Marty (Heather Shepardson) and James (Ray Martin) star in "Circle Mirror Transformation." Baker's play debuted in 2009 and won the Obie Award for best new American play. I would recommend it, I just this the flick is a bigger achievement personally, so maybe read that one first. Smith reads from a script and directly acknowledges and addresses the audience; Crouch's character desperately constructs a kind of stage realism, dragging on props to support his fictional world. "Circle Mirror Transformation" befits a university. The plays humor keeps it entertaining and holds at bay what could be more maudlin moments. A melody does surface as the players distinctively create and define their characters in solo and joint work. The characters were well built on each other.However, there was a lot listed that I don't know how it came across on stage and if I would have liked it as much. The ending makes it work for me. She carefully watches each improvised moment she sets up among her pupils, positioning herself for optimal observation in a contrived, artistic pose, never explaining why shes putting them through these emotional paces and never articulating what exactly theyve done well or poorly. However, we have dozens of other monologues that you can read. just like with how THE ALIENS seems like a precursor to THE FLICK, this definitely feels like a sadder precursor to THE ANTIPODES but with a clearer setting and a grounding in realism that seems similar to THE ALIENS. Lighting Designer Weili Shi creates considerable visual drama with spots, floods, and frame illumination for the large mirrors in the set to compensate for the spare staging. Circle Mirror Transformation is a study of organisms in their natural habitat. She asks the students to interview one another and then perform the narratives they collect, stories that Baker uses to structure the plays cumulative revelations.