[NEohioPAL] See How They Run - preview & opening

Wed May 2 07:32:20 PDT 2012

‘See How They Run’ Exemplifies

British Farce at its Hilarious Best!

Small English Village in the 1940s is Setting for Blissful Comedy Packed with Mistaken Identities and Outrageous Situations

Actress injured: Playing the role of Miss Skillon for opening weekend, will be Eileen Moushey.

Weathervane Playhouse continues its 77th Mainstage season with the hilarious comedy, See How They Run. This comic romp exemplifies British farce at is best, and is presented live on stage between May 3 and 20, 2012. The production is directed by Eileen Moushey.

Before there was Noises Off, there was See How They Run – which just goes to show you that the English know what they’re doing when it comes to creating hilarious, slamming-door farces.

See How They Run is set in the idyllic English village of Merton-cum-Middlewick in 1940s England, the village inhabitants are preparing themselves for the imminent threat of Nazi invasion. Miss Skillon, the resident nosy-parker and spinster, becomes convinced that her beloved vicar’s actress wife is having an affair and attempts to expose her.

Thrown into the chaotic mix are an escaped German prisoner of war, a handsome actor, the visiting Bishop of Lax, a visiting priest and some snooping neighbors – and in the end, hilarious confusion and mayhem result.

In See How They Run, audiences will encounter mistaken identities...doors slamming...chase scenes...vaulting over bodies...Russian spies...multiple clergy...drunken spinsters stuffed into closets — namely, it’s British farce at its hilarious best!

Blissful hilarity rules the roost in See How They Run – a delicious theatrical soufflé baked with of blissful frivolity.

Weathervane’s See How They Run Performance and Ticket Information

See How They Run plays on the Weathervane Playhouse Founders Theater stage between May 3 and 20, 2012.

The low-cost preview performance is Thursday, May 3 at 7:30 p.m.; the official opening-night performance is Friday, May 4 at 8 p.m.

Between May 3 and 20, 2012, the performance days and times are Thursdays at 7:30 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2:30 p.m.

Tickets for the May 3 preview performance only (at 7:30 p.m.) are $15 each. Tickets for performances after May 3 are $21 each.

$19 tickets for seniors are available for Thursday and Sunday performances. Tickets for children (ages 17 or younger) and college students are $5 each at all performances. Additional discounts for groups of 12 or larger are also available.

The Weathervane Playhouse Box Office is open Mondays between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., Tuesdays through Fridays between 10 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. and is also open beginning one hour before each performance. For tickets, visit or call the Weathervane Box Office at (330) 836-2626 during Box Office hours or connect online to www.weathervaneplayhouse.com.

The See How They Run Cast (in Order of Appearance)

and their Ohio Residences

Jo McGarvey (of Cuyahoga Falls) plays the role of Ida

Harriet DeVeto (of Akron) plays the role of Miss Skillon (Harriet has sustained an injury. In the role of Miss Skillon this first weekend will be Eileen Moushey)

Scott Davis (of Akron) plays the role of The Reverend Lionel Toop

Jennifer Hayek (of Akron) plays the role of Penelope Toop

Beau Reinker (of Kent) plays the role of Corporal Clive Winton

Ian S. Haberman (of Sharon Center) plays the role of The Intruder

Tom Stephan (of Stow) plays the role of The Bishop of Lax

Jeff Bixby (of Medina) plays the role of The Reverend Arthur Humphrey

Adam Alderson (of Kent) plays the role of Sergeant Towers

The See How They Run Backstage Team and their Ohio Residences

Stage Manager – Mary Kate Clancy (of Munroe Falls)

Assistant Stage Manager – Michelle Conner (of Akron)

Sound Designer – Stephen Moushey (of Kent)

Lighting Designer – Susan Stout Davis (of Cuyahoga Falls)

Properties Co-Designers – Tom Abdoo (of Clinton) and Sylvia Collier (of Akron)

Costume Designer – Jasen J. Smith (of Akron)

Scenic Designer/Technical Director – Alan Scott Ferrall (of Cuyahoga Falls)

Assistant Technical Director – Kathy Kohl (of Akron)

