Surrogates to premiere at Lackland

HACKETTSTOWN — Famed Groundlings Theatre in LA alumna – which gave birth to such SNL actors as Phil Hartman, Lorraine Newman, and the Pee Wee Herman phenomenon — and Emmy Award winning author, Patricia Cotter, brings her unique sense of comedy and contemporary issues to Centenary Stage Company with the World Premiere of The Surrogate Feb. 17 through March 5 at the Lackland Performing Arts Center.
Winner of the 2016 Susan Glaspell Award and finalist in the prestigious 2016 O’Neil National Playwrights Conference, The Surrogate is a smart and funny play about blended families, desire, motherhood, class and sexual politics examining just how much we can ask of our friends, our parents and our spouses, and whether we’ll get any of our important life decisions right in this new age. A multigenerational blend of “Modern Family” and "All in the Family" for the 21st century, when Billy and Sara ask their best friends Margaret and Jen to be the guardians of their precious Tallulah (and yet-to-be-born baby Carroll), lives change and friendships are tested. When Sara’s mother, a colorful New Zealand Vineyard owner, blows into town for an “ankle replacement”, the definition of what makes a modern family is hilariously rewritten.
Cotter has received the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the Richard Rodgers Award for musical theater, as well as the L.A. Stage Ovation Award. Her plays include Rules of Comedy performed by The Actors Theatre of Louisville; When You Talk About This, Best of Playground 18, San Francisco; and The Break Up Notebook (featuring actress Jane Lynch). Cotter also wrote the musical Rocket Science: A Musical, and co-wrote the cabaret show, So Far – Beth Malone (Joe’s Pub, NYC), and she adapted Mulan, Jr for Disney Theatrical. Cotter will be in residence at CSC during the play’s development, and a special talkback with the Playwright will be held on Sunday, Feb 19 following the 2 p.m. matinee performance.