Gloucester Stage to Open Jack Neary's AULD LANG SYNE, 7/11

Gloucester Stage Company continues the 35th Anniversary Season on July 11 with the Boston Area Premiere of Jack Neary's newest work, Auld Lang Syne featuring GSC favorites and real life husband and wife Richard Snee and Paula Plum directed by Douglas Lockwood. The comedy thriller runs from July 11 through July 27.

Neary's South Boston tale of a New Year's Eve "business" encounter between a neighborhood low life from South Boston played by Snee and a retired school teacher played by Plum is part mystery, part drama, and part comedy, The Peterborough Players premiered the play and the production won the New Hampshire Theatre Award for Best Professional Production of 2012. Auld Lang Syne was also produced at New Century Theatre at Smith College

Award winning playwright Jack Neary's work has been produced all over the United States, and in Canada and Europe. His play Jerry Finnegan's Sister was staged in Paris as La Souer de Jerry King. His romantic comedy First Night was presented at the Westside Theatre in New York after a long run at the Theatre Lobby in Boston. To Forgive, Divine, which debuted professionally at the Merrimack Repertory Theatre, was purchased for film by Walt Disney Pictures. Other recent plays by Jack Neary are The Porch, produced by the Lyric Stage Company of Boston, CityStage in Springfield, the Stoneham Theatre, and the Majestic Theater in West Springfield, Massachusetts; and Kong's Night Out, presented at the Lyric Stage, New Century Theatre at Smith College, and the Meadow Brook Theatre in Michigan, where it featured TV's Cindy Williams. Kong's Night Out is scheduled for publication in 2014 by the Dramatic Publishing Company. His adaptation of Frankenstein debuted at the Summer Theatre at Mount Holyoke College, and was produced at Radford University in Virginia and his adaptation of The Fall of The House of Usher was staged at Mount Holyoke and Radford Colleges, He has written a number of produced plays for young audiences, including the series The Misdirected Theatre Presents which features adaptations of Robin Hood, The Ugly Duckling, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and Rumplestiltskin. His published works for young audiences are Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp and The Little Match Girl. Mr. Neary is the co-founder and current Artistic Director of the Greater Lowell Music Theatre, and co-founder of New Century Theatre. An actor as well, he has appeared on film in Ben Affleck's The Town and will be seen in Scott Cooper's upcoming Black Mass, starring Johnny Depp.

Lynn native multi award winning actress Paula Plum has appeared on the GSC stage many times during the theatre's 35 year history including Happy Days, Not I, Plum Pudding, Unexpected Tenderness, Breath of Life, Primary English Class, and Shirley Valentine. Her off Broadway: credits include Today I Am a Man at the Greenwich Street Theatre; Strip with the Women's Workshop; and Dances by Isadora at the Ohio Street Theatre. Regionally, she has appeared in Private Lives, Jumpers, and St. Joan at the Huntington Theatre; Mother Courage and No Exit at the American Repertory Theatre; Lady Macbeth in Macbeth, Cleopatra in Antony and Cleopatra with Actors' Shakespeare Project; Miss Witherspoon, The Heiress, and Death of a Salesman at Lyric Stage; and History Boys and Body Awareness with SpeakEasy Stage: Ms. Plum's original work includes Wigged Out! and What Lips My Lips Have Kissed. Her film: appearances include Malice, Mermaids, Next Stop Wonderland, Minister's Wife and the upcoming Woody Allen Project currently shooting in Boston. Ms. Plum is the recipient of three Elliot Norton Awards, including the Award for Sustained Excellence; SpeakEasy Stage's Founders Award; the 2003 Distinguished Alumna Award from Boston University's College of Fine Arts, and five IRNE (Independent Reviewers of New England) Awards. Ms. Plum is the 2009 Fox Actor Fellowship Grant recipient, an award given to five actors nationwide. She studied and trained at Boston University School for the Arts and Ecole Phillipe Gaulier, Paris.

