<html xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2004/12/omml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40">
<head>
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=us-ascii">
<meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 12 (filtered medium)">
<style>
<!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:Calibri;
panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4;}
@font-face
{font-family:Palatino;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Palatino;}
a:link, span.MsoHyperlink
{mso-style-priority:99;
color:blue;
text-decoration:underline;}
a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed
{mso-style-priority:99;
color:purple;
text-decoration:underline;}
span.EmailStyle17
{mso-style-type:personal-compose;
font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:windowtext;}
.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;}
@page Section1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in;}
div.Section1
{page:Section1;}
-->
</style>
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapedefaults v:ext="edit" spidmax="1026" />
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapelayout v:ext="edit">
<o:idmap v:ext="edit" data="1" />
</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]-->
</head>
<body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple>
<div class=Section1>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><b>For Immediate
Release:<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><b>Ohio Shakespeare
Festival presents<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><b>Richard Figge in <i>Barrymore's
Ghost</i><o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><b>at Coach House
Theatre in Akron<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal> Actor Richard Figge will perform Jason Miller's
one-man play <i>Barrymore's Ghost</i>, directed by Nancy Cates, and presented
by Ohio Shakespeare Festival at Coach House Theatre, opening on Halloween,
Friday, October 31<sup>st</sup>, at 8pm. Additional performances are
Saturday, November 1 at 8pm, and Sunday, November 2, at 2:30pm.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:.5in'>Tickets are $25 for dinner (or
brunch) and theatre, with dinner prior to the performances at the adjacent
Akron Woman’s City Club. Tickets for theatre-only are $10, general
admission seating. Coach House and the City Club are located at 732 W.
Exchange St., at the intersection of N. Portage Path and Exchange. For
reservations or ticket information, call Ohio Shakespeare Festival at
330-673-8761. <a href="http://www.ohioshakespeare.com">www.ohioshakespeare.com</a><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal> John Barrymore (1882-1942) was perhaps the most
famous member of a theatrical dynasty. John, his brother Lionel, and his
sister Ethel were known as the "Royal family of the American
theater." John's granddaughter Drew continues that acting tradition in
our own day.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal> The play opens up the life of the legendary John
Barrymore in a unique and theatrical manner. Mr. John Barrymore, or Jack
Barrymore or Jake Barrymore, is presented as a ghost haunting an unknown
theater, which, at the moment, is in rehearsal for a play. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal> The gods have sentenced Barrymore to this
purgatorial existence as penance for his abandonment of the theater and the
squandering of his talents, in the pursuit of fame, greed, and dissipation.
Barrymore disputes these assertions of the gods as he painfully and humorously
examines the spectrum of his life. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal> He chronicles his ascendancy to the throne as
the finest classical actor of his generation; his arrival to the pinnacle of
movie stardom; his intimate and compassionate relationships to his sister Ethel
and his brother Lionel; and the explosive debacles of his four marriages. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal> The play has wit, terror, agony and hope, as we
watch a mythological character explore the truths and deceptions of his
extraordinary life.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal> Richard Figge is a character actor whose credits
range from Prospero in Shakespeare's <i>The Tempest</i> and Rostand's <i>Cyrano
de Bergerac</i> to modern comedy and drama. He is best known for his one-man
performance as Clarence Darrow, with which he has toured in the United States
and Europe and which he presented in 1985, under the sponsorship of President
Reagan, in Washington, D. C. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'> He has toured in
productions of <i>Mass Appeal</i> and <i>Love Letters. </i>In 1997 he toured
with Vincent Dowling, portraying President Theodore Roosevelt to Mr. Dowling's John
Muir in Phyllis Webster's new play <i>John and Teddy. </i>In April of 1998 he
returned to Wooster to play Prospero in Shakespeare's <i>The Tempest. </i>Mr.
Figge has experience in film and has made many radio and television
commercials.<i> </i>He has performed in special broadcasts on public radio and
can be heard as the narrator on the CD, <i>Visions of Souls: The Joshua L.
Chamberlain Story. </i> He has narrated <i>Peter and the Wolf </i>with the
Wooster Symphony Orchestra and was a narrator for a performance of Stravinsky's
<i>Soldier's Tale </i>with the Charlottesville (Virginia) Symphony. He has
recently appeared as Joe Keller in the Weathervane Community Playhouse’s
production of Arthur Miller’s <i>All My Sons</i> under the direction of
Nancy Cates and as Polonius in the Ohio Shakespeare Festival’s 2008
production of <i>Hamlet,</i> directed by Terry Burgler.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
</div>
</body>
</html>