ANNOUNCING OUR 2010-11 SEASON
Click here for a 2010-11 Season Brochure
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All PERFORMANCES are at 8 p.m. except SUNDAYS at 3 p.m.
DIVIDENDS
Written by Gary Richards
Directed by: Barbara Wepman
Show Dates: November 11, 13, 14, 18, 20, 21, 2010
Addressing both past and current relationships, Dividends is a warm and tender play about tradition, caring, change, and love and the dividends they provide each of us in our journey through life. How well does any grandson really know his grandfather? Dividends explores the generation gap between Neal, a struggling young artist, and his grandfather who is in the hospital near the end of his life. Even though their relationship has always been distant, Neal finds himself forced to look after Pops, and along the way he learns a great deal about Pop’s early life, his romantic inclinations, and his unfulfilled dreams. Neal's sense of alienation from the older generation and his instinctive desire to overcome it fosters the desire to give his grandfather something he never had as a youth because his family was too busy being poor—a bar mitzvah. Through it all, Pop's wife of 59½ years hovers over both as only a grandmother could. Critics have described Dividends as delightful, absorbing, charming and heartfelt. Presented in Spectrum Theater's 2nd Floor Black Box Theatre.
BITTER FRIENDS
Written by
Gordon Rayfield
Directed by: Chris Mahlmann
Show Dates: April 28, 30, May 1, 5, 7, 8, 2011
A compact, gripping drama that confronts important U.S.-Israeli issues and examines the personal conflict of divided loyalties experienced by many modern American Jews. Inspired by the 1987 conviction of Jonathan Pollard, playwright Gordon Rayfield's imaginary geopolitical intrigue centers around David Klein. Rayfield packs his straightforward story with a wealth of political debate showing both sides of the issue. Though a convicted traitor, David Klein is admirable and unflinchingly loyal to his cause. There are no heroes or villains here, but plenty of battle lines – Klein's idealism vs. his rabbi's effort to compromise. The play is personal, warm, and peppered with wry jokes and interesting spiritual parallels.
45 SECONDS FROM BROADWAY
Written by Neil Simon
Directed by: Len Robinson
Show Dates: June 16, 18, 19, 23, 25, 26, 2011
Neil Simon’s 45 Seconds from Broadway refers to the amount of time it takes to walk to Broadway from the play's setting, a coffee shop. Inspired by the Edison Hotel coffee shop, also known as the Polish Tea Room, it is a favorite watering hole for struggling actors, aspiring writers, standup comics, and suburban matinee ladies. The central character, comedian Mickey Fox, is surrounded by a host of eclectic characters including the proprietor and his wife, an upscale society dame and her nearly mute husband, a British impresario, a Broadway ingénue, and a South African playwright. Simon's typical one-liners fly fast and furiously throughout the first act, but the play takes a more serious turn when Mickey's older brother pleads with him to help his son become the comedian he desperately wants to be.
