[NEohioPAL] discount tickets for 4/28 PREVIEW of COMPANY at FPAC

[Fred Sternfeld]

*Hi Everybody,*
*
*
*You can attend the Thursday, April 28 preview of COMPANY at FPAC for just
$15 per ticket. Top adult price for tickets for other performances is $25.*
*
*
*Check out this website for more information about the production, and a
link to purchase tickets online: http://www.fredsternfeld.com/company.htm.*
*
*
*Here is a reprint of the news release.....*

*Phone Rings! Door Chimes! Sondheim’s COMPANY Comes to Fairmount Center for
the Arts!

“A Tribute to Stephen Sondheim!”
COMPANY and A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC to be presented by Fairmount Center for the
Arts!


*
MAYFIELD VILLAGE, OH—*Fairmount Performing Arts Conservatory’s Professional
Wing* presents *Company*, onstage at the *Mayfield** Village Civic
Center**April 28-May 14, 2011
*. Thursday, Friday and Saturday evening performances begin at 7:30 PM and
Sunday matinees at 2:00 PM. Located at the corner of Wilson Mills and SOM
Center Roads, the Mayfield Village Civic Center (6622 Wilson Mills Road in
Mayfield Village, OH), is the home of Fairmount Performing Arts Conservatory
(FPAC)’s theatrical productions.

Order tickets on-line at
FAIRMOUNTCENTER.TIX.COM<http://fairmountcenter.tix.com/>or call
440-338-3171. Tickets range from $14 - $25. Discounts are available
for Mayfield Village residents. Tickets for the Thursday, April 28 preview
and the Sunday, May 8th Mother’s Day matinee are just $15. Group rates are
available for 10 or more. Adults and Seniors will get $5 off per ticket when
purchasing tickets for *Company* and *A Little Night Music* as a package.

*Company* is the first in a two-part “Tribute to Stephen Sondheim” presented
by FPAC’s Professional Wing. Notable director *Fred Sternfeld* directs *
Company* this spring, with a return engagement, mounting Sondheim’s *A
Little Night Music*, October 27-Novermber 13, 2011. *A Little Night
Music*will feature the talents of Equity Actors
*Matthew Wright* as Fredrik Egerman and *Tracee Patterson* as Desirée
Armfelt. The legendary *Dorothy Silver* will appear as Madame Armfeldt.
Desirée and Madame Armfeldt were the roles played by *Bernadette Peters* and
*Elaine Stritch*, respectively, in the recent Broadway revival which closed
January 9, 2011. Sternfeld, whose numerous and award-winning directing
credits include *Baby* (TrueNorth Cultural Arts Center), *The Sound of
Music,* *Fiddler on the Roof* and *Oliver!* (Cain Park), *Ragtime* and *Man
of LaMancha* at the JCC, Disney’s *Beauty and the Beast* at Beck Center and
many productions with the Fairmount Center, is also the Artistic Director
for FPAC and Director for the School of Theatre at the Fairmount Center for
the Arts.

Songwriter Stephen Sondheim, playwright George Furth and director/producer
Hal Prince are the triumvirate responsible for creating *Company*, the 1970
Tony-winning Broadway smash that introduced audiences to the perpetual
bachelor, thirty-five year old Bobby, and all his crazy married friends who
sing and dance their six-legged way through such memorable numbers as,
“Getting Married Today,” “Another Hundred People,” “The Ladies Who Lunch”
and “Being Alive.” In an interview with British director Sam Mendes,
composer and lyricist Sondheim, who typically receives all the credit for
the piece, explained that what eventually became *Company* began as seven
disparate one-act plays, each involving three characters: a couple and an
outsider. Furth had approached Sondheim, who passed the information to
Prince. It was Prince who suggested combining the seven plays, reconfiguring
them into a single entity, and making a musical of it. What resulted was a
series of vignettes, described by Sondheim as, “the first commercial,
non-linear musical,” featuring the outsider, Bobby, as the central character
acting as the red thread connecting all the various pairs, and including a
series of unfulfilled relationships for the romantically-challenged hero.
*
Company*, created in 1969, debuted on Broadway the following year and came
out of, according to Sondheim, the end of an era. Traditional ideals about
marriage and the marriage model from the previous generation were breaking
down; the sexual revolution and the freedom so intrinsic to the fabric of
the late ‘60s and early ‘70s inform the piece. The seeming stability of
post-war, 1950s America and the images of “Father Knows Best” and “Leave It
To Beaver” were beginning to acquire an antique patina and looked to the
younger generation to be relics of the past. *Company*, as it represented
middle-aged Americans in the framework of the sexual revolution and the
changing tide of values, addressed and illustrated the themes of commitment,
non-commitment and the fear of commitment, ideas recognizable by anyone
involved in human relations.

