[NEohioPAL] Shooting Star opens at Weathervane

[Janis Harcar]

Weathervane Playhouse’s ‘Shooting Star’

Serves up a Sweet, Touching Comedy

Filled with Humor, Heartache, Secrets – and Snow! 

Bittersweet Romantic Comedy by Prolific American Playwright

Steven Dietz to be Staged in Weathervane’s Intimate Dietz Theater

 Weathervane Playhouse celebrates the middle days of our lives – and how we got there – in Steven Dietz’s bittersweet romantic comedy, Shooting Star.

Shooting Star is presented live on stage in Weathervane Playhouse’s intimate John L. Dietz Theater from Oct. 25 to Nov. 10, 2012.

Reed McAllister and Elena Carson were once college sweethearts but they haven’t seen each other in 25 years. Since then, Reed has grown into a buttoned-down suit-and-tie-wearing corporate type, complete with his ever-present Blackberry in his palm. The free-spirited Elena, on the other hand, has remained true to her idealistic “hippie chick” soul. 

When these two former lovebirds are stranded at the same snowed-in airport during the “blizzard of the century,” the conversation crackles and the sparks begin to fly. When morning comes and all flights are cleared for departure – what’s the final destination for these two?

Can young love make a return engagement? Shooting Star is a sweet, touching comedy filled with humor, heartache, secrets – and snow!

Shooting Star is directed by Rohn Thomas. Jerimie Newcomb serves as the play’s assistant director, and the production is underwritten by Margaret J. Dietz.

Ticket and Performance Information

Shooting Star plays in Weathervane Playhouse’s John L. Dietz Theater between Oct. 25 and Nov. 10, 2012. (The Dietz Theater is Weathervane Playhouse’s intimate, 50-seat “second stage” within its Weathervane Lane facility.)

The preview performance is Thursday, Oct. 25 at 7:30 p.m.; the official opening-night performance is Friday, Oct. 26 at 8 p.m.

Between Oct. 25 and Nov. 10, 2012, performance days and times are Thursdays at 7:30 p.m.; Fridays at 8 p.m.; Saturdays at both 2:30 and 8 p.m.; and Sundays at 2:30 p.m.

Tickets for all performances of the play are $18 each. Tickets for college students are $5 each. The 50-seat Dietz Theater features general-admission seating only.

Due to mature themes and some adult language, Shooting Star is recommended for adult audiences.

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

The Shooting Star Cast and their Ohio Residences 

LAURA STITT of Cuyahoga Falls plays the role of Elena Carson 
MICHAEL GAFFNEY of New Franklin plays the role of Reed McAllister

The Shooting Star Creative Team and their Ohio Residences

 MARYANNE COTTER of Strongsville serves as the stage manager.

 RYAN DURFEE of Cuyahoga Falls serves as the lighting designer.

 DAN “D. J.” JANKURA of Cuyahoga Falls serves as the sound designer

 JANIS HARCAR of Kent serves as the costume coordinator.

 ALAN SCOTT FERRALL of Cuyahoga Falls serves as the properties designer, scenic designer and technical director.
About the Play’s Director

ROHN THOMAS Rohn Thomas (Director) is delighted to be back at Weathervane, where he directed The Nerd, Perfect Wedding and The Lion in Winter. He has directed numerous other shows at Weathervane over the past 20 years. Representative directing credits include The Odd Couple, The Foreigner and The Sunshine Boys. He directed City of Angels and The Value of Names at the Jewish Community Center and How I Got That Story and Painting Churches at the Beck Center. This past summer, he played Coach Benny Van Buren in Damn Yankees at Porthouse Theater. Other Porthouse acting credits include Mooney in Anything Goes, Mayor Shin in The Music Man and Smea in Matthew Earnest’s Peter Pan. He has been a regular at the Cleveland Play House, most recently in Inherit the Wind. He also frequently works at Great Lake Theatre Festival, most recently in The Taming of the Shrew last fall. Some of his favorite roles are Doc Gibbs, Reverend Chasuble, Nathan Detroit, Mr. MacAfee and Surdyvant in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. He also created the role of Father Mark in Tony-N-Tina’s Wedding at the Hanna and, for several years, played Topper in A Christmas Carol at Great Lakes. Rohn has worked extensively in film appearing in more than 30 films. He is presently filming The Umbrella Man in Pittsburgh. Some of this other credits include roles in The Ides of March, The Shawshank Redemption, Welcome to Collinwood, The Mothman Prophesies, West Wing, Sudden Death and Telling Lies in America. Rohn produces and directs short films for Kent State, where he teaches Acting For Camera.   He thanks his beautiful wife, Terri Kent, and his children (Hunter, Morgan, Samuel and Kaishawn) for their generous support.

