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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center"
align=center><B style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">‘Educating
Rita’</SPAN></I></B><B style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"> offers master class
in acting, directing <?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: #0070c0; 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: #0070c0; 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: #0070c0; 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; COLOR: #0070c0; 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: #0070c0; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">This
review appeared in the <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">News-Herald
</I>8/21/09<B style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><o:p></o:p></B></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>"I want to know
everything." <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>So begins Rita’s journey
through the foreign and intimidating world of higher education, with a pompous,
alcoholic and creatively bankrupt literature professor as her guide and an
ignorant, lower-class husband and go-nowhere life as her inspiration.
<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>In Willy Russell’s <I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Educating Rita</I>, a carefully constructed,
cleverly worded two-character tale, a young British hairdresser desperately
seeks to alter her existence by improving her mind. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Her reluctant tutor, Frank, is
desperately in need of rescue from his own self-loathing and
self-destruction.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This drama with a
generous sprinkling of comedy is currently on stage at Rabbit Run Theater in
Madison Township.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>Rita and Frank’s
on-campus encounters occur in a series of short vignettes, each taking place in
a magnificently detailed Oxfordian office designed by Ray Beach and dressed by
Julie Harter.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>At first, both
characters’ psychological baggage and emotional scarring appears to be as thick
and un-navigable as the piles of books that litter the bookcases and
furniture.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>However, each vignette
reveals the next stage in Rita’s intellectual evolution.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We see her shed her skin, expand her
boundaries, and take new form.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We
witness Tom’s efforts at metamorphosis as well, which are more painful, less
progressive and not successful.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>Under Ann Hedger’s
perceptive direction, this production is a very sensitive rendering of this
superb play.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Hedger is well aware
of the power and rhythm of its language and, with a fine selection of classical
music to fill the voids between vignettes, pieces together a fluid, inviting,
and well-paced presentation.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>Tom Milligan’s Frank is
significantly less boisterous and cantankerous than has been portrayed in other
arenas. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Milligan gives us a
well-worn Frank, whose sexual overtures come across as harmless acts of
desperation, as if reflexive muscle memory rather than actual intent is at
work.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>Although Frank’s dynamic
with Rita is more even-keeled than the playwright might have intended, this
portrayal lends itself to greater sympathy for a man who has lost his muse.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It also allows for a more bittersweet
and, thus, powerful recognition that, in creating a new and improved Rita, Frank
is responsible for the loss of what made her
unique.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>Nancy Shimonek Brooks is
a marvelous Rita.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>She makes her
character’s insatiable curiosity about poetry and literature tangible, and
captures everything that is endearing and invigorating about a suppressed woman
reaching for and obtaining her true potential.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Watching Brooks express Rita’s
realization that “I don’t want to be myself” is a master class in performance.
<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>This is fine theater very
well presented.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This show closes
out the summer stock season at Rabbit Run the way it began—on a high note.
<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'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><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'">
continues through </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">August 29 at
</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
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>For t</SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">ickets, which range
from $</SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">15
to $17, call </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">440-428-7092
or visit <A href=""><FONT
color=#0000ff>www.rabbitrunonline.tix.com</FONT></A>.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>