A Play by David Lindsay-Abaire
with incidental music by Jason Robert Brown

June 23-25, 2005 at the Contemporary Arts Center

- Kimberly Akimbo wins two Cincinnati Enquirer Acclaim Awards

- Stars Sue Breving and Anthony Darnell nominated for Cincinnati Entertainment Awards

- Cincinnati Enquirer Review

- Cincinnati Enquirer Interview with star Sue Breving

- AroundCinci.com Feature Article

- Kimberly Akimbo Photo Album (requires Flash plugin)

NSC is proud to kick off its Summer 2005 Season with a sidesplitting hit comedy from one of the wackiest playwrights in the business, David Lindsay-Abaire (author of  Fuddy Meers  and Wonder of the World ).

Kimberly Akimbo  tells the story of Kimberly, an ordinary 16 year old girl with an extraordinary disease, causing her body to age 4 times faster than normal.  She's played by an actress in her 60s!  In this unbelievable story, Kimberly must contend with a family that gives new meaning to the word "dysfunctional," including a very pregnant hypochondriac mother (who spends the entire play bandaged due to carpal tunnel surgery), her lovable but often over-soused Gas station attendant father, her homeless and relentlessly inappropriate aunt (who has an addictive penchant for check-washing), and most frightening of all, the possibility of first love, who takes the unlikely form of Jeff, a fellow socially-declined classmate whose proclivities include Dungeons & Dragons and anagrams.

NSC has assembled a top-notch cast of local theatre veterans, skilled preprofessional actors and new-to-Cincinnati  pros.  In the tour-de-force title role, NSC is proud to welcome Sue Breving , a veteran of the Cincinnati Theatre scene, including Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival.  Starring opposite Ms. Breving as her teenage love interest is CCM Drama Student Anthony Darnell .  Rounding out the quirk-filled cast includes NSC's own Cincinnati Entertainment Award Nominee Allison Collins-Elfline , as well as Melissa Arleth and Keith Richards , two exceptional professional actors new to the area.

In addition to being the first theater in the region to present this hilarious play, New Stage Collective is also the first theatre company in the country to use the incidental music for Kimberly Akimbo that Tony Award-winning composer Jason Robert Brown ( Parade , Songs for a New World ) wrote for the original Off-Broadway production.  NSC has a history of courtship with Brown's work, having presented the regional premiere of his musical The Last Five Years (currently running at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park) during their 2003 inaugural season.

NSC's production of Kimberly Akimbo wouldn't be complete without a consummate production team of NSC vets, including Artistic Director Alan Patrick Kenny directing, Marybeth Kenny producing, and designers Pete Thornbury with lights and sound and Andrew Wehling with costumes.  Without a doubt, Kimberly Akimbo is a comic fireball guaranteed to make even the summer Cincinnati heat seem cool!