About the Play’s Assistant Director

JERIMIE NEWCOMB spent this past summer at Porthouse Theatre, where he served as an assistant director to Terri Kent on two productions there (Damn Yankees and The Sound of Music) as well as serving as an assistant company manager. He graduated from Kent State University in May 2012 with a B.A. in theatre studies (with a concentration in directing). Some of his directing credits include David and Lisa, Furies, Land of the Dead, Rabbit Hole, Mr. Marmalade, Love at Twenty, Coax and Helter Skelter. His assistant-directing credits include Tons of Money, Crazy for You, and the KSU School of Theatre and Dance’s production of A Chorus Line (under the direction of Terri Kent). Jerimie also served as consulting stage manager for Kent State University at Stark Theatre’s productions of Dating is Tough To Do... and Songs for a New World. His next project will also be seen in Weathervane’s Dietz Theater: He will make his Weathervane Playhouse directorial debut with the January 2013 production of Next Fall.

About the Play’s Production History

Shooting Star was originally commissioned and developed by the Denver Theatre Center Theatre Company, where it was presented as a staged reading at the 2008 Colorado New Play Summit. Its world-premiere production was at the ZACH Theatre in Austin, Texas, in February 2009. Subsequently, the show was produced by Trinity Repertory Theatre in Providence, Rhode Island, in October 2009.

About the Playwright

STEVEN DIETZ is one of America's most widely-produced and published contemporary playwrights. Since 1983, his 30-plus plays have been seen at over 100 regional theatres in the United States, as well as Off-Broadway. International productions have been seen in England, Japan, Germany, France, Australia, New Zealand, Sweden, Austria, Russia, Italy, Slovenia, Argentina, Brazil, Peru, Greece, Singapore, Thailand and South Africa. His work has been translated into 10 languages.

Mr. Dietz is a two-time winner of the Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays Award, for Fiction (produced by Roundabout Theatre Company, Off-Broadway), and Still Life with Iris. He was also a two-time finalist for the Steinberg New Play Award for Last of the Boys (produced by Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago) and Becky's New Car. He received the PEN USA West Award in Drama for Lonely Planet; the 2007 Edgar Award for Drama for his widely-produced Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure; and the Yomuiri Shimbun Award (the Japanese "Tony") for his adaptation of Shusaku Endo's novel Silence. His conspiracy thriller, Yankee Tavern, was a National New Play Network featured play. He was the 2011-2012 Ingram New Works Fellow at Tennessee Repertory Theatre, following previous recipients David Auburn and John Patrick Shanley. He has received new play commissions from the Guthrie Theater, Steppenwolf Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, McCarter Theatre (Princeton), ACT Theatre (Seattle), Arizona Theatre Company, Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, and the Denver Center Theatre Company, among others.

In addition to Shooting Star, his other widely produced plays include Inventing Van Gogh, God's Country, Private Eyes, The Nina Variations, Trust, Rocket Man, Halcyon Days, Ten November, Foolin' Around with Infinity and More Fun Than Bowling. Other award-winning stage adaptations include Force of Nature (from Goethe), Over the Moon (from P.G. Wodehouse), The Rememberer (from Joyce Simmons Cheeka), Paragon Springs (from Ibsen), Dracula (from Bram Stoker), Go, Dog. Go! (with Allison Gregory, from P.D. Eastman), and two of Dan Gutman’s baseball card adventures – Jackie and Me and Honus and Me

Recent work includes A Year Without Summer, commissioned and developed by the Guthrie Theater (Minneapolis); Rancho Mirage, developed at Trinity Rep (Providence), City Theatre (Pittsburgh) and Tennessee Repertory Theatre; and Mad Beat Hip & Gone (commissioned by UT's College of Fine Arts) — which will premiere in ZACH Theatre's new Topfer Theatre in April 2013.

When not writing or directing, he teaches playwriting and directing at the University of Texas at Austin.

Source of this biographical sketch: http://www.utexas.edu/finearts/tad/people/dietz-steven

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

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.

Weathervane Playhouse’s 2012-2013 Season Support Provided by:

Akron Community Foundation

The Margaret Clark Morgan Foundation

89.7 WSKU-FM

Kenneth L. Calhoun Charitable Trust (KeyBank, Trustee)

OMNOVA Solutions Foundation

Mary S. and David C. Corbin Foundation

Sisler McFawn Foundation

The Ohio Arts Council

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/20121023/d1fa30b0/attachment-0004.htm>