URI Theatre opens with Marvin’s Room, Oct. 11

KINGSTON, RI—September 24, 2012 – Next month, the University of Rhode Island Department of Theatre will open its season with the production of Marvin’s Room, as part of the University’s Honors Colloquium focused on health care.

Show Times

  • Oct 11-13 & 18-20, 7:30 p.m.

    Oct 14 & 21, 3 p.m.


    • 401.874.5843, www.uri.edu/theatre


    The show will be staged Oct 11-13 and 18-20 at 7:30 p.m. and Oct 14 and 21 at 3 p.m. in the Robert E. Will Theatre in the URI Fine Arts Center on the Kingston Campus. General admission for the performance is $20, $15 for seniors, URI faculty/staff, and $12 for students. Tickets can be purchased by calling 401.874.5843 beginning Oct 1 or online at www.uri.edu/theatre.

    Marvin’s Room is “one of the funniest plays of the year as well as one of the wisest and most moving,” said the New York Times when the play opened Off Broadway in 1991. The words are true today. How can a play about family, illness and death be so incredibly funny and so extraordinarily moving? It simply is. Join the newly reunited sisters, Bessie, who has chosen to care for Marvin, their elderly, ill father and their elderly ill Aunt Ruth and Lee, mother of two sons, one Hank, a disturbed teenager and Charlie, his younger brother. What brings them all together—Bessie‘s diagnosis of leukemia and the possibility that one of them may be a match for a transplant. A laugh a minute, right? Right! Because the playwright has an uncanny empathy and a fierce sense of humor, human fraility is revealed in a hilarious light. Written by the late Scott McPherson, Marvin’s Room is being presented as part of the 2012 URI Honors Colloquium on Healthcare. Marvin’s Room won the Outer Critics Award, the Drama Desk Award and the John Gassner Award for Best New American Play.


    The show is directed by Bryna Wortman, Associate Professor, (The Sea Gull, The Foreigner, Amadeus and The Taming of the Shrew); costume design by guest artist, Marilyn Salvatore; sets by URI Alum, Cheryl deWardener; lighting design by guest artist Jennifer Rock and sound design by guest artist Mike Hyde.


    Actor, Character, Hometown


    Andrew Burnap, Dr. Wally, S Kingstown,RI

    Danielle Dube, Dr. Charlotte, Warwick, RI

    Maria Hyde, Ruth, N. Kingstown, RI

    Americo Lanni, Charlie, Johnston, RI

    Sarah Leach, Bessie, Smithfield, RI

    TS McCormick, Marvin, Boston, MA

    Alex Maynard, Ret Home Director, Pawtucket, RI

    Christine O’Connell, Lee, Newport, RI

    Stephen Peterson, Hank, Torrington, CT

    Philip Ryng, Bob, Jamestown, RI




    Pictured above

    URI Theatre opens with the funny, but moving play, Marvin’s Room: Cast members shown here (l-r), Stephen Peterson of Torrington, CT as Hank; Christine O’Connell of Newport, as Lee; Americo Lanni of Johnston, as Charlie, and Sarah Leach of Smithfield, as Bessi. URI photo by Randy Osga.