N.I.C.E. Closes at The Producer's Club, 6/20

On June 2, the Producer's Club will house the premiere of N.I.C.E.: A NATIONAL HEALTH-CARE TRAGI-COMEDY. N.I.C.E. is a joint production of American International Theater, Inc. (www.aitheater.org) and The Red Door Theatre (www.thereddoortheatre.com). Written by William Roetzheim, Directed by Kate Erin Gibson, the play features Jarret Mallon (Frank), Nikki Van Cassele (Dawn), Jennifer Winegardner (Elizabeth), Jill Melanie Wirth (Tess).

In Britain, the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (N.I.C.E.) sets up guidelines about who should live and who should die for terminal patients. What happens when they decide your comatose mother must die? What starts out as a debate about issues of nationalized health care quickly turns into a debate about the value of human life. In William Roetzheim's play N.I.C.E., four siblings are forced to confront death and their own inner demons. Tess, raised in London, grew up with National Health Care and she must now defend the system against her American siblings. Frank, a truck driver from Clayton, Iowa and an avid fan of the Fox Network, believes in defending the sanctity of life against attacks by left wing liberals. But his use of stereotyped responses to cope with life's issues fails him when he must confront failings in his own life, failings for which there are no simple answers. Dawn ran away to Berkley to pursue her career as a folk singer, but also to escape persecution by the religious right for her sexual orientation. Elizabeth's Harvard education helps her when calculating financial value for mergers and acquisitions, but what happens when the equations directly affect the lives of those around her?

Playwright William Roetzheim is the author of nine plays, twenty-two published books, and twenty spoken word audio CDs (Producer and Director). His writing has won eight gold medals and twenty-one finalist awards in national and international literary competitions. His plays have been performed in NYC at Theatre Row, MITF, Planet Connections Festivity, Emerging Artist Theatre, and the Producer's Club. He and his wife currently own and operate a Victorian Bed and Breakfast in San Diego.

N.I.C.E. runs in eight performances as follows:

Wednesday, June 02, 2010 8:00 PM
Saturday, June 05, 2010 2:00 PM
Tuesday, June 08, 2010 8:00 PM
Thursday, June 10, 2010 8:00 PM
Saturday, June 12, 2010 8:00 PM
Wednesday, June 16, 2010 2:00 PM
Friday, June 18, 2010 8:00 PM
Sunday, June 20, 2010 3:00 PM

Tickets are general admission: $18 and are available in advance at www.Smarttix.com.

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