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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center"
align=center><B style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">Rabbit Run looks to
put on lovely ‘Rita’<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns =
"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p></SPAN></B></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center"
align=center><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center"
align=center><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">Bob
Abelman<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center"
align=center><I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">News-Herald,
Chagrin Valley Times, Solon Times, Geauga Times
Courier<o:p></o:p></SPAN></I></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center"
align=center><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">Member,
International Association of Theatre Critics <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center"
align=center><I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></I></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center"
align=center><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">This
preview appeared in the <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">News-Herald
</I>8/14/09</SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="mso-line-height-alt: 11.25pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>The price tag on an
Oberlin College liberal arts education next year will top $50,000, something of
a milestone in the cost of higher education. <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 6.75pt 0in 9pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">In
fact, tuition at many local schools, including Kent State, Youngstown State,
Wright State and Case Western Reserve universities have risen for this coming
semester.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 6.75pt 0in 9pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">To help overcome a
big budget deficit, state lawmakers recently reduced funding for Ohio College
Opportunity Grants and terminated a state-wide i</SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">nternship
program that put college students to work at local businesses.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 6.75pt 0in 9pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">It would come as no
surprise if the advertising in the current playbill at Rabbit Run Theater was
dominated by public and private colleges and universities instead of local
restaurants and orthodontists.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The
colleges and universities could use the positive exposure.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">Opening this
evening</SPAN><SPAN lang=EN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN">
at the pastoral Madison Township playhouse is </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">Willy Russell’s
intelligent comedy <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Educating Rita</I>,
which pays homage to education and its ability to transform lives and save
souls.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Forget about
advertising.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The production should
be underwritten by the Ohio Board of Regents.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">Rita is a young
hairdresser with an ignorant, lower-class husband, a self-perception laden with
worthlessness, and an insatiable curiosity about poetry and literature. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Desperately seeking to alter her
existence by improving her mind, she walks into the college office of a pompous,
aging, creatively bankrupt literature professor.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>He has an addiction to alcohol and a
desperate need to be rescued from his own remorse and
self-destruction.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">OK, maybe this
shouldn’t be underwritten by the Ohio Board of Regents.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">“This show is
</SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">about
choices and change,” observes</SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"> director Ann
Hedger.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>“It’s about </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">overcoming
the fear of making a choice and embracing the consequences of the
changes that are made.”<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">The concept of a
flawed but privileged man taking an underprivileged woman under his tutorage and
instigating change is not new.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>As
Frank, the college professor in <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Educating
Rita</I> would no doubt know, his play is based on a story in ancient Greek poet
Ovid’s <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Metamorphoses</I>, in which the
sculptor </SPAN><SPAN lang=EN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN">Pygmalion
falls in love with an ivory statue he has made.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>He gives her life and they marry.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This, in turn, served as inspiration for
George Bernard Shaw’s <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Pygmalion</I>,
which begat the </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">Lerner and Loewe
musical </SPAN><I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN lang=EN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN">My
Fair Lady</SPAN></I><SPAN lang=EN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN">,
which begat the film <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Pretty Women</I> and
many other related tales.</SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>Willy Russell’s
work is a fine adaptation, notes Hedger.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>“It is a play of words and it is brilliantly written, full of wonderful
language of the common folk and the educated folk in
England.”<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>In fact, the
playwright has said that he wanted to make a play that engaged and was relevant
to those who considered themselves uneducated, those whose daily language is not
the language of the university, or the theatre.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">In this Rabbit Run
production of this two-character play, </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">Nancy
Shimonek Brooks is Rita and Tom Milligan is Frank.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>“Nancy brings an energy that fleshes out
Rita’s freshness and hunger for knowledge, and Tom has been working diligently
to find every nuance in his wonderful character.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I'm thrilled to work with both of these
actors,” says Hedger.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>This play
addresses complex themes but is simply written and accessible, void of all the
allusion, allegory, and symbolism that fills the literature to which its
characters make reference.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P><FONT size=3><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">It does possess
a bit of irony, however.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN></SPAN><SPAN lang=EN
style="COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN">Rita
is pursuing an education in English Literature.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>In today’s economy, this would be an
education she could ill afford and, in the end, would land her a job as a
hairdresser.</SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">Details<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">What:<SPAN
style="mso-tab-count: 1"> </SPAN><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></SPAN><I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">Educating
Rita</SPAN></I><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">W</SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">hen:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Today through August 29 (8 p.m.,
Thursdays to Sundays).<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 1in; TEXT-INDENT: -1in"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">Where:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">Rabbit
Run Theater, 5648 W. Chapel Rd., Madison Township. </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">Tickets:
$</SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">15
to $17</SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">Info:<SPAN
style="mso-tab-count: 1"> </SPAN><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">440-428-7092
or <A href=""><FONT
color=#0000ff>www.rabbitrunonline.tix.com</FONT></A>.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>