Underground Railway Theater premieres States of Grace and Einstein's Dreams

URT's two mainstage plays for 2006-2007 are harbingers of what the company will be offering at the new Central Square Theater: professional theater that connects with the community, places actors on stage with puppets, and relates to other endeavors - including activism and science.

Things Heat Up in the Kitchen:
After working on the project for several years, URT premiered its original production for actors and puppets based on the stories of activist author Grace Paley at Boston Playwright's Theater from January 25th to February 10th.

States of Grace took audiences into the surreal night-time kitchen of Faith, a woman writer with insomnia induced by bad world politics. She is visited by characters from art and life that appear from every part of her metaphoric kitchen, a place where dreams are concocted and community is nourished. Her father pops from a drawer, her best friend from a cupboard, her "preferred man" from the refrigerator, her "writing self" from the piles of discarded papers in the trash… all to advise, admonish, and encourage Faith in her effort to write about human possibility in the real world. Howard Zinn (A People's History of the United States) and Grace Paley, herself, attended the closing day celebrations and led conversations with the audience.

The play was a remarkable success, with most performances sold-out through the very end. Jenna Scherer from Weekly Dig stated, "The most remarkable thing about URT's many-armed production is that it's -- dare I say it -- heartwarming… Wise and her cohorts have proven that you don't have to be edgy to be enlightening…"