Emmy-winning author and humorist Dick Flavin once referred to Jack Neary's work as "endearing, drop-dead funny, heartbreaking and, in the end, triumphant."  Well, Neary's latest release thru JAC is no exception!  Night of the Bully is the gentle story of a terminally obnoxious television talk show host (of the Jerry Springer ilk) named Forrest James who, when challenged on the air by a feminist to prove that he, one of the most despised humans in America, actually has a family who loves him, sets out to prove just that. Even though he has no family at all. His dastardly plan: to return to his hometown, seek out the kid he bullied throughout high school, and "borrow" his family for television purposes. It's a full-length steamroller of a comedy. "Night of the Bully is hilarious, the script simultaneously entertains and tickles the funny bone," says Claudia Combs of the Lowell Sun.  Give it a read and let us know if you agree!  ISBN #1-60513-078-8, JAC #2010-0019.  This play is also available via Amazon.com.

 

Local playwright Meron Langsner brings us a one-act documentary drama drawn from the experiences of New Yorkers during the September 11th attacks and their immediate aftermath. Written from the playwright's own experience, the story begins in the subways underneath the towers and continues in a changed world.  Bystander 9/11 takes place in a collective memory as three actors re-live and re-tell each moment with a depth and truth that will bring every audience member vividly back to New York City on that dreadful day.  If you were anywhere from Times Square to Timbuktu on September 11, 2001, Bystander 9/11 will make you feel you were at the heart of Ground Zero.  ISBN #1-60513-083-4; JAC #2010-0024.  This title is also available via Amazon.com.

 

 

It is the 21st Century, some time in the not-too-distant future, in Robert Joseph Ahola's latest release, The Decline and Fall of Us All. The world as we know it has virtually come to an end. Not through any holocaust-everything has just stopped working! The rich hide in "walled-up" country club estates while no one really knows what the rest of the world is doing. Into the mystery of this muddled future, we find the Vanowen clan in their decaying Faulknerian mansion on the fairway of Rock Ridge Country Club, proudly aristocratic and clinging to the shards of their culture like a drowning man to flotsam. As we meet these cultural throwbacks, we also behold a world sadly amusing and frail beyond belief, especially when some "Outsiders" are captured and change the dynamics forever. ~105 minutes. 4 men/3 women. ISBN 1-60513-083-4; JAC #2010-0023.  This title is also available via Amazon.com.

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"We are excited about providing the opportunity to Portland audiences to hear some text from Double Falsehood," says the company's Producing Director, Michael Levine, "While the play as a whole is clearly not all Shakespeare's work, the speeches we have selected demonstrate Shakespearean thought and imagery, and they feel like the work of the bard to us."  While the authorship debate is very much a hot topic in the academic world, audiences attending the Monument Square event will have the chance to experience the text themselves and draw their own conclusions.  The 4 speeches will be presented as a unit, with some narrative bridges to help audiences understand the circumstances surrounding the speeches since it is unlikely they will be familiar with the storyline of this "new" Shakespeare play.

"Sonnets and Soliloquies" is a one-hour performance that features actors delivering their pieces in an intimate and accessible style.  During the show, actors roam freely about the audience, removing the "fourth wall" by addressing audience members directly and sometimes even sitting at their tables. The ambiance and performance style encourage an intimate relationship between actor and audience that allows the language to take center stage.  Actors are cued by contemporary lines written on cue cards read by audience members, allowing for a playful interaction that celebrates the poetry by providing a contemporary context for the text. The company performs "Sonnets and Soliloquies regularly at the Wine Bar on Wharf Street on the first Monday of each month from October to June. The Monument Square event kicks off the company's 4th season of these unique performances that have become the group's signature event, offering actors and audiences alike a chance to experience both familiar and lesser-known pieces from the bard's canon of work.

 

Naked Shakespeare's 2010/11 season focuses on the production of the late-period plays Antony and Cleopatra, Coriolanus, and Cymbeline.  During the course of the year, the acting company will immerse themselves in the text of these plays, exploring the text in a series of weekly workshops during the fall and winter and presenting selections at the Wine Bar series as they become performance-ready.  In the spring, the company will hone the scripts down to abridged 90-minute versions that will be presented over 3 weekends at the annual Westbrook Shakespeare Festival in Riverbank Park during the month of May  The plays will rotate in repertory along with a performance by Acorn's Young Actors Shakespeare Conservatory, a program for teen actors currently accepting registrations.  The season will culminate with a unique performance-installation at Battery Steele on Peaks Island.  This environmentally-staged production will allow the audience to walk through the WWII-era historic structure, experiencing the three plays (and some additional text) throughout the building as the action moves from room to room.

 

Call Acorn Productions at (207) 854-0065 or visit www.nakedshakespeare.org for more information about "Sonnets and Soliloquies" or any other programs offered by Acorn Productions.