June 6, 2017: The Keegan Theatre presents the Washington DC premiere of Sarah Treem’s When We Were Young and Unafraid, opening on June 17, 2017. Directed by Marie Sproul, When We Were Young and Unafraid stars Keegan founding company member Sheri S. Herren as Agnes, the role originated by Cherry Jones on Broadway. Herren is joined by Kaylynn Creighton, Jenna Berk, Nora Achrati, and Theo Hadjimichael. The press opening is on Tuesday, June 20, at 8:00 pm.
“When We Were Young and Unafraid is a significant project for Keegan for several reasons,” says Keegan Artistic Director Mark A. Rhea. “It tackles critical and complicated subject matter that we feel deserves attention on our stage, and it’s written by an exciting female playwright we’ve had our eye on for a while. We’re thrilled to be the first DC theater to produce this remarkable script, and to give voice to this story and these women.”
About the Play: ?This powerful play takes you inside a shelter for women on the run in the early 1970s. Penned by House of Cards writer Sarah Treem, the drama transports you to a time before Roe v. Wade, before the Violence Against Women Act and before women had anywhere to turn in times of distress. When We Were Young and Unafraid tells the story of Agnes, a single parent who has turned her quiet B&B into one of the few spots where a woman on the run can seek refuge. To her dismay, her latest guest is having a profound influence on her teenage daughter, forcing each girl to question their destiny. As the drums of the feminist revolution grow louder, and new guests arrive and complicate the delicate balance she has created, Agnes must confront her own preconceived notions about the people she’s been trying to help.
Sarah Treem is the Golden Globe-winning writer and producer of Showtime’s The Affair. Her full-length plays include Empty Sky, Against the Wall, Mirror, Mirror, A Feminine Ending, Human Voices, and Vienna’s Amazing. Treem has been in residence at The Sundance Institute and The Ojai Playwriting Conference, and has received commissions from South Coast Repertory, Manhattan Theatre Club, and Playwrights Horizons. In addition to her theater career, Sarah wrote and produced all three seasons of the acclaimed HBO series In Treatment, for which she won a Writers Guild of America award. She was also a writer and producer for Mark Wahlberg’s HBO series How to Make It in America and the Netflix series House of Cards, starring Kevin Spacey. Treem is also adapting Tom Wolfe’s novel I Am Charlotte Simmons for HBO. She graduated from Yale University and the Yale School of Drama.
This is Keegan Theatre’s 20th season performing in Washington, DC. The Keegan Theatre produces powerful productions of classic and modern plays and musicals, offered to the community at affordable prices. Our work is fueled by extraordinary artists in an intimate venue, scripts that put real people out there on the stark edges of life, and an approach to the work that honors clear and authentic storytelling.
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