Big, Little Theatre

Austin (Thomas Amici), an Ivy League-educated, hopeful screenwriter, has returned to his mother's home outside L.A., intent on selling his latest script to a Hollywood producer. But Austin's world is turned upside down when his older brother Lee (Tim Scott), a crude petty thief, shows up unexpectedly and tries to sell his story - a "true" American western - to the intrigued producer. As the two estranged men wrangle over their screenplays, bicker, get drunk, and trash the house, they soon come to realize that deep down they may not be so different after all. Also features James Pravasilis and Julie M. Finch. Stage Managed by Russell Marisak.

Sharing the same bill with Back Bog Beast Bait, The Unseen Hand, by Sam Shepard, is a haunting protest against the dehumanizing tendencies of modern societies and a powerful affirmation of the human spirit. The play moves after the "revolution" in a surrealistic and Kafkaesque world. Nogoland is the area ruled absolutely in which three brothers, old style "desperadoes" from the Wild West have been summoned out of the 19th century by the single individual who is trying to throw off the yoke of his inhuman oppressors.

Directed by Tom Amici

‘NIGHT, MOTHER is best summed up in the words of Frank Rich writing for the New York Times:
"Miss Norman's play is simple only in the way that an Edward Hopper painting is simple. As she perfectly captures the intimate details of two individual, ordinary women, this playwright locates the emptiness that fills too many ordinary homes on too many faceless streets in the vast country we live in now."
Does ‘night, Mother say no to hope? It's easy to feel that way after reeling from this play's crushing blow. But there can be hope if there is understanding, and it is Marsha Norman's profound achievement that she brings both understanding and dignity to forgotten and tragic American lives.

The cast of ‘NIGHT, MOTHER includes Leslye Anderson and Evangeline Johns.

‘NIGHT, MOTHER Directed by Max McGuire.

Sharing the same bill with States of Shock, Forensic and the Navigators is set in the post-apocalyptic future, where two rebellious men attempt to liberate an asylum run by a vicious opposing faction. As the story plays out, we discover the two sides may not be so different in their thinking. First performed in 1967, many parallels in this piece can be drawn to present-day conflicts, with both funny and disturbing results.
This play is a brilliant exploration through the landscape of the tortured minds of two army veterans, played against the cold indifference of those who are not touched by war. It first appeared at the American Place Theatre on April 30th, 1991, an apparent response to the 1st Gulf war, but the power of this drama forces the audience to conclude that any war is hell.

Set #1
In FORENSIC AND THE NAVIGATORS, set in the post- apocalyptic future, two rebellious men attempt to liberate an asylum run by a vicious opposing faction. As the story plays out, we discover the two sides may not be so different in their thinking. First performed in 1967, many parallels in this piece can be drawn to present-day conflicts, with both funny and disturbing results.

STATES OF SHOCK, this play is a brilliant exploration through the landscape of the tortured minds of two army veterans, played against the cold indifference of those who are not touched by war. It first appeared at the American Place Theatre on April 30th, 1991, an apparent response to the 1st Gulf war, but the power of his drama forces the audience to conclude that any war is hell.

FORENSIC AND THE NAVIGATORS Directed by Tom Amici
STATES OF SHOCK Directed by Joe Benenati
Mondays & Tuesdays, August 1st through August 29th @ 8pm

Set #2
SAVAGE/ LOVE by Sam Shepard and Joseph Chaikin is a series of nineteen monologues about the universal hope and fear inevitably involved in forging a relationship. An internal monologue, it travels through the spectrum of one person's journey towards a mutual understanding with a lover.

In 4-H CLUB, three ragged and aimless young men exist in a landscape of apocalypse and destruction. They succumb to occasional fits of violence and paranoia as they search for daily sustenance.

In ROCK GARDEN, a family holding on to the past, a boy must break his ties to become a man. One of Sam Shepard's earliest plays, this family farce explores the depths of alienation in the American home.

Wednesdays, Thursdays, & Fridays, August 2nd through August 31st @ 8pm

Set #3
SEDUCED, depicts an almost surreal Howard Hughes- like figure in the character of Henry Hackamore, the drama's tragic-comic lead. This comic and brilliantly revealing allegory is both entertaining and often thought provoking.
directed by Joe Zarro

August 5th through August 27th Saturdays @ 8pm and Sundays @ 2pm & 8pm

In GEOGRAPHY OF A HORSE DREAMER, Shepard sounds off like a bucking bronco on Art and the Seduction of the Artist. Picture: Cody, a man with the other-worldly gift to dream the winners of horse races - kidnapped by gangsters and dragged to a hotel room in an undisclosed country where - alas - he loses his gift. #%@&! All hell, hilarity and madness break out here as Cody struggles desperately to recapture his essence, knowing all too well that his life means nothing if he can no longer deliver. "Something drastic must take place!"

In the Obie Award-winning play "Action", four characters search for purpose in a foreign world that is somehow strangely familiar to them. As they try to "act out" a normal life together, their true nature reveals itself, with surprising and sometimes disturbing results.

"Cowboys #2", a rewrite of Sam Shepard's lost first play, tells the story of two young men who create a world for themselves in a void where the only limit is the extent of their imagination. That world begins to dissolve, as an impending external force works to separate and destroy them. As they struggle to survive, they find that force may not be quite so external.

Lastly, in "Chicago", another Obie Award winner, what do you do when your wife is leaving you and the world as you know it is quickly falling apart? You take a bath, of course! Join our hero, Stu, as he does just that in an attempt to cope with his loss, and in doing so, may just save the fate of mankind!

In an experience harkening back to the early days of Café La Mama and Theatre Genesis, these wickedly absurd and surprisingly poignant gems from the Shepard tome is sure to leave an indelible impression on your mind.