Theater at the cineplex

From Phedre to Forever Plaid, Fugobi Broadway 3-D plans to bring theater events to the big screen (for about $20), on the model of the Met Opera broadcasts, as Gloria Goodale reports in the CSM.
See also the 1/15/09 post on this blog, "NT broadcasts."

[ album cover from musicalheaven.com ]

review of *The Producers*

Hotsy-Totsy Nazis

Accountants in green eyeshades lean over ledgers, chanting wearily that they're "unhappy, unhappy ... very very very unhappy." Soon they're joined by one of their own, a man with a briefcase named Leopold Bloom, bullied by his boss and resigned to a dull bookkeeping life. His dream is to be a Broadway producer — the glitz! the showgirls! — but he lacks nerve.
In one of the highlights of the Coeur d’Alene Summer Theater production of The Producers, Matt Wade makes Leo the kind of guy who stumbles into a room, then yelps at the sight of the door he just closed behind himself. But soon, security blanket and all, Leo gets himself ensnared in enough fraud to make himself fabulously rich: He gets to act bossy, he gets to produce a play, he gets the girl.
And that’s why The Producers resonates with audiences. Despite the Borscht Belt one-liners, the hackneyed situations, the stereotypes, Mel Brooks’ gay fantasia on anti-Nazi themes is still about a couple of guys who just want to realize their dreams. (Well, more than a couple of guys, some of whom have their Fuhrer-worshipping quirks.)
The fun is in the outrageousness: Who wouldn’t like to dupe some oddballs, make a killing and toddle off to Rio?
In the CdA version (through July 18), director and choreographer Tralen Doler knows how to “Keep It Gay” and “Flaunt It” while convincing everyone concerned that “We Can Do It.” For example, Doler supervises a busy "King of Broadway" number, lead producer Max Bialystock's lament for the clout he once had. By the end, a swirling crowd of winos, nuns and hookers are all bowing down to a little guy preening on a pretzel cart. Doler makes clever use of side-stage projections, keeps the crowd scenes bustling, and even designs dance duets that go up, across and over a casting couch — keeping the energy flowing with dances and jokes that cover scene changes. (Directors enamored of momentum-killing blackouts, take note.)
Jennifer Davis's odd Swedish ululations as Ulla only worsened the lack of clarity in the Shuler sound system — a lot of her one-liners were garbled. Davis fills Ulla’s dance requirements, though: She’s one flexible bombshell.
As Franz Liebkind, the Nazi nutcase who has written a musical tribute to Adolf Elizabeth Hitler — a sure-fire flop on Broadway — Patrick Treadway sports some hot-pants lederhosen, his knobby knees protruding above Nazi knee socks. Treadway could afford to go even more over the top while “In Old Bavaria,” but his rapid-fire hand-claps in “Der Guten Tag Hop-Clop” were hilarious.
Jerry Christakos steals scenes as the self-aggrandizing and very swish director chosen by Max and Leo to shepherd their flop. Whether he’s in silver-lamé drag or military khakis, watch Christakos’ mannerisms: fluttering hands of indecision, facial tics gauging how much the audience adores him, arms draped in L-shapes of self-hugging. He tap-dances with Stalin, goose-steps in the chorus line, and generally follows Charlie Chaplin’s technique (in The Great Dictator) of making fascists look foolish.
As the director’s gofer, Steven Dahlke executes an effete hip-swiveling sashay that’s exaggerated and therefore funny. (Subtlety’s not valued in this show. What’s valued is finding new ways to make caricatures even more outlandish.)
Max Mendez’s 17-piece orchestra was especially impressive in show-off passages like the first-act finale and, of course, that Las Vegas-style tribute to the world’s greatest entertainer, “Springtime for Hitler.”
That number provides one way to hack Hitler down to size. But then The Producers makes fun of everybody, not excluding Jews and little old ladies. And the satire is scattershot for a reason: In Mel Brooks Land, you might as well chase your dreams, because everybody else is too crazy to chase after theirs.

[ photo by Young Kwak for The Inlander: Eric Hadley as Max Bialystock, Jennifer Davis as Ulla, and Matt Wade as Leo Bloom in Tralen Doler's production of Mel Brooks' The Producers at Coeur d'Alene Summer Theater, July 2009 ]


** Deleted passages (like the extras on a DVD, only less entertaining):

Wade and Davis waltz right up and over the casting couch, leading to suggestions of nookie punctuated by a delightful pop-up-head routine.

Wade displays here the best physical comedy that he has offered in two seasons at CdA: tongue out, chin lowered, security blanket nestled up against his cheek, his arm, his forehead. He doesn’t speak, he neighs — and when he gets over-excited, he’s a regular hoppy-floppy Energizer Bunny.
He invents unexpected and cutesy ways of cuddling up wif his little blankie (so he’s got “childlike” covered) and he’s got out-of-control happy feet when Ulla says says she’ll shack up with him (so he’s got “horny” covered too). When the two of them return from Rio, Wade parties in an ice cream suit, cavorting with Mardi Gras gyrations that are matched only by Davis’s hyper-speed shoulder-and-bosom shimmies.

A couple of numbers early in Act Two seem old-fashioned and tame in the context of Brooks’ frenzy. “That Face,” the boys’ tribute to Ulla’s hotsy-totsy-ness, seems like a simple love song, and the “’Break a leg,’ not ‘Good luck’” bit feels like a segment Brooks had to add in between the auditions and the big-number extravaganza of “Springtime for Hitler.”

As Max, Eric Hadley projects bulldog humor. Sometimes the huffing and puffing — or the Nathan Lane mannerisms — show through, but Hadley’s a likeable weasel. His Bialystock whines a lot, but from motives of desperation, not swindling. A jaw-dropping highlight of this show arrives late in Act Two, when Hadley, isolated in a jail cell, performs the rapid-fire plot summarizing in “Betrayed” so well and so precisely that it’s funny/awesome at all once.

The old-ladies-with-walkers drill team was less extensive and precise than in other productions, but compensation arrived in the first-act finale, which had everyone expressing their desires with sonic flair.

This time around, I admired Brooks’ ingenuity with the ol’ rule about how a show’s second song needs to be an “I Want” song. “King of Broadway” establishes that Max was up, now down, and wants to be back up again in the pecking order of Broadway producers. But then we get the light bulb/temptation scene (Leo makes a random observation, Max gets his Big Idea, then recruits a reluctant Leo into his scheme) — followed by Leo’s second thoughts, necessitating a second “I Want” song, with Leo realizing that he’s willing to risk living in jail because he’s already living in the jail of the accounting firm.

