Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

DATES May 14th - June 1st

RUN TIME approximately 3 and 1/2 hours with intermissions

PRICE $20 -$73

PLAYWRIGHT Edward Albee

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

As the New York Journal-American states, “This is a big one.” Part of the American Theater Canon, this play is sure to have us on the edges of our seats. It’s like a train wreck, and you can’t look away! This Tony Award-winning play follows the unraveling marriage of Martha and George on the night of a university faculty party. After-party drinks with newly-wed guests Nick and Honey lead to deliciously uncomfortable moments as the younger couple get caught in the hosts crossfire and the two relationships threaten to implode. This edition of the script, edited by the late playwright, casts Black actors in all four roles, raising new questions about the American Dream and how rigid idealism can lead to our own destruction.

Industry Night
  • Wed, May 21, 7:00pm
On Sale 12noon day of show, in person.
Pay-What-You-Can
  • Wed, May 14, 7:00pm
  • Wed, May 21, 7:00pm
  • Thu, May 29, 2:00pm
On sale 12pm until show time, day of show, in person.
Discussions
  • Script Club @ Portland Public Library
    Sat, May 03, 1:30-2:30pm
  • Artistic Perspective
    Sun, May 18, post show
  • Curtain Call
  • Sun, May 25, post show

Edward Albee (1928-2016) - was born on March 12, 1928, and began writing plays 30 years later. His plays include The Zoo Story (1958), The American Dream (1960), Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1961-62, Tony Award), Tiny Alice (1964), A Delicate Balance (1966, Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award), All Over (1971), Seascape (1974, Pulitzer Prize), The Lady From Dubuque (1977-78), The Man Who Had Three Arms (1981), Finding The Sun (1982), Marriage Play (1986-87), Three Tall Women (1991, Pulitzer Prize), Fragments (1993), The Play About The Baby (1997), The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia? (2000, 2002, Tony Award), Occupant (2001), Peter and Jerry: Act 1, Homelife; Act 2, The Zoo Story (2004), and Me, Myself and I (2007). He was a member of the Dramatists Guild Council and President of The Edward F. Albee Foundation. Mr. Albee was awarded the Gold Medal in Drama from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters in 1980, and in 1996 received the Kennedy Center Honors and the National Medal of Arts. In 2005 he was awarded the special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement.

Not Quite Almost

DATES Apr. 2nd - May 4th

RUN TIME tbd

PRICE $25 - $78

PLAYWRIGHT John Cariani

Not Quite Almost

Playwright John Cariani is best known for his first play, Almost, Maine, which has become one of the most popular plays in the world. Almost, Maine has received nearly 6000 productions to date! He is back at Portland Stage for more Northern Maine stories. Part of our New Work program, Not Quite Almost (a working title) is likely to become another Maine classic! Near the Canadian Border the Perseid Meteor Showers are about to start, but the residents of a certain small town can’t decide if they’re a bad omen or a good luck charm. Not Quite Almost is an interconnected collection of short plays about young love, hope for the future, making wishes, and what it means to be truly understood. Meet a new cast of characters you’re sure to fall head over heels for.

Industry Night
  • Wed, Apr 09, 7:30pm
On Sale 12noon day of show, in person.
Pay-What-You-Can
  • Wed, Apr 02, 7:30pm
  • Sat, Apr 12, 7:30pm
  • Thu, Apr 17, 2:00pm
  • Thu, Apr 24, 2:00pm
  • Thu, May 01, 2:00pm
On sale 12pm until show time, day of show, in person..
Discussions
  • Script Club @ Portland Public Library
    Sat, Mar 22, 1:30-2:30pm
  • Artistic Perspective
    Sun, Apr 06, post show
  • Curtain Call
    Sun, Apr 13, post show

