Tucson: ETCETERA, the late night series, presents OLEANNA at Live Theatre Workshop

 

From: Christopher Johnson [mailto:corpuschristopher@hotmail.com]
Sent: Friday, February 12, 2010 4:16 PM
Subject: ETCETERA, the late night series, presents OLEANNA at Live Theatre Workshop

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

ETCETERA, the late night series at Live Theatre Workshop, proudly presents...

 

OLEANNA

a play by David Mamet

 

Directed by Sheldon Metz

 

Featuring Danielle Dryer and Bill Epstein

 

March 5-20, 2010

Friday and Saturday Nights at 10:30 PM

Tickets $10 at the Box Office

Call 327-4242 for Reservations

Only 6 performances! Seating Limited!

www.EtceteraLateNight.com

 

LIVE THEATRE WORKSHOP - 5317 E Speedway | Tucson, AZ 85712

Located on the North side of Speedway Boulevard b/t Rosemont and Craycroft

 

SYNOPSIS:

A college student, Carol (Danielle Dryer), drops by her professor's office in an effort to gain his help to do better in class. John (Bill Epstein), the professor, in the midst of buying a house to celebrate his nomination for tenure, at first seems distant. As the first meeting progresses the two discuss the nature of understanding and judgment in society, as well as their very own natures and places in our society. It seems as if a bond has been made. When next they meet we find that a report has been filed to the tenure committee. Carol has joined a "group" and has decided that John sexually harassed her during their first meeting. Their second meeting dissects the first; every word, every nuance of the first meeting has been twisted into something else. Or has it? John's unsuccessful attempts to convince Carol to retract her accusation escalate to a more dangerous level. The third meeting, one the court officers warned against, climaxes violently, leaving John and Carol both physically and emotionally devastated.

 

ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES:

 

DANIELLE DRYER - Carol - has previously performed with ETCETERA as Riff Raff (The Rocky Horror Show), Roberta (Danny and the Deep Blue Sea), Token Dyke (The Importance Of Being Earnest), Cat (Kitty Kitty Kitty), Yitzhak (Hedwig and the Angry Inch) for which she received a 2009 MAC Award nomination for Best Actress, April (Savage In Limbo), R.C. (Bug), Tybalt (Romeo & Juliet), The Dolphin Masturbator (Old Pueblo Playwrights: UNBOUND) and Bottom (A Midsummer Night’s Dream). For ETCETERA Danielle has directed Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead and Sweet Eros and co-directed ETCETERA’s production of Bug with Christopher Johnson. In 2008, Danielle graduated from The University of Arizona with a degree in Art History.

 

BILL EPSTEIN - John - A Professor of English at the University of Arizona, Bill has produced, directed, written, and acted in productions in the U.S. and Britain, on campuses (Dartmouth, Purdue, Cambridge, Arizona) and in community and commercial theaters. He has played leads in mummers' plays, commedia dell'arte, musicals (West Side Story, Bells Are Ringing), comedies (Simon's Plaza Suite, Mankowitz's It Should Happen to a Dog, Shaw's Misalliance, Hart’s Light Up the Sky, Rudnick’s I Hate Hamlet), and dramas (Pinter's Old Times, Sophocles' Antigone, Chekhov’s The Festivities, Levin’s Deathtrap, Gilroy's The Subject Was Roses, Russell's Educating Rita), as well as supporting roles in Shakespeare (Hamlet, Taming of the Shrew, Measure for Measure), Brecht, Chekhov, Christie, Fo, Genet, Giraudoux, Peter Shaffer, Shaw, Simon, Uhry, Wilde, Wilder, and others. In Tucson, he has acted with, among others, Arizona Repertory Theatre, Beowulf Alley Theatre, Borderlands Theatre, Catalina Players, Festival Repertory Theatre, Quintessential Productions, The Rogue Theatre, and Tucson Theatre Ensemble. Two of the plays he has acted in received MAC Awards for Best Comedy. This is his eleventh appearance with Live Theatre Workshop, his second with ETCETERA.

 

SHELDON METZ - Director - has directed theatre for over 48 years, starting as a teen in Chicago and later  in Los Angeles, but has been involved in almost every aspect of the performing arts. He founded and served as Executive Director of A.C.C.T., too! - in Los Angeles, and as Director of the West Coast Theatre Conference (Los Angeles) and The Theatre Conference (New York). Sheldon served as a Producing Director for the Playwrights Kitchen Ensemble, at the Canon Theatre, under the Artistic Direction of Dan Lauria, where he also directed professional readings and productions. He has also taught beginning acting and directing. He received Directing awards for his productions of The Cover of Life , I’m Not Rappaport,  The Cocktail Hour, The Elephant Man, Play It Again, Sam and The Dresser. His most recent full-length production was Proof which he directed in Los Angeles and at Tucson’s Beowulf Alley Theatre, where he runs the Old Time Radio Shows.  He was the recent winning director of the Old Pueblo Playwrights’ Play-in-a-Day. Sheldon Thanks his wife Linda who allows him to do this (and collaborates, as well). 

 

DAVID MAMET - Playwright - Born on November 30, 1947 in Flossmoor, Illinois, David Mamet studied at Goddard College in Vermont and at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of Theater in New York before venturing into the professional world of the Theatre. He began his career as an actor and director before achieving success in 1976 with three Off-Off Broadway plays, The Duck Variations, Sexual Perversity in Chicago, and American Buffalo. The most recognized element of Mamet's style is his sparse, clipped dialogue. Although reminiscent of such playwrights as Harold Pinter and Samuel Beckett, Mamet's dialogue is so unique that it has become known as "Mametspeak". His language is not so much "naturalistic" as it is a poetic impression of streetwise jargon. Other signature elements of Mamet's style include minimalism and a lack of stage directions. Noted for his strong male characters, Mamet's plays often deal with the decline of morality in a world which has become an emotional and spiritual wasteland. In 1984, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Glengarry Glen Ross which recreated the atmosphere of a gritty Chicago real estate office in which Levine, an aging salesman, is about to be sacked. He followed up in 1988 with Speed the Plow which exposes the dirty underside of another undustry--show business. Perhaps his most controversial play, however, came in 1992 with Oleanna, a two-character drama involving charges of sexual harassment between a male professor and one of his female students. In 1981, Mamet turned his attention to screenwriting and made an impressive debut with his first screenplay, The Postman Always Rings Twice, which he adapted from the novel by James Cain. He has since turned out a number of critically acclaimed screenplays including The Verdict (1982), The Untouchables (1987), Glengarry Glen Ross (1992) and Wag the Dog (1998) and is now considered to be among the industry's finest craftsmen. Mamet has taught at Goddard College, the Yale Drama School and New York University. His awards include the Joseph Jefferson Award, 1974; Obie Award, 1976, 1983; New York Drama Critics Circle Award, 1977, 1984; Outer Circle Award, 1978; Society of West End Theatre Award, 1983; Pulitzer Prize, 1984; Dramatists Guild Hall-Warriner Award, 1984; American Academy Award, 1986; Tony Award, 1987.

 

 

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