MOTHER LODE to Return To Carnegie Stage in June

Mother Lode, a play by Virginia Wall Gruenert, will return to Carnegie Stage June 3 at 8:00pm and June 4 at 3:00pm. The production stars Linda Haston and is directed by Ingrid Sonnichsen.

While it's true that mothers and daughters often have contentious relationships that will keep therapists in business for decades to come, there is no denying the deep bond that exists between them. Mother Lode tells the story of Pittsburgh actor Linda Haston's mother, Ruth, a force of nature who leaves Jim Crow Alabama as a teen to work and raise her family in Pittsburgh's Hill District. Mother Lode deals with the end-of-life decisions that must be made by dutiful daughters, as well as the discord, conciliation, warfare, and ultimate acceptance (whether they like it or not) between strong, independent women bound by love and family.

BIOGRAPHIES

Linda Haston- Ruth/Linda - is a professional (AEA) actress, singer, teaching artist and director. She has directed and/or performed for the past 22 years with local Pittsburgh professional theatre companies which include off the WALL, Quantum, Bricolage, New Horizon, City Theater, The Public Theatre, PICT, Arcade Comedy Theatre and Prime Stage Theatre. Some favorite performance roles: Irene Page in Bubbling Brown Sugar starring Vivian Reed; Lily Ann Green in Lynn Nottage's Crumbs from the Table of Joy; Jeannette in City Theatre's 2005-2006 season opener of Crowns; Tituba in Quantum Theatre's and Prime Stage Theatre's productions of The Crucible; Mrs. Dickson in Lynn Nottage's Intimate Apparel at City Theatre; Henry from The Club on National Tour in San Francisco as well as in Pittsburgh, Ohio, and at off the WALL; Addie in The Little Foxes and a Citizen in Our Town at the Pittsburgh Public Theatre. She has portrayed the role of Calpurnia twice for Prime Stage's productions of To Kill a Mockingbird. Directing credits: Sojourner, The Diary of Anne Frank (Prime Stage), The Thanksgiving Play (Arcade Comedy Theatre), and most recently the streamed staged reading production of After Independence for PICT in the Expand the Canon Series. In 2022 she directed for Prime Stage Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad. As a teaching artist, she has taught at the middle, secondary and college levels, and as Education Director she leads many of Prime Stage Theatre's educational programs. She has directed and/or performed from 2008 to 2018 at off the WALL productions seasons the very successful plays How I Learned to Drive, Four Dogs and a Bone, The Club (which she also choreographed and performed), Stop Kiss, And Baby Makes Seven, The Whale, An Accident and World Builders. She has performed her acclaimed one woman show Mother Lode written by Virginia Wall Gruenert, Artistic Director of off the WALL productions in Rep at Carnegie Stage and in February 2018 performed it successfully for two weeks Off Broadway at Urban Stages. She is delighted and most grateful to grace the audience in Reykjavik with Mother Lode.

Ingrid Sonnichsen (Director) has been an actress for over fifty years, working on Broadway (Best Friend), Off-Broadway (Dylan, Measure for Measure) and in numerous regional theaters nationwide (the Guthrie, the Mark Taper Forum, Long Wharf, the Huntington, ART, the Charles, Ford's Theater, etc.) She has appeared in national commercials, taught acting in Japan, directed in South Africa (WE and Them), and taught acting at Carnegie Mellon, 1995-2020. She taught previously at Harvard, Northeastern University and Colby-Sawyer in New London, NH. In 1995, while teaching acting at Harvard she was awarded a Certificate for Distinction in Teaching, and in 2012 she received the College of Fine Arts Award for Distinguished Teaching from Carnegie Mellon. She directed ten Senior NY/LA Showcases for CMU, the last being in 2020. Ms. Sonnichsen co-authored two books: Buy This Book, It's Deductible: A Guide to Performer's Taxes (published nationwide by Baker's Plays, Two Editions.) She also co-edited and wrote The Source, (a guide for theater professionals in the New England region.) Ms. Sonnichsen was a member of the Shear Madness companies in Boston, Pittsburgh and at the Kennedy Center, Wash. DC, for ten years. In Pittsburgh she has appeared in Comedy of Errors at the Pittsburgh Public, The Credeaux Canvas at the City Theatre, Major Barbara, The Dead and Hedda Gabler for the Pittsburgh Irish and Classical Theatre, A Feminine Ending and Agnes of God at off the WALL, The Crucible, Le Grand Meaulnes, and Far Away for Quantum Theater.

In past seasons she directed The Small Room at the Top of the Stairs, Inky, the Pink Unicorn, and Byhalia, Mississippi for off the WALL productions, in Carnegie, PA. Most recently Ms. Sonnichsen directed Shakespeare's Tempest for SouthWest Shakespeare Company, Mesa, Arizona (2022), and last month, a staged reading of Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare) for the same company at Frank Lloyd Wrights' home, Taliesin West in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Virginia Wall Gruenert (Playwright) is co-founder and Executive Artistic Director of off the WALL Productions. A native of New York City, Virginia grew up in Bogota, New Jersey and is a cum laude graduate of Syracuse University's Drama Department. She has studied acting, voice, and movement in both New York (Maria Wida, Arthur Storch, Jaques Chwat) and London (National Theater, Bristol Old Vic), and in Los Angeles with the legendary Stella Adler.

Her play Shaken & Stirred was the first play ever produced by off the WALL (2007). A relative newcomer to southwestern PA at the time, Virginia initially played all four roles. She subsequently rewrote Shaken & Stirred for four actors, and the play had a successful run at Theater 54 in New York City in October of 2011. Her short play Bugaboo was featured in SWAN Day Pittsburgh 2012. Her full-length play Without Ruth had its world premiere with off the WALL in May 2013. This play was adapted to the one-woman solo piece, Mother Lode, that ran in repertory at off the WALL in 2016, and had its New York City premiere in February of 2018 at Urban Stages. Acting credits - NYC: What Kind of Woman (the cell), Shaken & Stirred (Theater 54), 'Tis Pity She's a Whore (Perry St. Theatre), Camelot Revisited (Theater for the New City). Syracuse Stage: The Adding Machine, Ah, Wilderness!, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Kennedy's Children, among others. Villanova Master's Program: Watt (adapted from Samuel Beckett's novel by Charles Van Buren). off the WALL: Shaken & Stirred (Various), Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Martha); Season's Greetings...! (Jocelyn); Agnes of God (Martha Livingstone); 'night, Mother (Thelma); The House of Yes (Mrs. Pascal); The Other Place (Julianna); Well (Ann); Ghosts (Mrs. Alving), Byhalia, MS (Celeste). What Kind of Woman (Nora). Virginia is a proud member of The Dramatists Guild of America, Inc., The League of Professional Theatre Women, International Center for Women Playwrights, and Actors' Equity Association.

Production History:

off the WALL productions at Carnegie Stage - June 2016

In rep at Urban Stages NYC - Feb 5-17, 2018

Up next: Tjarnarbió Theater, Reykjavik , Iceland - June 16 & 17, 2023