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Contact:
Mr. Ken Starrett North American Director The Noel Coward Society
49 W 68th St, Apt 1-RNew York, NY 10023(212) 877-4259email Ken
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What's On and Coming to the U. S. West Coast
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2015
________________ Coward Cabaret
August 13-23, 2015 Stanford Repertory Theater Nitery Theater Old Union (Lausen Mall)
Stanford University Stanford, CA 94305 650-725-5838
Directed by Brendon Martin
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Fallen Angels
June 3-28, 2015 TheatreWorks Mountain View Center 500 Castro St Mountain View, CA 94041 650-463-1960 Directed by Robert Kelley
July 16 - Aug 9, 2015 Stanford Repertory Theater Pigott Theater Memorial Auditorium Stanford University Stanford, CA 94305 650-725-5838
Directed by Lynne Soffer
Sept 23 - Nov 8, 2015 Cygnet Theatre
Old Town Theatre 4040 Twiggs St
San Diego, CA 92110 619-337-1525 Directed by Rob Lutfy in Repertory with The Vortex
Nov 6 - Dec 13, 2015 Lakewood Center for the Arts 368 S. State St Lake Oswego, OR 97034 503-635-3901 Directed by Don Alder
Jun 12 - July 18, 2015 Little Fish Theatre 777 S. Centre St San Pedro, CA 90731 310-512-6030 Directed by James Rice
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The Vortex in Repertory with Hay Fever
Sept 24 - Nov 8, 2015 Cygnet Theatre
Old Town Theatre 4040 Twiggs St
San Diego, CA 92110 619-337-1525
Directed by Sean Murray
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Summer When It Sizzles
Barry Creyton Receives Coward Writing Award
Sometimes news takes a while to travel "across the Pond" -- it's never too late to cheer. Congratulations to NCS member, Los Angelino Barry Creyton for winning the Coward Writing Award, presented in June 2014 at a ceremony in London.
Fallen Angels is the darling of SF Bay Area Critics. Running June 3-28, this production is presented by TheatreWorks at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts.
No�l Coward Festival. No�l Coward: Art, Style, and Decadence
Stanford Repertory Theater (SRT) and Stanford University Theater & Performance Studies (TAPS) present a host of Coward-related events during summer session, June 24-August 23, 2015, on the Stanford campus.
This Festival begins in two weeks, so I'm re-running the article from May, listing Festival events, times, and web links. Tickets are on sale now for Festival events.
More on the Coast This Summer...
- Opens Friday: Private Lives at the Little Fish Theatre, San Pedro, CA. June 12-July18.
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Got news? I always enjoy hearing from you: please send me info on Coward-related events and shows on the U.S. west coast.
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Barry Creyton "In His Own Write" Award Winner in 2014 International No�l Coward Society Writing Competition
| | In the first Coward writing competition since an essay competition in 1932, California NCS member Barry Creyton was awarded the �1,000 prize for his parody, Private Wives, a sketch written originally for his Austrailian television show in the 1980's. On behalf of the Coward Society, Stephan Duckham presented the award to Creyton in June 2014.
