Thinking Cap Theatre at The Vanguard
presents
February 19 – March 5

“Love ceases to be a pleasure when it ceases to be a secret.” Aphra Behn

February 3, 2016
LAUDERDALE, FL: Thinking Cap Theatre will open its 2016 season with OR, Liz Duffy Adams’ wild and witty neo-restoration comedy set in the intriguing and intrigue-filled days of Charles II. The play will run at The Vanguard Sanctuary for the Arts in Ft. Lauderdale from February 19^th through March 5^th.

As the play’s title, OR, suggests, much remains uncertain about Aphra Behn, England’s first professional female playwright.  Was Aphra gay or straight?  A playwright or a whore?  A loyalist or a spy? Adams’ clever, bawdy, and riotous send-up of restoration comedy will give audiences plenty to ponder – and to laugh at – in this exploration of Behn, the decadent King Charles II, and their mutual lover, the stage beauty Nell Gwynne.

Thinking Cap Theatre at the Vanguard has quickly established itself as a respected presence in the South Florida theatrical community.  The company earned three Carbonell Award nominations during their 2015 season:  Ann Marie Olson (Best Actress in a Play, Always Patsy Cline), Barbara Sloan (Best Actress in a Play, Vita & Virginia), and Niki Fridh (Best Suporting Actress in a Play, Vita & Virginia).

Niki Fridh will star as Aphra Behn in OR, alongside Betsy Graver as Nell Gwynn, and Alex Alvarez as King Charles II.

Niki Fridh

“I’m thrilled to be joining TCT for my fifth production,” says Fridh. “Nicole is a friend and a true inspiration in my life, and when she told me that she wanted to do OR, and have me play Aphra Behn, of course I jumped at the opportunity to work with her again. She is a real visionary and the South Florida Theatre community it so very lucky to have her as an integral part of it. Nicole is the ONLY producer/director down here to take on such varying works and I love her sense of fearlessness and passion for theatre.”

Nicole Stodard

“Most audiences will be unfamiliar with Behn’s name,” Stodard explains. “But it’s one that any lover of mystery, art, and liberty should know.  She was a royal spy, a bisexual, the author of more than 18 plays and countless volumes of poetry, and an innovator of the modern day novel. For centuries, Aphra, like so many other (women) artists had been edited out of history books,” she continues. “But she has thankfully been restored to her exciting place in history, thanks to artists such as Virginia Woolf and Liz Duffy Adams, and general increased interest in the 17^th century because of films like The Libertine and Stage Beauty.  The era of Charles II’s court (1660-1685) was one of the sexiest and wittiest of all London ages, making it a blast to travel back in time to play with him, Aphra, and the great Nell Gwynne!”

Tickets for OR, are $35 ($20 for students with ID) and are on sale now. Tickets can be purchased by calling 813-220-1546 or on line at www.thinkingcaptheatre.com .

The Vanguard Sanctuary for the Arts is located at 1501 S. Andrews Ave, Fort Lauderdale, 33301.  There is free street parking surrounding the building and a metered municipal lot just south of The Vanguard on Andrews Ave.

For more information about Thinking Cap Theatre at the Vanguard visit www.thinkingcaptheatre.com.  or contact Nicole Stodard at nicole@thinkingcaptheatre.com / 813-220-1546 or Carol Kassie at ckassie@gmail.com  / 561-445-9244.

Or,
By Liz Duffy Adams
February 19 – March 5
Tickets:  $35 ($37.22 with s/c)
Students 25 and under with valid ID $20
For Tickets: 813-220-1546
http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/2492363   
www.vanguardarts.org
February 19 8pm
February 20 8pm
February 21 3 pm & 7 pm
February 25 8pm
February 26 8pm
February 27 8pm
February 28 5pm
March 2 8pm
March 3 8pm
March 4 8pm
March 5 8pm

All performances will take place at
The Vanguard Sanctuary for the Arts
1501 S. Andrews Avenue
Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33316
www.thinkingcaptheatre.com
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Critical Praise for OR,

“…Tom Stoppard is the most celebrated contemporary playwright to compose history-based fictions that occasionally take liberties with the facts. Many have tried to emulate the formula in his heady wake; most have sunk under the challenge… Ms. Adams fares remarkably well. Her language has a natural period flavor and a formidable wit; her characters possess the spark of fully animated spirits; and she weaves into her story both biographical detail and cultural context with grace.” –Charles Isherwood, New York Times. 

“Adams’s historical play celebrates not only Behn’s pioneering career, which Virginia Woolf famously memorialized in A Room of One’s Own (‘All women together ought to let flowers fall upon the tomb of Aphra Behn’), but also the side of the writer’s tumultuous life that Woolf dismissed as ‘shady and amorous.’ [Adams] has written an Aphra-disiac valentine, not a stodgy bio-play.”—Rob Weinert-Kendt, TimeOut New York

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