The Brown/Trinity Rep MFA Programs present Timberlake Wertenbaker’s “The Love of the Nightingale” directed by Caitlin Ryan O’Connell (’16) opening December 4.  A modern adaptation of the Greek myth of Philomele, ‘Nightingale’ tells the story of two sisters who survive foreign lands, vast journeys and extremes of love and violence.

Unable to bear the loneliness of her foreign kingdom and arranged marriage to war hero King Tereus, Procne sends for her beloved sister Philomele. On the water from Athens to Thrace, Tereus lusts after young Philomele and will not be denied. “The Love of the Nightingale” is the haunting story of what happens when women refuse to be silenced.

Director Caitlin Ryan O’Connell first discovered “The Love of the Nightingale” in 2008 and says she was floored by its power. “As a woman trying to find her voice and figure out who I was as an artist, I was dying to work on it.” “The Love of the Nightingale,” she remarks, “poses questions about oppression, the female body and the human capacity for violence. It’s incredibly timely for our society as we confront great social unrest alongside incredible potential for change.”

Caitlin Ryan O’Connell is in her third and final year of Brown/Trinity Rep MFA program in Directing. While at Brown/Trinity Rep, Caitlin has directed Shakespeare’s “Cymbeline,” Will Eno’s “GNIT” and Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s “The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant.” She has worked with the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, LCT3, Clubbed Thumb, and is a former directing intern at Actors Theatre of Louisville. Caitlin trained with the National Theater Institute, St. Petersburg Theatre Arts Academy, The Royal Shakespeare Company, Simon McBurney’s Complicite, and the New York Neofuturists. She is a teaching artist with the International Theatre and Literacy Project and has worked the past two summers in Rwanda devising plays with Rwandan Youth. She is an alumna of Wellesley College.

“The Love of the Nightingale” runs Dec. 3-12 at the Pell Chafee Performance Center, 87 Empire Street, Providence. General admission is $15 with a discounted price of $10 for seniors at $7 for students. Tickets are on sale now at Trinity Rep’s box office, by calling 351-4242 or online at www.trinityrep.com.

Brown University/Trinity Rep MFA Programs provide a three-year professional training program for eighteen students under the auspices of an Ivy League University and Rhode Island’s Tony Award-winning theater company. Brown University’s Department of Theatre Arts and Performance Studies is internationally recognized for the quality of its faculty and instruction. Trinity Rep, with its deep tradition of resident artists, provides powerful artistic assets and creates a firm foundation for a new generation of theater artists.