[NEohioPAL] "Don't Dress for Dinner"

[Janis Harcar]

Weathervane Playhouse’s
“Don’t Dress for Dinner” Sets the Stage
for a Collision Course of Mistaken Identities
and Outrageous Infidelities 
Fast-Moving Farce Delights in Comical Deceptions
and Preposterous Predicaments

Weathervane Playhouse sets the stage for a collision course of mistaken identities and outrageous infidelities in the hilarious and fast-moving farce Don’t Dress for Dinner – presented live on stage from May 1 to 18, 2014.

Bernard is a man on a mission! He’s arranged for a romantic rendezvous with his chic Parisian lover, Suzanne, in the French countryside – and he makes sure to establish a solid alibi by inviting along his best friend, Robert. To set the mood, Bernard has even engaged the services of a cordon bleu chef to prepare gourmet delights. Most conveniently, he’s also arranged for his wife, Jacqueline, to go visit her mother for the weekend.

It’s a foolproof plan! What could possibly go wrong?

Well…what if Robert arrives without knowing why he’s been invited? And what if Robert and Jacqueline are secret lovers? Or what might happen if the cook gets mistaken for the mistress and the real mistress, who lacks any skills as a chef, is asked to pretend to be the cook? And what will happen when everyone's alibi gets confused with everyone else's?

Mix all of these ingredients together and you have the perfect recipe for an evening of hilarious confusion as Bernard and Robert find that they must improvise at breakneck speed!

Weathervane Playhouse’s production of Don’t Dress for Dinner is directed by Marc Moritz.
Don’t Dress for Dinner Performance and Ticket Information

Don’t Dress for Dinner plays on the Weathervane Playhouse Founders Theater stage between May 1 and 18, 2014.

Between May 1 and 18, 2014, 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.

The low-cost preview performance is Thursday, May 1 at 7:30 p.m.; the official opening-night performance is Friday, May 2 at 8 p.m.

Tickets for the May 1 preview performance only are $15 each. Tickets for performances after May 1 are $21 each.

For performances after May 1, $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 (including the May 1 preview performance). Additional discounts for groups of 10 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 Don’t Dress for Dinner Cast

RICHARD WORSWICK
Bernard

SCOTT DAVIS
Robert

MITCH MANTHEY
George

BERNADETTE HISEY
Jacqueline

DEDE KLEIN
Suzanne

ASHLEY BOSSARD
Suzette

The Don’t Dress for Dinner Creative Team

MARC MORITZ
Director

JEFF BIXBY
Stage Manager

ALAN SCOTT FERRALL
Lighting Designer and Technical Director

MICHELLE McNEAL 
BARBIE TROTTER
Properties Co-Designers

BILL MORGAN
Sound Designer

JASEN J. SMITH
Costume Designer

JUSTYN JAYMES
Scenic Designer

KATHY KOHL
Assistant Technical Director
About the Show’s Director

MARC MORITZ’s most recent Weathervane directing assignment was last season’s The 39 Steps. Previously for Weathervane he directed 3 Guys Naked from the Waist Down and Shine! with special guest artist Hal Linden. Elsewhere, his directing credits include A Raisin in the Sun at TrueNorth Cultural Arts; The Walworth Farce, Guttenberg! The Musical! and Tigers Be Still at Dobama Theatre; A Broadway Christmas Carol at Clague Playhouse; Frankie and Johnny in Clair De Lune and a staged concert version of Merrily We Roll Along for Blank Canvas Theatre. As an actor, Marc originated the role of Talk Show Host in the Broadway production of the Stephen Sondheim musical Merrily We Roll Along. Last summer, he played Otto Frank in The Diary of Anne Frank and Sydney Black in Light Up the Sky at Oberlin Summer Theatre. Porthouse Theatre audiences may also recognize him as Al Lewis in The Sunshine Boys. His other regional credits as an actor include Cleveland Play House, Riverside Shakespeare, Long Wharf Theatre, Goodman Theatre, New Harmony Theatre and the Great Lakes Theater Festival and Idaho Shakespeare Festival co-production of Into the Woods. Favorite roles: Mushnik in Little Shop of Horrors, Tateh in Ragtime, The Cat in the Hat in Seussical, Chico in The Cocoanuts, Malvolio in Twelfth Night, Ezekial Cheever in The Crucible and Emperor Joseph in Amadeus. Marc was the founder/artistic director of Cleveland’s popular Giant Portions Improv Company and has taught and performed with ImprovOlympic and The Second City in both Chicago and New York. In 2012, he received his master of fine arts degree from Kent State University. 