About the Show’s Director

EILEEN MOUSHEY is a freelance writer/director whose most previous directing assignments for Weathervane were 2010’s A Tuna Christmas and 2009’s Mrs. Bob Cratchit’s Wild Christmas Binge. Her company, Mysteries by Moushey, performs interactive murder mysteries throughout Northeast Ohio, and her scripts have been produced by more than 1,000 theaters and schools all over the world. She also writes video scripts and is a two-time regional Emmy Award winner. She has also been active at Weathervane Playhouse for over 25 years as a volunteer and has received several of the Playhouse’s Chanticleer Awards for designing sound, lighting and stage properties for Weathervane productions. She also has a “Best Actress” Chanticleer Award. Her other Weathervane directorial credits include Mitch Albom’s And the Winner Is and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. She has served on the Playhouse’s Board of Trustees (including one stint as president) and she has served as the chair of Weathervane’s two most recent capital-expansion campaigns. She also served as the chair of last summer’s first annual 8x10 TheatreFest, Weathervane’s festival of 10-minute plays; and she is chairing this summer’s second outing of the festival (see it on our stage July 13, 14 and 15). She lives in Kent with her husband, Stephen (the sound designer for this production of See How They Run).

About the Show’s Production History and Adaptations

See How They Run was first performed by the Peterborough Rep in England in 1944. Following its premiere, the show went on tour under the auspices of the Entertainments National Service Association (which had been set up in 1939 to provide entertainment for the British armed forces during World War II).

With a new cast, the play then opened in December 1944 for a Christmas-time run at the Q Theatre (one of several theaters that comprise London’s equivalent of an off-Broadway theater scene). In January 1945, it transferred to the Comedy Theatre (re-named The Harold Pinter Theatre in 2011) in London’s West End theater district, where it enjoyed a hugely successful run of nearly 600 performances over an 18-month run. Since the 1940s, the show has been revived twice in London’s West End (in 1964 and in 1978).

A British film adaptation of the play followed in 1955, and in 1984 a television adaptation aired on the BBC.

The first American production was presented in 1949 by Actors’ Theatre in Plainfield, N.J. Since then, in spite of no major Broadway or off-Broadway productions of the play, it has received countless productions at regional theaters, community theaters and high schools across the United States.

Weathervane Playhouse first presented See How They Run in January 1952; Robert Beard directed the production. This play was the inaugural production at Weathervane’s prior location at 1474 Copley Rd. in West Akron, which remained Weathervane’s home until the present facility in the Merriman Valley opened in 1970.

About the Playwright

PHILLIP KING (1904-1979) was a British playwright and actor. Born in the county of Yorkshire in Northern England, he lived most of life in Brighton along the southern coast of England.

As a teenager, he performed with a small touring theatrical troupe and later moved on to join the repertory company at the Grand Opera House at Harrogate Theatre in Leeds, where in 1939 his first play (Without the Prince) was produced.

The play’s success in Leeds generated a production in London’s West End theater district in 1940, which encouraged him to continue writing. In 1942, he began writing See How They Run – under the working title of Moon Madness – and completed it one year later. Eventually, See How They Run went on to become a box office hit and would ultimately secure King’s place in English theater.

Years later, Philip King wrote his memoirs and recalled the opening of the play:

"The morning after the ‘first night' I went down to Shepherd's Bush, bought every morning paper there was, and went to my usual workmen's cafe directly opposite RAF White City, and over a pint mug of tea and a Spam sandwich read the notices.

"They were marvelous! But, as I read them, I suddenly remembered the pictures I had seen of Noel Coward sitting up in a wonderful looking bed, in an even more wonderful dressing-gown, a silver tray at his side, reading his notices! And here was I...a pint mug of tea and a thick Spam sandwich. But what the hell? I had a success. That's all that really mattered."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

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 2010-2011 season sponsors

89.7 WSKU-FM

Mary S. and David C. Corbin Foundation

OMNOVA Solutions Foundation

Sisler McFawn Foundation

Akron Community Foundation

Kenneth L. Calhoun Charitable Trust

The Margaret Clark Morgan Foundation

Janis Harcar
Director of Advancement
Weathervane Playhouse
330-836-2626 X16
jharcar at weathervaneplayhouse.com

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.neohiopal.org/pipermail/neohiopal-neohiopal.org/attachments/20120502/a84b207d/attachment-0004.htm>