Rex Stanfield

For over four decades Neil Simon delighted theatre audiences with intelligent and witty dialogue in Broadway shows and movies. His many stories, including THE ODD COUPLE, BRIGHTON BEACH MEMOIRS, and SEEMS LIKE OLD TIMES tossed relatable characters together into ridiculous yet delicious circumstances. Virtually everyone who saw any performances of his work came away without a favorite moment, at least one particularly funny line. RUMORS, an unabashed farce written by Simon for the stage in 1988, is no exception.

Two of the greatest novels in American literature were published in a span of less than three years in the late 1930s, and comparisons between them are unavoidable. Both examined cultures at the moments of their demise - one historical, and the other contemporary. Margaret Mitchell's epic immersed readers in the collapse of the elite class, ultimate victims of their own inhumanity. John Steinbeck's masterpiece spotlighted the cultural extinction occurring at that very moment among the poorest and meekest as their livelihoods were, very literally, gone with the wind. Had it not been taken, that might have been a better title for Steinbeck's, THE GRAPES OF WRATH. The two books came to movie screens only six weeks apart to take their places in Hollywood history.

EL PUBLICO is a play written around 1930 by poet and playwright Federico Garcia Lorca which was lost, all of which has never been found, and which remained unperformed until 50 years following the author's death in 1936. Austin playwright Elizabeth Doss has adapted it to the stage in English as THE AUDIENCE and incorporated into it the circumstances of Lorca's political assassination at the hands of Nationalist insurgents in the early days of the Spanish Civil War.

The tiny town of Wimberley, Texas is home to dozens of little shops where can be found countless treasures. Among them are Aunt Jenny's Attic, Wall Street Western, Gallery on the Square, and The Old Mill Store. And then there's LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS, where remarkable talent, creativity, humor, and technical expertise are on display until July 22nd. Director Jason Kruger brings this fun musical comedy to the stage of Wimberley Playhouse.