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Women's Theatre Company Explores Family Life, Out Loud

Designed to celebrate family while shattering traditional notions of parenthood, “Motherhood Out Loud” is the second production by Eve Theatre Company, a new Louisville stage production company whose mission is to explore the human experience from a female perspective.Conceived by Susan R. Rose and Joan Stein, “Motherhood Out Loud” is an anthology play featuring the work of 13 acclaimed playwrights, including Humana Festival of New American Plays alumni Beth Henley (Pulitzer Prize, “Crimes of the Heart”) and Theresa Rebeck (finalist, Pulitzer Prize, “Omnium Gatherum”).“Motherhood Out Loud” opens Thursday and runs through June 23 in the Victor Jory Theatre at Actors Theatre of Louisville.“It takes you on that full cycle of family life. It talks about all the different issues you have to go through. Some are very, very funny as we all know, and some can be very sad and very sweet,” says co-producer and performer Susan McNeese Lynch.McNeese Lynch says “Motherhood Out Loud” explores what family is and what it can be, starting with the many paths people take to becoming parents.“These days, a lot of the ways people have children are very unconventional, in terms of surrogate parents and different forms of adoption and different ways people grow their families,” she says. The play also tackles the child-rearing years, then expands to include the interesting exchange of power and influence that happens as parents age.“I think that’s another area where it really breaks with some typical conventions, in that so many times adult children end up being very parental towards their own parents who end up being more child-like as they get closer to the end of their lives,” says McNeese Lynch.The original production of “Motherhood Out Loud,” which premiered at Hartford Stage in 2010, cast only four actors to play about forty different roles. Eve’s cast is twelve strong, and includes actors as young as fourteen and as old as 84.“We wanted to open this up. One of our goals is to get more people involved – particularly more women involved,” says McNeese Lynch.Eve Theatre Company made its debut last November with a staged reading of Nora Ephron’s “Love, Loss and What I Wore.” McNeese Lynch calls “Motherhood Out Loud” a “good next step” for the company, production-wise.“It’s scene work as opposed to a staged reading so everyone’s on their feet,” she says. “It’s a much more intensive play, if you will.”