Peninsula Players Theatre is delighted to announce the cast for its upcoming reading of “A Body of Water” by award-winning playwright Lee Blessing. The performance is the final presentation of the theatre’s winter series, The Play’s the Thing. Artistic Director Linda Fortunato directs actors Cassandra Bissell, Neil Brookshire and Adelina Marinello. Bissell and Brookshire, both Door County-based talents, are cast to portray Avis and Moss, a couple who wake up one morning with dual amnesia. “A Body of Water” will be performed on Monday, April 7, at Björklunden’s Vail Hall (7590 Boynton Lane, Baileys Harbor) at 7:00 p.m. “A Body of Water” contains mature language. There is no admission fee, and seating is on a first-come, first-served basis starting at 6:15 p.m. Donations are welcome.
“A Body of Water” is a puzzle play about a couple with no memory of who they are. They find themselves in an isolated summer house high above a picturesque body of water. The weather’s fine, the view’s magnificent, but how did they get there? In the middle of their growing panic of trying to remember their identities, a young woman suddenly drives up. Is she their daughter? Their lawyer? Does she know them at all?
Cassandra Bissell (“Romance in D,” “Silent Sky,” “Miss Holmes”) has graced the stages of Forward Theater Company, Milwaukee Chamber Theatre, Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Next Act Theatre and Door County’s Third Avenue PlayWorks. Her regional credits include Actors Theatre of Louisville, Arizona Theatre Company, Cleveland Play House, Court Theatre, Great Lakes Theater, Idaho Shakespeare Festival, Indiana Repertory Theatre, Utah Shakespeare Festival and numerous Chicago theatres such as Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Northlight Theatre and Steppenwolf Theatre Company.
Neil Brookshire (“Romance in D,” “A Trick of the Light,” “The 39 Steps”) is a filmmaker, playwright and actor. His stage credits include Third Avenue PlayWorks, Door Shakespeare, Great Lakes Theater, Company of Fools, Boise Contemporary Theatre, Renaissance Theaterworks and the Idaho Shakespeare Festival. As a playwright, Brookshire co-authored “Bent Compass,” a one-person show based on his friend’s time as a U.S. Army medic. He also collaborated with Bissell to create the audio play “It Sounds Like a Christmas Carol.”
Adelina Marinello makes her Peninsula Players Theatre debut as the young woman whose arrival only adds to Moss and Avis’s confusion. Marinello’s stage credits include Chicago’s Porchlight Music Theatre and the Williamstown Theatre Festival. Her film credits include “The Premiere,” directed by Jon Silver. She is a recent graduate of Northwestern University, where she performed in “Arcadia,” “Into the Woods,” “Something Rotten,” “Songs for a New World” and the title character in “Violet.”
Among Blessing’s acclaimed plays are “Two Rooms,” “Patient A,” “Thief River,” and “Eleemosynary.” “A Walk in the Woods,” his two-character play about the relationship between two arms negotiators, was nominated for a Tony Award and a Pulitzer Prize. Blessing started writing “A Body of Water” after a divorce when he, too, questioned his memory and identity in the face of this personal turmoil. Blessing’s writings have garnered awards such as The American Theater Critics Circle Award, the L.A. Drama Critics Award, The Great American Play Award, The Humanitas Award and the George and Elisabeth Marton Award.
The Play’s the Thing is funded in part by a grant from the Wisconsin Arts Board with funds from the State of Wisconsin and the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as generous grants from Friends of Door County Libraries, Green Bay Packers Foundation, The Shubert Foundation and operating funds of Peninsula Players Theatre.
Peninsula Players Theatre is America’s Oldest Professional Resident Summer Theatre. The Play’s the Thing is part of the theatre’s winter outreach programming, presenting professional play readings for the public. Learn more about Peninsula Players Theatre and its 2025 season at www.peninsulaplayers.com.