[NEohioPAL] A personal invitation from David Hansen

[David Hansen]

Dear Theater Friend,

What are you doing this weekend?  Come down to Cain Park in Cleveland  
Heights for their first PLAYWRIGHTS WEEKEND.  Three fabulous  
Cleveland area playwrights are presenting workshop productions of new  
works in the Alma Theatre.  The price is right, and no matter which  
evening you choose, you will have a wonderful, eye-opening experience.

Friday, June 19 its DROWNING THE FLAME by Michael Oatman.  I just met  
Michael this year through the Cleveland Play House Playwrights Unit  
and in a short period of time he has become one of my favorite  
writers in town.  He's also wildly prolific and I really enjoy  
whatever he's working on.

This is the second of two plays he has produced this month about  
Tupac Shakur.  Did you know Tupac and Jada Pinkett Smith, future wife  
of the anti-Tupac (Will Smith) were very close in high school?  I  
didn't know that, but it's true.  I can't say if anything else in  
this play about that love triangle is true, but that doesn't matter.   
Director Mia Jones has put together a great ensemble for a powerful  
night of theater.

Saturday, June 20 features BEING EARNEST a pop-musical play by Deb  
Magid.  Deb is a serious triple-threat, she writes (music and lyrics)  
sings and performs in this contemporary homage to Oscar Wilde's  
"Earnest" by way of Bert Bacharach.  I have also been really  
impressed by Deb's work in the Playwrights Unit this year, anyone who  
has so much fun mixing words and music the way she does is worth  
listening to.

Under the direction of Larry Nehring, a tour guide who goes by the  
name of Algernon makes his way through an alphabet of women, enjoying  
word games, art and sexual relations in odd places.

Wrapping up the weekend on Sunday, June 21 is BON VOYAGE, NATE by  
Steve Maistros.  Steve's work is drop-dead hilarious, and I have  
enjoyed seeing his vignettes about the horrors of modern life played  
out at places like Cleveland Public Theatre.

Director Margi Herwald Zitelli has put together a crew of my  
favoritest-funniest people in Cleveland for this one.  How exactly  
does an office successful make their way through the grieving process  
for a dead co-worker?  This play entirely fails to answer that  
question, but you don't care, because it's funny.

Three plays by three Cleveland playwrights.  Tickets are cheap, and  
they are cheaper in quantity - $8 for one play, $15 for two plays,  
$21 for all three plays.  All shows have a 7 pm start time.  Cain  
Park is at Superior Road at Lee in Cleveland Heights.  Call  
216-371-3000 for tickets.  It's going to be a beautiful, warm  
weekend, and if you have never been to the open-air Alma Theatre at  
Cain Park, you are missing out on another feature that makes this  
city a great place to live.

I will see you there.

David Hansen
Organizer, Cain Park Playwrights Weekend