John Cariani - is an actor and a playwright. He grew up in rural northern Maine and attended Amherst College where he majored in history, with a concentration in Black Studies. He planned to be a history teacher, but a last-minute detour landed him an acting internship at a regional theater, and he became an actor. John has spent his career performing in plays and musicals on and off-Broadway and at regional theaters across the country. He has been nominated for a Tony Award, two Grammy Awards, and has won an Outer Critics Circle Award. Well known for his film and TV work, John has had recurring roles on television shows like Law & Order and Numb3rs, and he has shared the big screen with Christopher Walken, Gina Rodriguez, and Robert de Niro. As a playwright, John is best known for his first play, Almost, Maine, which has become one of the most popular plays in the world. It has received nearly 6000 productions to date and has been translated into over a dozen languages. Over the past decade, it has become the most frequently produced play in high schools, outpacing classics like A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Our Town. John’s other plays have been produced over 500 times around the world and have been translated into several languages. As an artist, John is passionate about making room for the people who made him what he is: rural Americans. Rural Americans are woefully underrepresented in contemporary theater. When they do appear on stage, they are portrayed as sad, addicted, and uneducated people. But they are so much more than that. John’s newest plays explore the hopeful, joyful parts of hardscrabble lives. And they take a loving look at what it is to grow up queer—like he did—in rural America.

Madeleines

DATES Mar. 5th - Mar. 23rd

RUN TIME tbd

PRICE $20 - $73

PLAYWRIGHT Bess Welden

Madeleines

Some family secrets are hard to swallow! Here is a play from a Maine writer, a new play that is already a multi-award winner and sure to win many more. Part of Portland Stage’s ongoing commitment to Maine-made theater and producing new work, this heartfelt play by Bess Welden tells the story of Debra and Jennifer, two sisters processing the death of their mother, a professional baker. When a secret hidden among their mother’s recipes is discovered, the siblings fracture, and their understanding of family is put to the test. A play about sweets, familial rivalry, and learning to let go, Welden’s work asks us to examine how, and what, we forgive.

Bess Welden - is a theater maker living and creating in her adopted home state of Maine. She spent 2022 as a National Arts Strategies Creative Community Fellow for her work at the intersection of art-making and social change. She served as the 2024 Playwright-In-Residence for the Maine Playwrights Festival and recently created a commission for the Lives Eliminated, Dreams Illuminated project, an interdisciplinary visual art, music, and theater exhibition honoring girls and young women who died in the Holocaust. She is the Founder/Core Artist of Death Wings Project (www.deathwingsproject.org).

Bess’ play Madeleines won the 2022 National Jewish Playwriting Contest and was a finalist for the Bay Area Playwrights Festival. Madeleines has been developed in New York City with Jewish Plays Project, in Palo Alto with TheaterWorks Silicon Valley, in Indiana with the Jewish Theatre of Bloomington, in West Hartford, CT with Playhouse on Park, and with Portland Stage as part of the Little Festival of the Unexpected. Madeleines will make its world premiere at Portland Stage in 2025.

Her play with songs, Death Wings, won the 2020 Maine State prize of the Clauder Competition for New England Playwrights and was produced in Maine by Dramatic Repertory Company, The Theater Project, and Meetinghouse Arts with major support from the New England Foundation for the Arts and the Maine Arts Commission. Death Wings was a 2020 semi-finalist for the prestigious O’Neill New Play Conference and was workshopped with Fresh Ink Theatre at Boston Center for the Arts.

Her play Refuge Malja, winner of the Tel Aviv Jewish Plays Contest and a finalist in the 2020 National Jewish Playwriting Contest, premiered on Portland Stage’s mainstage. Refuge Malja and Madeleines were both nominated for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. Monologues from Death Wings and Madeleines are featured in The 2021 and 2024 Best Stage Monologues for Women published by Smith & Kraus.

Her short plays Celebrity Exit and All I Ever Wanted Was to Play were produced by Colby College’s Department of Performance, Theater, Dance. Mergirl Saves the Waves, Bess’ feminist, environmentalist adaptation of The Little Mermaid, was developed with support from the Maine Arts Commission and staged by A Company of Girls at the Children’s Museum and Theatre of Maine. Her solo comedies The Passion of the Hausfrau and Big Mouth Thunder Thighs premiered in Portland Stage’s Studio Theater, and her collaborative theater performance project with live music and illustration, Legbala is a River, premiered at Mayo Street Arts. She participated as an invited writer at the National Winter Playwrights Retreat (HBMG Foundation) and with Company One Theatre’s PlayLab Unit in Boston. You can hear her 15-minute audio rom-coms “What I Miss Most,” “Under My Skin,” “Island Time” on the Meet Cute Podcast (www.meetcute.com).

