[NEohioPAL] The Sum of Us opens tonight

[Jan Harcar]

Weathervane Playhouse's

'The Sum of Us'

Is a tender examination of the ties that bind

 

Comic drama on the John L. Dietz Theater Stage January 14 - 30, 2010
 

Weathervane Playhouse presents The Sum of Us, a comic drama by David Stevens, live on the John L. Dietz Theater stage between January 14 - 30 ,2010. The production is made possible by the Gay Community Endowment Fund of Akron Community Foundation in memory of Paul Daum. 

 

The setting is Footscray, and industrial suburb of Melbourne, Australia. The play introduces us to a gay man and his straight father who support and cajole each other in a comic and tender examination of the ties that bind. Harry Mitchell is a middle-aged widower searching for love - and so is his son, Jeff, a plumber and amateur footballer. But can Jeff's new boyfriend and Harry's new girlfriend accept this unusual father-and-son relationship? 

 

Before its off-Broadway run at the Cherry Lane Theatre in New York City, The Sum of Us was produced at the Williamstown Theatre Festival and at A Director's Theatre in Los Angeles.

 

The New York production opened October 16, 1990, and ran for 335 performances before closing on August 4, 1991. The play won the 1991 Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Off-Broadway Play.

 

In 1994, playwright David Stevens adapted his play for an Australian film version, which starred Russell Crowe as Jeff and Jack Thompson as Harry. The film was nominated for six Australian Film Institute Awards (and it won one for best adapted screenplay). When the film played the 1995 Cleveland International Film Festival, festival audiences honored it with the Audience Choice Award for Best Film. 

 

About the Playwright

 

David Stevens was born in Palestine in 1940, raised in the Middle East and Africa, and then began his career as a writer in England before moving to New Zealand and then Australia. At present, he lives in California.

 

A playwright, director, writer and producer, Stevens has worked extensively in both film and television. For television, he directed the miniseries A Town Like Alice and A Thousand Skies. His screenwriting credits for television include Jackie, Ethel, Joan: The Women of Camelot, Merlin (for which he received an Emmy nomination), The Thorn Birds: The Missing Years and Alex Haley's Queen. He also co-wrote the Oscar-nominated Breaker Morant, the 1980 film that depicts the trial of three Australian soldiers tried by a British military court for the murder of 12 prisoners and a German missionary during the Boer War in South Africa in 1901.

 
Cast and their Roles
 

John Q. Bruce.Harry

Dane Lee.Jeff

Dane Leasure.Greg

Margo Parker.Joyce

 

Creative Team
 

ERIC VAN BAARS (director) previously directed The Wiz for Weathervane. As Assistant Artistic Director of Porthouse Theatre, he's directed Pump Boys and Dinettes and Dames at Sea and choreographed  Forum, Once on the Island and Big River. Eric choreographed for the Halle Theater (Joseph and A, My Name will Always be Alice), St. Louis Repertory (Into The Woods), Connecticut Rep (Once On This Island) and Cain Park (Big River, Fiddler on the Roof and The Sound of Music) and directed productions of The Melody Lingers On for Berea Summer Theatre, and Tintypes and Grease for Cain Park. At Kent State University, where he is a professor in the School of Theatre and Dance, Eric's directorial credits include The Diviners, Lysistrata, On The Verge, The Wild Party and A New Brain.

 

Dialect Coach - Katherine Burke

 

Stage Manager - Lane Taylor Smerglia

 

Assistant Stage Manager - Mike Emerson (Akron)

 

Costume Designer - John S. Catlos

 

Lighting Co-Designers - Erin Katz Ford and Jerry Dorton

 

Sound Designer - David Ruggles

 

Properties Designer - Jonathon Hunter

 

Scenic Designer/Technical Director - Alan Scott Ferrall

 

Assistant Technical Director - Kathy Kohl (Akron)

 

Ticket and Performance Information
The Sum of Us plays on the Weathervane Playhouse Dietz Theater stage between January 14 - 30, 2010, with performances Thursdays at 7:30 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2:30 p.m. (The closing performance is on Sat., Jan. 30.)

 

Tickets are $18. For tickets, call the Weathervane Box Office at 330/836-2626 or connect online to www.weathervaneplayhouse.com.

 

* * *

 

Weathervane 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.

 

Additional 2009-2010 season sponsors:

89.7 WSKU-FM

1590 WAKR

The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company - Young Actor Series

Margaret J. Dietz - The Dietz Series


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