2009-10 in Pac NW theater

Spokane Civic Theater spokanecivictheatre.com
Endowment Dinner at Northern Quest, July 17
The Pirates of Penzance, Sept 25-Oct 25, dir. Yvonne A.K. Johnson
String of Pearls, Oct 23-Nov. 15, dir. Susan Hardie
Chess (in concert), Oct. 30-31, dir. Yvonne A.K. Johnson
A Tuna Christmas, Nov. 20-Dec 19, dir. Andrew Ware Lewis
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, Nov 28-Dec 20
Jan 15-Feb 6, 2010 Curtains, dir. Troy Nickerson
Jan 29-Feb 21, 2010 Sylvia, dir. Brooke Kiener
Feb 26-March 21, 2010 Steel Magnolias, dir. George Green
March 19-April 11, 2010 The Spitfire Grill, dir. Marianne McLaughlin
April 9-25, 2010 Escanaba in da Moonlight, dir. Troy Nickerson
April 30-May 23, 2010 Lips Together, Teeth Apart, dir. Wes Deitrick
May 21-June 20, 2010 Annie, Get Your Gun, dir. Yvonne A.K. Johnson

Coeur d’Alene Summer Theater cdasummertheatre.com
July 3-18 The Producers
July 23-Aug 2 Dames at Sea
Aug 8-22 Miss Saigon
Nuncrackers Dec 18-20

Idaho Repertory Theater, Moscow idahorep.org
through Aug. 8:
Unnecessary Farce, Some Enchanted Evening, CHAPS, High School Musical, Romeo and Juliet

Spokane Interplayers Ensemble interplayers.com
??

Lake City Playhouse lakecityplayhouse.org
I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change (musical version, dir. Maria Caprile)
Dracula (dir. Rebecca McNeil)
The Little Princess (dir. Laura Little)
and in 2010: Leader of the Pack (dir. Marina Kalani)
High School Musical 2 (dir. Emily Bayne)
Amadeus (dir. Jhon Goodwin)
Jekyll and Hyde (dir. Jered Helm)

Seattle Shakespeare Company seattleshakespeare.org
Richard III July 9-Aug 2
The Taming of the Shrew July 10-Aug 2
The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Dec 3-27
Jan 7-31, 2010 Henry V
March 18-April 11, 2010 Hamlet
April 18-May 9, 2010 Twelfth Night

Book-It Repertory Theater, Seattle book-it.org
A Confederacy of Dunces, Sept. 16-Oct. 11
Emma, Oct. 20-Nov 22
Feb 9-March 7, 2010 The River Why, by David James Duncan
June 9-July 11, 2010 The Cider House Rules: Part One, adapted by Peter Parnell from John Irving

Harlequin Theater, Olympia harlequinproductions.org
Stardust Homecoming, Nov-Dec (a Puget Sound Christmas in 1942)
Jan-Feb 2010 Six Hotels (premiere by Israel Horovitz; 4 actors play 24 parts in ...)
March-April 2010 End Days, by Deborah Zoe Laufer
April-May, 2010 Rabbit Hole
a summer musical
Aug-Sept 2010, Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, adapted by Jeffrey Hatcher
Sept-Oct 2010, The Taming of the Shrew

Idaho Shakespeare Festival idahoshakespeare.org
The Comedy of Errors, through July 24
The Seagull (closed July 3)
The Mystery of Edwin Drood, July 10-Aug 28
Twelfth Night, July 31-Aug 30
A Tuna Christmas, Sept 4-Oct 3

Boise Contemporary Theater bctheater.org
The Pavilion, by Craig Wright, Oct. 14-Nov 7 (pair reunite at a 20-year h.s. reunion)
Animals Out of Paper, by Rajiv Joseph, Nov 24-Dec 19 (three very different people do origami)
At Home at the Zoo, by Edward Albee, Jan 27-Feb 20, 2010 (adds a first act to The Zoo Story)
Namaste Man, written and perf. by Andrew Weems, April 7-May 1 (autobiography set in Zambia, Nepal, Virginia)

Missoula Children's Theater mctinc.org

Christian Youth Theater, Spokane cytspokane.com
Schoolhouse Rock, Nov. 6-15
The Wizard of Oz, Feb. 26-March 7, 2010
Pocahontas, May 21-30, 2010

SFCC
Dearly Departed, by David Bottrell and Jessie Jones, Nov. 12-22
The Comedy of Errors, March 5-15, 2010
The Insanity of Mary Girard, by Jamie Robertson, May 28-June 7, 2010
... and in collaboration with Spokane Children's Theater:
Nightingale in March 2010
Box Car Children in April 2010

Gonzaga University
Pride and Prejudice Oct 23-Nov 1
Jan 29-Feb 7, 2010 Weaving Our Sisters’ Voices (women from Scripture dance, sing, recite poetry)
March 25-29, 2010 Lysistrata (trans. Nicholas Rudall)
April 22-24, 2010 Spring Dance Concert

Pullman Civic Theater pullmancivictheatre.org
July 17-26 Charlotte’s Web
September: Greater Tuna
December: A Christmas Story

EWU, Cheney
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (adapted by Jay Allen) Nov 13-21
Romeo and Juliet March 3-15, 2010
Almost, Maine, by John Cariani May 7-15, 2010

Whitworth
The Illusion, by Pierre Corneille (trans. Tony Kushner), dir. Diana Trotter, Oct. 16-24
March 5-13, 2010 Is He Dead? by Mark Twain (adapt. David Ives), dir. Rick Hornor



Spokane Children's Theater spokanechildrenstheatre.org
High School Musical 2, dir. Kim Roberts, Oct 9-25, at SCC Lair
Babes in Toyland, Nov 27-Dec 13, at SCC
Charlotte's Web, Feb. 14-28, 2010, at SCC
The Nightingale, March 20-28, 2010, at SFCC's Spartan Theater, dir. Sara Edlin-Marlowe
May 22-June, 6, 2010: The Boxcar Children, at SFCC

