Wings Theatre

Halvard Solness, a brilliantly successful architect, has willed his unspoken desire into reality at every turn—but not without a price.  Now he lives in fear that the next generation will rise up and cast him aside. When Hilda Wangel, a bewitching young woman, arrives to collect on a decade-old debt, she breathes new life into the Solness home but also rekindles painful memories. Will she help him reach the pinnacle, or will she be the one to finally knock the Master Builder from his tower?

Directed by Emmy Award winner Blake Bradford, The Master Builder is a taut psychological drama by Henrik Ibsen, author of A Doll's House and Hedda Gabler.

"She was sixteen and mean; beautiful and smashing..." when Jason was twenty-four he fell for Abby, the sixteen-year-old daughter of his hero, famous novelist James Meadows.  Now, five years later, Jason has written a book about their relationship and it is a huge hit!  What do you do when your first love writes a book about what a bitch you were and about that time when you refused to give him oral sex?  Well, Abby and her best friend Clea go to London to confront Jason (and, in Clea's case, to find Madonna), but things don't turn out quite like everyone expected them to. 

Claude's journal.  Seattle. 1994.  Ahem.  'Two households, both alike in dignity'.... no, that sucks. Let's see – 'As I remember Adam, it was upon this fashion bequeathed to me'...wait, what? What the hell does bequeath even mean? 'If music be the food of love, play on'.  Perfect!  I mean, whatever.  It's okay, I guess.  Actually, that band sold out ages ago.  I'm going to tell you a better story.

The good: We won Battle of the Bands, life is sweet, and I'm madly in love with Piper but have no friggin idea how to tell her.  The bad: Ben's constantly arguing with Betty (why won't they stop already?)  I have no idea what to say to kinda convince her to marry me. The solution: a couple of big old white lies to convince Piper I'm the one and to prove to both Ben and Betty that the other's not so bad.  It's a perfect plan (even with my chronically evil and depressed drummer lurking and the gossip hounds abounding – but why would those things get in the way?) Kinda funny that I mentioned them without provocation.  Whatever.  So, tour bus has just returned home.  Cue the babes, the beer, and Piper (sigh).  Wish me luck. PS – 'The Solution' is kind of catchy.  Might be good nickname for myself.  Signed, Claude.

Mid 90's Seattle – a society apart from the world and totally bored with everything America. There's no better place for an adaptation of Shakespeare's 'Much Ado About Nothing'. Especially since everybody around seems to have a hand in a few different schemes and open mind to what they always thought was true. Enjoy the gossip, the music, and travel back a few years to when plaid and ripped jeans were the uniform for the lovers and fighters alike.

Join the celebration and see if you can keep up with the mismatched lovers as they dive through enough gossip to make the Enquirer team blush.

Big City Hick is the story of a country girl's love affair with New York City. Even as a little girl growing up on the outskirts of a small rural Kansas coal mining town Linda Hill already wanted to live in the Big Apple one day. Although the tiny four room house had no running water, there was the Zenith TV's flickering eye in the corner of the living room which told the little girl great tales of Broadway Show Girls and beautiful big houses and furniture. Her longing for that far away city was underscored by the great old country music that her parents' radio provided. The journey from there to the bright lights and Big City is a story of self discovery and self acceptance. It is a story of possibility and the realization that being true to your soul is the greatest dream of all.
It is a journey through the heartland in the truest sense of the word. It is a story of innocence lost and regained. It is an American story. A story for everyone who has had to fight to be who they truly are.

Using an American trailer park as a backdrop, this iconic Shakespearean tragedy/romance is re-imagined by director Gretchen Ferris in Zephyer Rep's production of Romeo and Juliet.

The tale of two star-crossed lovers who discover that true love doesn't always heed generations-long grudges. Will these two lovebirds work through an age old family rivalry and live happily ever after?  Do they ever?  Love, tears, epic fight scenes, and laughs: come and be reminded why Shakespeare's words are still relevant and touching today.

Meet Anna, a 30 something funny and frank southern warrior living and thriving in Seattle with her rocker husband and 3 year old kid. As a mom, a wife and a survivor she's handled more than her fair share of drama, but nothing could have prepared her for this. The New Normal: Sometimes survivors need a survival guide.

