Selected Works
MIRROR LAKE
BY STEVEN DIETZ
From the mind of acclaimed playwright Steven Dietz, MIRROR LAKE is a dark, intimate relationship thriller about one couple's inner-most secrets and fears, the demons in their past, and their decidedly different love language.
MIRROR LAKE Marks the Austin directorial debut of Caroline Cearley, who served as Assistant Director on last season’s hit Dial M for Murder. The cast features two dynamic performers making their Jarrott Productions stage debuts: Juliet Robb joining us fresh off her acclaimed performance in Hyde Park Theatre's Betrayal and Bryan Bradford jumping on stage after directing JP's Prodigal Son and Seminar.
Steven Dietz’s forty-plus plays have been seen at over one hundred regional theatres, as well as Off-Broadway and in twenty-five countries internationally. For the ’24-’25 season, Dietz was once again named one of the “Twenty Most Produced Playwrights in America” by American Theatre Magazine. With Kirk Lynn, he adapted his Austin-premiered play, SHOOTING STAR, into the movie, “What Happens Later” – starring and directed by Meg Ryan. Recent and upcoming premieres include a new adaptation of Patrick Hamilton’s GASLIGHT; several comic mystery romps from Agatha Christie; and a new thriller, VINELAND PLACE.
Performances run October 16 – November 2, at Trinity Street Playhouse.
DANGEROUS CORNER
by j.b. priestly
Set in a small village outside of London in 1932, Dangerous Corner takes the audience to the country retreat of Robert and Freda Caplan, who are entertaining guests at a dinner party for executives of a trans-Atlantic publishing company. A chance remark by one of the guests ignites a series of devastating revelations.
The production is Caroline Cearley’s fourth-year directing thesis at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. Johanna Fleischer, a fourth-year Design and Production student, is the scenic designer. The two worked together closely to bring to life the art deco glamour of 1932 and to slowly reveal the dark secrets beneath its shiny surface.
“I’m drawn to the mystery thriller genre because it causes the audience to lean in, and then you can talk about the things that are important,” Cearley said. “The story was ahead of its time. It deals with ideas that the modern world accepts now, but didn’t so much accept then. I decided to set it in the time the playwright set it in, in historic detail, because I think audience members can more easily connect with the story in the time that it’s written.”
“It was really fun to work with that period, because it is so classy, and reminds us of the Chrysler Building and ‘The Great Gatsby,’” Fleischer said. “I worked a lot with the props department to repurpose items that were already on hand to fit the art deco period.”