Portland Center Stage pcs.org
Ragtime Sept 22-Nov 1
Ben Franklin: Unplugged Sept 29-Nov 22
A Christmas Carol Nov 24-Dec 27
The Santaland Diaries Dec 3-27
Snow Falling on Cedars Jan 12-Feb 7, 2010
The Receptionist Jan 26-March 21
The 39 Steps Feb 23-March 21

The Chosen April 6-May 2
Mike’s Incredible Indian Adventure April 20-May 30
The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee May 25-June 27

Artists Repertory Theater, Portland artistsrep.org
All My Sons Sept 8-Oct 11
Becky’s New Car Sept 22-Oct 25 (a pretend-widow escapes midlife doldrums)
Holidazed Nov 17-Dec 20 (super mom takes in pagan teen)
Design for Living Jan 5-Feb 7, 2010 (Noel Coward’s ménage-a-trois)
Othello April 13-May 16 (‘40s noir look)
Gracie and the Atom April 27-May 30 (musical: physics vs. faith at Catholic school)

Intiman Theater, Seattle intiman.org
July 2-Aug 2 Othello
Aug 21-Sept 20 The Year of Magical Thinking
Oct 2-Nov 15 Abe Lincoln in Illinois, by Robert Sherwood
Dec 1-27 Black Nativity

Seattle Rep seattlerep.org
The 39 Steps Sept 25-Oct 18 (comic spy mystery with four actors playing 130 roles)
August: Osage County Oct 27-Nov 1 (with Estelle Parsons)
Opus Oct 30-Dec 6 (contentious string quartet reunites; dir. Braden Abraham)



Equivocation Nov 18-Dec 3 (dir. Bill Rauch, from OSF; Shakespeare writes Macbeth)
Speech and Debate Jan 15-Feb 21, 2010 (three teens stir up controversy in high school)
Glengarry Glen Ross Feb 5-28
Fences March 26-April 18 (25th anniversary of August Wilson’s ‘50s play)
An Iliad (April 9-May 16) in a one-man show, Denis O’Hare updates Homer

Company of Fools, Hailey, Idaho companyoffools.org
110 in the Shade July 4-Aug 1 (musical version of The Rainmaker)
Welcome Home Jenny Sutter July 4-Aug 2 (Iraq vet returns, gets lost in Calif. desert)
Steel Magnolias July 4-Aug 2
The Syringa Tree Oct 21-Nov 8 (white family and black family in 1960s South Africa)
Dec 17, 2009-Jan 3, 2010 A Year With Frog and Toad
Feb 24-March 14, 2010 The Glass Menagerie

Montana Rep, Missoula montanarep.org
??

Lord Leebrick Theater Company, Eugene lordleebrick.com
(2009-10 season; no dates yet)
American Buffalo, by David Mamet
The Four of Us, by Itamar Moses
Shipwrecked! The Amazing Adventure of Louis de Rougemont (as told by himself), by Donald Margulies
Customary Monsters, by Kyle T. Wilson
Eurydice, by Sarah Ruhl

OSF through Nov. 2009:
Oregon Shakespeare Festival osfashland.org
in the Bowmer through Oct. 31-Nov. 1:
Macbeth, The Music Man, Equivocation, Paradise Lost
in the New Theater through Nov. 1:
The Servant of Two Masters, All's Well That Ends Well
in the Elizabethan Theater through Oct. 9-11:
Henry VIII, Don Quixote, Much Ado About Nothing

OSF in Feb-Oct. 2010:
in the Bowmer:
Hamlet, Pride and Prejudice, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, She Loves Me, Throne of Blood
in the New Theater:
Well, Ruined, American Night
in the Elizabethan Theater:
The Merchant of Venice; Twelfth Night; Henry IV, Part One

The Paramount Theater, Seattle theparamount.com
Wicked, Sept 3-Oct 4
August: Osage County, Oct 27-Nov 1
Fiddler on the Roof, May 25-30, 2010

Keller Auditorium, Portland
Fiddler on the Roof, Aug 25-30
Forbidden Broadway, Sept. 17-20
August: Osage County, Oct 20-25
Xanadu, Jan 12-17, 2010
Legally Blonde, Feb 16-21, 2010
Cats, March 23-28, 2010
Dreamgirls, April 13-18, 2010; Cirque Dreams Illumination: May 25-30, 2010; and The Lion King: June 16-July 11, 2010

Capitol Theater, Yakima capitoltheatre.org
The Wedding Singer, Jan 1-2, 2010
Annie, Feb 9-11, 2010
Avenue Q, Feb 17-18, 2010
Camelot, March 5-6, 2010
Dixie's Tupperware Party, March 9-14, 2010
Cabaret, April 13-14, 2010

Bigfork Summer Playhouse, Bigfork, MT bigforksummerplayhouse.org
(15 miles SE of Kalispell; on the NE shore of Flathead Lake)
through Aug. 22: The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas; Singin' in the Rain; The Wiz; and Seussical: The Musical

Opera House Theater Company, Phillipsburg, MT operahousetheatre.com
(60 miles SE of Missoula)
through Sept. 6: Butterscotch; Having a Wonderful Time, Wish You Were Her; and Vaudeville Variety Extravaganza

Slamming Doors

Unnecessary Farce is set in two adjoining motel rooms, and there’s a reason that the set for the Idaho Rep production has eight doors: They’re all going to slam. Possibly all at the same time.
After the opening exposition scene, says artistic director Dean Panttaja, Paul Slade Smith’s comedy is “a nonstop ruckus.” Two cops are staking out the mayor’s secret meeting with an accountant: Is embezzlement in the works? Problem is, one of the cops is sleeping with the accountant, and the other has no clue how to work the videotape machine. The plot thickens — and the door-slamming accelerates — with the addition of the mayor’s wife, a gumshoe detective who’s nowhere near as hardboiled as he’d like to think, and a mysterious hitman wearing kilts and playing bagpipes. “Just when you think you know what will happen, or how a character will act or react,” says Panttaja, “it all gets turned topsy-turvy.”

Idaho Repertory Theater presents Unnecessary Farce • July 1-2, 10, 16, 19, 28 and Aug. 6, at 7:30 pm • Tickets: $18; $16, seniors; $13, youth • UI, Hartung Theater, Sixth St. and Stadium Dr., Moscow, Idaho (quarter-mile west of the Kibbie Dome) • Visit: www.idahorep.org • Call: (208) 885-7212 • Four other plays continue in Moscow through Aug. 3: CHAPS, Some Enchanted Evening, Romeo and Juliet and High School Musical

Create good productions and tell people about them

Michael Kaiser at HuffPo has a point: Arts orgs don't have an expenditure problem so much as they have a revenue problem.
Theaters aren't overspending; they're just failing to attract as much of an audience as they deserve.
Kaiser suggests the following: Don't cut back on programs. Don't make them "more accessible." Market them aggressively.