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The New Normal is a groundbreaking original full-length play developed by Coyote REP Theatre Company and written by Donnetta Lavinia Grays. Inspired by the life of 2009 Puget Sound Survivor of the Year Anna Warren Schumacher, it is a hard hitting play that tells the unique story of how a young woman finds humor and grace in the unexpected challenges of survival.

Starring Nell Mooney*, Michael Mason, Andrea Caban* and Emily Rossell*

*Actors Appear Courtesy of Actors Equity Association

New York City - 1928. Away from the bustle of Wall Street and the jazz of speakeasies, Helen Jones is trapped and suffocated by her duties as a daughter, a wife, and a mother. Yet after tasting a glimpse of passion and freedom through a brief love affair, she is unable to return to the confinement of her marriage and decides to do something no woman of her time would have dared... Only to have the machine of society and human justice force her back into submission.

Tony and Steve were once happily engaged to be married.

It didn't end well. 

One went to rehab and the other went to Ben and Jerry's.  A lot.  So when they both unexpectedly showed up with friends on their prepaid honeymoon where us three reformed country crooners reside with Miss Lindy Loo... well... our lives became much more complicated.  Young love blossoms on our beaches, old love becomes violent on the dance floor.  There's blogs, and strip tap dancing, and even Christian Yoga going on here.  How odd!   

We'd tell you more, but we're too busy cleaning up the mess these people left. 

xoxo,
The Cowgirlettes

 

WINGS THEATRE PRESENTS THE NEW YORK PREMIERE OF THE UNFORTUNATE HONEYMOON OF TONY AND STEVE

Aug 5-29, 2010 at Wings Theatre (154 Christopher St)

Blake Bradford's Unfortunate Honeymoon first premiered in Toronto in 2008.  Wings Theatre is proud to present the NY Premiere of this zangy country western comedy about the redemptive power of love.  Following a bad breakup, Tony and Steve are reunited when they both show up on their prepaid honeymoon to Lindy Loo's Hideaway in the Bahamas.  They come to an agreement to immediately part company, but things go awry when the friends they brought along (Rachel, a blog editor, and Bobby, a suburbanite college kid) fall head over heels for each other.  Lindy Loo and her Cowgirlettes try everything they can to reconnect the boys during their time at the Hideaway, but it isn't until Steve's Born-Again mother (a Christian Yoga enthusiast) and grandmother (who has a few secrets up her sleeve) arrive that things get heated and rekindled.  Can the boys learn to forgive and start all over again? 

The birds and the ants are set to invade your house. Somewhere else, there is a war. Where are you needed the most? Who are you going to take care of? Who is going to take care of you?

Dulcy, by George S. Kaufman and Marc Connelly, is a zany, screwball comedy about Dulcy, the madcap young newlywed who loves her husband, the movies, and meddling in everyone else's affairs, not necessarily in that order.  Dulcy is certain that, with a little help from her, her husband will make a brilliant business deal, the daughter of a houseguest will elope with a silent film writer whom she has just met, her butler will stay out of jail, and the millionaire who is visiting will fall in love with another guest, even though she is married to Dulcy's husband's business partner!  Will Dulcy destroy everything accidentally instead?  It's certainly possible!

Featuring an all-female cast, Zephyer Rep's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream sets the action in that wonderful era of folly and excess: 1980's.  First mounted to much acclaim in 2006, Blake Bradford's Dream follows four young lovers as they flee the city of Athens to find freedom and love in the forest. There they discover a place of enchantment, inhabited by fairies and their warring masters, Titania and Oberon. A group of local artisans rehearsing a play also look to the forest for privacy, but everyone's plans are disrupted by the impish prankster Puck. One of Shakespeare's most beloved comedies, A Midsummer Night's Dream evokes a world of rebellion, magic and romance, where chaos erupts, lovers are mismatched, and all is reconciled through the wonder and power of love. 
 

STEPS, is a serio-comedic one-woman show that tells the journey of a 20-year-old woman, born and raised in rural Wisconsin, moving to New York City and the steps she took to get there.  Amidst telling personal stories of her adventure that depict her own struggle to find the meaning of one’s identity, she discusses the issue through the perspective of three other fictional characters from different “walks of life,” performing their laments in attempt to shed light on the universal metaphor that is “identity.”

Zephyer Rep is proud to return with their cabaret series ANGEL DRAKE PRESENTS: SONGS TO STALK BY

The evening will be for and about jealousy, desire, and of course, STALKING!  Come check out some of NYC's finest as they sing their hearts out.   Join them for a short interview after the song as they discuss why they chose that particular song and what significance it has to their life.  It's like Jay Leno, except with a personality.
 

