"Einstein" and "Alice"
In Rep At Underground Railway

Underground Railway Theater will present two distinctively delightful plays that explore “time,” bringing dreams and adventures to audiences for its 2008 holiday season! Running in repertory at the Central Square Theater, "Einstein’s Dreams" plays November 18 - December 14, with "Alice’s Adventures Underground" running December 4 - 28.

Written and directed by Wesley Savick, "Einstein's Dreams" reveals Einstein’s imagination as he completes his Theory of Relativity, envisioning many possible dimensions of time, posing tangled, absurd and poetic worlds that illustrate the tragedy and beauty of the human condition. Music is by Evan Harlan.

Alan Lightman’s best-selling novel of the same name has inspired dozens of theatrical productions. Savick’s, which premiered at Underground Railway Theater in 2007, is reportedly Lightman’s favorite.

Lightman will personally lead conversations about the play following the November 18 and 20 performances. Following almost every other performance, conversations will be led by actors from the cast and scientists from MIT and Harvard.

"Alice’s Adventures Underground," an adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s classic work, takes adults and children down rabbit holes and through mirrors into worlds seen best when looked at upside down.

Pointing up parallels between adult idiosyncrasies and Carroll’s characters, the production is written by Underground Railway Theater Artistic Director Debra Wise in collaboration with the company. Directed by Dev Luthra with music by Roger Miller and Evan Harlan, the play brings audiences on an adventure with Alice as she seeks the key to the garden in all the wrong places.

Featuring outrageous puppets and a set devised of hand-painted silk, "Alice" won a 1998 IRNE Award when it was created to honor Carroll on his 100th anniversary. Ten years later, Underground Railway Theater is presenting a newly revised holiday production.

Post performance conversations will take place following the November 4 and 5 performances, with members of the cast joined by specialists in how to live a sane family life in an insane world. Following the November 5 and 7 matinees, audience members are invited to attend a family tea party.

"Einstein’s Dreams" and "Alice’s Adventures Underground" share a cast including Debra Wise, Steven Barkhimer and Robert Najarian, with accordion virtuoso accompanist Evan Harlan.

Debra Wise is a founding member of Underground Railway Theater, and has served as Artistic Director since 1998. She has been involved in the collaborative creation of over 30 new works, as performer, playwright, director, and/or dramaturge. Wise is also Artistic Co-Director of Catalyst Collaborative@ MIT, a major new initiative pairing theater artists and world-class scientists. She has written several plays, including "Home is Where," "Washed-Up Middle-Aged Women" and "States of Grace." Wise has acted with other theater companies in New York and Boston and is a regular guest artist with The Revels.

Steven Barkhimer has been seen in "The Devil’s Teacup" (Boston Playwrights Theatre), "The Woman in Black" (Gloucester Stage), "Love’s Labour’s Lost" (Actors Shakespeare Project), "Look Back in Anger" (The Orfeo Group), and "The Misanthrope" at the New Repertory Theatre.

Robert Najarian is an actor, instructor and fight director who recently performed in the Nora Theatre Company’s "We Won’t Pay! We Won’t Pay" at the Central Square Theater. Other regional acting credits include "Take Me Out" (Speakeasy Stage Company/Boston Theatre Works); "The Complete Works of William Shakespeare Abridged," "A Streetcar Named Desire," and "The Underpants" (Foothills Theatre Company); "And Then There Were None" (Stoneham Theatre); and "Shear Madness."

Accompanist Evan Harlan has recorded and performed internationally with several jazz and world music ensembles and has his own quartet, Andromeda, which was the house band for the American Repertory Theater’s 2003 production of "Snow."

Wesley Savick has directed more than 55 professional productions and has written the book and libretto for an opera based on the life of Liberace as well as theater pieces based on Edgar Allen Poe, the medieval mystic Margery Kempe, former U.S. Ambassador George F. Kennan, and historian and social activist Howard Zinn. Most recently, he directed the premiere of his latest play "Miss Margaret LaRue in Milwaukee" at Boston Playwright’s Theater.

Dev Luthra trained at the East 15 Acting School in London and at Shakespeare and Company in Lenox, MA. Directing credits include "365 Days/Plays" and "Client #1" (Underground Railway Theater), "Romeo and Juliet" (Shakespeare Now!), and "Doubt: A Parable" (New Hampshire Theatre Project). Luthra is also the Artistic Director of And Still We Rise Productions, a theatre company committed to the advocacy of prisoners and former prisoners' rights. His play "Macbeth's Children," co-written with Michael Bettencourt, won an AATE New Play award.

For information, call 866-811-4111 or visit www.centralsquaretheater.org.

-- OnStage Boston