Set during Bobby’s 35th birthday celebration, the action, as the creators of
*Company* intended, takes place internally. The FPAC production honors that
intention, and places Bobby, the single man, at the center. All of the
couples are spokes in the wheels turning in Bobby’s mind as he faces
mid-life and examines his choices and options. Eastman School of Music alum
*Connor O’Brien* appears as the affable, but conflicted, Bobby, and joins
his considerable breadth of performance experience with that of
*Company’s*company in this FPAC Professional Wing production. A
collection of
performers with impressive credentials comprise the couples who populate
Bobby’s life and memory. Akron-based performer and Pittsburgh native *Megan
Elk* and Cleveland Shakespeare Festival Production Manager *Aaron
Elersich*are Sarah and Harry, who deny their penchants for rich food
and strong
cocktails, channeling those energies into living room martial arts
expositions, impossibly stringent diet regimens and turbulent rides on the
wagon. Kent State University student *Michael Glavin* and AEA-actress *Ursula
Cataan* appear as Amy and Paul, a couple on the threshold of that ultimate
declaration of commitment: marriage. Paul feels confident and content, while
Amy has some strong concerns about entering into holy matrimony. Larry,
third husband of the acerbically-witted Joanne, is portrayed by the
recently-returned-to-Cleveland *James E. Jarrell*. *Tracee Patterson*, also
a member of Actors’ Equity Association, becomes Joanne, perhaps the most
jaded and relationship-worn of all of Bobby’s friends. Ivy League Peter and
southern belle Susan, played by new-to-Cleveland *Abigail Allwein* and
Actors’ Summit and convergence-continuum company member *Shawn
Galligan,*share an evening with Bobby overlooking the Hudson, almost,
on their
terrace. They want Bobby to be the first to know about how their
relationship is evolving. *Lydia Hall* and *Rick McGuigan* play
straight-laced but sweet Jenny and her husband David, who seems to be
chaffing a little at the confines of marriage, an admission that surfaces
during the threesome’s evening of recreational activities. Bobby’s revolving
door love life includes three “special ladies”: a ditzy flight attendant
named April, played by Kent State student *Erin Diroll*; Kathy, Bobby’s on
again-off again girlfriend who seems ready to get off the merry-go-round,
played by area performer and choreographer *Sarah Clare*; and Marta, the
high-intensity Manhattan-ite who Bobby describes as “fun,” brought to life
by Point Park University alum and FPAC instructor *Natalie Green*.

*Company’s* creative team is helmed by FPAC’s Artistic Director and Director
of School of Theatre, Fred Sternfeld, and includes musical director *Jonathan
Swoboda*, choreographer *Bebe Weinberg Katz*, scenic designer *Trad A. Burns
*, lighting designer *Ben Gantose*, costume designer *Craig Tucker*, sound
designer *Carlton Guc*, technical director *Paul* *Gatzke *and stage manager
*Rebecca Adams*. *Company* is presented through special arrangement with
Music Theatre International (MTI). Fairmount Center for the Arts receives
generous support from The Ohio Arts Council and The Lake Geauga Fund.

For more information, contact

LYDIA HALL, PR/Mktg Specialist

lydiahall at hotmail.com

617.680.7663


-- 
Fred Sternfeld
http://www.fredsternfeld.com
216-360-0718-home
216-496-6087-cell
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