THEATREWORKS SILICON VALLEY PRESENTS
THE WORLD PREMIERE OF
Nan and the Lower Body
Janis Dardaris and Elissa Beth Stebbins in the staged reading of
NAN AND THE LOWER BODY
in the 2019 TheatreWorks New Works Festival
TheatreWorks Silicon Valley will present the World Premiere of Jessica Dickey’s Nan and the Lower Body, an audience favorite at TheatreWorks’ 2019 New Works Festival. When Pap smear inventor Dr. George Papanicolaou takes on a brilliant new assistant, Nan Day, he senses that she is hiding a secret. As Dr. Pap discovers the truth, he learns that he may hold the key to solving her greatest mystery. This frank and funny play explores the mysteries of the heart and provides a personal perspective to the revolutionary technology that has saved the lives of millions. Nan and the Lower Body will be directed by TheatreWorks Artistic Associate and Director of New Works Giovanna Sardelli.
Nan and the Lower Body
TheatreWorks
Lucie Stern Theatre, 1305 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto
July 13 – August 7, 2022
for tickets (starting at $30), call (877)-662-8978 or visit TheatreWorks
Janis Dardaris and Anthony Fusco in the staged reading of
NAN AND THE LOWER BODY
in the 2019 TheatreWorks New Works Festival
Christopher Daftsios makes his TheatreWorks debut as Dr. George Papanicolaou. Reprising the role she originated in TheatreWorks’ 2019 New Works Festival, Elissa Beth Stebbins returns as Nan Day. Lisa Ramirez makes her TheatreWorks mainstage debut as Mache Papanicolaou, Dr. Pap’s wife. Jeffrey Brian Adams makes his TheatreWorks mainstage debut as Ted Day, Nan’s husband.
Jessica Dickey is an award-winning playwright whose writing was hailed by The New York Times as having “freshness, economy, cheeky vulgarity, with a fine measure of poetic insight,†and the New Yorker magazine as “funny, smart, deep and sad.†Her plays include The Convent (premiered Off-Broadway) and The Rembrandt (Steppenwolf). Other plays Off-Broadway in New York and around the country: The Amish Project, Charles Ives Take Me Home, and Row After Row. In television, Dickey recently joined the writers room for Apple TV’s comedy “Physical,†starring Rose Byrne.
Jessica Dickey
Giovanna Sardelli’s many directing credits at TheatreWorks include It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play, They Promised Her the Moon, Rajiv Joseph’s Archduke (2019), FINKS (2018), The Velocity of Autumn and Crimes of the Heart (2016), Joseph’s The Lake Effect (2015), Somewhere by Matthew Lopez (2013), and the World Premiere of Joseph’s The North Pool (2011). She is an award-winning director who has worked on numerous plays by Rajiv Joseph including the world premiere of Archduke (Mark Taper Forum) and Guards at the Taj (Geffen Playhouse; 2016 Ovation Award for Best Production of a Play).
Giovanna Sardelli. Photo by Deborah Lopez.
TheatreWorks Silicon Valley was founded in 1970 by Robert Kelley and has grown from an original Silicon Valley start-up to become one of the region’s leading professional nonprofit theatre companies. TheatreWorks was honored as the recipient of the 2019 Regional Theatre Tony Award, the highest honor bestowed on a non-Broadway theatre. Now in its 51st season and led by Artistic Director Tim Bond and Executive Director Phil Santora, TheatreWorks presents a wide variety of contemporary plays and musicals, revitalizes great works of the past, and serves more than 100,000 patrons per year. TheatreWorks also champions new work, offering artists support and a creative home as they develop new stories for the American theatre. Offstage, TheatreWorks’ arts education programs in local schools and arts engagement programs in Silicon Valley neighborhoods uplift its audiences and strengthen community bonds. Whether onstage or off, TheatreWorks seeks to celebrate the human spirit and the diversity of the Silicon Valley community.
staged reading photos by Kevin Berne