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Pigs Do Fly Productions Presents The World Premiere of Michael Leeds’ IMPRESSIONS – July 21 – August 6

20 Tuesday Jun 2017

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Pigs Do Fly Productions
Presents
The World Premiere of
Impressions
by Michael Leeds
July 21 – August 6
(Preview performance July 20)

Art… literally brought to life…

June 20, 2017

WILTON MANORS, FL: “I’ve always been drawn to the paintings of the great Impressionists,” award-winning playwright and director Michael Leeds mused recently.  “As opposed to the idealized forms and perfect symmetry that was the norm, the Impressionists chose subjects from all walks of life, capturing who they were and what they were doing in that fleeting moment in time.  I was especially intrigued by the women in their paintings.  What were they thinking? What were they feeling?  What was their world like?”

Leeds explores this theme when Pigs Do Fly Productions presents the World Premiere of his new play, Impressions, at the Abyss Stage in Wilton Manors.  The production will run from July 21 – August 6. (There will be a preview performance on July 20th at 8 pm.)

From a Monet matron to a Degas dancer, Impressions brings these women to life to reveal their joys, their fears and their passions.

“When Michael approached me with his ideas during our last production, Invasion of Privacy, I became excited immediately,” Pigs Do Fly Productions founder and Executive Producer Ellen Wacher says.  “By wonderful coincidence that period of art is my favorite. I’ve worked with Michael – I am, and always have been – a great admirer of his work, and now, after reading the play I can hardly wait to see it myself!”

“Writing Impressions gave me the opportunity to enter the world of each painting and imagine the events surrounding the moments captured by these incredible artists,” Leeds explains.   “And, although it wasn’t intentional, when I was done, I found these women were all linked in some way by the limitations society imposed on them due to their gender, their class, or their age.

“Of course, none of this would be possible without the enthusiastic support of Ellen Wacher and Pigs Do Fly Productions,” Leeds continues.  “When I first brought the project to Ellen, I had no idea she was a passionate devotee of the Impressionists.   We’re both incredibly excited to see how it all comes together. The production elements of the play present many challenges in how to best bring these paintings to life.  Luckily, I’ve got three extremely versatile actresses, and a great design team.  To quote a Sondheim lyric, “Putting it together bit by bit… Art isn’t easy!”

Wacher and Leeds have cast three award-winning actresses – Patti Gardner, Barbara Sloan, and Karen Stephens – to bring the iconic paintings Leeds has chosen to life.  Along with Edgar Degas and Claude Monet, Leeds has chosen works by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Édouard Manet, Mary Cassatt, Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, Gustave Caillebotte, Frédéric Bazille, Isaac Israëls, and Marie Bracquemond to ‘illustrate’.

Leeds and Wacher have enlisted recent Carbonell Award-winner Jodi Dellaventura to design the Impressions set.  Others on the show’s design team are Kevin Black (Projections), Ardean Landhuis (Lighting Design), Jerry Sturdefant (Costume Design), David Hart (Sound). Kevin Raymond Hammond (Wigs). Jeff Ostrow will serve as Impressions’ Production Stage Manager.

Tickets for Impressions are $35 and are available on line at www.pigsdoflyproductions.com, or by calling 866-811-4111.  Performances are on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 8 pm, and on Sunday at 5 pm. All performances will take place at The Abyss Stage, 2304 N. Dixie Highway, Wilton Manors, FL 33305

For more information about Pigs Do Fly Productions, please visit www.pigsdoflyproductions.com.   For more information about Ellen Wacher, please visit www.ellenwacher.com.  To set up interviews, or for photos, please contact Carol Kassie at carol@carolkassie.com / 561-445-9244.

