<DIV><p>"An original voice, appealing quirkiness, and an astute sense of what makes people tick."?<I>Daily News</I> (New York)</p><p>"There is something distinctly Chekhovian in the way her writing accrues weight and meaning simply through compassionate, truthful observation."?<I>The New York Times</I></p><p>With her quartet of plays set in small-town Vermont, twenty-nine-year-old Annie Baker is making a big impact on the American theater. <I>Circle Mirror Transformation</I>, which takes place in a summer acting class and alternates between theater exercises and moments between classmates, shares the 2010 OBIE Award for Best Play with <I>The Aliens</I>, Baker's "gentle and extraordinarily beautiful new play" (<I>The New York Times</I>) that explores weighty topics of love and death through the easy banter of the slackers behind the local coffee shop. Also included in <I>The Vermont Plays</I> is <I>Body Awareness</I>, set during Body Awareness Week at the local college, and <I>Nocturama</I>, in which a twenty-six-year-old Brooklynite returns to live with his mom and video game obsessed stepfather.</p><p><B>Annie Baker</B>'s plays include <I>Body Awareness</I>, <I>Circle Mirror Transformation</I>, <I>The Aliens</I>, <I>The End of the Middle Ages</I>, and <I>Nocturama</I>. Her honors include a New York Drama Critics Circle Special Citation, a Susan Smith Blackburn Prize nomination, and a Time Warner Storytelling Fellowship.</p></DIV>