May, 2008

Three Playwrights Honor Blue Ridge Community Theater

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BRCT has received information that there are quite a few playwrights in our region that would be excited to have a place to call home for playwright meetings and production consideration.  As a community organization we have heard the call and have created a development committee to establish how we can help playwrights connect and pursue their ambitions.  Those interested in this Playwright Series should contact Janelle McCarthy at egnahb@yahoo.com for more information.  Any input from the playwrights in our area would be greatly appreciated!

In the meantime, audiences and playwrights alike will enjoy some of the talented individual playwrights who are graciously bringing their work to the BRCT stage within the next six months of 2008. 

HISTORY OF PLAYWRIGHTS AT BRCT 

This visiting playwright’s tradition started in the Spring of 2003 when Tom Edwards came to see BRCT’s production of his play “Della’s Diner Blue Plate Special”.  He was so pleased with BRCTs representation of his play that he volunteered to donate his royalties for future Blue Ridge Community Theater’s productions of his plays.  What a terrific gift when he not only donated his royalties in the winter of 2004 for our production of Della’s Diner – “The Christmas Episode”, but he also attended and celebrated this event with us.  Mr. Edwards has written over half a dozen plays. 

In the Summer of 2004, when Sunny D Children’s Theater produced The Journey of Sir Douglas Fir, an International Emmy awarded play by playwright Rick Rietz.  Rietz not only attend a few rehearsals and all performances, he sold his autographed illustrated book and CD to our Children and Families at a 75% discount and donated 1/3 of the proceeds to the theater. 

To understand the written words of a play as interpreted by the playwright is a special opportunity.  All visiting playwrights have been very generous in sharing their time and thoughts with our audiences and actors. Three Playwrights is an impressive Performance Series for a major city and a major theater.  For Blue Ridge and our artistically young theater, it is a real accomplishment the community can be proud of!  BRCT’s Playwrights Series further enhances Blue Ridge’s position as an arts, cultural, education and tourism center.  Besides these five playwrights, BRCT is in discussion with Atlanta and other regionally based Playwrights.  

SYNOPSIS OF 2008 PLAYWRIGHT SERIES  

SHORT –HAIRED GRACE by Bill Bruehl

May 3 & 4, 2008

Mr. Bill Bruehl taught theater at SUNY Stoney Brook.  He has been involved with theater since he was a toddler of two and considers himself a “Theater Person”.  He is an Equity member and belongs to the Professional Drama Guild.  Mr. Bill Bruehl, as Director has brought over 100 plays to the stage and acted in many.  

Saturday, May 3,   11AM – 1PM there will be a free Masters Acting Workshop by Bill Bruehl.    This will be a “Theater Text” Workshop; participants should bring a prepared script or monologue.  While teaching: “Actor responsibility to the Play, the Director, the Blocking and the Working Words”  Bill seeks to teach actors to surprise each other each performance and keep the play alive and fresh while staying true to the text.  Everyone is welcome to observe as non participating audience members. 

 Short-Haired Grace is a play based on the actual conversation between Queen Elizabeth I and the pirate Grace O’Malley.  For forty years during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558 – 1603), Grace O’Malley dominated the seas off the west coast of Ireland, leading a band of Irish pirates whom the English were unable to defeat.  Finally, when both were in their sixties, these two powerful women met in London at the Queen’s invitation.  That is history.  How they dealt with each other is finally revealed in the play…..  This new play has been bought for the 2009 Lake Geneva Wisconsin Summer Festival of Plays.  Mr. Bruehl brings four excellent actors to Blue Ridge who will perform a Dramatic Reading. 

AN EVENING WITH MARK TWAIN by Kurt H. Sutton

July 4, 5 & 6, 2008

Kurt H. Sutton was recognized among the authors on the program of the Georgia Literary Festival that was held here last year.  Mr. Sutton did a benefit performance for BRCT as part of the Georgia Literary Festival’s paid events. 