With luck, Creyton will perform this delightful sketch sometime soon in the U.S. In the meantime, here's the link to an audio recording of it on his web site; this version is from 1980's television, starring Creyton and the late June Salter:
Private Wives audio
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A Brief History of Private Wives
by Barry Creyton
In 1970, I met Coward at my doctor, Patrick Woodcock's fiftieth birthday party. I observed later that it was like meeting God - except that No�l Coward had a better sense of construction. Patrick had told Coward of my admiration and respect for his work and in a long and warm discussion, we covered mutual friends, I picked his brain none too subtly about various aspects of his masterpiece PRIVATE LIVES and he picked mine about which of his numbers I'd performed in cabaret -- moreover, about the reaction to them. PRIVATE LIVES has always seemed to me the perfect combination of wit, humor and emotional pain -- all integral to a perfectly constructed play. On the surface, a romp about a dysfunctional relationship, its wit frequently hides the characters' anguish in knowing that what's broken can never really be mended. I admit to something of an obsession with the play ever since I first read it at age fifteen. That obsession was all but assassinated by the first production I saw at age twenty -- there was much posturing with cigarette holders and cocktail glasses, and in the romantic duologues, enough acting for a crowd scene. After many years, and many sightings of PRIVATE LIVES, good and bad, came the wonderfully realized Lindsay Duncan, Alan Rickman production which matched the vision of the play idealized in my fifteen year old reader's mind. My humble tributes to this great play have emerged in various forms: a sketch called REHEARSAL, written in 1965 for my first Australian comedy LP, in which two aging actors are directed in something like PRIVATE LIVES by a "method" director; my play DOUBLE ACT, about a dysfunctional couple -- written in 1988 and performed in more than twenty languages since then -- and in the sketch, PRIVATE WIVES, which won me the 2014 No�l Coward Society award. I wrote this for myself and the late June Salter for Australian television in the early 80s. Thereafter it appeared in several revues. I revised it yet again for the New York revue SECRETS EVERY SMART TRAVELER SHOULD KNOW for which I wrote the spoken material. It earned special praise in Variety and the New York Times. NEW YORK TIMES ...One of the secrets of its success is its cheery salaciousness. Take the moment in Barry Creyton's spoof of Noel Coward's ''Private Lives,'' when Elyot Chase (James Darrah) reveals his new marital partner to be a man. As he and his ex-wife, Amanda Prynne (Liz McConahay), sip martinis and swap bon mots, he pours them fresh drinks and announces ''bottoms up,'' whereupon she retorts, ''I don't wish to hear the sordid details.'' VARIETY There is a delicious sendup of "Private Lives" in Barry Creyton's "Private Wives," finding an archly passionate James Darrah and Liz McConahay as Noel Coward's divorcees honeymooning on the French Riviera with new mates. This time around, the urbane husband comes out of the closet. ________________________________________________ Actor, author, playwright, and director, Barry Creyton has worked extensively in British theatre and television, and in his native Australia where he's known nationally as a star of stage and television. In Los Angeles he's appeared in productions for LA Theatre Works, and the Antaeus Company.
He wrote the sketch material for the Off Broadway revue, Secrets Every Smart Traveler Should Know, which ran for two and a half years in New York. In Los Angeles, his adaptation of No�l Coward's Peace In Our Time won the L.A. Weekly Annual Theatre Award and the Ovation Award, while in his native Australia, he received the prestigious Kessell Memorial Award for his outstanding contributions to Australian theatre as actor, playwright and director.
His plays are produced in more than twenty languages, and his novels are published by Random House. He directs multi-cast audio productions including his adaptations of Romeo and Juliet, King Lear, and The Tempest for Blackstone Audio, and Cyrano de Bergerac for LA Theatreworks.
In 2014, NCS member Creyton received the international No�l Coward Society Writing Award for his parody sketch, Private Wives.
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Fallen Angels TheatreWorks Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts Mountain View, CA June 3 - 28, 2015
| | Fallen Angels Directed by Robert Kelley
TheatreWorks
Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts - Main Stage
500 Castro Street
Mountain View, CA 94041 TheatreWorks Box Office 650-463-1960 Mon-Fri 11 am - 6 pm Sat-Sun 12-6 pm Mountain View Center Box Office 650-903-6000 Phone or Walk-up: Wed-Sat, 12 pm-6 pm
Tickets: $25 -$74
Performances Tues - Weds 7:30 pm Weds, June 24 2:00 pm Thurs - Sat 8:00 pm Sun 7:00 pm (except June 28)
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Critics Love Fallen AngelsChad Jones of the San Francisco Chronicle writes:
... "downright delightful! If Lucy Ricardo and Ethel Mertz had been born into London's upper crust, they might have resembled Julia (Sarah Overman) and Jane (Rebecca Dines)." Slideshow from TheatreWorks To view a slideshow of production photos: 1. Go to the TheaterWorks web page for Fallen Angels: http://www.theatreworks.org/shows/1415-season/fallenangels 2. On the Fallen Angels web page, click on the image: Note: Each slide stays on the screen for about 4 seconds. For more information, see: Fallen Angels web page return to top |
No�l Coward Festival Stanford University Theater & Performance Studies (TAPS) and Stanford Repertory Theater (SRT) Stanford, CA 94305 June 24 - August 23, 2015
| | No�l Coward Festival No�l Coward: Art, Style, and Decadence
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305 Stanford Repertory Theater (SRT) presents its 17th annual summer festival, this year celebrating the work of No�l Coward.