At the end of the evening there's an audience favorite vote where winner takes home $50!
 

THIS JUST IN:  Miss Drake is being called away to New Orleans to perform.  She sent a cryptic note saying she's sending her Cougar Cousins... !

Take five directors, five writers, twenty actors and twenty-four hours, and you have a fabulous evening of theatre!  Join Zephyer Rep for the very first Zephyer Fest, where twenty-four hours previously the writers are given the parameters, the next morning the directors and actors are given the script, and the finished product is shows to you on Saturday night at 7p!  At the end, prizes are awarded to the shows as voted by the audience, and an awesome time is had by all!

I Am Jim Thompson is an exploration of the life and disappearance of
Jim Thompson, an American businessman noted for revitalizing the Thai
silk industry, who disappeared on Easter Sunday, 1967 in the highlands
of Malaysia. He was never found.

The multi-narrative musical explores Jim Thompson at three stages in
his life. He is portrayed by three different actors: age 25, a
graduate student in architecture yearning to leave the confines of his
suburban Delaware upbringing; 35, a spy in Southeast Asia during World
War II and an architect struggling to find his place in post-War
America; 55, a silk-magnate in Thailand seemingly at the top of the
world.

I Am Jim Thompson is an American story about a man trying to connect
with himself, understand the people he loves and ultimately struggle
to find his place.

Two-time Emmy winner Joan Darling returns to the New York stage with her regionally acclaimed one-woman show Joni vs The Bard: The Shakespeare Smackdown.

In the vein of Al Pacino's Looking for Richard and Ian McKellen's Acting Shakespeare, Joan will share her lifelong passion for Shakespeare and how it can be thrilling, engaging, and most important FUN. Melt into the worlds Shakespeare creates as she performs some of her favorite selections from Romeo and Juliet, Twelfth Night, and Julius Caesar. This show has a jolly, interactive nature and is perfect for anyone ranging from middle schoolers first learning the work to aged Shakespeare veterans.
 

Joan Darling

Joan is no stranger to Shakespeare. She starred at the Ashland Oregon Shakespeare Festival for two seasons, and was awarded "Best Actress" both years. She went on to perform at the American Shakespeare Festival in Stratford as Viola in Twelfth Night, to much acclaim. Joan then joined the award winning improvisational theater company, The Premise, with Gene Hackman, Tom Aldredge, and Ron Liebman as well as starring on Broadway in Leda had a Little Swan and A Minor Adjustment. She won an Emmy for her performance in Dorothy Parker, Woven in Crazy Plaid.

She was the first woman nominated for an Emmy for directing. She has been nominated four times and won an Emmy for directing Mom's on Strike. Her episode of "The Nurses" for M.A.S.H. was nominated for an Emmy and is included in the Best of M.A.S.H. episode.

She is considered the first woman director of the modern age and blazed the way for the women who followed in her footsteps. Her first directing assignment was Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, which was featured on the cover of every major magazine from Newsweek to Rolling Stone within six weeks of its debut. She followed that by directing the world famous episode "Chuckles the Clown" of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, named by the New York Times as the funniest half hour ever on television, and selected by TV Guide as the number one television episode of all time.

Her first feature, First Love, was named one of the Ten Best of 1978 by CBS. She was the first woman to direct Magnum P.I. and among her many other television credits are Rich Man, Poor Man, Doc, Rhoda, Doogie Howser, M.D., and Civil Wars.

She is renowned as a teacher (her classes in LA have had up to a five year waiting list) and is a lifelong Shakespeare enthusiast. She created the "Directing the Actor" workshop for the Sundance Institute and has served as a creative adviser at the Director's Lab at Sundance for the last seventeen years. She also has served as a creative adviser at the European Moonstone Labs. Joan Darling has been honored by the Museum of Broadcasting as a "Woman Who Made It."

 

Joni vs The Bard: The Shakespeare Smackdown

Written by and Starring Joan Darling

Directed by Blake Bradford

Assistant Director: Karen Brelsford

Stage Manager: Gabriel Garcia

Music Director: Mark Evans

Costumes: Peggy Queener

Percy Talbot has been released from prison after serving time for manslaughter and lands in Gilead, Wisconsin working at the Spitfire Grill. In this sleepy town, things start to move when the owner of the Spitfire Grill - the only eatery in the struggling town - decides to raffle it off for a $100 a shot and an essay describing why you want to win the grill. Soon, mail is arriving by the wheelbarrow full and things are definitely heating up in Gilead. This musical triumph is an inspiring celebration of fresh starts and the power of what one person can do.

