press release

Undermain Theatre continues 2007-2008 Season
The Snow Queen by Lynne Alvarez
December 1-22, 2007

Undermain Theatre, the award-winning theater company founded in Dallas in 1984, announces the second play of its lineup of performances for 07-08.  Undermain’s 24th season will continue its tradition of presenting some of the most masterful and innovative writers working today.

Continuing the season Dec.1-Dec.22 2007 will be the world premiere of The Snow Queen, a fairy tale for strange adults, by distinguished playwright and poet Lynne Alvarez. Overlapping stories of delusion and love set in Copenhagen in the early 1890s, The Snow Queen is the tale of an older woman, a younger man, a younger woman and many birds.

As adults we are told that we must grow up and leave the fairytale world behind but Lynne Alvarez, distinguished playwright and poet, has a different idea.  She has bridged this gap and created a link to the world of fairytales in this new play commissioned by Undermain Theatre.  In The Snow Queen, Alvarez has fashioned a beautiful ice covered world set in Denmark in the early 1890s to showcase the grandeur that is love.  As in most fairytales, this story too revolves around the ideals of love and the lengths we go for love.  But just as the seasons change, just as birds migrate, just as snows melt, so do our feelings, until we find that one true love.

Nina, our Snow Queen, has migrated south yet once again to find her “boy” for the season.  Upon running into Christian, she chooses him and whisks him away up north for the winter.  But relationships are never that easy, and even though Nina has all the glitz and glamour on her side, as the winter draws to an end and spring appears, Analiese, our young heroin, journeys north to find her love.  Thus a timeless tale wrought with danger, adventure, and love, The Snow Queen is a fairytale for adults that still believe in magic. 

Directed by Katherine Owens, the play features Christian Taylor, Rhonda Boutte, Kent Williams, Shannon Kearns-Simmons, Anastasia Munoz, and Matthew Posey.

Undermain Theatre performances are Wednesdays-Thursdays at 7:30 p.m. and Fridays-Saturdays at 8:15 p.m. Tickets are Thurs $15, Fri $20, and Sat $25. Undermain is located at 3200 Main Street at Murray Street in Deep Ellum.  Discounts are available for seniors, students and KERA members. Call 214.747.5515 or visit www.undermain.org.

"The plays of Lynne Alvarez possess a poetry and eerie quietude that is unique in our dramatic literature.”--Mac Wellman, playwright  

"Lynne Alvarez is an enchantress. Her plays unfurl like flying carpets—the joy, the daring, the loop, the loops...prepare yourself for an exhilarating flight."--Tina Howe, playwright
  
"The plays of Lynne Alvarez possess a poetry and eerie quietude that is unique in our dramatic literature."--Mac Wellman, playwright
  
"In her magical and mysterious plays, Alvarez creates characters filled with longing, imagination and an outrageous sense of humor. Her highly theatrical landscapes invite us into a world where towers rise up, people flee their pasts, love appears around surprising corners and the poet in all of us is reborn. Alvarez has a unique and joyful voice that celebrates the complexities of the American experience in all its diverse and startling incarnations. This collection is a major achievement by one of the best kept secrets of the American Theater."
--Carey Perloff, Artistic Director, American Conservatory Theatre

ABOUT UNDERMAIN
Undermain Theatre, founded in 1984, is a company of artists that performs new and experimental works in Texas, New York, and Europe. The theater collaborates with playwrights, supports a theater archive and operates a theater under 3200 Main Street in Dallas’ legendary Deep Ellum. Call 214-747-2417 or visit www.undermain.org for more information.
Artistic Director: Katherine Owens. Executive Producer: Bruce DuBose. Associate Producer: Suzanne Thomas.