ESCAPE FROM THE ASYLUM at Central Works Extends Through April 24

Central Works' opening production of its 2022 season, the comedy Escape from the Asylum by award-winning playwright Patricia Milton, has extended through April 24th (originally scheduled to close April 17). The opening night response to Escape from the Asylum from audiences and the press alike was rollicking.

In 2019, Central Works premiered the award-winning play by Patricia Milton, The Victorian Ladies Detective Collective - in which three determined "lady" sleuths fight crime and prejudice in Victorian London. In Escape from the Asylum they are at it again! A famous female explorer has been committed to Belfry, a notorious asylum for the mentally ill. Has her unscrupulous husband had her falsely committed just to gain her fortune? The intrepid lady detectives are on the case! This production, World Premiere #67, directed by Gary Graves, is the sixth writer/director comic collaboration between Central Works' resident playwright Milton and the company's Co-director. Escape From the Asylum features Chelsea Bearce, Alan Coyne, Danielle O'Hare and Jan Zvaifler.

"Physicians in Victorian times insisted that about twenty-five percent of all women suffered from hysteria. In England and the U.S., families used 'madness' as an excuse to lock up women who were not mentally ill, but fed up, unconventional, openly liked sex, or wanted political power. Women today who have similar traits are often marginalized as 'crazy' or 'trainwrecks.' " Patricia Milton

Central Works' 32nd season continues in the summer with Dreaming in Cuban, a new adaptation by Cristina García of her celebrated novel, also directed by Gary Graves, Jun 25-Jul 24. And fall brings a new comedy from the Central Works Writers Workshop The Women's Annex written by Mildred Inez Lewis and directed by Elizabeth Carter, Oct 15-Nov 13. All performances continue Thur & Fri 8pm, Sat 7pm, Sun 5pm.

Patricia Milton (playwright) is a Resident Playwright for Central Works and a long-term member of the Central Works Writers Workshop. Plays written for Central Works include: Bystanders (audio play produced in 2020), The Victorian Ladies' Detective Collective (2019), Bamboozled (2018 Outstanding Production; Ensemble; Finalist, Outstanding World Premiere Play, TBA Awards), Hearts of Palm (2016), Enemies: Foreign and Domestic (2015), and Reduction in Force (2011). She is a recipient of the 2015 Outstanding World Premiere Play by Theatre Bay Area for Enemies: Foreign and Domestic. The Victorian Ladies' Detective Collective was presented by the International House of Theatre outdoors in Copenhagen in July 2020. Her comedy Believers has enjoyed productions in Monterey and San Francisco, and played for three years in Istanbul, Turkey. Her drama about the death penalty, Without Mercy (developed in the Central Works Writers Workshop), was presented at the Newfoundland Women's Work Festival and was produced in 2017 by Off Broadway West Theatre Company in San Francisco. An audio version of her comedy The Law of Attraction, was commissioned and created by the New Conservatory Theatre. Ms. Milton has had more than one hundred productions and readings of her plays both locally and internationally, including at 3Girls Theatre, San Francisco Exploratorium, PlayGround SF, Woman's Will, Women's Theatre Project, Bay Area One Acts, and City Lights Theatre. Until recently, she was the Northern California Regional Rep for The Dramatists Guild, and she produces an ongoing podcast for the Central Works Script Club.

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