Murder on the Links

DATES Jan. 29th - Feb. 23rd

RUN TIME approximately 2 hours 15 minutes including intermission

PRICE $25 - $78

PLAYWRIGHT by Steven Dietz, from the novel by Agatha Christie

Murder on the Links

This hilarious adaptation of Agatha Christie’s murder mystery takes audiences on an exciting romp through Merlinville-Sur-Mer, France, to find the killer of a rich businessman. Follow famous detective Hercule Poirot as he puts the puzzle pieces together in this classic whodunnit!

Industry Night
  • Wed, Feb 05, 7:30pm
On Sale 12noon day of show, in person.
Pay-What-You-Can
  • Wed, Jan 29, 7:30pm
  • Sat, Feb 8, 8:00pm
  • Thu, Feb 13, 2:00pm
  • Thu, Feb 20, 2:00pm
On sale 12pm until show time, day of show, in person.
Discussions
  • Script Club @ Portland Public Library
    Sat, Jan 18, 1:30-2:30pm
  • Artistic Perspective
    Sun, Feb 02, post show
  • Curtain Call
    Sun, Feb 09, post show

Steven Dietz - His forty-plus plays and adaptations have been seen at over one hundred regional theaters, as well as Off-Broadway and in twenty-five countries internationally. Dietz has been named one of the “20 Most-Produced Playwrights in America” by American Theatre Magazine on multiple occasions. Recent premieres include Gaslight, adapted from Patrick Hamilton; Murder on the Links, adapted from Agatha Christie; and the serio-comic thriller, How a Boy Falls (Joseph Jefferson nomination for Best New Play). Dietz’s widely-produced play, Shooting Star, was adapted into the Meg Ryan movie, “What Happens Later” by Dietz, Ryan, and Kirk Lynn. Awards include the American Theatre Critics Association’s Steinberg New Play Citation for Bloomsday; Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays Award for Fiction and Still Life with Iris; PEN USA Award in Drama for Lonely Planet; and an Edgar Award® from the Mystery Writers of America for Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure. Dietz taught in the MFA Playwriting and Directing program at UT/Austin for twelve years, and continues to regularly conduct master classes in playwriting, directing, story-making, and collaboration across the US. Dietz and his wife, playwright Allison Gregory, divide their time between Seattle and Austin.

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The Snow Queen

DATES Nov. 29th - Dec. 24th

RUN TIME Approximately 2 hours including 1 intermission

PRICE $25 - $70

ADAPTED BY Portland Stage from a Hans Christian Anderson fairytale with music by Hans Indigo Spencer

MUSIC & LYRICS Music by Hans Indigo Spencer


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The Snow Queen

A beautiful story to be enjoyed by the whole family! A story of friendship and bravery with magic and a visually striking setting, The Snow Queen takes us through many seasons on a hero’s journey. Kai and Gerda have been best friends their whole lives, but when a shard of a magic mirror gets caught in Kai’s eye, he sees the world in a different light. He can no longer see the good in the world around him, so when the glorious and sparkling Snow Queen arrives, Kai is mesmerized. He hitches his sled to her sleigh, and vanishes and our adventure begins. Gerda strikes out to rescue Kai making many new friends and rivals along the way. But will she find the Snow Queen’s palace in time? The Snow Queen is a timeless play sure to delight everyone this holiday season.

Industry Night
  • Thu, Dec 19, 7:00pm
On Sale 12noon day of show, in person.
Pay-What-You-Can
  • Sun, Dec 1, 12:00pm
  • Fri, Dec 6,7:00pm
On sale 12pm until show time, day of show, in person.

Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875) - was a Danish writer, poet, and playwright, best known as the author of some of the world’s most widely read fairytales. Born into poverty in Odense, Denmark, Andersen began his career as an aspiring actor, but turned to writing while at the University of Copenhagen. Although he first achieved literary recognition in the 1830s for his plays and novels, it was his fairytales that eventually made him an international literary figure. Andersen was an innovator in children’s fiction, writing most of his tales in a spoken rather than literary idiom, and depicting suffering and unhappy endings while still staying connected to a child’s perspective. Among the best-known of his over 150 children’s stories are The Princess and the Pea (1835), The Little Mermaid (1836), The Emperor’s New Clothes (1837), The Ugly Duckling (1844), and The Little Match Girl (1848). Andersen’s story The Snow Queen (Sneedronningen, in Danish) was first published in 1845 in his fourth collection of Eventyr (or Tales). One of Andersen’s longest stories, it is also regarded by some critics as his masterpiece, and has remained one of his most popular tales over the years.

Kai Thomas Ian Campbell

Inventor/Crow Roland Ruiz *

Snow Queen Breezy Leigh *

Princess/Robber Girl Shannon Campbell

Storyteller/Ba the Reindeer Lauren Jeanne Thomas

Gerda Laura Darrell *

* Member of Actors Equity Association

** Member United Scenic Artists

Director Anita Stewart

Associate Director Todd Brian Backus

Scenic Designer Anita Stewart **

Costume Coordinator Kathleen Payton Brown

Lighting Designer Bryron Wynn **

Sound Designer Seth Asa Sengel

Stage Manager Myles C. Hatch *

Asst. Stage Manager Meg Lydon *

Anita Stewart

Todd Brian Backus

Thomas Ian Campbell

Roland Ruiz (member AEA)

Breezy Leigh (member AEA)

Shannon Campbell

Lauren Jeanne Thomas (member AEA)

Laura Darrell (member AEA)

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Angels in America Part 2: Perestroika

DATES Oct. 23rd - Nov. 10th

RUN TIME approximately 3 hours and 15 minutes with 2 intermissions

PRICE $20 - $73

PLAYWRIGHT Tony Kushner

Angels in America Part 2: Perestroika

One of America’s most important theatrical experiences, this is the Tony Award-winning conclusion to Tony Kushner’s gay fantasia on national themes. Written with a boldness rarely seen in theater, this play is transcendent. Angels in America: Part Two: Perestroika takes us through layers of human experience, making us think and feel, showing us the truth in moments of fantasy. Told through the intertwined lives of six New Yorkers, this story packs a punch. Confronting politics, spirituality, and sexuality with sharp humor and a sage observational eye, this great American epic shows us how community and connection can be forged in even the darkest of times.

Tickets on Sale Now

Industry Night
  • Wed, Oct 30, 7:00pm
On Sale 12noon day of show, in person.

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  • Wed, Nov 6. 7:00pm
Purchase tickets HERE or
by phone 207-774-0465
Pay-What-You-Can
  • Wed, Oct 23, 7:00pm
  • Wed, Oct 30, 7:00pm
  • Thu, Nov 7, 2:00pm
On sale 12pm until show time, day of show, in person.
Discussions
  • Script Club @ Portland Public Library
    Sat, Oct 12, 1:30-2:30pm
  • Artistic Perspective
    Sun, Oct 27, post show
  • Curtain Call
    Sun, Nov 03, post show
  • Talk w/ Rev. Norman Allen of First Parish
    Sat, Nov 09, post show

