[NEohioPAL] Free Food & Champagne @ CSU Summer Stages This Weekend

[James Kosmatka]

"Best of Cleveland": CSU Summer Stages Opens Fourth Season this Weekend

July 9-August 9
		

		It's back! Downtown Cleveland's only professional summer
theatre company, Cleveland State University Summer Stages, is proud to
announce the kickoff of their fourth season. Like last year's award winning
season
<http://www.clevescene.com/cleveland/best-theater-production/BestOf?oid=1678
255> , Summer Stages will return with three shows in rotating repertory
during a five-week run beginning July 8 and ending August 8.  And be sure to
join us this weekend for our famous opening night champagne receptions.
There will be a free appetizer buffet and champagne after The Elephant Man
on Thursday, July 8, Oh Dad on Friday, July 9 and Curtains on July 10.
		
		Tickets are available by phone at 216-687-2109 or at
http://csu.ticketleap.com.   

		As the resident theatre company of CSU, much of the cast is
composed of CSU Dramatic Arts students, local professional actors and
alumni. "As a result of the overwhelming response to auditions, we are proud
to announce that we are the largest summer employer of local union actors in
the region," said Dr. Michael Mauldin, Director of Dramatic Arts and
producer of Summer Stages. 

		 "With the promotion of the 'Dramatic Arts Program' to the
'Department of Theatre and Dance', coupled with the anticipated move to the
Allen Theatre, we can't help but feel we are poised to become an education
and entertainment powerhouse in Northeast Ohio," he added. 

		For 2010, Summer Stages will present its flagship musical,
Curtains, by Rupert Holmes, with lyrics by Fred Ebb and music by John
Kander, and directed by Mauldin with choreography by Martin Cespedes. Fresh
off its Broadway run featuring David Hyde Pierce, Curtains, the last musical
by the legendary songwriting team of Kander & Ebb, is a classic murder
mystery whodunit in a musical theatre milieu.

		The 1979 Tony Award-winning drama The Elephant Man will also
be preformed.  Written by Bernard Pomerance and directed by Shadow Box
director Everett Quinton, Elephant Man tells the story of the
heartbreakingly naïve and gentle Joseph "John" Merrick. Quinton, a famously
known New York legend, is a founding member of Summer Stages and has been
involved in every production.        

		Finishing off the season is the hilarious mouthful Oh Dad,
Poor Dad, Mamma's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feeling So Sad by Arthur
Kopit, author of the hit musical and film Nine.  This comedy, directed by
Beck Center Artistic Director Scott Spence, and featuring a drag-tastic turn
by Everett Quinton, is (according to the author) "a pseudoclassical
tragifarce in a bastard French tradition". We're not sure what that means,
but we know it has piranhas, Venus flytraps, and poor dad in a casket in the
next room.

Tickets only $10, Season Pass for $30

		Ticket prices are $15 general admission, $10 for seniors,
and $10 for groups of 10 or more. The Smarty Pants Pass is $30 to see all
three shows. Curtain time is 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday and 2 p.m. on Sunday.

		For tickets or more information on Summer Stages, please
call the Box Office at (216) 687-2109, go to csu.ticketleap.com. The Factory
Theatre is located on East 24th Street between Chester and Payne avenues.
Parking is free in Lot S1. 

Dinner and a Show: $20

		Elements Bistro on Euclid and CSU Summer Stages are teaming
up to offer you dinner and a show for only $20. Enjoy this exclusive deal on
Friday, July 9 (Oh Dad), Friday, July 23 (Curtains), and Thursday, August 5
(Elephant Man). Elements will be open from 4-8pm n these dates and will be
offering an entrée and a small plate or dessert, followed by a performance
at the CSU Factory Theatre. Elements is located two blocks south of the
Factory Theatre at 2300 Euclid Avenue. Tickets and meal vouchers can be
purchased at http://csu.ticketleap.com, from Elements, or from the CSU
Factory Theatre Box Office at 216.687.2109.

Curtains
Book by Rupert Holmes
Music by John Kander
Lyrics by Fred Ebb
Original book and concept by Peter Stone
Directed by Dr. Michael L. Mauldin, Director of the CSU Department of
Theatre
Choreographed by Martin Cespedes
		
		July 10, 11 (2pm), 15, 23, 31
		August 1 (2pm), 7, 8 (2pm)
		
		"Knock 'em dead!" A less-than-stellar leading lady has been
killed at curtain call (serves her right for murdering all her songs!) and
it's up to homicide detective (and musical theatre aficionado) Frank Cioffi
to unravel the case before he takes his final bow.

The Elephant Man
By Bernard Pomerance
Directed by Everett Quinton

		July 8, 16, 24, 25 (2pm), 29
		August 5 

		Winner of the Tony Award for Best Play, this powerful drama
about the beauty and truth hiding beneath an ugly exterior tells the story
of the misshapen sideshow performer John Merrick when a well-meaning doctor
brings him into the fold of Victorian society.

Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mamma's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feeling So Sad 
By Arthur Kopit
Directed by Scott Spence, Artistic Director of the Beck Center for the Arts

		July 9, 17, 18 (2pm), 22, 30
		August 6
		
		A Drama Desk Award winner in 1962, Oh Dad is a farce of epic
proportions, wherein mommy dearest, Madame Rosepettle, will stop at nothing
to keep her philatelist son hiding under her skirt until well past puberty.
Meanwhile, dad's still dead. And hanging in the closet.

Box office: 216.687.2109

More information: http://www.csuohio.edu/theater