Silver Spring Stage presents the enchanting and delightful sliced of Americana Morning’s at Seven by Paul Osborn, directed by Judie Chaimson and Käthe Park and produced by Käthe Park, where four older sisters have lived next to each other for most of their lives. One son after a long engagement attempts to finally tie the knot. The play lovingly unlocks a window into their hopes, disappointments and rejuvenated love. Morning’s at Seven will run weekends May 18 to June 10, 2007.

Silver Spring Stage is located in the Woodmoor Shopping Center, lower level (next to the CVS) at Colesville Road and University Boulevard. Ticket prices range from $13 to $18. Performances are Friday and Saturday at 8:00 PM and Sunday matinees on June 3 and June 10 at 2:00 PM. Tickets can be purchased at www.ssstage.org. Information is also available by calling (301) 593-6036.

Paul Osborn, the unassuming and aspiring Hoosier who started writing to escape Indiana and later became successful as an adaptor of books into screenplays, penned a comedy of four plain sisters into an indelible portrait of America. Harold Clurman dubbed the play “one of the best American comedies.” Born and raised in Evansville, Indiana, Osborn never intended to be a writer. In his words, “I suppose I was a rebel in the sense that I wanted out of the environment. A lot of my old friends back there were working in hardware stores or banks, and that just wasn’t for me. It wasn’t theater itself that gripped me at first; it was the need to get away from a life which sort of bored me. Playwriting seemed like a way out.” He had two successes on Broadway The Vinegar Tree and On Borrowed Time before Morning’s at Seven, which, though directed by Joshua Logan and starring Dorothy Gish, flopped after 44 performances. Osborn went off to Hollywood and fame writing adaptations of film hits East of Eden, South Pacific, The Yearling and Sayonara. Despite that acclaim and two Academy Award nominations, it was his original work that he strived to be recognized. Morning’s at Seven got its due with two prominent revivals in 1980 and 2002, the first won the play a Tony Award for Best Revival. Why Morning’s at Seven endures is its honest depiction of an American family with all its charm and frailties. Four elderly sisters who have lived so closely together and yet often feel alone. They hold grudges and squabble, but they know that they need each other to complete themselves. And in these truly candid American lives, audiences will enjoy and maybe even find something of their own.

Morning’s at Seven reveals the relationship between four elderly sisters, three married, one not, who all live next door to each other and have all their lives. This close-knit clan of mid-westerners is endlessly snooping into each other's trivial affairs, and at the same time, looking after one another as only family will do. The play deals with ramifications within the family when two of four sisters begin questioning their lives and decide to change a few things before it’s too late. The family angst begins to be revealed when the husband, Carl (Larry Simmons) of one of the sisters, Ida (Pat Douglass), gets one of his brooding spells. It’s an inconvenient moment as their son Homer (Roman S. Gusso) is bringing his fiancée of 12 years Myrtle (Roselie Vasquez-Yetter) to the house for the first time. Carl’s spell uncovers more crises percolating in the family. Next door live Cora (Carol Randolph), and her husband, Theodore, aka Thor (Ed Silverstein), who share their home with Amy (Toni Carmine), the unmarried sister of Ida and Cora. Cora wants time alone for herself and her husband in their twilight years. She envies Esther (Kathe Mack), the oldest of the sisters, who lives a few blocks away with her husband, David (Roger MacDonald), an academic who disdains his wife's family. As the awkwardness escalates, Myrtle, riddled with anxiety, shares a secret with Homer that moves him to action. Audiences will smile and laugh in discovering how all the crises get humorously resolved.

The production team includes Michelle Brooks (Stage Manager), John Buckley (Set Construction), and Roman S. Gusso (Sound Design).

Morning’s at Seven is presented by special arrangement with Samuel French.