~*~

Impressions
By Michael Leeds
July 21 – August 6
(Preview performance July 20 at 8 pm)
Performance times:
Thursday – Saturday at 8 pm
Sunday at 5 pm
Tickets:  $35
For tickets:  www.pigsdoflyproductions.com / 866-811-4111
All performances will take place at
The Abyss Stage
2304 N. Dixie Highway, Wilton Manors, FL 33305
www.infinite-abyss.org
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Michael Leeds: (Writer/Director) B’way: Swinging On A Star (Writer/Director Tony Award nom. Best Musical).  Off-B’way: Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah – The Songs of Allan Sherman (Drama Desk Award nom. Best Director/Best Choreographer), the European Premiere of Arthur Miller’s Playing For Time (Edinburgh Fringe Festival First Award), A Little Night Music at Houston Grand Opera starring Frederica Von Stade and Regina for Florida Grand Opera starring Lauren Flanigan. Film:  choreographed End of Summer starring Jacqueline Bisset, co-wrote The Simian Line starring William Hurt and Lynn Redgrave, and The Last Film Festival starring Dennis Hopper. His many SF directing credits include Mack And Mabel (Carbonell Best Musical) and The Light In The Piazza (Carbonell nom Best Musical, Silver Palm Award for Direction).  Michael is Assoc. Artistic Director of Island City Stage where his directing credits include The Twentieth Century Way (Carbonell nom. Best Ensemble), The Timekeepers (6 Carbonell Awards including Best Director and Best Production of a Play), the World Premieres of Have I Got A Girl For You, POZ, Feeding The Bear and his own play Who Killed Joan Crawford? which received the 2016 Award for Best New Work of 2016 by the Broward/Miami New Times.  His other plays include The First Step – Diary of a Sex Addict, The Gift, Starmaker and Impressions.   Michael teaches an ongoing weekly acting class. (www.LeedsWorkshop.net)

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WAISTWATCHERS THE MUSICAL! Opens the PGA Arts Center – February 1st

05 Thursday Jan 2017

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Playhouse Productions
ww-logoFebruary 1 – March 26

Alan Jacobson’s ever-popular musical about food, friendship, love, life, sex and fun after forty will open the newly created PGA Arts Center in Palm Beach Gardens.

For Immediate Release
Contact:  Carol Kassie
carol@carolkassie.com  / 561-445-9244
Jennifer Sardone-Shiner
jen16sardone@aol.com / 561-891-7278

January 5, 2017
PALM BEACH GARDENS, FL:  Playhouse Productions’ producers Dana Matthow and Philip Roger Roy have chosen Alan Jacobson’s WaistWatchers The Musical! as the first production to play in their brand new PGA Arts Center in Palm Beach Gardens. The perennially popular musical will begin previews February 1st and run through through March 26th.

In the same energetic and fun spirit as Menopause The Musical®, WaistWatchers The Musical! – set in Cook’s Women’s Gym – takes a lighthearted look at four women ‘of a certain age’ dealing with assorted body image issues; it covers topics such as dieting, exercise, plastic surgery, and sex over the age of forty – areas of concern to women, and to men – of all ages.

Alan Jacobson

Alan Jacobson

“When I first wrote Waist Watchers The Musical! I was looking to create a fun show that people of all ages, backgrounds, and lifestyles could enjoy,” the show’s creator Alan Jacobson explained recently. “I couldn’t think of anything more universal and topical than food. I truly don’t know anyone who doesn’t eat it! And people sure talk about and obsess over it. What has given me the greatest satisfaction is seeing how people respond to the show,” he says, “Not only with laughter and pleasure, but how so many people identify with the struggles, and are inspired to lead healthier lives. And to me, that is what theater is all about.

“And I’m extremely excited about the direction WaistWatchers has been going in,” Jacobson continues. “I had produced it on my own for a few years quite successfully, but felt that to take it to the next level I needed to turn over the producing responsibilities to other producers…producers who shared my passion for the show, who share my vision and the direction I have always seen it going in, and who have the resources and connections to thrust it further into the national and international arena.

“Dana Matthow and Phil Roy were exactly the right producers,” he explains.  “We just finished a 40-week national tour of the show, and though very successful, we still envision greater things. Together with our director, Matt Silva, we decided we would inject the show with Vince Di Mura’s new, original music set to my existing lyrics, incorporating more variety and a style all our own, and which would free us up to be more inventive with our staging and choreography.”

The musical will exercise the considerable musical and comedic abilities of four talented actresses:  Patti Gardner as Carla, Krissy Johnson as Cheryl, Stephanie Genovese as Cindy, and Valerie DiLorenzo as Connie.

Matt Silva will direct the production; the show’s musical director is Emily Whitaker, and choreography will be handled by Dani Tucci-Juraga.

Waist Watchers The Musical! will run from January 25 – March 26 at the PGA Center for the Arts.  The theatre is located at 4076 PGA Boulevard, in Palm Beach Gardens (33410).

Tickets for WaistWatchers The Musical! are $40-$65. Group rates (12 or more) are also available. Tickets may be purchased on line at http://waistwatchersthemusical.com or by phone at 855-448-7469.  For group rates call 888-264-1788.