(photo: Michael Kaiser is president of the JFK Center for the Performing Arts in Wash., D.C.)

*The Producers* at CdA, July 3-18

Book by Mel Brooks and Thomas Meehan
Music and lyrics by Mel Brooks

with Eric Hadley as Max Bialystock and Matt Wade as Leo Bloom
also with Jerry Christakos as Roger, Patrick Treadway as Franz, and Steven Dahlke as Carmen Ghia

IBDb entry here.

Whatever Ulla wants, Ulla gets ...

The Producers
Originally uploaded by Sir Andrew Aguecheek

Max Bialystock (Eric James Hadley), left, Ulla (Jennifer Elise Davis) and Leo Bloom (Matt Wade) in Coeur d'Alene Summer Theatre's production of Mel Brooks' "The Producers,* directed and choreographed by Tralen Doler

upcoming: Bobo's Broadway dreams

A guy can dream, can't he? Upcoming Broadway shows that Bobo would really like to see:

Superior Donuts, opens Oct. 1
Tracy Letts' play, from Steppenwolf, about an ex-hippie who owns a donut shop and the younger black man who pesters him



The Royal Family, opens Oct. 8
Rosemary Harris, Stephen Collins, John Glover and Tony Roberts in the George S. Kaufman-Edna Ferber comedy

John Stamos and Bill Irwin in Bye Bye Birdie, opens Oct. 15

Patrick Marber revises Strindberg in After Miss Julie, a Roundabout production opening Oct. 22

Sarah Ruhl's new play, In the Next Room, or, The Vibrator Play, opens Nov. 19

James Spader and Richard Thomas will appear in David Mamet's new play, Race, opening Dec. 6

sometime this fall:
Finian's Rainbow (by City Center Encores!)
Memphis (rock 'n' roll musical, with book by Joe DiPietro)
and Victor Garber in a Roundabout production of Noel Coward's Present Laughter

next year:
Bono and Julie Taymor team up for a Spidey musical: Spider-man, Turn Off the Dark, opening Feb. 18
Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth in an Addams Family musical, April 8
Brian Dennehy in both Hughie and Krapp's Last Tape, April
Linda Lavin in Donald Margulies' Collected Stories, April

There are too many shows "In the Works" to list, but I gotta mention: a new musical based on John Milton's Paradise Lost (!); Brigadoon (a personal fave); Suzan-Lori Parks directing Fences; Joanna Murray-Smith's The Female of the Species, about a feminist author with writers' block; Jack O'Brien directing a musical about Houdini, with music by Danny Elfman and lyrics by David Yazbek; Trevor Nunn's A Little Night Music; a musical about Bill Gates and Steve Jobs called Nerds; Harry Connick Jr. and Joe DiPietro team up on Nice Work If You Can Get It, with Gershwin songs; Des McAnuff directing The Wiz; and many more.

Plus there are about a dozen shows on Broadway right now that I'd love to see.

ADDED July 1:
Jude Law as Hamlet, with Penelope Wilton as Gertrude, in a Donmar Warehouse production, opening Oct. 6 on Broadway -- and they're even going to perform, a la Richard Burton, at Elsinore Castle. See the slideshow: "To be or not to be" delivered in snowfall.

Also: Bill Pullman and Julia Stiles in Mamet's *Oleanna,* in a Mark Taper Forum production directed by Doug Hughes, will open Oct. 11 in New York

*Charlotte's Web* in Pullman, July 17-26

E.B. White's children's play, directed by Courtney Smith and presented at Pullman Civic Theater's Nye Street Theater (1220 NW Nye St., near Dissmore's and just south of NW Stadium Way) on
Friday-Saturday, July 17-18 at 7:30 pm
Thursday-Saturday, July 23-25, at 7:30 pm
Sundays, July 19 and July 26, at 2 pm
Visit www.pullmancivictheatre.org or call (509) 332-8406.
[ image: famousdeaddb.com ]

The 2008-09 Spokies: Here are your nominees …

For shows that opened during June 2008-May 2009 and that Bobo actually saw.
Winners will be revealed in the July 2 Inlander.

Just this week, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) announced its decision to nominate 10 movies for Best Picture at Oscar time next February.
As the sole member of the Spokane Academy of Theatrical Arts and Numismatic-tossing (SATAN), Bobo feels inspired by that decision and has accordingly gone CRAAAZY, filling out some of the Spokie categories below with an unusually large number of nominees.

I know I’m the guy with the notepad who walks in the room and makes everybody nervous (or angry, or indifferent), but the Spokies — limited as they are, like peering at just one guy’s Oscar ballot — ought to celebrate what’s best about the theater season just concluded. People deserve to see their names listed. Why limit nominees arbitrarily?

Please write in listing all of Bobo’s egregious mistakes.


Outstanding Choreography
Tralen Doler for La Cage aux Folles, Coeur d’Alene Summer Theater
Kathie Doyle-Lipe for Oklahoma!, Spokane Civic Theater
Jean Hardie for No, No, Nanette, Civic
Troy Nickerson and Cameron Lewis for A Christmas Carol: The Musical, Civic

Outstanding Lighting Design
David Baker for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Spokane Civic Theater
Peter Hardie for Godspell, Civic’s Studio
Justin Schmidt for Waiting for Godot, Spokane Interplayers Ensemble
Joel Williamson for Les Miserables, CdA Summer Theater

Outstanding Set Design for a Musical
David Baker for A Christmas Carol: The Musical, Spokane Civic Theater
David Baker for A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Civic
Peter Hardie for No, No, Nanette, Civic
Michael McGiveney for All Shook Up, CdA Summer Theater
Michael McGiveney for Les Miserables, CdA

Outstanding Set Design for a Play
David Baker for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Spokane Civic Theater
David Baker for Shakespeare in Hollywood, Civic

Outstanding Costume Design
Susan Berger and Jan Wanless for A Christmas Carol: The Musical, Civic
Judith McGiveney for Les Miserables, Coeur d’Alene Summer Theater
Jan Wanless and Susan Berger for No, No, Nanette, Civic