Richard Snee is best known at GSC for his performances opposite Academy Award nominee Lindsay Crouse in Alan Ayckbourn's Norman Conquests Trilogy which included 2010's Table Manners, 2011's Living Together and 2012's Round and Round the Garden. Mr. Snee and the cast of the three GSC productions were awarded an IRNE (Independent Reviewers of New England) Special Ensemble Citation at 2013 IRNE Awards. Mr. Snee's other credits include Othello at the American Repertory Theatre; The Sisters Rosensweig and Present Laughter at the Huntington Theatre; and Uncle Vanya, Something in the Air, Boy Gets Girl, and A Christmas Carol at Merrimack Repertory Theatre. He has also worked with The Lyric Stage Company, The Speakeasy Stage Company, Commonwealth Shakespeare, The Nora Theatre, and Boston Children's Theatre, among others. Mr. Snee is a founding member of the Actors' Shakespeare Project and is slated to appear in their production of Comedy of Errors in the fall of 2014. His film appearances include Gone, Baby, Gone; Company Men; Never Met Picasso; and Seduction Theory. On television he has voiced characters for several animated series including Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist on Comedy Central; Science Court on ABC; Hey, Monie! on BET; and Home Movies on Cartoon Network. He and his wife, Paula Plum, starred in the FX animated series, The Dick and Paula Celebrity Special.

Douglas Lockwood previously appeared at GSC as an actor in 2012's Carnival and as director of Miss Price, a staged reading featuring Paula Plum. Currently, Mr. Lockwood is devising and directing a musical for The Boston Conservatory for an April 2015 premiere: Coolsville, inspired by the music of Rickie Lee Jones. He is a Founding member of the Actors' Shakespeare Project where he has directed Middletown and Cymbeline; and appeared as an actor in Twelfth Night, Antony & Cleopatra, The Merchant of Venice, Othello, Henry V, The Winter's Tale, Measure for Measure, King Lear, Titus Andronicus, and Richard III. His Boston directing credits include Chesapeake and Cyrano at New Rep; Machinal, Bent, Cloud 9, Landscape of the Body, Two Gentleman of Verona-The Musical, The Beckett Bash, and Twelfth Night at The Boston Conservatory. His Boston acting credits include Twelfth Night, Pericles and Rosencreantz & Guildenstern are Dead at the American Repertory Theatre; The Waverly Gallery at New Rep; A Midsummer Night's Dream with Commonwealth Shakespeare; The Cherry Orchard with the Nora Theatre; and Pippi Longstocking, Snow White, and Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse with Wheelock Family Theatre. His New York acting credits include The Fever; 52nd St Project which he directed as well; A Tale of Two Cities; The Ride Across Lake Constance, and The Erpingham Camp at the Showroom Theatre. Regionally has been seen in The Tempest at the Fairbanks Shakespeare Theatre; The Winter's Tale, Henry V, Othello, and A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Colorado Shakespeare Festival; and Sweet Land of Liberty at the Edinburgh and Edmonton Fringe Festivals. He received an MFA from the University of Washington under the direction of Steve Pearson and a BFA in theatre from the University of Colorado at Boulder.

The Boston area premiere of Jack Neary's Auld Lang Syne runs from July 11 through July 27. Performance schedule: Friday, July 11 and Saturday, July 12 at 8 pm; Wednesday, July 16 through Saturday, July 19 at 8 pm; Wednesday, July 23 through Saturday, July 26 at 8 pm, Saturday matinees on July 12, July 19 and July 26 at 3 pm & Sunday performances on July 13, July 20 and July 27 at 4 pm. The play contains some strong language. For the 3 pm Saturday matinee on July 12 only, the ticket price is Pay What You Can. Following the 4 pm performance on Sunday July 13, audiences are invited to a free post show discussion with the artists from Auld Lang Syne.

Gloucester Stage is handicapped accessible. Ticket prices are $40 for all performances. Senior citizen & student tickets are $35 for all performances. A limited amount of discount tickets are available to Cape Ann residents for all Wednesday and Thursday 8 pm performances. For these performances only, Cape Ann residents can purchase discounted tickets for $20. Advance reservations are strongly suggested to ensure tickets at the discounted price. Year round Cape Ann residents must identify themselves as such when making a reservation and proof of residency must be presented at the box office the night of the performance.

All performances are held at The Gorton Theatre, 267 East Main Street, Gloucester, MA. For more information and to purchase tickets, call the Gloucester Stage Box Office at 978-281-4433 or at www.gloucesterstage.com.

Pictured: Richard Snee as Joe and Paula Plum as Mary. Photo by Gary Ng.

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