[NEohioPAL] Wilson's 'Book of Days' opens August 15 at Akron's Home For the Arts

[JT Buck]

Dear Friends and Colleagues:

If you're local, hope to see you at the show.  If you're distant, here's the latest project FYI.  Please forward to your interested contacts!

Many thanks, 

JT
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Deadly Mix of Religion and Politics in Wilson’s Searing
BOOK OF DAYS

Home: For the Arts follows holiday JACOB MARLEY triumph with intense summer drama.


(July 15, 2008 Akron, Ohio– For Immediate Release)  Heartland politics meets ‘old-time religion’ in Pulitzer-Winning playwright Lanford Wilson’s chilling and rhapsodic BOOK OF DAYS, staged by Home: For the Arts August 15 – 24,  2008.  
	
The Beacon Journal’s Elaine Guregian called H4A’s recent staging of  JACOB MARLEY’S CHRISTMAS CAROL “…engrossing, entertaining and surprisingly moving.” (ABJ, 12/9/2007)  

For the Akron troupe’s second outing, H4A has chosen to run against the splashy summer theatre grain with Wilson’s intimate and chilling condemnation of conservative Christianity and American politics.  

In BOOK OF DAYS, the people of Dublin, Missouri re-live what happens when Walt, the town’s most prosperous businessman, dies a mysterious death during a furious summer storm.  Ruth, a bookkeeper cast as Joan of Arc at the local community theatre, becomes obsessed with facts that don’t add up.  Gradually possessed by the role of France’s famous young martyr, Ruth launches a relentless campaign to discover the truth:  Walt was murdered. 
 But when the killer turns out to be someone too close to home will justice be served, or will a cover-up orchestrated by Dublin’s religious and political leaders lead Ruth to  martyr's grim fate?  The stakes, as it were, could not be higher.  

BOOK OF DAYS has been hailed by VARIETY as “An intriguing, prismatic and thoroughly engrossing depiction of contemporary small-town life with a murder mystery at its core…a splendid evening of theatre…”

Director J.T. Buck, a church musician and former student of playwright Wilson, brings an especially personal passion to the director’s task.  He leads a semi-professional cast of twelve actors. 

Included in the cast are area stage favorites and MARLEY vets Jeff Holland, Dan Camburn and Toni Clair, as well as UA theatre professor Dr. Susan Speers.  A mix of college students and community members round out the cast, underscoring the play’s ordinary small town setting.  

Playwright Lanford Wilson is a native of Lebanon, Missouri. He was a founding member of New York’s famed Circle Repertory Theatre. Many of his plays were first presented there, including The Hot L Baltimore, which won the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award, the Outer Critics' Circle Award, and the Obie Award, and Fifth of July, which later had a successful production on Broadway. Wilson's 1979 play, Talley's Folly won the Pulitzer Prize for drama.

BOOK OF DAYS will open on Friday, August 15 and run thru 23.  

Showtimes 8pm Fridays and Saturdays
Sundays at 3 PM 

Location: 
First Grace United Church of Christ, 350 S. Portage Path (at W. Exchange St.).

Admission is free, but a donation of $10 is suggested to help cover costs.  

For Reservations and Further information, 
Call 330-762-8469, or email jtbuck at ameritech.net

First Grace is handicap-accessible, with plenty of free, convenient and well-lit parking.  

Due to very graphic language and adult situations,
this show is recommended for Adults.
Minors will only be admitted accompanied by an adult.

Home: For the Arts is a program of
First Grace United Church of Christ, and Open and Affirming Congregation, and supported by the generosity of our audiences.


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