For more information about Waist Watchers The Musical or Alan Jacobson, please visit http://waistwatchersthemusical.com , or contact Carol Kassie (carol@carolkassie.com  / 561-445-9244) or Jennifer Sardone-Shiner (jen16sardone@aol.com / 561-891-7278.

Photographs and graphics available on request.

Waist Watchers The Musical!
Book and Lyrics by Alan Jacobson
Music by Vince Di Mura
February 1 – March 26
Tickets:  $40 – $65
Phone:  855-448-7469
On line:  http://waistwatchersthemusical.com
Group Sales (12 or more): 888-264-1788
Show Times:
Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday & Sunday at 2 p.m.
Thursday at 7 p.m.
Friday & Saturday at 8 p.m.
Sunday at 6 p.m.
PGA Arts Center
4076 PGA Boulevard,
Palm Beach Gardens, FL  33410
http://waistwatchersthemusical.com

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Primal Forces presents David Mamet’s THE ANARCHIST at Andrews Living Arts Studio – February 28 – March 23

12 Wednesday Feb 2014

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Primal Forces in association with the Boca Raton Theatre Guild
to present
David Mamet’s
The Anarchist
February 28 – March 23
Anarchist 1 copy

Primal Forces, the brand new off-shoot company of the Boca Raton Theatre Guild, will present the southeastern premiere of Pulitzer Prize-winner David Mamet’s The Anarchist. The production will run from February 28th through March 23rd at the Andrew’s Living Arts Studio in Fort Lauderdale, and will star current double Carbonell-nominee Patti Gardner and Jacqueline Laggy.

Two women and one unspeakable crime highlight this searing drama, as one character’s radical past in the turbulent 70s comes back to haunt her. With a nod to his mentor, Harold Pinter, David Mamet once again employs his signature verbal jousting in this battle of two women over freedom, power, money, religion—and the lack thereof.

Says BRTG producer and artistic director Keith Garsson: “We are so proud

Jacqueline Laggy

Jacqueline Laggy

to be presenting the first post-Broadway run of David Mamet’s The Anarchist. It originally opened in December 2012 right next door to a revival of his earlier classic Glengarry Glen Ross. But while that play featured an all-male cast of con men, The Anarchist, in contrast, features two women caught up in the aftermath of a horrific crime.  I saw the original production in previews and immediately felt it would be a terrific piece that would work very well in a black box setting. And with Patti Gardner and Jacqueline Laggy we are very fortunate to have two of the area’s top actresses in complex roles that are both entertaining and enlightening.”

Patti Gardner

Patti Gardner

“I only know it is the most challenging script I have ever tackled and I’m both terrified and ecstatic to be working on it,” says Gardner. “No matter what you think of this play…you’ll never forget it. It’s one of those pieces I dare you to stop thinking about.”

David Mamet

David Mamet

David Mamet is a playwright, director, author, essayist, screenwriter, and film director. His plays include Glengarry Glen Ross, for which he won the Pulitzer Prize, Speed-the-Plow, American Buffalo, A Life in the Theatre, Oleanna, The Cryptogram, and Race. Some of his films include: Redbelt, The Spanish Prisoner, House of Games (winner of Best Film and Best Screenplay at the 1987 Venice Film Festival), State and Main, The Winslow Boy, Oleanna, and most recently the 2013 HBO film Phil Spector, starring Al Pacino, Helen Mirren, and Jeffrey Tambor.

Tickets for The Anarchist are $25 and $20 (previews Feb 28-Mar 6) and can be purchased on line at www.brtg.org, or by phone at 866-811-4111. Andrews Living Arts Studio is located at 23 NW Fifth Street in Fort Lauderdale.

~*~

The Anarchist
By David Mamet
February 28 – March 23, 2014
Tickets: $25 ($20 previews Feb 28 – Mar 6)
Days & Times: Thu – Sat: 8pm
Sat & Sun: 2pm (not all Sat matinees available)
Andrews Living Arts Studio
23 NW Fifth Street
Fort Lauderdale, FL, 33301
Tickets available online at: www.brtg.org or by calling 866-811-4111

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‘Chicago’ – Murder, Mayhem, & Musical Theatre At Its Best!

