Martha's Calling
At Nora Theatre Company

Amidst the trials and turmoils of our Presidential election battles, The Nora Theatre Company is presenting the Boston area premiere of Jodi Rothe’s sharp and funny play, "Martha Mitchell Calling." The multimedia production will play the Central Square Theatre from October 16 - November 9.

Directed by Daniela Varon, "Martha Mitchell Calling" features Annette Miller (Diana Vreeland in The Nora’s "Full Gallop" as well as Elliot Norton Award winner for "Golda’s Balcony") as the feisty southern belle who clamored to be heard during the tumultuous times of Watergate.

"Martha Mitchell Calling" takes audiences back to a time when our administration was hindered by political corruption and the misuse of power. In the middle of it all stood one extraordinary woman who didn’t want to keep it under wraps -- larger-than-life Southern socialite Martha Mitchell, wife of President Nixon’s Attorney General John Mitchell.

Eclipsing her husband as a household name, she was dubbed “The Mouth of The South” and gained worldwide recognition for her infamous phone calls to the press about matters the Nixon-era conspirators wanted kept quiet.

Passionate and willing to take a stand, the outspoken Martha Mitchell used her influence and intelligence to blow the whistle on the Nixon administration. Said President Nixon in a 1977 interview with David Frost, “If it hadn’t been for Martha, there’d have been no Watergate.” Mitchell, who didn’t live to see herself vindicated, receives a tribute of courage in this powerful and humorous play.

Award-winning actress Annette Miller paints a portrait of an irrepressible lady who loved her man but loved her freedom of speech more. Miller has been a member of Shakespeare & Company for a decade, performing in "King John," "Twelfth Night," "Collected Stories" (directed by Daniela Varon), and "Love Letters" (with A. R. Gurney), among others. She has also performed both on and off Broadway as well as at the American Repertory Theatre and Merrimack Repertory Theatre.

Timothy Sawyer will play Martha’s husband, Attorney General John Mitchell. He has performed at Lyric Stage, Charles Playhouse, North Shore Music Theatre, the Huntington Theatre Company, and Theatre at Monmouth, among others, as well as in radio dramas for the Public Media Foundation.

Playwright Jody Rothe, also an accomplished screenwriter/producer, has developed and sold two original television movies to CBS (“A Different Affair,” “Isabel Crawford of Saddle Mountain”) and has a third under option. She has also written for the Lifetime series, “The Days and Nights of Molly Dowd,” and for the Fox series, “Glory Days.”

Director Daniela Varon is an award-winning New York-based theater director, acting teacher, and longtime member of Shakespeare & Company. She is co-producer, director and moderator of the series "Conversations with Shakespeare" and has directed at more than 30 theaters across the country including Playwrights Horizons, Hartford Stage, the Public Theater/NYSF, Lincoln Center Theatre Directors’ Lab, and Crossroads Theater. She has been a faculty member or guest artist at Bennington College, Dartmouth College, Emerson College, and the University of Connecticut, among others. She most recently directed "The English Channel" by Robert Brustein for Abingdon Theatre Company in New York City.

For information and tickets, call 866-811-4111. The Central Square Theater is located at 450 Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge.

-- OnStage Boston