Tony Kushner - Born in New York City in 1956, and raised in Lake Charles, Louisiana, Tony Kushner is best known for his two-part epic, Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes. His other plays include A Bright Room Called Day, Slavs!, Hydrotaphia, Homebody/Kabul, and Caroline, Or Change, the musical for which he wrote book and lyrics, with music by composer Jeanine Tesori. Kushner has translated and adapted Pierre Corneille’s The Illusion, S.Y. Ansky’s The Dybbuk, Bertolt Brecht’s The Good Person of Sezuan and Mother Courage and her Children, and the English-language libretto for the children’s opera Brundibár by Hans Krasa. He wrote the screenplays for Mike Nichols’ film of Angels in America and Steven Spielberg’s Munich. In 2012 he wrote the screenplay for Spielberg’s movie Lincoln. His books include But the Giraffe: A Curtain Raising and Brundibar: The Libretto, with illustrations by Maurice Sendak; The Art of Maurice Sendak: 1980 to the Present; and Wrestling with Zion: Progressive Jewish-American Responses to the Palestinian/Israeli Conflict, co-edited with Alisa Solomon. His recent work includes a collection of one-act plays entitled Tiny Kushner, and The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures. Kushner is the recipient of a Pulitzer Prize for Drama, an Emmy Award, two Tony Awards, three Obie Awards, an Arts Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a PEN/Laura Pels Award, a Spirit of Justice Award from the Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders, a Cultural Achievement Award from The National Foundation for Jewish Culture, a Chicago Tribune Literary Prize for lifetime achievement, and the 2012 National Medal of Arts, among many others. In September 2008, Tony Kushner became the first recipient of the Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award, the largest theater award in the US. He is the subject of a documentary film, Wrestling with Angels: Playwright Tony Kushner, made by the Oscar-winning filmmaker Freida Lee Mock. He lives in Manhattan with his husband, Mark Harris.

Prior Robbie Harrison

Louis Nate Stephenson

Belize Ashanti Dwight Williams

Joseph Joseph Bearor

Harper Michela Micalizio

Hannah Denise Poirier

Roy Paul Haley

The Angel Casey Turner

Co-Director Keith Powell Beyland

Co-Director Peter Brown

Scenic Designer Anita Stewart **

Costumer Designer Emily White **

Lighting Designer SeifAllah Salotto-Cristobal **

Sound Designer Seth Asa Sengel

Stage Manager Meg Lydon *

__________

* Member, Actors' Equity Association

** Member, United Scenic Artists

Keith Powell Beyland

Peter Brown

Robbie Harrison

Nate Stephenson

Ashanti Dwight Williams

Joseph Bearor

Michela Micalizio

Denise Poirier

Paul Haley

Casey Turner

Conscience

DATES Sept. 25th - Oct. 13th

RUN TIME Approximately 2 hours, including 1 intermission

PRICE $20 - $73

PLAYWRIGHT Joe DiPietro

Conscience

Conscience takes us back to a time when Maine senators were the heart of the United States Senate. This is the story of Maine Senator Margaret Chase Smith, a trailblazer of Maine and national politics whose story is gripping, real, and critical to the Maine cultural identity. This play is a deep look into her gripping political rivalry with Wisconsin Senator Joe McCarthy. As the two begin to form a tense friendship that becomes an unlikely alliance, Senator Smith must choose between her political success, (including a potential Vice Presidential nomination), and her own conscience, culminating in the delivery of a potentially disastrous speech turned historic on the Senate floor, her Declaration of Conscience.

Joe DiPietro has won two Tony Awards, a Drama Desk Award and three Outer Critics Circle Awards. His newest musical, Sinatra recently premiered at Birmingham Rep and is bound for Broadway, as is his musical, What's New, Pussycat, featuring the hits of Tom Jones, which also premiered at Birmingham Rep. Upcoming premieres include the murder mystery, An  Old-Fashioned Family Murder at NTR in Kansas City, and the musical 3 Summers of Lincoln, starring Brian Stokes Mitchell, which will premiere next season at LaJolla Playhouse. His adaptation of Sinclair Lewis' novel, Babbitt, starring Matthew Broderick, will open this fall at The Shakespeare Company DC, having recently debuted to critical acclaim at LaJolla Playhouse.

Other shows include Memphis (2010 Tony Award for Best Musical); Nice Work If You Can Get It (which starred Matthew Broderick & Kelli O'Hara and received 10 Tony nominations); Diana (Netflix); The Toxic Avenger (OCC Award - Best off-Broadway Musical); Ernest Shackleton Loves Me (Off-Broadway Alliance Award - Best Musical); I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change (the longest-running musical revue in off-Broadway history); as well as the much-produced comedies Clever Little Lies and Over the River and Through the Woods, among others. His La Ronde riff, F**king Men, is the longest-running fringe show in London history and is being revived there in the spring.