24 Thursday Jan 2013

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South Florida’s top talent –
Avi Hoffman, Patti Gardner, Ken Clement, Sally Bondi,
and Krisha Marcano (Broadway’s The Color Purple)
in The Boca Raton Theatre Guild’s
Chicago
ChicagoSally Bondi, Krisha Marcano, Patti Gardner, Avi Hoffman*

Add sex and sparkle to a combustible mixture of murder, greed, corruption, and betrayal, blend with music and lyrics by the incomparable John Kander and Fred Ebb, stir in the unmistakable look of Bob Fosse’s choreography, combine with an incredibly talented cast of actors – and the result is the Boca Raton Theatre Guild’s upcoming production of Chicago.

Chicago will open on March 1st and run through March 17th at the Willow Theatre in Sugar Sand Park in Boca Raton.

In Chicago, John Kander, Fred Ebb, and Bob Fosse created a work that flawlessly evokes its vaudeville setting.  Flamboyant flappers, crooked lawyers, and merry murderesses are all part of a sparkling script and a classic score that includes “All That Jazz,” “Cell Block Tango” and “Razzle Dazzle.”

BRTG producer/director Keith Garsson has assembled a stellar cast to bring some of Broadway’s most beloved and well known characters to life: Avi Hoffman (Billy Flynn), Patti Gardner (Roxie Hart), Krisha Marcano (Velma Kelly), Sally Bondi (Matron Mama Morton), Ken Clement (Amos Hart), and Matthew Korinko (The Announcer) are all on board and looking forward to playing in this classic tale of “…violence, envy, exploitation, adultery and treachery—all those things we hold near and dear to our hearts!”

Hap Erstein (Palm Beach Post/PalmBeachArtsPaper.com) listed the Boca Raton Theatre Guild’s recent production of A.R. Gurney’s Sylvia as one of his 2012 ‘10 Favorites of the Year’, and Chicago promises to continue to enhance the Guild’s reputation as one of South Florida’s up and coming professional theatre companies.

“This company – and this production – is going to feature the best of the best,” Garsson says.  “Just getting the cast together has been a dream, and working with them is proving to be all I could have hoped for… and more.”

Garsson’s Velma Kelly, Krisha Marcano, originated the role of ‘Squeak’ in the Broadway production of The Color Purple.  Marcano’s impressive background includes stints with the Martha Graham Dance Company and the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, and roles in Fosse, Disney’s Aida, Sweet Charity, Smokey Joe’s Cafe, and the film Preacher’s Kid.  She holds a BFA from SUNY Purchase and is the co-chair of the business group at Career Transitions for Dancers and the founder of KM Studios.

Avi Hoffman’s recent performances in LUV at the Plaza Theatre, and Parade Productions’ Brooklyn Boy earned him critical praise, and his turn as Wilbur Turnblad in Actor’s Playhouse’ 2012 production of Hairspray earned him a Carbonell Award. Hoffman is also known for his award winning one man shows Too Jewish? and Too Jewish, Too! (Performer of the Year ’95 – NY Press Magazine; L.A. OVATION award – Best Actor In a Musical 2001; NY Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle award nominations). On television he portrays lawyer Sid Raskin in the Starz TV series MAGIC CITY.  Avi’s newest show Still Jewish After All These Years will run from May 10th – 19th at the Boca Raton Theatre Guild.

Patti Gardner says she “is thrilled, honored and terrified to be performing the role of Roxie Hart in Chicago”. Known as one of South Florida’s busiest actresses, Patti just reprised her role in The Interview for The Women’s Theatre Project and was recently seen in LUV at the Plaza Theatre in Manalapan. She is a Carbonell Award-winner for her performance in Lips Together, Teeth Apart at Palm Beach Dramaworks, and has performed as the “Soap Star” in Menopause the Musical nationally for ten years.

Krisha Patti                                   Krisha Marcano, Patti Gardner*

The Boca Raton Theatre Guild is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to producing professional productions and advancing the art of theatre in the South Florida community.

All performances of Chicago will take place in the Willow Theatre in Sugar Sand Park.  The theatre is located at 300 South Military Trail in Boca Raton, just south of Palmetto Park Road.
Tickets for Chicago are $35, and are available at the Willow Theatre Box office: 561-347-3948.

