[NEohioPAL] Love! Valour! Compassion! performances begin Oct. 30

[Jan Harcar]

'Love! Valour! Compassion!'

Tony-Winning Play Takes to Weathervane's Dietz Theater

The bond of friendship and questions of mortality and love are revealed in Terrence McNally's Tony Award-winning comic drama Love! Valour! Compassion! - live on stage at Weathervane Playhouse from Oct. 30 to Nov. 15.

THE CAST & Role

Richard Worswick as Gregory Mitchell
Zac Hudak as Buzz Hauser
Pierre Brault as Ramon Fornos
Scott Shriner as John & James Jeckyll
John Haller as Perry Sellars
Gregg Stickney as Bobby Brahms
Jasen J. Smith as Arthur Pape
THE DIRECTOR

Jim Fippin has been acting, directing and otherwise engaged in theater in Northeast Ohio for more than 20 years. He directed the 2007 Weathervane production of Someone Who'll Watch Over Me. He has appeared on stage at Porthouse Theatre, Weathervane (most recently in the September production of The Rainmaker), Coach House Theatre, the Players Guild of Canton and with the Ohio Shakespeare Festival. His resume includes roles in Twelfth Night, Hamlet, The Lion in Winter, The Odd Couple, Uncle Vanya, The Real Thing and Custer. As the former Artistic Director of Coach House Theatre, Jim staged Chapter Two, Betrayal, Art, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? among others. In 2005, the Akron Area Arts Alliance recognized him as the area's Outstanding Theatre Artist. Jim earned his bachelor of fine arts degree in theatre from Otterbein College. He and his wife, Elaine, live in Wadsworth.

THE PLAY and PLAYWRIGHT

Terrence McNally's Love! Valour! Compassion! premiered at the Manhattan Theatre Club in New York City in October 1994. The show ran for 72 performances before transferring to Broadway in February 1995, where it played at the Walter Kerr Theatre for a total of 248 performances. The play won the 1994-1995 OBIE Award for Playwriting, the 1995 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play and the 1995 Tony Award for Best Play. 

In his 1995 review of the play, Vincent Canby of the "New York Times" described the play as one whose "roots are in old-fashioned Broadway theater, specifically in the house-party comedy, brought up to date and to brand-new life." Canby added that "Mr. McNally hasn't written a play about gay people living straight lives. It's a comedy about some comparatively privileged gay people in a world whose problems are ultimately shared by everyone. Though particular, as all good plays are, it's not parochial."

Terrence McNally is a Florida-born, Texas-reared, New York-based writer whose many works have graced the theatrical stage as well as the screens of movie theaters and televisions. His best-known plays include The Ritz, A Perfect Ganesh, Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune, Master Class, Corpus Christi and Lips Together, Teeth Apart. Last year, he was represented on Broadway with two plays: a new drama, Deuce (starring Angela Lansbury and Marian Seldes), and a revival of his 1975 farce The Ritz. For musical theater, McNally wrote the books for such musicals as The Rink, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Ragtime, The Full Monty and A Man of No Importance. McNally has also enjoyed a long relationship with Manhattan Theatre Club (an off-Broadway company devoted to producing new works), where many of his plays have premiered. In addition to his plays and books for musicals, McNally also wrote the libretto for an opera version of the 1995 film Dead Man Walking, which San Francisco Opera premiered in 1999. He is the recipient of two Guggenheim Fellowships and a Rockefeller Grant. He is a four-time Tony winner: two for Best Play (1995's Love! Valour! Compassion! and 1996's Master Class) and two for Best Book of a Musical (for Kiss of the Spider Woman in 1993 and Ragtime in 1998). He wrote the screenplays for three film adaptations of his plays - Frankie and Johnny (1991), Love! Valour! Compassion! (1997) and The Ritz (1976) - and his screenplay for the 1990 made-for-TV movie Andre's Mother won him an Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing in a Miniseries or a Special. He lives in New York City.

Love! Valour! Compassion! is presented in Weathervane's John L. Dietz Theater, an intimate 50-seat "black box" theater. For the Playhouse's 2008-2009 season, this venue will be the setting for this and one other production, Intimate Apparel (which will be staged from Feb. 26 to March 14, 2009). The Dietz Theater's intimate configurations make it ideal for plays and musicals that are not suited, for either artistic or financial reasons, to the Playhouse's 246-seat Mainstage.

Love! Valour! Compassion! is presented by a generous grant from Margaret J. Dietz.

The production contains adult language, mature themes and nudity.

TICKETS AND PERFORMANCE TIMES

Love! Valour! Compassion! plays in Weathervane's John L. Dietz Theater from Oct. 30 to Nov. 15, 2008. Performances are Thursdays at 7:30 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2:30 p.m.


For tickets ($15 each), call the Weathervane Box Office at 330/836-2626 (Mondays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Tuesdays through Fridays between 10 a.m. and 5:30 p.m.) or connect to www.weathervaneplayhouse.com. The 48-seat Dietz Theater features general-admission seating only.

Weathervane Community Playhouse and its dedicated volunteers offer vital performing arts resources for the people of Northeastern Ohio. We create exciting and thought-provoking shows with impressive production values. Through educational programs and volunteer opportunities for people of all ages and backgrounds, Weathervane serves the theater community, our patrons and our volunteers.


The Ohio Arts Council helped fund this program with state tax dollars to encourage economic growth, education excellence and cultural enrichment for all Ohioans.

Box Office Hours
Mondays: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Tuesdays through Fridays: 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Performance Saturdays only: noon to 5 p.m.
The Box Office is also open beginning one hour before each performance and remains open through intermission.


Janis Harcar
Director of Advancement
Weathervane Playhouse
330-836-2323 X16
www.weathervaneplayhouse.com
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