For Immediate Release |
Press Info.: James Breen (805) 965-5400 x103
jbreen@ensembletheatre.com
www.ensembletheatre.com
Box Office (805) 965-5400
August 2, 2009 |
Ensemble Theatre Company Celebrates its 30th Anniversary
with an Eclectic Season
(Santa Barbara, CA)– Ensemble Theatre Company of Santa Barbara (ETC), under the artistic direction of Jonathan Fox, will celebrate its upcoming 30th Anniversary Season of five plays with an eclectic mixture of comedies and dramas, which will open with a quirky musical homage to film noir. The season opens October 1, 2009 and runs through June of 2010. In addition to the mainstage series, ETC is planning a number of celebratory events.
The season kicks off with Gunmetal Blues, a jazzy musical of lost love and too much bourbon. With book by Scott Wentworth and music and lyrics by Craig Bohmer and Marion Adler, and set in an airport lounge, the show tells the story of down-and-out private eye Sam Galahad, whose life is overturned when a mysterious blonde hires him to find a missing person. talkingbroadway.com calls the musical “one hell of a good time in the theatre.” The production runs from October 1 - 25, 2009 and will be directed by Risa Brainin, who has worked a numerous prestigious theatres throughout the country including Shakespeare Santa Cruz, Kansas City Repertory, Indiana Repertory Theatre, the Guthrie Theater and is Associate Professor at UCSB department of Drama and Dance.
In December, ETC will present Trying, by Joanna McClellan Glass, in cooperation with Rubicon Theatre Company and Center Rep in Walnut Creek. Running from December 3 through 27, 2009, the play is a warm-hearted remembrance of Judge Francis Biddle who, in his younger days, was Attorney General under Franklin Roosevelt and Chief American Judge at the Nuremberg Trials. At 81, crusty and curmudgeonly as he faces the end of his illustrious career, his biggest trial now is trying not to scare off yet another secretary. The New York Times called Trying “comic and touching.” This warm and witty play about aging and cross-generational connections will be directed by Jenny Sullivan (The Clean House and The Memory of Water).
Florence Foster Jenkins fancied herself a grand opera singer. There was just one problem: she was tone deaf. This true story is the basis of the wildly funny play, Souvenir, by Stephen Temperley, which will run from February 4 - 28, 2010. Through a winning combination of determination and self-delusion, Ms. Jenkins’ popularity grows as she moves from small concerts to recordings and, finally, an outrageous sold-out concert at Carnegie Hall. Michael Evan Haney, who helmed ETC’s production of The Syringa Tree, returns to Ensemble to direct. Souvenir celebrates the indomitable spirit and the inner diva in us all. Time Out New York called the play “pure theatrical magic.”
The great American classic, Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie, will be presented in an all-new production opening on April 8 and running through May 2, 2010. In this lyrical and haunting memory play set in the Great Depression, a young writer yearns to break free from his demanding mother, his emotionally crippled sister and a dead-end job in a warehouse.
Closing the 30th Anniversary Season is the zany comedy Loot by one of Britain’s funniest playwrights. Joe Orton’s edgy farce about greed, hypocrisy and police incompetence will run from June 3 - 27, 2010. On the eve of his mother’s funeral, Hal robs a bank while his mother’s nurse, who has a penchant of murder, plots her eighth marriage. Mayhem and anarchy reign in this hilarious and shocking comedy. USA Today called it “Oscar Wilde crossed with Monty Python.” The production will be directed by ETC’s Executive Artistic Director, Jonathan Fox, who last year received accolades for his productions of Take Me Out and Buried Child.
“Anniversaries offer wonderful occasions for both reflection on past achievements and dreams for the future,” said Mr. Fox. “Our upcoming season is marked with the poignancy of memory. The five plays we’ve chosen are quite a lot of fun and will be a great way to celebrate our 30th year.”
The Ensemble Theatre Company of Santa Barbara was founded in 1979 and is housed at the intimate Alhecama Theatre located in the historic Presidio District in downtown Santa Barbara at 914 Santa Barbara Street. ETC is Santa Barbara's longest running, most award winning professional resident theatre company.
Four- and five- play subscriptions are now available and range from $106 to $190. For more information, please call the Ensemble Theatre box office at 805-965-5400, or visit www.ensembletheatre.com.
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