[NEohioPAL] The University of Akron presents The Gospel According to Tammy Fae

[Arts Administration]

PRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


*Date: Tuesday, August 23, 2011*
   From:      School of Dance, Theatre, and Arts Administration

               The University of Akron



Contact:  Joelle Harris

 (330) 972-7895

 Administration.arts at gmail.com





*Tammy Faye Bakker lives on in new musical at UA*

* *

Akron, OH, Aug. 23, 2011 —* The Gospel According to Tammy Faye* opens The
University of Akron Theatre Program’s 2011-12 mainstage season with eight
performances beginning Sept. 8 at Sandefur Theatre in Guzzetta Hall, 139
Buchtel Ave. on the UA campus. Performances are September 8, 9, 10, 15, 16,
17 at 8 p.m. and Sunday matinees, September 11 and 18, at 2 p.m.



Written by UA alumnus JT Buck, a 2004 graduate of the UA Theatre Program,
and Fernando Dovalina, *The Gospel According to Tammy Faye* features an
eclectic pop-country-gospel score and fantasy-style mode of storytelling.
The cast includes students, professional actors and a live four-piece band.
It will be directed by Susan Speers, Professor of Theatre Arts at UA.



Tickets are available for purchase 30 minutes prior to the shows, or call
the UA Theatre Ticket Office at (330) 972-7895 to make reservations. Tickets
are $12 for general admission, $10 for seniors and UA faculty, staff, and
alumni, and $6 for students.



“Tammy Faye’s larger-than-life persona and dramatic life story are ripe for
theatrical treatment,” says UA Theatre Professor Susan Speers, who is
directing the musical. Bakker was known as “The First Lady of Televangelism”
for founding, along with her husband Jim, the world's first
satellite-broadcast Christian network in the 1980s. The network imploded in
a series of scandals, including Jim’s marital infidelity and accusations of
financial fraud.



Known even more for her bold makeup, including the famous mascara-laden
eyelashes, in later years Tammy Faye Bakker battled cancer and became an
unlikely hero in the gay community.



Buck and Dovalina met while both were graduate students of veteran Broadway
producer Stuart Ostrow and the late Pulitzer-winning playwright Lanford
Wilson at The University of Houston.

Beginning with interviews conducted with the subject herself, the pair say
that they sought to trace Tammy Faye’s rags-to-riches-to-redemption story in
a way that is even-handed and uplifting.



“Doing a campy send-up of her story would be easy and therefore boring,”
says Buck, “We want this show to appeal to everyone whose life has been
affected by terminal illness, infidelity, or religious hostility. In short,
almost everyone.”



*The Gospel According to Tammy Faye* was work-shopped with staged readings
at Manhattan Theatre Club, starring Tony nominee Sally Mayes and Broadway
veterans Heather Parcells and Bill Youmans, as well as sold-out performances
at the Cincinnati Fringe Festival and in Houston, where it played on the
stage of the Alley Theatre as a benefit for a local AIDS charity — opening
on the night Tammy Faye died.



After a several-year hiatus from the project, Buck and Dovalina are using
the UA performances to prepare the show for a stab at the big leagues with
possible major city engagements.



The show has also become an increasingly personal crusade for Buck. His
mother was diagnosed with stage-four brain cancer in March, and died just
four days before the UA production went into rehearsals.



“In many ways this show was always intended as an homage to my mom,”
explains Buck. “I wrote the music with Mom very much on my mind. Working on
it again in the midst of her dying process has been intense.”



Buck adds, “Both Tammy and my mom faced mountains of obstacles and always
found a way to rise above them. Both faced their end with dignity and
strength. That's always worth singing about.”





*Performance Details*

* *

*When:*

Sept. 8-10 and 15-17 at 8 p.m.

Sept. 11 and 18 at 2 p.m.



*Where:*

Sandefur Theatre in Guzzetta Hall, 139 Buchtel Ave., across from E.J. Thomas
Hall on the UA campus.



*Tickets:*

Tickets prices are $12 General Admission, $10 Seniors/Faculty/Alumni/Staff,
and $6 Students



*More information:*

For more information or to make reservations, call (330) 972-7895 or visit
http://www.uakron.edu/dtaa.



-- 
Graduate Student
University of Akron
Graduate Assistant, Arts Administration
Phone: (330) 972.7895
Email: administration.arts at gmail.com
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