Everyone has issues. All of Justin's live in North Carolina.

Justin's an up and coming artist thriving in NYC whose world grinds to a halt when the worse thing possible happens to him - he gets the call to come home due to his grandmother's failing health. Slinking back to small town North Carolina with his latest one night stand forced upon him, he finds himself back neck deep in the family issues that he had been avoiding for more than a decade and facing the girl he left behind. In the midst of the culture clash between small town quirkiness and big city society behavior, Justin may actually discover what he had been running from for all of those years. Emmy-winner Blake Bradford's newest play takes a hard look at the humor and heartache of going home.

RETURN ENGAGEMENT AT WINGS THEATRE
 

Taking place in San Francisco, circa 1959, Caprice centers around a theatre devoted to new musicals where an egotistical artistic director is casting a new production with his intrepid associate. Just as they're about to cast an actress who's perfect for the lead, a manipulative diva walks in and seduces the director into giving her the starring role. A bright and breezy backstage musical with duelling divas, naive ingenues and conniving board members, Caprice is a show about dreamers and schemers who come to see themselves as they really are.

After the death of her husband, Bernarda Alba imposes a traditional mourning period of eight years on her household. Bernarda has always ruled her home with an iron fist and kept her five daughters on "short chains." Now that she is the sole dictator, her daughters are left with little escape from her oppression. As a consequence of their father's death, the eldest daughter is left wealthy, while the younger sisters are left with little. This new wealth attracts a suitor, which ignites jealousy and passion among the sisters whom have never been allowed a romance of their own. Each of the sisters copes with their mother's violence, their sisters' jealousy and their repressed desires in her own way, but when the youngest decides to break free at all costs, her actions threaten to destroy them all.

St. Bart's Players will present the Tony winning FOLLIES at Wings Theatre, 154 Christopher St., April 26 – May 4. The Stephen Sondheim/James Goldman hit opened on Broadway in 1971 and won seven Tony Awards including Best Score. The legendary musical masterpiece includes: "Losing My Mind," "I'm Still Here," and "Broadway Baby." St. Bart's revival will be the fully staged Concert Version; there will be a preview on Sat., April 26 at 2 p.m. and open that evening at 8 p.m. For tickets call or visit St. Bart's Central (Open Daily 8 a.m. – 6 p.m): (212) 378-0248 & 378-0222, St. Bartholomew's Church Lobby, Park Ave. betw. 50 & 51 Sts.

Your god called. He/she commands that you attend Phare Play Productions' Spring Shorts. While avoiding the vengeful wrath of your god, take a look at how one's beliefs color a sphere of circumstances ranging from worship to drinking games, from runaways to the Home Shopping Network. You'll find that laugh-out-loud comedy, romance, and thought provoking pieces abound. This collection of one acts will leave you laughing, crying and maybe even provoke your core beliefs. Plus, you won't get struck down by lightning if you attend. Oh, and your god says to bring friends.

1) "The Super Big Blow-Out Bash at Dionysus' Pad"
Written and directed by Kymm Zuckert

Three gods at a party have a contest to try to get a new believer.

Starring: Nick Masson, Rachel McPhee, Zack Rothman-Hicks, Aref Syed, Michael Weems and Shuo Zhang.

2) "Sorted" by Roland Uruci
Directed by Patricia Drozda

A bickering couple gets more than they expected after a mysteriously enigmantic man hops in their backseat.

Starring: Abraham Adams, Gina Labozetta and Tim Kondrat.

3) "Drunk Reckonings" by Zack Rothman-Hicks
Directed by Susanne Gottesman-Traub

Four drunk college students get a new perspective on life when they hear a news report that aliens are taking over the planet.

Starring: Janice Amano, Mara Dratfield, Chelsea Holland and Miguel Rosales.

4) "Fifi, Effie and the Donut Lady" by Peggy Queener
Directed by Glenn English

In crisis, world-famous Fifi La Grange returns to New York after four months away to entreat help from her two best friends.

Starring: Beth Adler, Sally Connors, Peggy Queener, Zach Rothman-Hicks and Aref Syed.

