIX. To receive a brochure, contact the CTC office at 413­354­7770. CTC performances take place at Chester’s Historic Town Hall, 15 Middlefield Road, Chester, MA. Performances are Wednesday through Saturday at 8:00pm, with matinees Thursdays and Sundays at 2:00pm. There will be no performance on July 4th. Tickets are $30 for weekday performances (Wed­Fri), $35 for weekend (Sat & Sun). Student, Chester Resident, and Saturday Night Rush tickets available; group rates for 10 or more are also available. For further information visit Chester Theatre Company.

Chester Theatre Company, a professional theatre company located in the foothills of the Berkshires, produces 4 plays each summer, performed by top­flight actors, directors and designers from across the country. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Byam Stevens, CTC has earned a reputation for producing the best in contemporary theatre — ­­ 17 CTC productions have gone on to Off Broadway, regional, national, and international engagements in the last 17 years.