ALWAYS…PATSY CLINE Comes To Center Repertory Company This September

Center Repertory Company launches its 2022-23 season with the hit musical play Always...Patsy Cline. This moving tribute spotlights the true story of an unlikely friendship between the legendary country star and one of her biggest fans, Louise Seger. Cline and Seger bond in a Texas honky-tonk and trade letters of happiness and heartache until Cline's tragic death at the age of 30. Created by Ted Swindley, the musical play that has dazzled audiences across the world and was called "a song filled valentine" by the Los Angeles Times. Always...Patsy Cline offers audiences a warm and inviting night replete with down home country humor and touching emotion. Always...Patsy Cline features 27 of Cline's unforgettable hits including "Crazy," "I Fall to Pieces," "Sweet Dreams," and "Walking After Midnight." Always...Patsy Cline will perform September 9-25, 2022 at the Lesher Center for the Arts, 1601 Civic Dr, Walnut Creek. For tickets ($45-$70) and more information, the public may visit lesherartscenter.org or call the box office at (925) 943-7469 (open Wed-Sun, 12-6pm).

Center Repertory Company offers Pay What You Can tickets (suggested price of $25) for the September 9 - 11 preview performances of Always...Patsy Cline, increasing access to theatre, inviting audiences to see the show at whatever price that they can afford. ASL interpretation for deaf and hard of hearing patrons is offered at the 2:30 pm performance on September 25.

Award-winning Seattle director Karen Lund reunites actors Cayman Ilika (Patsy Cline) and Kate Jaeger (Louise Seger) for this captivating country musical, following a hit production with the same team at Seattle's Taproot Theatre Company, where Lund is Artistic Director.

Cayman Ilika's (Patsy Cline) extensive stage credits include Austen's Pride and her Gypsy Rose Lee Award-winning turn as Lilli Vanessi/Katherine in Kiss Me, Kate at Seattle's The 5th Avenue Theatre; Nancy in Oliver! at Musical Theatre West; the world premiere of Beatsville at Asolo Repertory Theatre; Dyanne in Million Dollar Quartet, a Footlight Award-winning performance as Julie in Showboat, and a Gregory Award-nominated performance in the title role of Mary Poppins at Village Theatre; Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris, and Vanities-A New Musical at ACT in Seattle; and Anne Elliot in the World Premiere of Persuasion and a Gregory Award-nominated turn as Patsy in Always...Patsy Cline at Taproot Theatre Company. Ilika's vocals can be heard on the Original Cast Album of Persuasion, and the Studio Cast Album of Yankee Doodle Dandy.

Kate Jaeger (Louise Seger) is an actor, director, and educator. Roles at theatres throughout the Northwest include Adelaide in Guys and Dolls, Madame Thénardier in Les Misérables, Ursula in The Little Mermaid, Yente in Fiddler on the Roof, Pennywise in Urinetown, Karen in August: Osage County, Lucy in Avenue Q, Mary in Persuasion: A New Musical, Ethel Merman in Judy's Scary Little Christmas, and Annie in Evil Dead: the Musical. When not on stage, she teaches acting and improvisation to students of all ages.

Karen Lund (Director) is an award-winning theatre and film director, a member of SDC, and the Producing Artistic Director of Taproot Theatre Company (TTC) in Seattle, WA. She has directed well over a hundred plays across the country and at TTC, including 2019's sold-out, critically acclaimed productions of Bright Star and Always...Patsy Cline. Other TTC work includes An Ideal Husband (Seattle Times Footlight Award, Broadway World Award for Best Direction, and the Gypsy Rose Lee Award), Brownie Points (Seattle Footlight Award's Top Mainstage Productions and Gypsy Rose Lee Award). Karen most recently directed See How They Run and Daddy Long Legs at TTC, and She Loves Me for The Village Theatre. Other theatre work includes shows with Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Idaho Shakespeare, Kentucky Shakespeare, and directing the award-winning production of A Streetcar Named Desire for American Coast Theatre in Costa Mesa, CA. Karen's film directing has garnered three Telly Awards, four 168 Film Festival nominations, and a New Filmmaker's Award at the City of the Angels Film Festival in L.A. Her voice over work has been heard nationally in ads for Macy's, Garden Ridge, T-Mobile, AT&T, and many, many others. Since 1999, Karen has been a consultant in the Computer Animation Research Labs at University of Washington. She also served as adjunct theatre faculty at Seattle Pacific University and as the Board President of Theatre Puget Sound.