Featured Actor in a Musical
Jadd Davis as the Minstrel in Once Upon a Mattress, CdA Summer Theater
Cameron Lewis as Will Parker in Oklahoma!, Spokane Civic Theater
Cameron Lewis as Billy Early (not Trainor) in No, No, Nanette, Civic
Tim Louma as Jacob in La Cage aux Folles, CdA
Gavin Smith as Jacob Marley in A Christmas Carol: The Musical, Civic
Robert Wamsley as Senex in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Civic

Featured Actor in a Play
Damon Abdallah as Pozzo in Waiting for Godot, Spokane Interplayers Ensemble
Jamie Flanery as Max Reinhardt in Shakespeare in Hollywood, Spokane Civic Theater
Thomas Heppler as Dale Harding in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Civic
Thomas Stewart as Roger Wolders in Together Again for the First Time, Interplayers
Paul Villabrille as Billy Bibbit in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Civic

Featured Actress in a Musical
Jean Hardie as Aunt Eller in Oklahoma!, Spokane Civic Theater
Darcy Wright as Eponine in Les Miserables, Coeur d’Alene Summer Theater

Featured Actress in a Play
Caryn Hoaglund-Trivett as Gwendolyn Fairfax in The Importance of Being Earnest, Actors Repertory Theater of the Inland Northwest
Karen Kalensky as Audrey in Together Again for the First Time, Interplayers
Anne Lillian Mitchell as Lydia in Shakespeare in Hollywood, Civic

Leading Actress in a Musical
Krystle Armstrong as Cosette in Les Miserables, Coeur d’Alene Summer Theater
Krista Kubicek as Fantine in Les Miserables, CdA
Kat Ramsburg as Princess Winnifred in Once Upon a Mattress, CdA

Leading Actor in a Play
Luke Barats as Frank in Never Swim Alone, Civic Studio
Kevin Connell as Bill Livingston in The Women of Lockerbie, Civic Studio
Carter J. Davis as Benjamin Braddock in The Graduate, Interplayers
George Green as Bill in Never Swim Alone, Civic Studio
George Green as Randall P. McMurphy in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Civic
Jonn Jorgensen as Vladimir in Waiting for Godot, Interplayers
Jon Lutyens as Algernon Moncrieff in The Importance of Being Earnest, Actors Rep
Reed McColm in multiple roles in The Dining Room, Spokane Interplayers Ensemble
Damon C. Mentzer as Jack Worthing in The Importance of Being Earnest, Actors Rep
Damon C. Mentzer as Oberon in Shakespeare in Hollywood, Civic

Leading Actor in a Musical
Jerry Christakos as Albin/”Zaza” in La Cage aux Folles, CdA Summer Theater
Robby French as Jesus in Godspell, Spokane Civic Theater
Jerry Sciarrio as Pseudolus in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Civic
Douglas Webster as Jean Valjean in Les Miserables, CdA

Leading Actress in a Play
Ashley Cooper as Rootie in Graceland, Spokane Civic’s Studio Theater
Ellen Crawford as Emily Dickinson in The Belle of Amherst, Spokane Interplayers Ensemble
Karen Kalensky as Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate, Spokane Interplayers Ensemble

Outstanding Direction of a Play
Jack Bannon for Together Again for the First Time, Interplayers
Yvonne A.K. Johnson for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Spokane Civic Theater
Yvonne A.K. Johnson for Never Swim Alone, Civic’s Studio
Brooke Kiener for Museum, Whitworth
Christopher Schario for The Belle of Amherst, Spokane Interplayers Ensemble

Outstanding Direction of a Musical
Tralen Doler for La Cage aux Folles, Coeur d’Alene Summer Theater
Rick Hornor for Urinetown, Gonzaga
Kirk Mouser for Les Miserables, CdA
Troy Nickerson for A Christmas Carol: The Musical, Spokane Civic Theater
Troy Nickerson for Godspell, Civic’s Studio
Diana Trotter for A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Civic
Roger Welch for All Shook Up, CdA

Best Ensemble
Les Miserables, CdA Summer Theater
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Spokane Civic Theater
Together Again for the First Time, Spokane Interplayers Ensemble

Best Touring Musical
The Color Purple
Phantom of the Opera
Spamalot

Best Comedy
The Importance of Being Earnest, Actors Repertory Theater of the Inland Northwest
Shakespeare in Hollywood, Spokane Civic Theater
Together Again for the First Time, Spokane Interplayers Ensemble

Best Drama
The Belle of Amherst, Spokane Interplayers Ensemble
Never Swim Alone, Spokane Civic’s Studio Theater
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Civic

Best Local Musical
All Shook Up, CdA Summer Theater
Cowgirls, Spokane Interplayers Ensemble
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Spokane Civic Theater
Godspell, Civic
La Cage aux Folles, CdA
Les Misérables, CdA

Kate Whoriskey to Intiman

Misha Berson reports in the Seattle Times that Kate Whoriskey will act as co-artistic director with Bartlett Sher at the Intiman through 2010. Some interesting pros and cons in the comments.

Glass less than half full but could be construed as not completely leaking

OK, so the NEA has released the latest installment of its once-every-few-years assessment of the American appetite for the arts. And as you'd expect, the news is mostly dismal.
BUT ...
BUT ...
As a national average, 35 percent of American adults claim that, in the last 12 months, they had gone to an arts museum and/or attended an arts performance.

The combined population of Spokane and Kootenai counties right now is just about exactly 600,000.
Right around three-quarters of the population is 18 or older.

Based on census.gov, I'm calculating about 354,000 adults in Spokane County and about 105,000 in Kootenai County.
Do the math.
That's 160,000 adults in our two counties who say they attend arts events (at least with minimal frequency). (And no, I don't know about the numbers of hard-core, frequent arts attendees, and all the talk about how the same 3,000 people attend all the theater around here.)
Even if our arts attendance is well below national norms, say, 30 percent -- that's still 137,000 people in the two counties.

*The Inlander,* for example, is up to 49,000 for average weekly circulation -- we just did an even 50,000 for our tied-for-biggest-ever 128-page Summer Guide, so that's in the ballpark. (The industry standard, accounting for papers passed around doctors' offices, etc., is 2.2 readers per copy picked up. In a typical week, 5-6 percent of the copies we distribute are returned (not picked up). Round numbers, that's 46,000 copies read by just over 100,000 readers each week.) So generally, that confirms the size of the audience.
So buck up, local arts organization-promoting persons! That's tens of thousands of people out there who ARE disposed to hear your message.