Margaret Chase Smith Kate Udall *

Senator Joe McCarthy Liam Craig *

William Lewis, Jr. John Maddaloni *

Jean Kerr Isabelle Van Vleet *

* Member, Actors' Equity Association

** Member, United Scenic Artists

Director Lisa DiFranza

Scenic Designer Germán Cárdenas Alaminos

Costume Designer Julie McMurry

Lighting Designer Marie Yokoyama **

Sound Designer Seth Asa Sengel

Stage Manager Myles C. Hatch *

Lisa DiFranza

Kate Udall (member AEA)

Liam Craig (member AEA)

John Maddaloni (member AEA)

Isabelle Van Vleet (member AEA)

The smash hit is coming back!

The Play That Goes Wrong Summer ’24

DATES Aug. 14 - Sept. 8

RUN TIME approximately 2 hours, including one intermission

PRICE $20.00 - $72.00

PLAYWRIGHT Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer & Henry Shields

DIRECTOR Kevin R. Free

The Play That Goes Wrong Summer ’24

It’s opening night for the Cornley Drama Society’s production of The Murder at Haversham Manor and the cast wants everything to go right, but with a missing dog, a set that won’t hold together, and actors going up on their lines… it seems like the play might just go wrong.

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  • Wed, Aug, 21, 7:30pm
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Pay-What-You-Can
  • Wed, Aug 14, 7:30pm
  • Thu, Aug 22, 2:00pm
  • Sat, Aug 24, 7:30pm
  • Thu, Aug 29, 2:00pm
  • Sat, Aug 31, 2:00pm
  • Thu, Sep 05 2:00pm
  • Fri, Sep 06, 7:30pm
  • Sat, Sep 07. 7:30pm
On sale 12pm until show time, day of show, in person.

Jonathan Sayer, and Henry Shields

Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer, and Henry Shields met while training at The London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA). All core members of Mischief Theatre, they had already worked in comedy together for several years before they started out as a writing team. The three’s first piece was The Play That Goes Wrong (winner – Best New Comedy – Olivier Awards and What’s On Stage Awards). The show started out on the London and Edinburgh fringe before touring the UK and internationally and then returning to the West End in September 2014, where it is still running. It's also playing on Broadway and headed out on a US tour in 2018 and has been performed in over 20 other countries around the world. Peter Pan Goes Wrong was the trio’s second piece, opening in November 2014 for a UK tour before a hugely successful West End season in Christmas 2015. Henry, Henry, and Jonathan recently adapted the script of Peter Pan Goes Wrong for the BBC, which was filmed with the original West End cast and broadcast to rave reviews on New Year’s Eve. They were invited back to wreak more havoc at the BBC in 2017 with Christmas Carol Goes Wrong on BBC1. The Comedy About A Bank Robbery marks their third writing project as a trio and earned them another Olivier Nomination. @mischiefcomedy and mischieftheatre.co.uk

Chris Ross Cowan *

Jonathan Khalil LeSaldo *

Robert Nicholas Mongiardo-Cooper *

Dennis Max Samuels *

Sandra Laura Darrell *

Max Dominic F. Russo *

Annie Lipica Shah *

Trevor J.Stephen Brantley *

* Member, Actors' Equity Association

Director Kevin R. Free

Scenic Designer Anita Stewart **

Costume Designer Patrice Trower

Lighting Designer Weston Wilkerson **

Sound Designer Seth Asa Sengel

Stage Manager Myles C. Hatch *

Physical Comedy Coordinator Michael Trautman

Intimacy Coordinator Hollie Pryor

Fight Choreographer Michael Dix Thomas

** Member, United Scenic Artists

Kevin R. Free

Ross Cowan (member AEA)

Khalil LeSaldo (member AEA)

Nicholas Mongiardo-Cooper (member AEA)

Max Samuels (member AEA)

Laura Darrell (member AEA)

Dominic F. Russo (member AEA)

Lipica Shah (member AEA)

J.Stephen Brantley (member AEA)

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