5) "Taking Toll" by Kendall Rileigh
Directed by Cara Scarmack

A young runaway and her mother find salvation in an unlikely guardian.

Starring: Deborah Johnstone, Natalie Neckyfarow and George Remes.

6) "Burden Me" by Michael Weems
Directed by Aimee Todoroff

A despondent young man seeking answers at church encounters a well-meaning, but troubled groom and his bride-to-be, a painfully familiar face from his past.

Starring: Bill Bria, Nicholas Santasier and Nora Vetter.

Phare Play Productions is proud to present Emmy-winner Joan Darling as Prospero in their all-female production of Shakespeare's The Tempest. Known as his fantastical swan song, The Tempest follows Prospero, a deposed magician that inhabits a distant island with his young daughter Miranda. With the help of the sprite Ariel (Kerry Shear), Prospero is able to bring those responsible for his misfortunes to his island for his final retribution. Shakespeare's grand tale of revenge, betrayal, and most importantly forgiveness, comes to life under the direction of Artistic Director Blake Bradford.

If your parents knew everything about you before you were born, would you be here?

All is well when Suzanne Gold and her close New York family discover that she is pregnant, until a prenatal genetics test reveals that the baby will most likely be homosexual. The news forces the entire Gold family to confront issues of bigotry, evolution and the limits of love.

The Engagement: A Snatch of Life in Three Acts deals with the dynamics of relationships among siblings, friends and lovers. It is a comedic drama about two women on the cusp of marriage, staring down ex-girlfriends and family members who can't stay civil in the face of their union. Gay or straight, this is a "great date" show.

LAND O'FIRE was the recipient of the National Latino Playwriting Award in 2005. Based on the story of two voyages of the HMS The Beagle to Tierra del Fuego in the 1830's, Land O' Fire is the story of South American Indians plucked from their home and transported to Victorian England to be "Christianized." The growing attachment of one of the Indians, Jemmy Button, to his surrogate father, Captain Fitzroy, leads to inevitable heartbreak when Fitzroy returns the Indians to their home. Told from the point of view of the Indians, Land O'Fire is a remarkably timely work, hilarious at times yet always keenly insightful in its examination of life interfered with and forever damaged by association with a "superior" culture.

The production features scenic design by J. Wiese, costume design by Debra Otte, with assistant design by Stephanie Cathro, who will also be doing the puppets. The lighting will be designed by Joe Doviak and sound designed by David Lawson. Marla Meisner will be composing music for the production.

'Galileo' spans 33 years in 90 minutes. Unlike Brecht, who used the character of Galileo to write about his own time, this 'Galileo' is written from documents and history and focuses on the world of seventeenth century Italy. The drama tells of Galileo's love for Marina Gamba, his mistress of 12 years, his ambiguous relationship with Pope Urban VIII, the life and death of his daughter, and a dramatic trial at the end

The discovery of an infant's remains on a construction site begins an investigation that leads a priest and an archivist on a chase through time. Following the yellowed pages of a book called *Jigsaw*, which chronicles a similar investigation of forty years earlier, the protagonists begin to wonder if the mystery of the infant's death is doomed to repeat itself time and again.

As they are drawn deeper into the mystery they become inextricably caught up in the events, and their only recourse is to solve the puzzle that begins and ends in a dark and ill-fated edifice, *The Rose Hotel *.

Spiral Inc. presents a Bare Bones Production

A hip and edgy BladeRunner-meets-Rocky Horror Picture Show rock musical that takes place in the not-too-distant future, where body parts are bought, sold and subject to repossession...

A darkly humorous fable about the consequences of a culture of disposable youth

Something strange is happening in the country town of Hollow. When a syndrome which seems to strike only at the young begins to kill off the town's children, authorities quarantine the rural community.

Three final year school students – Tania, Phil and Sally – are getting ready to move on – but to what and to where? Success in economics and account exams may be the only passport out of a place which goes out of its way to promise them little.

As the mysterious outbreak reaches epidemic proportions, friendship and alliances are stretched to the breaking point, while choices between life and death become simultaneously fantastical and apocalyptic.

A musical adventure based on the classic tale

Directed by Jeffery Corrick
Musical direction Paul L. Johnson

This showcase has 14 actors and is only an hour long.

The scenes are short and all around 3 min. each.

Great actors and funny scenes with a follow up of food and beverages, what more could you want?