What's more: Note the bit in the NEA report about how "arts consumption" on the Internet (so to speak) is growing.
Forty percent of ALL Net users use it to access, view, download art. Even if that's inflated -- it goes on to note that 20 percent of ALL Net users use it to view visual arts (paintings, sculptures, photographs).
That's a way lot of people who are hungry for art. They just like to view it while in their jammies.
But if you get them excited about it at home, they will put on some decent clothes and go out and witness the art that you have to offer.
Conclusion: arts orgs should be marketing on the Internet like crazy.

*Nuncrackers* at Shuler Auditorium, Dec. 18-20

Following the success of *White Christmas* back when it was snowing around here, CdA Summer Theater is putting on its second Yuletide fund-raiser at NIC for two nights and a matinee. Visit cdasummertheatre.com.
Dan Goggin's musical makes "Nunsense" of Christmas. (Ha! Humor!) It's the third of five sequels to the original, which appeared in 1985. The Little Sisters of Hoboken decide to fund-raise by putting on a musical for their local public-access channel, leading to a spoof of Tchaikovsky's *Nutcracker* and to songs like "Jesus Was Born in Brooklyn."

[photo: Dan Goggin, from theaterbayarea.org]

review of *Joseph/Dreamcoat* at CdA

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat is a pop-rock-country-disco-doo-wop-reggae hodgepodge. For no reason at all, Joseph's brothers pop up sometimes in cowboy hats, sometimes in berets. And sometimes they walk like an Egyptian.
But that's the childlike fun of a show illuminating the Genesis story of a son with a mystical air who is assumed to have been killed until he takes on the sins of his brothers, rises from the dead and is reunited with his father.
You’ve heard that story before? The Coeur d’Alene Summer Theater production (through June 27) reinvigorates it with a fresh staging of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s music. Because of engaging performances by Krystle Armstrong as the Narrator and Steven Booth in the title role — along with some find-the-comedy-wherever-he-can direction by Roger Welch, and backed by strong creative elements — the CdA Joseph is kicky good fun.
Two particular strengths are Michael Wasileksi's choreography and John Gallegos' lighting design.
Dancers tap and twirl and angle their elbows in vectors toward the sky. They change hands and do-si-do in a square dance. They form a wedding gantlet, do the Frug, and lift the lascivious Mrs. Potiphar right over Joseph’s cowering torso.
Meanwhile, disco bulbs flash and shafts of light enclose Joseph in a jail cell. There’s even a strobe effect for a goat sacrifice.
Welch’s direction seeks out the goofy bits in an already goofy musical. Snake puppets join Joseph when he’s thrown in a well, then make an unexpected appearance elsewhere onstage. A goat rolls out on wheels. Camels (one hump, two legs) skitter and sing.
It all helps speed along a brisk 40-minute first act. Best of all, Welch has borrowed 55 kids from the recent Christian Youth Theater-Spokane production of Joseph, seating them in bleachers flanking the action. So what if, at the top of Act Two, the kids in the choir couldn’t synchronize their cutesy knee-dips? They looked like happy little prairie dogs, and it only added to the fun.
So did Armstrong as the Narrator — engaging the kids in the Prologue, performing comic bits with sunglasses, mai-tais and a Bugs Bunny carrot. At a couple of junctures, Welch just isolates Armstrong in a spotlight and lets her voice reach out and caress the audience. Her warm, clear tone was worth showcasing.
For his part, Booth sells the goody-goody tactlessness of Joseph, who’s blind to the possibility that his brothers might not be his biggest fans. Booth appears earnest, almost all-American, while running around in what he calls his “little Egyptian skirt.” He can even look forbidding. And any doubts about his vocal range are dispersed at the end of “Close Every Door” when he belts out “For we have been promised / A land of our own.” It’s an engaging performance.



There are other highlights — the accompaniment of Steven Dahlke’s 11-piece orchestra, particularly during the French café mood of “Those Canaan Days,” and the way the jiggly hips of James Lane as Pharaoh Elvis seemed to do his thinking for him. But this Joseph isn’t flawless. As good as Gallegos’ lighting scheme usually is, at times actors strolled into dead spots. For some of Tim Rice’s rapid-fire lyrics, diction — and the sound system — faltered. Unlike the other-musical-genre songs, which got visual set-ups to prepare the transition, the reggae number (“Benjamin Calypso”) seemed to come out of nowhere.
But soon after, the automated disco lights swirl out over us, and we too become part of the mega-mix. When every door seems closed and all you’re hoping for is a better life, “Any Dream” indeed will do. Along with varying its musical genres, Coeur d’Alene’s Joseph presents a mishmash of moods from serious to silly. It’s Lord Webber’s cornucopia full o’ fun.

A play on Twitter ... and in Hayden Lake

140: A Twitter Performance, by Jeremy Gable

Check out the tweets of Dane, 16; his best friend Nic, 18; his girlfriend Courtney, 17; and his stepmother Leslie, who's only 26 herself

continuing through August

Dane is such a loser, he actually likes Transformers.
These kids tweet one another when they're sitting in the same room.

Courtney has had the best line so far:
It sucks trying to find a good paying job in Idaho. Anybody know a non-crap job that doesn't pay minimum wage?

Note to verbose playwrights like, say, T.S. Eliot and Tony Kushner (Bobo's thinking of the opening monologue in Homebody/Kabul): Writing in 140-character chunks might impose some verbal restraint, you know?


[ map: from fishandgame.idaho.gov; also the site of a portion of the bike route in next weekend's CdA Ironman triathlon ]

Paul Hodgins' blog post for the OC Register is here.

20 Questions with Tom Heppler (continued)

(Thomas Heppler, right, as Marcus Lycus, with Jerry Sciarrio as Pseudolus, in Diana Trotter's production at Spokane Civic Theater of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, May-June 2009)

Bobo: You get to take a semester course in one of the following: voice, set design, choreography, costume design or lighting design. Which do you choose, and why? What would you expect to learn?
Tom Heppler: Well, I can't dance 'cause I'm too white. Set design, I used to do. Voice, I don't really know. I mean, I took choir and that kind of thing. But I don't have an ear for it -- I just work really hard instead. God help me, singing is the hardest thing for me to master.

