Coward on the Coast: eNewsletter                                  May 22, 2011
 
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In This Issue
Blithe Spirit in Palo Alto, CA
Coming in October: Peace in Our Time by The Antaeus Company
What's On: June - December
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contact:

Mr. Ken Starrett
North American Director
The Noel Coward Society
49 W 68th St, Apt 1-R
New York, NY 10023
(212) 877-4259

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headUpcoming Events

Coward Plays:   Long Beach, CA  to Victoria, BC  
  • Private Lives.  August 23 - Sept. 18 at ICT in Long Beach.   
  • Blithe Spirit. Opening in June: productions by the Palo Alto Players at the Lucie Stern Theater, Palo Alto, CA and Blue Ridge Repertory Theatre in Victoria, BC.   
  • Peace in Our Time. Featured in Antaeus's 20th anniversary season. October 13 - December 11, 2011,   The Antaeus Company at Deaf West Theatre, North Hollywood, CA.  
Palo Alto Players Present Blithe Spirit
Lucie Stern Theater  �  Palo Alto, CA        
June 11 - 26, 2011 
Blithe Spirit @Palo Alto Players
Debi Durst (Madame Arcati) and Nicole Martin (Elvira)

Blithe Spirit

Directed by Cornelia Burdick Thompson 

 

Palo Alto Players
Lucie Stern Theater
1305 Middlefield Rd
Palo Alto, CA 94301
650-329-0891

online box office  


June 11th - 26th 

Thurs - Sat at 8:00 pm
Sundays at 2:30 pm

Preview: Friday, June 10

Opening Gala: June 11 


Tickets: $21 - $32 

For more information, see:
Palo Alto Players web site

The cast features Steve Schwartz (Dr. Bradman), Lelie Newport (Mrs. Bradman), Nicole Martin (Elvira Condomine), Breigh Zack (Edith), Michael Sally (Charles Condomine), Debi Durst (Madame Arcati), and Freya Shipley (Ruth Condomine).

 

Cornelia Burdick Thompson makes her directing debut with Palo Alto Players. When asked what drew her to Coward's comedy, Burdick says, "I love Coward's writing, and I have a secret wish that the story could really happen!"    

 

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Peace in Our Time � Coming to Antaeus in October
Deaf West Theatre, North Hollywood, CA
October 20 - December 11, 2011
Casey Stangl
Director, Casey Stangl

 

As part of their 20th Anniversary season, The Antaeus Company of North Hollywood, CA is presenting the world premi�re of NCS member Barry Creyton's adaptation of No�l Coward's Peace in Our Time, directed by Casey Stangl and choreographed by Harry Groener.

 

About Director Stangl  

  "Finding good players is easy. Getting them to play as a team is another story. "  - Casey Stengel

 

For those of you familiar with legendary figures of American baseball, the name "Casey Stengel" pops out of the park. No doubt Ms. Casey Stangl's parents were baseball fans with high hopes for their infant daughter's sports ability.  Sports aside, she has demonstrated great talent as a team player.   

 

Ms. Stengl is an award-winning director of theatre, opera and film.  Recent projects include the West Coast premi�re of Sarah Ruhl's In the Next Room or The Vibrator Play at South Coast Repertory and the world premi�re of Susan Johnston's How Cissy Grew at the El Portal Theatre, named Best New Play at the 2009 LA Weekly Theater awards.  Nationally, Casey's work has been seen at the Guthrie Theater, Denver Center Theatre Company, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Portland Stage, HERE in New York, Minnesota Opera, Juilliard Opera Center and many others.  

 

Wild About Harry

Harry Groener and Twiggy
Harry Groener & Twiggy

Broadway favorite Harry Groener -- currently wowing  audiences in The Madness of King George III at Chicago Shakespeare Theater --  has a long and happy history with Coward's work, including Antaeus' 2007-8 production of Tonight at 8:30 and the Off-Broadway show If Love Were All with Twiggy, presented in 1999.    

 

Twiggy's recent CD, Gotta Sing, Gotta Dance (released September 2009) features Harry in five of Coward's songs: "Has Anybody Seen Our Ship?", "Men About Town," "A Room with a View," "You Were There," and  "Mad About the Boy."   (Available on disc and as an MP3 download.)  

 

Adaptation and Casting

For the opening of ClassicsFest on July 6, 2010, Antaeus produced a workshop of Creyton's adaptation, which showcased young actors and young director Jessica Bard in Phase II of The Young Idea Project. (The Young Idea Project is funded in part by the No�l Coward Foundation.)

 

In a recent phone conversation, Jeanie Hackett (Antaeus' Artistic Director) praised Casey Stangl's skills as a collaborative director and her extensive experience with new plays. Jeanie also described plans for casting:

 

"All Antaeus productions are fully double cast, with two equally talented actors sharing a role. This means that audiences rarely see an understudy and frequently come back to see each show a second time in order to see the same play in the hands of an equally good but very different set of actors.

 

Members of the company and its board span a wide range of age, ethnicity and experience; they have performed on Broadway, at major regional theaters across the country, in film and television, and on local stages, and are the recipients of multiple accolades including Tony, Los Angeles and New York Drama Critics Circle, Ovation, LA Weekly, and Back Stage Garland nominations and awards."


Stay tuned for more news from Antaeus.

Antaeus web site

FYI, their current excellent production of John Marston's The Malcontent, directed by Elizabeth Swain, is receiving rave reviews.
 
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What's On
June 7 - December 11, 2011

Blithe Spirit

  • Palo Alto Players, Lucie Stern Theatre, Palo Alto, CA. June 11 - 26. Palo Alto Players 
Private Lives Hay Fever

Peace in Our Time 

 

  • The Antaeus Company, Deaf West Theatre, North Hollywood, CA, October 13 - December 11.  The Antaeus Company    

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    Cheers,

    Kathy Williams
    U.S. West Coast Liaison
    The No�l Coward Society