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<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:12.0pt;text-align:center;background:white">
<b><span style="font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black">OPENING
</span></b><b><span style="font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">THIS<span style="color:black"> FRIDAY!<br>
<br>
Near West Theatre presents:</span></span></b><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<b><span style="font-size:48.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#D52C2A">SHOW BOAT
</span></b><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<b><span style="font-size:24.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black">May 6-22, 2016<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
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<i><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black">Music by Jerome Kern</span></i><i><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D"><br>
</span></i><i><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black">Book & Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II</span></i><i><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D"><br>
</span></i><i><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black">Based on the novel
</span></i><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">Show Boat <i>by Edna Ferber<span style="color:black"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center;background:white"><b><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#ED7D31;background:white"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center;background:white"><b><span style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#900029;background:white">OUR INTERGENERATIONAL SPRING BLOCKBUSTER!
<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center;background:white"><b><span style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#900029;background:white">LARGE, RACIALLY DIVERSE CAST, LAVISH SETS AND COSTUMES, AND A STEAM BOAT ON STAGE!!!<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span></b><b><i><span style="font-size:20.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#ED7D31"><o:p></o:p></span></i></b></p>
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<b><span style="font-size:24.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black">Performances:</span></b><b><span style="font-size:24.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><br>
</span></b><span style="font-size:24.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black">May 6, 7, 12, 13, 14, 15, 19, 20, 21 & 22</span><span style="font-size:24.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><br>
<span style="color:black">(Thurs., Fri. and Sat., 7:30 p.m.; Sun., 3 p.m.)</span></span><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<b><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black">Tickets can be purchased at
<a href="http://www.nearwesttheatre.org">www.nearwesttheatre.org</a>,<br>
or by calling our Box Office at 216-961-6391 from 11am-4pm M-F.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
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<b><span style="font-size:1.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center;background:white"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black">Accessibility notes: Near West Theatre's new home is fully accessible! Dedicated spaces will be available to view the performance
from a wheelchair.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;background:white"><i><span style="font-size:3.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;background:white">
<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
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<b><i><span style="font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;background:white">“You and me, we sweat an’ strain, body all achin’ and racked wid pain.</span></i></b><b><i><span style="font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><br>
<span style="background:white">Tote dat barge! An lif’ dat bale! Git a little drunk an’ you land in jail.”</span></span></i></b><b><span style="font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><br>
<span style="background:white">– from “Ol’ Man River”</span><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;background:white"><span style="font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#ED7D31">“Wasn't marriage, like life, unstimulating and unprofitable and somewhat empty when too well ordered and protected
and guarded? Wasn't it finer, more splendid, more nourishing, when it was, like life itself, a mixture of the sordid and the magnificent; of mud and stars; of earth and flowers; of love and hate and laughter and tears and ugliness and beauty and hurt?” -
<i>Edna Ferber</i>, “Show Boat”<span style="background:white"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;background:white"><span style="font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;background:white">Based on Edna Ferber’s bestselling novel of the same name, this groundbreaking musical follows the lives of
the performers, stagehands, and dock workers on the Cotton Blossom, a Mississippi River show boat, over forty years, from 1887 to 1927. With showgirls, gamblers, flappers, nuns and more, Show Boat is an old-fashioned, sweeping epic musical which explores themes
of prejudice, tragedy, and enduring love across racial lines. Show Boat features such classic songs as “Ol’ Man River” & “Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;background:white"><span style="font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">While Show Boat is infrequently produced compared to many mainstream musicals, Near West Theatre chose Show Boat not only for
its excellence and historical significance, but to respond to and raise awareness of the current climate around race relations in America, the growing trend of racist statements by front runners in the presidential race, and violence increasing around who
belongs in this country and who does not.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;background:white"><span style="font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">“Show Boat was the first show on the American Musical stage to show black and white people living and working together and
not treat them in a ‘colorblind’ way, says Director Bob Navis Jr. “Its themes include turn of the century race relations, discrimination, gambling, changing fortunes, miscegenation (mixed marriage, which was illegal at the time) and much more.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;text-align:center;background:white">
<b><span style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">YOU DON’T WANT TO MISS IT!<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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