Bobo: Tell me a little about Harding in Cuckoo’s Nest. Your performance is wonderful. What discoveries about him have you made in rehearsal? How much has the part been cut for the one-hour competition version?

Tom Heppler: … and you have to come up with character choices that still work. But Harding was one of those great parts that I really wanted to do.

In Lonely Planet, the first time I walked out onstage and met Troy’s character — that was living the moment. That was really nice.

about not making it to regionals with Cuckoo’s Nest:
“You know, in the past, it was always, ‘Oh, Spokane wins all the time.’ So there was a lot of, ‘Oh, Spokane’s coming, so we’re not coming.’ But there you go, that’s the way it is.”
When we went to nationals with Assassins — to be totally objective [smiles], we should’ve been first. Crowns won, and it was a nice musical revue of gospel tunes. But there are about 10 criteria that the judges are supposed to evaluate you on, and whether or not the cuts are suitable is one of them. And we were the only one who made any cuts. Other productions were just of a single act, or scenes.”


What do you think to yourself just before you go onstage?
On opening nights, I always get very emotional, for I wish my parents were still around to see how I developed, how I ... [gets teary-eyed] ... completed stuff.
But talking about these things gets me all verklempt.
On other nights, I have my script, I look at my notes -- every night. I look at my script for I KNOW.
And I need my downtime. On show nights, I take a nap from 5:30-6:30 pm. Everyone at the Civic knows that I have to do that. They even have a special blanket for me.
You take a nap in the green room?
It's much nicer since they remodeled down there.
But failing that, I have to find a hole to hide in, a corner to stand in. People come up and want to talk, but I'm all, "Bye-bye, I need to focus here."


I’ve gathered half a dozen passages from reviews in which I’ve mentioned Tom Heppler. (This can be a scary process, for both of us. Frankly, I’d forgotten you were in, or directed, a couple of these shows. Also frankly: I cringe when I think of how kind and gracious you are in person, and how I’ve criticized you in print. We all love theater, and love to talk about it. Here’s a chance, admittedly rather awkward, years later, for you to tell off that damn critic and let him know what you really think. Or not.)

I Do! I Do! at the Civic, May ’04
As Michael, the husband in this two-character show, Thomas Heppler was unburdening himself of his complaints against his middle-aged wife Agnes (played by Jan Neumann). He had just announced his opinion that women, when they approach their “matron station / Begin a certain process of deterioration.”
The audience – the women mostly, but not entirely – hollered and booed, discombobulating poor Heppler, who had to find his bearings and soldier on.
The show had just admitted, in effect, how stale, sexist and out of touch it is.

Rocket Man at CenterStage, Feb. 2005:
As Donny, the focal character, Heppler is just wacky enough to be the guy who tosses out every last one of his possessions -- but we miss the desperation of a man who just ... might ... do anything to rid himself of disappointment.

as director of Spinning Into Butter by Rebecca Gilman, at the Civic’s Studio:
Still, during a hopeful phone call that concludes the play, director Thomas Heppler has chosen wisely: Even as she engages in some peacemaking, Utter stands awkwardly, ensnared by the telephone cord that coils around her.

My Fair Lady at the Civic, Sept. ’05:
(after a long opening section about how wonderful Kendra Kimball and David Gigler were as Eliza Doolittle and her father, I included the following near the end)
… this Lady's second act sometimes fell flat. Heppler's portrayal of Higgins doesn't help. He has the fussiness, the devil-may-care single-mindedness of a British academic, but problems crop up in the first act in "I'm an Ordinary Man," when both the vocal and instrumental attacks on the chorus ("but put a woman in your life") were weak. On exit lines like "damn you!" and "let the hellcat freeze!" (both aimed at Eliza), Heppler wasn't convincing or irate enough.
Heppler doesn't quite catch the ambiguity of the medley of tunes (and emotions) that his character is supposed to express in among snippets of "You Did It" and "Without You" and the famous "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face." The wavering -- will he surmount his own selfishness and grow in much the same way Eliza transformed herself? -- isn't quite there yet. But Heppler does achieve real pathos -- in his finest moment of the entire evening -- when, caught in that same spotlight, he makes the final refrain of "Accustomed to Her Face" feel like a breakthrough moment: At last, the confirmed bachelor isn't quite sure of just how confirmed he is.

Assassins, Civic Studio, Feb. ’07:
(in the midst of a near-rave, I singled you out for criticism)
Thomas Heppler’s Proprietor, like [Andrew] Ware-Lewis at times, isn’t projecting nearly enough vocally. A couple of dramatic ring-the-carnival-bell moments don’t register because Heppler seems hesitant.

Laughing Stock, Jan. 2008 at the Civic:
Some portions of the evening, however, are slower and flatter. As the artistic director, Thomas Heppler has some cell-phone conversations with the theater's patroness that don't underline or time the jokes well.

Oklahoma! at the Civic, Oct. ’08:
Thomas Heppler’s Persian peddler does delightful slow burns and comic double-takes.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Jan. ’09 at the Civic:
As Harding, the leader of the wacked-out inmates, Thomas Heppler shines, showing off with his hands and his vocabulary (but ineffectually). In one sequence, Heppler makes the transition from trying to laugh off his sexual neurosis to angrily denouncing the woman who worsened it. (The audience simply laughed. But the pain was real.)

Tom Heppler: Sometimes I feel in your reviews, when you mention ARt or even Interplayers, you treat them as if they are of a different caliber. But all three, at least now, are community theaters. They don't offer Equity contracts, or only seldom. I've seen stuff at Interplayers or Actors Rep, and there seemed to be some more credibility given to them that is not justified in many ways. They're not LORT or regional theaters.

It's interesting to see what you say. But sometimes I'll go, "Oh, yeah, that's what he said. Well, screw it. It's what one guy thinks." But it's always interesting to see your comments vs. Jim's comments.
Civilians will always look at it from a pure entertainment point of view. I try not to see it from an actor's point of view.


I know from Troy's experience with Spokane Theatrical Group that theaters are hard to run. Because you're on your own, trying to get people on the board, to fund-raise. Everybody just wants to perform. The business of show business is a lot of work.
I rememember when Troy did Peter Pan at the Met, he couldn't get anybody to build the sets. So I said, "I'll do it." I built 'em in my backyard. And he came out and looked at 'em and said, "Son of a bitch, you did it."

