Santa Cruz Actors' Theatre

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:  

Contact: Gerry Gerringer- 831.425.1003

 Actors’ Theatre presents Dead Man’s Cell Phone to kick off it’s 26^th season!

Actors’ Theatre, the longest running theater in Santa Cruz, is proud to announce our inaugural offering for our twenty-sixth season, Dead Man’s Cell Phone. Dead Man’s Cell Phone was written by Sarah Ruhl, one of the hottest playwrights in the country. Her Pulitzer nominated The Clean House was produced at Actors’ Theatre last season to rave reviews. Ruhl also wrote the hugely popular Melancholy Play and In the Next Room (The Vibrator Play), which was nominated for a 2010 Tony award. Gerry Gerringer, newly appointed Artistic Director of Actors’ Theatre, directs the play. He chose to direct Dead Man’s Cell Phone because “it is a poignant comedy that speaks to our society’s infatuation with technology while we gradually lose our ability to connect with one another in tangible, personal ways. It is a wickedly funny and insightful play. Ruhl weaves together profundity and off-beat hilarity with a master’s touch.”

The show revolves around a woman who discovers a dead man sitting next to her in a café. She steals his cell phone, answers his calls and embarks on a mission to make the people in his life feel better about themselves and their dysfunctional relationships with the dead man. This turns out to be an extremely quirky and romantically compelling journey. The cast includes: Julia Cunningham, Miguel Reyna, Karen Solomon, April Green, Lucien Leutzinger and Leah Creatura.

Dead Man’s Cell Phone opens Sept. 17^th and runs through Oct. 10^th. Shows are Fridays and Saturdays @ 8 pm and Sundays @ 3 pm. Tickets may be purchased at www.brownpapertickets.com or by calling (831) 425-PLAY. They will also be available one hour before curtain at the theater box office - 1001 Center Street, Santa Cruz.

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The Actors’ Theatre has led Santa Cruz in producing original plays with local talent for 25 years.  Actors' Theatre represents live theater in the downtown with both our season and our contests while providing an intimate black box theater rental to the many local production companies.

http://www.santacruzactorstheatre.org

PRESS RELEASE 2010               FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

The Willing Suspension Armchair Theatre

presents in September

Out West: Cowboys, Coyotes and Open Spaces

 

Director: Suzanne Schrag

 

Come hit the cattle trail with us to listen to the thoughts and stories of writers who embrace and embody the spirit of the West. Readings include excerpts from the work of Wallace Stegner, Annie Proulx, Cormac McCarthy, Gretel Erlich, Elmore Leonard and others.

The West is full of contradictions and compromises—a place of soul-stirring beauty and  barren wastelands, a world of rough-hewn community and endless loneliness.

  The director, grew up in Cheyenne, Wyoming, and has deeply rooted memories of the high plains, prairies, antelope along the freeway and the endless dome of western sky.  

The American West holds a special fascination for people. From romantic legends of rugged individualism to the harsh realities of wind and weather, the West captures the imagination with its stunning but uncompromising landscapes, where pioneers eked out a new existence while the Native peoples fought for their old way of life.

 

Director: Suzanne Schrag                     Readers: To be announced

When & Where:   Actors’ Theater, 1001 Center Street, Santa Cruz
         September 7 & 8, Tuesday & Wednesday; 7:30 PM  

Cost: donation at the door 

Information: www.santacruzactorstheatre.org/  

Business Office: Gerry Gerringer, 831-425-1003

Artistic Director, WSAT, Patricia Grube: wpgrube@cruzio.com

 

Thank you to all of the sponsors and participants of our Bowl-a-thon, held June 27 at the Surf Bowl.  Our raffle was a huge success!  We raised money for Actor's Theatre and had a great time.

It is not to late to support your favorite team by donating.

 Donate to your favorite team:
• Willing Suspension Armchair Theatre
• Clean House
• The Last Noel
• Full Length Play Contest
• 8 Tens at Eight
• Beyond Therapy
• Best of the Rest
• Rabbit Hole
• Production Crew/Shameless
• Improv Community

Call (831/425-1003) or email (admin@santacruzactorstheatre.org) Gerry at Actors' Theatre to donate money.

SANTA CRUZ ACTORS’ THEATRE PROUDLY PRESENTS…..

Santa Cruz Actors’ Theatre, the longest running theater in Santa Cruz, is proud to announce its closing twenty-fifth season play. Actors’ Theatre will bring to life David Lindsay-Abaire’s Pulitzer Prize winning drama “Rabbit Hole,” running May 14 to June 6, 2010, at the Santa Cruz Actor’s Theatre, 1001 Center Street, Santa Cruz, CA.

