MARLBORO- The theater program at Marlboro College will be performing two one-act plays by Caryl Churchill on Friday and Saturday, November 18 and 19, at 8 pm, in Whittemore Theater. These performances are free and open to the public.

The two productions, “Far Away” and “A Number,” will feature Marlboro student actors Kirsten Wiking, Courtney Varga, Luc Rosenthal, Evan Lamb, and Luke Benning. The plays are directed by visiting professor Anna Bean, who also led the production of “The Clean House” at Marlboro last fall.

Acclaimed English playwright Churchill wrote these plays in the past decade, and they explore contemporary themes of feminism, identity, and sexual politics. “Far Away,” takes place in a post–apocalyptic world and follows four characters as they meander through a natural world at war with itself. The second play, “A Number,” explores themes of human cloning and identity, centering around a father and his sons, two of whom are clones of his first.

Bean currently teaches at the Berkshire Arts & Technology Charter Public School in Adams, MA, and at the Community College of Vermont in Bennington, in addition to being a visiting theater director at Marlboro College. Bean’s work focuses on African-American drama and performance in the 19th and 20th centuries.