When I'm directing, I always bring in non-theater people, just to get an opinion -- and it's always useful.

I've learned something new on every new show. Once you think you're good ...
But when I'm at an audition, and I see a reading that's a brilliant idea, I steal it, sure.

On My Fair Lady, Carol Miyamoto taught me that I didn't know what theater was. She said, "You will learn it and sing it as it was written. And then I will let you play with it." Well, that scared the hell out of me. But I learned it, note-perfect.
On "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face," he grows to care for her, realizes that it's been more of a father-daughter relationship. He realizes that he's been an asshole. So I wanted it to be more heartfelt at the end.

Do you ever just watch a show (or a movie)? Or, as an actor, do you often think to yourself, “Oh, I would have done that scene in an entirely different way”?
It takes 10 years to be an actor. It's not until you really start to listen -- it's all in the way you say it back [to the other actor].
So it's a craft that can take a long time to learn.
But some people come to it naturally. I asked Amanda Plummer once, for example, "Why are you still in school?" She was just 17, but she was brilliant.
I worked with an actor once who complained, "Every night, you do it differently." But I haven't really changed anything consciously. It how the line comes out. If I'm listening to my fellow actors, I don't change it purposefully. I just say it differently or interpret it differently according to what I've just heard.

In your experience, are the best actors the ones who are all intense backstage, or the ones who fool around?
Commitment to the project is important. The people who I see in this area who are very good are the ones who focus. The ones who are always bouncing around are not as good.

I had a teacher in college who said, "You're not a very talented actor. Let me rephrase that: You're going to have to work your butt off to get what other people get naturally."
So that's what you do.

After getting 10 years' experience, I realized that it depends on the character. If you yell at me, I may laugh at you. Someone told me once, If you're in a drama, look for the comedy. If you're angry, look for the humor. If you have to cry, dont' cry.
If I see people fake-crying onstage, I get really mad.
Not screaming can be more scary than if somebody screams. Besides, it hurts your ears and becomes annoying.

Who do you admire around here?
Troy [Nickerson], as far as being a director. He takes stuff like the musical Christmas Carol that with Kelsey Grammer was just absolute dreck and makes it gorgeous. And Melody [Deatherage] and Kathie [Doyle-Lipe] and George Green, Paul Villabrille, Damon Mentzer, Patrick McHenry-Kroetch -- with all of them, I don't know how they do what they do, but they're all amazing.

I'm 52. That means I've been doing this for 32 years. And I plan to keep doing it as long as my memory holds up.
I'll tell you one thing about middle age: It takes longer to memorize your lines. But you have your tricks...
When Michael Muzatko brought his high school kids here, I was working on my lines, and he wanted them to see what I do.
I write out all my lines -- no punctuation, no spacing, just in one big block of text. And I learn 'em that way. I trained that way, so that there'd be no inflection on a line.
The kids were very good -- they ask the best questions.


It's not theater unless ...
Unless you have an audience.
But do you actually enjoy applause at the end of a show -- really enjoy it? Because it always makes me feel a little self-conscious.
Yeah, I do. I enjoy the applause. But these people who see theater seldom, or at the Fox -- they stand up at the end of every show. A standing ovation should be a very rare experience -- though it's lovely when it happens spontaneously. With Godspell, with Assassins, you can tell -- they jump to their feet before the last note is played.

Sometimes actors will say, “Oh, but we didn’t get a standing ovation tonight. And I go, ‘Yeah, so?”
I saw that play about the three couples grieving — this was on Broadway — what’s it called?
The Shadow Box?
Yes, and at the end, the people just sat there. The actors came out, and each couple bowed, and it was silent. And it wasn’t until they took their group bows that the audience started applauding.
Just stunned silence ...
And when I saw that, I just went, ‘Whoa, that is cool.’”
When I saw Angels in America in L.A., it was like that. So I was very glad when they did the Reading Stage version of that at the Civic, because I really wanted to play that role.

“You know when they should be standing up, and you know when you don’t deserve it. You know when it rips.”

In a lot of the productions at Spokane Civic Theater that Tom Heppler has been in, it has ripped. He's a class act, and he's one of the pillars of the local theater community.

audition for *The Pirates of Penzance* Aug. 3-4 at the Civic

The Pirates of Penzance
Music by Arthur Sullivan
Book and lyrics by William S. Gilbert

directed by Yvonne A.K. Johnson
musical direction by Trudy Harris
choreographed by Troy Nickerson

auditions: Monday-Tuesday, Aug. 3-4, at 6:30 pm; callbacks Wed.
on the Civic's Main Stage
roles for 16 men and 10 women

[ photo: Linda Ronstadt as Mabel (center) and Kevin Kline as the Pirate King (right) in Joseph Papp's 1980 Central Park production ]

Perform a verse and a chorus from either a Gilbert and Sullivan piece or a classical musical; cold readings, too, and be ready to move around.

to be performed Sept. 25-Oct. 25

When Frederic reaches age 21, it marks the end of his apprenticeship to the notoriously sensitive Pirates of Penzance. Overcome by a sense of duty to the crown, he vows to destroy the pirates he has come to love as brothers. This Gilbert and Sullivan gem features such songs as "I Am a Pirate King" and "I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major-General."

The subtitle of Pirates is "The Slave of Duty."

Premiered in New York in Dec. 1879, and in London in April 1880.

Will the Major-General be able to protect his daughters from the fearsome pirates who are not so fearsome?

Ignite! presents *The Complete History of America (abridged)*, July 3-12

Adam Long, Reed Martin and Austin Tichenor

on July 3-4 in Riverfront Park

and

on July 9-12 at Interplayers

Friday, July 3, at 7 pm at the Lilac Bowl

Saturday, July 4 (how appropriate!) at 7 pm in the Clock Tower Meadow

Also: four more shows at Interplayers, 174 S. Howard St., on Thursday-Saturday, July 9-11, at 8 pm and on Sunday, July 12, at 2 pm.  For tickets, call 325-SEAT. Tickets: $14; $12, students; $10, Interplayers subscribers.

These are fully produced shows, NOT readers theater.

Direcetd by Rebecca Cook, the production features Jerry Sciarrio, Tom Meisfjord and Will Gilman.  

For more information, visit www.ignitetheatre.org.

[ photo: reducedshakespeare.com ]