Joe Gifford

TheatreWorks Silicon Valley closes its 2015/2016 season with the explosive new dramatic comedy, The Velocity of Autumn. This tender-hearted play by Eric Coble centers on an elderly artist locked in a volatile showdown with her family over where she'll spend her remaining years. In a wry, spirited quest to 'not go gently' into a retirement home, Alexandra barricades herself in her brownstone with enough homemade Molotov cocktails to blow the entire block sky-high as she negotiates the terms of her future with a long-estranged son who has battles of his own. The Velocity of Autumn was declared 'Wickedly funny and wonderfully touching' by Broadway World and 'A tale that could resonate with a broad range of audiences as it touches on a sobering dilemma faced by families every day' by Variety. This production will be directed by Giovanna Sardelli with performances June 1-June 26 (press opening: June 4) at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, 500 Castro St., Mountain View. For tickets ($19-$80) and information the public may visit www.TheatreWorks.org or call (650) 463-1960.

TheatreWorks, the nationally acclaimed theatre of Silicon Valley, has announced the appointment of Giovanna Sardelli to the position of Director of New Works. Sardelli brings stellar national directing credits and close ties with many of today's hottest rising playwrights to the company, which has established itself as a leader in cultivating and producing new works. No stranger to TheatreWorks, Sardelli helmed the company's 2013 production of Somewhere by rising star Matthew Lopez, as well as the TheatreWorks' 2011World Premiere of Pulitzer Prize-nominee Rajiv Joseph's The North Pool, named by the San Francisco Chronicle as one of that year's ten best productions in the Bay Area.