The festival includes two productions, Hay Fever and a Coward Cabaret; a free film series on Monday nights, screening seven of Coward's films; a full-day symposium with Coward specialists as speakers (including keynote speaker, John Lahr, and theater director, Art Manke); and a six-week theater course as part of Stanford Continuing Studies.
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Live Performances
Directed by Lynne Soffer
Stanford Repertory Theater Pigott Theater, Memorial Auditorium
Memorial Way
Stanford Campus
Tickets: $15-$25
July 16 - August 9, 2015
Thurs - Sat 8:00 pm
Sunday 2:00 pm
Hay Fever stars SRT company artist Courtney Walsh as Judith Bliss, and features Deborah Fink as Myra Arundel, Richard Carlton as David Bliss, Rush Rehm as Richard Greatham, and Catharine Luedtke as Clara.
Coward Cabaret
Directed by Brendon Martin
Stanford Repertory Theater
Nitery Theater, Old Union
Lasuen Mall
Stanford Campus
Tickets: $10-$15
August 13 - 23, 2015
Thurs - Sat 8:00 pm
Sunday 2:00 pm
Starring Dante Belletti, Kiki Bagger, Andre Amarotico, and Samantha Williams
For both shows, ticket purchases via credit card will be available online, beginning June 1, 2015. Tickets may also be reserved via mail (no credit cards, just checks), beginning June 1. See:
Box Office / Ticket information
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Monday Night Film Series
No�l Coward on Film
CEMEX Auditorium
641 Knight Way
Stanford Campus
This series focuses on Coward's work as screenwriter, actor, and director. Films in the series are:
Private Lives (1931), Cavalcade (1933), Brief Encounter (1945), In Which We Serve (1942), Our Man in Havana (1959), Blithe Spirit (1945), and Bunny Lake is Missing (1965).
Stanford faculty and SRT company members will introduce each film and lead a post-screening discussion. For each film, patrons will receive a free filmography, prepared by SRT's Roselyn Hallett.
June 29 - August 10, 2015
Mondays, 7:00 pm (no admission after 7:15 pm)
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Symposium
Art, Style, and Decadence in the Work of No�l Coward
Pigott Theater, Memorial Auditorium Memorial Way Stanford Campus Saturday August 1, 2015 9:30 am to 5 pm $90 (including luncheon) SRT presents "a daylong community symposium on Coward and his remarkable fusion of art, style, and decadence, with lots of laughter and a dollop of disillusionment thrown in for good measure!" Symposium web page John Lahr, Coward biographer and theater critic for the New Yorker magazine, will deliver the symposium keynote address. Other symposium speakers include theater director Art Manke, Stanford Professors William Eddelman and Nicholas Jenkins, SRT artistic director Rush Rehm, and members of the SRT company, including Lynne Soffer (director of SRT's Hay Fever), Brendon Martin (director of SRT's Coward Cabaret), and Courtney Walsh (who plays Judith Bliss in Hay Fever). For more information, contact: [email protected]
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Stanford Continuing Studies
Theater on Theater: From Euripides' Bacchae to No�l Coward and Beyond
Professor Rush Rehm
Registration opens on 05/18/2015 Tuition: $310 Taught by Rush Rehm, Professor of Theater and Performance Studies and of Classics, and the founder and Artistic Director of Stanford Repertory Theater, this course explores the "play within the play" and includes special preview performances of the two SRT productions, plus Monday-night films and the Symposium. Classes Weds June 24 - August 12 7:00 pm - 8:50 pm Previews Weds July 15 + August 12 Movies Mon June 29 - August 10 7:00 pm Symposium Sat August 1 9:30 am - 5:00 pm For the course description and to apply online for admission, see: Stanford Continuing Studies Course FYI. Admissions requirements Admission is discretionary. The Stanford Continuing Studies Program requires students to hold a high school diploma or its equivalent. Students are not matriculated Stanford University students, and not all University privileges apply to Continuing Studies students. The University reserves the right, at its discretion, to withhold registration from, or require withdrawal from the program of, any student or applicant. For more information, see: Stanford TAPS Theater + Performance Studies
Rush Rehm received a PhD in drama and humanities from Stanford, and has written several books on Greek tragedy, including The Play of Space and Radical Theatre: Greek Tragedy and the Modern World. He recently directed Stanford Repertory Theater's productions of Moby-Dick-Rehearsed and The War of the Worlds. return to top |
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