Davidson College Assistant Professor of Theatre Mark Sutch will self-produce a one-man play, Underneath the Lintel: An Impressive Presentation of Lovely Evidences, at two local venues this month.

The highly acclaimed play, written by Glen Berger, concerns an idiosyncratic Dutch librarian's mad quest for the man who returned a book 113 years overdue. It charts the librarian's gripping, mysterious and hilarious pursuit through Holland, Australia, New York, and Beijing, and ventures into moving examinations of love, faith, and the question of whether individuals can actually make a mark on the world.

This will be the Charlotte-area premiere of Underneath the Lintel, though it has been performed in more than 55 cities in eight countries, and played more than 400 performances Off-Broadway in 2001. The play was one of Time Out New York's Ten Best Plays of 2001, won the 2001 L.A. Ovation Award, and won the 2004 Edmonton Sterling Award for Best Play.

Sutch will present the play May 17, 18, & 19 at 8 p.m. and May 20 at 2 p.m. at Carolina Actors Studio Theatre (CAST), 2424 North Davidson St., in Charlotte. For reservations and information on those performances, call 704-455-8542. It will also be produced May 24, 25, and 26 at 8 p.m. at the Warehouse Performing Arts Center, 9216 Westmoreland St., Suite A, in Cornelius. For reservations and information on those performances call 704-619-0429.

Reservations for all performances are also available at www.underneathcharlotte.squarespace.com.

On sabbatical from Davidson this spring, Sutch took advantage of a performance agreement with the Actors' Equity Association and a generous research grant from Davidson to present the solo show. He decided to self-produce, which has entailed booking venues, securing rights, organizing publicity, locating props and costumes, rehearsing, directing, and designing the play.

Taking on such a tremendous amount of the job will allow him to offer tickets to a professional-quality piece of theatre for about the cost of a movie ticket-$10 per person.

Sutch has taught acting, directing and script analysis at Davidson since joining the faculty in 2006. He has also directed productions at the college of Dark Ride, Women Beware Women, Hamlet, Leading Ladies, Into the Woods, and Romeo and Juliet. He has also worked with local companies such as the Actors' Theatre of Charlotte and the Burning Coal Theatre Company, where he is a company member.

Before coming to Davidson, he spent five years as Artistic Associate at Rhode Island's Trinity Repertory Company, where he appeared in several productions and directed productions of Suddenly Last Summer, A Christmas Carol, Macbeth, The Comedy of Errors, and The Two Gentlemen of Verona. He also served as Producing Director of the Trinity Summer Shakespeare Project, which toured throughout the northeast.

Davidson is a highly selective independent liberal arts college for 1,900 students located 20 minutes north of Charlotte in Davidson, N.C. Since its establishment in 1837 by Presbyterians, the college has graduated 23 Rhodes Scholars and is consistently regarded as one of the top liberal arts colleges in the country. Through The Davidson Trust, the college became the first liberal arts institution in the nation to replace loans with grants in all financial aid packages, giving all students the opportunity to graduate debt-free. Davidson competes in NCAA athletics at the Division I level, and a longstanding Honor Code is central to student life at the college.


Source: Davidson College