About the Play’s Production History

Don’t Dress for Dinner began its theatrical life as the comedy titled Pyjamas pour Six by its French author, Marc Camoletti. The first production in Paris in 1987 was a big hit with French audiences, who kept it running for over two years. The English playwright Robin Hawdon (who also wrote the comedy Perfect Wedding, which Weathervane Playhouse presented in 2010) then adapted the play for English-speaking audiences. He also revised Camoletti’s script slightly, but kept the play’s setting in France. Don’t Dress for Dinner proved to be even more popular in London, where it ran for six years beginning in 1991 at the Apollo and Duchess Theatres. Most recently, a 2012 Broadway production by Roundabout Theatre Company earned two Tony Award nominations.

About the Playwrights

MARC CAMOLETTI (Nov. 16, 1923 – July 18, 2003) was a French playwright best known for his classic farce Boeing-Boeing. Camoletti was born a French citizen in Geneva, Switzerland, though his family had Italian origins. His theatrical career began in 1958 when three of his plays were presented simultaneously in Paris, the first, La Bonne Anna, running for 1,300 performances and going on to play throughout the world. Boeing-Boeing (1962) was an even greater success, and remains Camoletti's signature hit. The original London production, in an adaptation by Beverley Cross, opened at the Apollo Theatre, transferred to the Duchess, and ran for seven years, racking up more than 2,000 performances. Camoletti's plays have been performed in numerous languages in 55 countries. In Paris alone, 18 of his plays have totaled around 20,000 performances in all. Ten of his plays have also been shown on television, the most recent being Sexe et Jalousie. Camoletti was an Associate of the Société Nationale des Beaux Arts. He was awarded the Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur, one of France's highest honors. 
(Source for this biographical sketch: Wikipedia.com)

ROBIN HAWDON was born in 1939 in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in England. Before emerging as a playwright, he began his career as an actor in a number of British movies and television programs. At the same time, he took several stage roles in his native country, appearing in London’s West End theatre district as well as with several provincial theatre companies. His first major commercial success as a playwright came with The Mating Game, a comedy that enjoyed a two-year run in London in the early 1970s. Hawdon’s best-known plays – such as Birthday Suite, Don’t Rock the Boat, Shady Business, Don’t Dress for Dinner and Perfect Wedding (which Weathervane Playhouse presented in 2010) – often combine fast-paced comedy with a healthy dose of sentimental romance. One departure from this template was his 2000 play God and Stephen Hawking, which was inspired by the metaphysical theories of famed mathematician Hawking’s best-selling book, A Brief History of Time. In the early 1980s, Hawdon served as director of the Theatre Royal Bath, a pre-eminent U.K. touring troupe. With his wife, Sheila (a writer and psychotherapist), he maintains homes in the English city of Bath, the South of France and Australia. The Hawdon coupling produced two daughters and four grandchildren.

(Sources for this biographical sketch: Wikipedia.com and RobinHawdon.com)


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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 2013-2014 Season Support Provided by:
Akron Community Foundation
Margaret Clark Morgan Foundation
Kenneth L. Calhoun Charitable Trust (KeyBank, Trustee)
OMNOVA Solutions Foundation
Sisler McFawn Foundation
Ohio Arts Council

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



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