Event

Humble Boy

Humble Boy, a comedy about chaos, personal relationships and our need to make sense of it all, will be the fifth production of the season at 1st Stage, Tysons Corner's professional theatre.

The production will be directed by Lee Mikeska Gardner, announced Mark Krikstan, Artistic Director at 1st Stage.

Written by Charlotte Jones, the play is rich, original, intelligent, funny and touching. Young Felix Humble, a Cambridge astro-physicist, returns home following the death of his father and soon realizes that his search for unity in the universe must include his own chaotic life. It's a story about broken vows, failed hopes, string theory, and bee-keeping, and ties all into a unified theory of everything.

Gardener is a veteran director and actress. Her production of The Cocktail Party for Washington Stage Guild earned a Theatre Lobby Award for Outstanding Production in 1996. She also directed Thom Pain (Based on Nothing), which was named 2007 Outstanding Production by the Baltimore City Paper.

Three of her productions for Wooly Mammoth, where she is an artistic associate, have won Helen Hayes Award nominations for direction: Life During Wartime; Goodnight Desdemona, Good Morning Juliet; and After Ashley.

Gardner won a Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Actress for A House in the Country with Charter Theatre, and three additional nominations for acting for A Taste of Fire (Charter Theatre), Stanley (Potomac Theatre Project), and Patient A (Freedom Stage).

1st Stage, located near Leesburg Pike and the Dulles Toll Road, will be given the John Aniello Award for Outstanding Emerging Theatre Company at the Helen Hayes Awards ceremony in April. The theatre is the creation of a group of teachers, artists and actors in Fairfax County who want to bring professional theatre to Tysons Corner and, in doing so, give local artists an opportunity to grow in their careers.

By the end of its second season this June, 1st Stage will have debuted the talent of nearly 30 actors, designers and directors.