Lindsay-Abaire’s play, which garnered five Tony nominations and won the Pulitzer for drama in 2007, tells the story of Becca and Howie, a married couple whose 4-year-old son, Danny, was killed by a car eight months earlier. Struggling to cope and unable to reconcile their different ways of grieving, their relationship has begun to unravel: Becca is struggling to find ways to work with the pain, Howie is holding onto his fading memories, and other family members are complicating the situation. Hope is re-ignited when Jason, the teenage boy driving the car that killed Danny, comes into their lives.  Rabbit Hole gives us a family that is highly functional, unsentimental, spirited and, often, funny people who are trying to maneuver their way through their grief and around each other as best they can.

The production is directed by theatre titan Victoria Rue.  Dr. Rue’s work as a theatre director and playwright has been seen in Los Angeles at the Mark Taper Forum, San Francisco's American Conservatory Theatre, and New York's Shakespeare Festival, among other theatres.

“This is a play about compassion,” said Victoria Rue. “Grief and rage and love rise up.  We also laugh. We recognize this as our human condition.”

A quietly moving play, the story explores the reconnection of relationships and the possibilities of hope after tragedy. Rabbit Hole, is a beautifully observed and heartfelt look into the grief and healing one family experiences dealing with a death in the family. Meticulously mapped, Lindsay-Abaire never indulges with sentiment.

“Lindsay-Abaire’s story is about how grief is often held so tightly to the chest that it is difficult for our arms to embrace the present.” said Victoria Rue.

“Rabbit Hole” is Lindsay-Abaire’s first naturalistic work, a departure from his trademark style of dark comedy seen in previous plays such as “Fuddy Meers” and “Kimberly Akimbo.” Despite the differences, Lindsay-Abaire said all his plays deal with the same underlying dilemma: “… it’s about characters finding themselves in an upside-down world and trying to find clarity in a world that doesn’t make any sense.”

The cast includes  Kristin Brownstone as Becca; Steven Capasso as Howie; Nan Dejarlais as Becca’s mother, Nat;  MarNae Taylor as Becca’s sister, Izzy; and Taylor Closs as Jason.

Dates for “Rabbit Hole” are: Friday, May. 14 (Opening), and closing Sunday, June 6.    

Performances are Friday through Saturday at 8PM and Sundays at 3PM.

All performances at Actors’ Theatre, 1001 Center St., Santa Cruz

Tickets are $16 general; $13 students/seniors. Buy tickets at the theatre box office one hour before show times.

To make a reservation, call 831.425.PLAY (831.425.7529). You can also purchase tickets at www.brownpapertickets.com or Visit Actors’ Theatre website at www.santacruzactorstheatre.org

 

CONTACT:  Director, Victoria Rue 831-566-1839 or Marketing Director, Andrew Stewart 831-332-5097

 



Returning to Actors’ Theatre the hugely popular Best of the Rest Play Festival of 10 minute plays opens Thursday March 25th 2010 for one special weekend only.  The festival is a wonderful smorgasbord of eight short plays debuted as staged readings.

Chosen out of 155 entries from all over the world, this play festival has something for everyone.  Artistic director Shara Free has chosen eight diverse directors to execute this mixture of styles and subjects.

Local or nearby playwrights are represented by: 

Leah Halper from San Jose offering By Way of Delhi, a playful drama, to be directed by Jeff Dinnell; Steven Walton-Hadlock also from San Jose, represents Lt. Butterfly, a modern drama about war torn Iraq, to be directed by Nabil Ghachem;  From Tarzana CA, Fine Outstanding Young Women by Mark Novom, brings us a comedy about two young men and their difficulties with girls, to be directed by Rachelle Campillo; and The Accident,  by Jean Blasair from Pasadena, is a drama that reveals there’s usually more to the story, to be directed by Stuart Serman.

Farther afield are the following plays:

The Flagger by Margaret Poethig of Virginia, which is a realistic drama to be directed by Wilma Marcus Chandler, creator of the 8 10’s @ 8; and the remaining are all from North Carolina: Facing Change by Deborah Barrett, a humbling drama that will be directed by Glenda Dixon; Hey, My Man,  by Kent Cooper, deals with the irony of class perspective, to be directed by Andrew Crocker; and Waiting Gate a story about past lovers reminiscing at the gates of heaven, by Alex Maggio, to be directed by Scott Kravitz.

All performances at Actors’ Theatre, 1001 Center St., Santa Cruz

Performances are Thursday March 25th through Saturday March 27th at 8PM and Sunday, March 28th at 3PM.

Tickets are $10 general; $8 students/seniors; Buy tickets at the theatre box office one hour before show times. To make a reservation, call 831.425.PLAY (831.425.7529).  Visit Actors’ Theatre website at www.santacruzactorstheatre.org