Company of Fools Stages SHIPWRECKED!, Now thru 12/29

This December Company of Fools (COF) invites you to set sail with Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Donald Margulies' Shipwrecked! As part of the Center's multi-disciplinary project Wish You Were Here!, COF will present 15 public performances of this family-friendly adventure tale (recommended for children ages 7 and up). Performances run from tonight, December 11 through December 29.

Shipwrecked! is the story of Louis de Rougemont, a real-life Victorian gentleman whose colorful past as a seafaring wanderer springs to life on the stage, taking the audience on an far-flung adventure. Four actors portray over 30 different characters in this wildly theatrical production. Set Designer Joe Lavigne has created a set that resembles a Victorian pop-up book, complete with beautiful illustrations by local artist Keith Joe Dick. Adding to the magic, Costume Designer and Boise State University professor Darrin Pufall has created whimsical costumes that capture de Rougemont's outlandish adventures.

The cast, under the direction of Core Company Artist John Glenn, features Company actors Andrew Alburger and Jana Arnold as well as guest actors Suzanne Gray (making her COF debut) and Adrian Rieder (who appeared in this past summer's production of Other Desert Cities). Rounding out the creative team for Shipwrecked! are TEd Macklin (Sound Designer), Ann Price (Dialect Coach), R.L. Rowsey (Original Music) and K.O. Ogilvie (Stage Manager).

In addition to 15 public performances, COF will also offer five student matinees for elementary school student groups (grades 3 and up) from across the Wood River Valley. Approximately 1,200 students will attend these special performances. Company of Fools began offering students matinees in 1999. Over the years, the response to these matinees has been overwhelmingly positive. To date, the program has enabled more than 14,000 students to experience to the magic of Live Theatre.

Grab your satchel, your lifejacket and your imagination and reserve your Shipwrecked! tickets today. Tickets are $35 for full price, $25 for seniors and Sun Valley Center for the Arts members and $10 for students (18 and under). Additional ticket options include the Pay-What-You-Feel preview (Wednesday, December 11), 10 for $10 and Educator Night (Wednesday, December 18) and a special group rate (groups of six or more receive $25 tickets-a $10 savings if you are not a member of The Center). Tickets may be purchased online at companyoffools.org, by phone at 208-578-9122 or at the Liberty Theatre box office starting one hour prior to curtain. Company of Fools box office is located at the Liberty Theatre, 110 N. Main Street in Hailey, with hours from 10 AM to 4 PM, Monday through Friday. All seats are reserved, except for our "Pay What you Feel" preview.

Playwright Donald Margulies: Born in 1954, Donald Margulies is a playwright from Brooklyn, New York. His love of theatre was fostered early on by his father who, despite his low income, found a way to take his children to see plays and musicals on Broadway. Margulies obtained a degree in Visual Arts from Purchase College, but after a few years decided that he would rather pursue a career in writing. He enrolled in a post-graduate program in New York, but this was short lived, lasting only eight weeks: He chose instead to join play-writing groups, such as Writers Bloc, and began his career writing for the stage. In 1982 Margulies collaborated on an off-off Broadway production at the Jewish Repertory Theatre. Two years later he collaborated on an off Broadway production called Found a Peanut, produced by The Public Theatre. Then in 1992, Margulies' own Sight Unseen won an Obie award for Best American Play. He also won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play Dinner with Friends. Margulies' work has been performed across the United States and overseas. He currently lives in New Haven, Connecticut, and is a professor at Yale University.

Donald Margulies on Shipwrecked!: "Louis de Rougemont was a man who claimed to have survived in the outback for 30 years after being shipwrecked. He eventually returned to society, where he told his story of heroics publicly and in print, and became a celebrity-until the story began to unravel. Various anthropologists and oceanographers began to find clues in his text that pointed to fabrication, and slowly his story fell apart until he was basically disgraced. The debunking is one of the things that fascinated me; the tale he told is so captivating that it raises the question, "How significant is it that it was made up when the pleasure of the journey was so powerful?" I think that's an interesting question. It was then that, for me, Shipwrecked! became a story about the power of storytelling. It also became a way to celebrate theater, to do what theater does better than spectacle, film or multimillion-dollar musicals: to simply get back to the essence of telling a good story."

Performance Schedule:

Wednesday, Dec. 11 7PM PAY WHAT YOU FEEL

Thursday, Dec. 12 7PM

Friday, Dec. 13 7PM

Saturday, Dec. 14 7PM

Tuesday, Dec. 17 7PM

Wednesday, Dec. 18 7PM Educator Night

Thursday, Dec. 19 7PM

Friday, Dec. 20 7PM

Saturday, Dec. 21 7PM

Sunday, Dec. 22 3PM

Monday, Dec. 23 7PM

Thursday, Dec. 26 7PM

Friday, Dec. 27 7PM

Saturday, Dec. 28 7PM

Sunday, Dec. 29 3PM

"Pay What you Feel" Night - Wednesday, December 11 (7PM) - Join us for the first performance of Shipwrecked! and literally pay whatever you'd like! Tickets go on sale at the Liberty Theatre box office one hour prior to the performance. There are no reserved seats. Simply buy your ticket, find a seat and enjoy the show.

"10 for $10" - Ten seats are sold for $10 each on each night at the box office, starting one hour prior to the performance. Limit two tickets per person.

Educator Night - December 18 (7PM) - $10 tickets are available to currently employed educators and school administrators for this designated night. These tickets may be purchased in advance. Limit two tickets per person.

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