Born in Mannheim, Germany, he migrated to the United States in 1950.  He grew up and was educated in Canton, Ga.  Mr. Sutton graduated from the University of Georgia then taught Social Science and coached for 6 years.  He attended Western North Carolina where he received his Mater’s in Education.  His study of and love for Mark Twain’s works go back to his college days.  Mr. Sutton has performed as a speaker, trainer and entertainer on the musical stage for twenty years.  His instrument, like Twain’s, include harmonica, guitar, and banjo.  He has performed in the movie “Go Tell It on the Mountain”, featuring Paul Winfield and “Night Shadows” featuring Wings Hauser.  He has performed Mark Twain for 4 years in theaters throughout the United States. 

 An Evening with Mark Twain is a variety of acts from over thirty speeches, biographies, short stories and sketches Mr. Sutton has written about Mark Twain.  These acts are interspersed with songs and sing-a-longs.  “The audience is at liberty to assume the program will come from the listed selections.  Unfortunately, we could not pin Mr. Twain down to a set program.  He says it would cripple his inspiration.”  Therefore, each performance is unique and different. 

Mark Twain is as American as the Red, White and Blue, so BRCT is especially pleased that Mr. Sutton will appear as Mark Twain in our Blue Ridge Old Timers Parade on Saturday, July 5.

LORD BYRON’S “LESSON IN LOVE” by Bill Studdiford, PERFORMED by Ian Frost

October 18 & 19, 2008

Last year some of you met Lord Byron, one of England’s most famous and original poets through the talents of internationally know actor Ian Frost.  Lord Byron has been labeled for all time as “Mad, Bad and dangerous to know” which makes his writing so interesting and colorful.  Lessons in Love is Byron’s “true” story of young Don Juan.  Those of you who recall Byron and some of his friends and enemies from last year, may get a few extra chuckles as you find parallels between this story and his own life.  Many swear Lessons in Love is the best shaggy dog story in the world.  Byron takes this chance to make his own comments on life, love, and the human condition – also pointing out that it is not only the male of the species that is the hunter…ladies can be in hot pursuit too! 

Don’t be alarmed by the title:  this year we can promise you Lessons in Love is great fun – a light-hearted evening of theater which has been described my one reviewer as “moving and amusing at the same time.” 

Bill Studdiford spent five delightful seasons at the Bremerton (Washington) Community Theatre as actor, director, designer, stage manager and playwright before joining IBM for 26 years, working in 12 countries on four continents with a special two-year leave of a absence to help found the Children’s Museum of Manhattan.  Bill majored in journalism at Pacific University in Oregon and started writing for the theater at that time.  Bill enjoyed writing the three plays making up the Byron Trilogy, compiling “Byron in Venice”, and touring as chauffeur, stage manger, sound/light technician, and stagehand – but welcomed the opportunity to become acquainted with Keats and to write about him.  With both Byron and Keats on the boards, it was almost inevitable for Shelly to follow.  Once that play was completed, he wondered why he made Shelly wait so long! 

Ian Frost’s professional association with Lord Byron began several years ago.  A founder-member of ACT-London, he created the part of Byron/Narrator in its award-winning production of “Don Juan” at the Edinburgh Festival.  Mr. Frost trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and the Royal Court Actors Studio; Ian appeared with leading repertory theaters in England and on the London Stage. 

TICKETS and INFORMATION: BOX OFFICE – 706-632-9223

Box Office: 706-632-9223, General Admission, $15.00. For information go to our web site: www.blueridgecommunitytheater.com

Seating for all performances is Reserved General Admission, $15.00.  At show time, if space is available, students $7.50.  Reserve tickets at 706-632-9223.  Blue Ridge Community Theater, 11 Mountain Street, Blue Ridge, Georgia, 30513 is a 501© 3 non-profit volunteer based theater.  The Playwrights series is an addition to BRCTs Main Stage Season and Sunny D Children’s Theater Plays and Summer Camp. 

For more information go to: www.blueridgecommunitytheater.com.