For more information about Chicago and/or the Boca Raton Theatre Guild, please visit www.brtg.org, or contact Carol Kassie (ckassie@gmail.com / 561-445-9244).
*Chicago photos by Michael B. Lloyd, Lloyd’s Studio Photography, Boca Raton

GroupChicago
Music: John Kander
Lyrics: Fred Ebb
Book:  Fred Ebb & Bob Fosse
Mar 1-Mar 17, 2013
Tues-Sat 8pm, Sat-Sun 2pm
The Willow Theatre at Sugar Sand Park
300 South Military Trail,
Boca Raton, FL 33486
Tickets:  $35.
Phone: 561-347-3948
Group Sales:  561-948-2601
www.brtg.org
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Boca-Raton-Theatre-Guild/103606986210?ref=ts

The Women’s Theatre Project presents ‘The Interview’ January 4-20th

29 Thursday Nov 2012

Posted by in Clients, The Women's Theatre Project

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Powerful Memories… Powerful Theatre…

The Interview
by Faye Sholiton
 “We awakened a lot of memories,” the interviewer tells her subject.
“They were never asleep,” the survivor replies.

The Interview, The Women’s Theatre Project’s second production in their new venue, The Willow Theatre in Sugar Sand Park, will open on January 4th, 2013 and run through January 20th.  The Interview will be The Women’s Theatre Project’s 30th production since they were founded in 2002.

Faye Sholiton’s deeply moving memory play about the legacy of human suffering, courage and humanity, mothers and daughters, and forgiving and being forgiven, The Interview is at once a powerful documentation of a horrific historical event and one artist’s deeply felt response to it. Written with clarity and feeling, it resonates on all levels.

“It is so meaningful to bring this fine piece of theatre to life,” says the Women’s Theatre Project’s Artistic Director and the play’s director, Genie Croft.  “We are all born into some story that affects our emotional, social and spiritual growth,” she continues.  “The Interview explores the case of children of Holocaust survivors – and that can be an enormous legacy, a stifled mystery, or a complex gift and burden.  It’s exciting to focus on the characters’ evolution as they reveal their intense feelings, traumas, and even dark humor, in terms of individual perception, and communication.”

 Harriet Oser will play Bracha Weissman, who has transformed herself into an emotional recluse – her identity defined by the loss of her family in the Nazi death camps she miraculously survived.  Performing The Interview, particularly for the children of Holocaust survivors and sharing their memories was an unforgettable experience for Oser, who is looking forward to revisiting the character, whom she played in The Women’s Theatre Project’s 2009 production of the play.

 

 Patti Gardner will once again take on the role of Ann Meshenberg, who arrives one day to record Bracha’s testimony for a video archive.  Ann, the daughter of Holocaust survivors, has her own agenda: the need to ask a stranger what she could not ask her parents.

Irene Adjan will play Bracha’s daughter Rifka, and Christopher Mitchell will take on the role of videographer Chris MacDonald.

Playwright Faye Sholiton has developed her work in the Cleveland Play House Playwrights’ Unit since 1996 and in Dobama Theatre’s Playwrights’ Gym since 2009. Her full-length works have been read or produced in more than three dozen venues worldwide and have won more than 20 national honors. She is a four-time winner of Individual Excellence Awards from the Ohio Arts Council. Prior to writing plays, she was an award-winning journalist for local, regional and national publications. A teacher of playwriting workshops, most recently she was the Cleveland Play House Artist-in-Residence at Hathaway Brown School in Shaker Heights. She has also taught scene writing to passengers cruising the South Pacific. Professional affiliations include the Dramatists Guild, which she serves as Regional Representative for Ohio; the Association for Jewish Theatre; and the International Centre for Women Playwrights. She is founder of Interplay Jewish Theatre, a company that produces staged readings of Jewish themed works.

Faye Sholiton will attend the opening night performance of The Interview.

The Interview will run from January 4th through January 20th, 2013, with performances on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 8 pm, and on Saturdays and Sundays at 2 p.m.

The Willow Theatre at Sugar Sand Park is located at 300 South Military Trail in Boca Raton, just south of Palmetto Park Road. Tickets for The Interview are on sale now, and can be purchased at the Willow Theatre Box office: 561-347-3948. Tickets for all performances are $25, or $20 if purchased before December 21st.

The Interview
By Faye Sholiton
January 4-20, 2013
Thu-Sat 8pm, Sat-Sun 2pm
The Willow Theatre at Sugar Sand Park
300 South Military Trail,
Boca Raton, FL 33486
Tickets:  $25
Phone: 561-347-3948

www.womenstheatreproject.com
http://www.facebook.com/WomensTheatreProject
http://www.fayesplays.com/