Claire Marx (Music Supervisor) is a Seattle-based actor, music director, and teaching artist. Most recently, she was featured at The 5th Avenue Theatre as the alternate conductor and associate music director for the new musical And So That Happened. She was also music director for Justin Huertas' new musical The Last World Octopus Wrestling Champion at ArtsWest, and has been a conductor for productions with Taproot Theatre Company, Showtunes Theatre Company, Village KIDSTAGE, and Cornish College of the Arts. Recent performance credits include Hairspray (Village Theatre), The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Seattle Children's Theatre), Black Coffee and The Bishop's Wife (Taproot Theatre Company), The Odyssey educational tour (Book-It Repertory Theatre), Romeo and Juliet (Seattle Shakespeare Company), and a handful of new musical workshops at Seattle Repertory Theatre. Marx has taught piano and voice for fifteen years and is currently on faculty at Cornish College of the Arts, a guest teaching artist with Village Theatre KIDSTAGE, and runs a private music studio. Upcoming projects include Cinderella at Village Theatre.

Brynne McKeen (Costume Designer) is a Seattle-based costume designer, currently pursuing her graduate degree at Seattle University. Previous designs include Mamma Mia, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, and the Beta Series seasons 2017-2020 at Village Theatre; American Idiot and Death of a Salesman at ArtsWest; Hamlet at Freehold Theatre; and Always... Patsy Cline at Taproot Theatre, as well as various film work.

Mark Lund (Scenic & Projection Design) is a scenic, sound and projection designer based in Seattle, WA. Recent productions include Kim's Convenience at Tacoma Arts Live; and Black Coffee, The Nerd, See How They Run and Necessary Sacrifices for Taproot Theatre Company in Seattle, where Mark is the Director of Production. He designed Always ...Patsy Cline for the Great Lakes Center for the Arts in Petosky, MI as well as for Seattle and Walnut Creek. Other design work includes Seattle Shakespeare Company, Book-It Repertory, Seattle Fringe Festival, and sound design for award-winning short films, several of which are on permanent display at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. Lund is also a voice actor and has been heard in commercial and industrial projects for T-Mobile, Amazon, National Geographic, Panera Bread, The North Face, FedEx, White Claw, and hundreds of others. Game voice work includes Halo 3, F.E.A.R., and many years as Falco Lombardi in Star Fox for Nintendo.

Danielle Ferguson (Associate Lighting Designer) is a San Francisco and East Bay Area Lighting Designer, Lead Electrician, Production Manager & Educator. Danielle has collaborated with theatres, companies, directors, designers, and choreographers from across the US. Today, Danielle works primarily as a lighting designer and production manager for dance productions. She is currently the Dance & Music Program's Production Manager at Saint Mary's College of CA. She has worked with with Altarena Playhouse, Pinole Community Players, Funsch Dance Experience, Paufye Dance, and Saint Mary's College. Her recent credits include It's Only a Play; Side by Side by Sondheim; Survivors Guilt; The Space Between Here and There; Dear Nature; Essentially Me; The Quality of Life; Keeping it Real: A Festival of One Acts; Almost, Maine; Pagu: A Dance Film; Storm: A Dance Film; and Nightfall with Edgar Allen Poe.

Ted Swindley (Writer) is internationally known as the writer and director of the popular musical, Always...Patsy Cline. He is the founding artistic director of Stages in Houston, Texas. He was also named to the Esquire Magazine's register of outstanding Americans in arts and letters. Swindley was the recipient of the Los Angeles Dramalogue award for outstanding direction of Carnal Knowledge by Jules Feiffer. Currently, he is president of Ted Swindley Productions, Inc., a theatrical licensing and consulting company, and continues his 30-year career writing plays and musicals, consulting and mentoring playwrights, as well as directing plays for theatres throughout the U.S. and abroad. Swindley is an active member of The Dramatists Guild of America and Stage Directors and Choreographers.

About Center Repertory Company

Center REP is the resident professional theatre company of the Lesher Center for the Arts. Its season consists of six productions-a variety of classic and contemporary musicals, dramas, and comedies, presented with artistic excellence and high professional standards. Center REP's mission is to celebrate the power of the human imagination by producing emotionally engaging, intellectually involving, and visually astonishing live theatre, and through Outreach and Education programs, to enrich and advance the cultural life of the communities it serves. As a producing theatre, its presentations are conceived and developed at the Lesher Center. Whether the production is a Bay Area premiere or a Shakespearean classic, each is devised to be a one-of-a-kind, artistic creation offering a unique theatre experience for audiences.

Photo Credit: Alexandra Myer

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