Susannah Berryman and Jesse Bush Lead Hangar Theatre's THE TRIP TO BOUNTIFUL, Now thru 9/15

The fifth production of the 2012 Hangar season is a true American classic, Horton Foote's The Trip to Bountiful. This intensely moving and riveting story of acceptance and coming home again will be directed by the Hangar's Associate Artistic Director Stephanie Yankwitt (Hangar's Rounding Third) and features a cast of local favorites including Susannah Berryman (Hangar's Penelope of Ithaca, The Chalk Circle, Cabaret, and The Rainmaker) and Jesse Bush (Hangar's Ever So Humble, Disney's Beauty and the Beast). The Trip to Bountiful opens tonight, September 7, and runs through September 15th.

Written by two-time Oscar winner Horton Foote (To Kill a Mockingbird, Tender Mercies), The Trip to Bountiful is the story of Carrie Watts, who lives with her son and daughter-in-law in a small Houston flat. She is desperate and determined to return to her childhood home in Bountiful, Texas. Carrie is convinced that by returning home, she will reclaim her dignity, her peace of mind as well as her sense of self. This 1953 Broadway drama was called "The rarest of theatre experiences, an evening which will prove an indelible memory" by the New York World Telegram and was the basis for the 1985 Oscar winning film.

In keeping with the homecoming theme of the play, the Hangar cast features an impressive collection of "home-grown" talent comprised of professional actors whose work in Ithaca is distinguished and celebrated. Along with Berryman and Bush, the cast includes Sarah K. Chalmers, Sarah Charles, Dane Cruz, R.M. Fury, and Vincent Hannam.

"I can't imagine a better way to complete our 2012 season" says Hangar Artistic Director Peter Flynn. "The Trip to Bountiful is a beloved play by one of this country's most treasured playwrights. It is incredibly fitting that the Hangar cast of this gorgeous play should be peopled with some of the area's most popular and gifted actors. This production is a true family affair."

Regular tickets range from $18 t0 $45. Student Discounts: Student tickets are just $18 for plays and $21 for musicals with a valid student ID. Student rush tickets are just $12 for plays $15 for musicals and can be purchase at the Hangar Theatre Box Office 15 minutes before show time. The Hangar Box Office is located at 801 Taughannock Blvd. near Cass Park.

Tickets are available online at www.HangarTheatre.org, by phone at 273.4497 or 1.800.ITHACA, in person at Ticket Center Ithaca on the Downtown Commons or at the Hangar Theatre Box Office one hour before show time.

The Hangar Theatre's commitment to making theatre accessible for the entire community is represented though our Pay What You Can (PWYC) program. Patrons may pay what they can afford to see a show. The first Saturday matinee performance of each Mainstage production and the Saturday noon performances of KIDDSTUFF have a limited number of tickets available for PWYC thanks to the generosity of our Mainstage PWYC sponsor Schlather, Stumbar, Parks & Salk, LLP and our KIDDSTUFF PWYC sponor GreenStar Cooperative Market. A limited number of tickets are available. Tickets may be purchased at the Hangar Theatre box office one hour before curtain. The recently renovated theatre is located at 801 Taughannock Blvd. Ithaca, NY 14850. The Hangar business office is located at 171 East State Street, Suite 230 in Center Ithaca. Ithaca, NY 14851.

The Hangar Theatre is committed to providing exceptional theatre experiences of high professional quality to enrich, enlighten, educate, and entertain the diverse audience in the Finger Lakes region and beyond. Strong education and training programs are central parts of our commitment to the local and national artistic communities.

BIOGRAPHIES

Susannah Berryman (Carrie) This is Susannah's sixth production at the Hangar Theatre. Others include Penelope of Ithaca, The Diary of Anne Frank, Cabaret, The Chalk Circle, and The Rainmaker. She has also performed many times at the Kitchen Theatre, where some of her favorite roles include Winnie in Beckett's Happy Days, Katharine in A Perfect Ganesh, and Martha in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf. Other venues include the Signature Theatre, the American Stage Company, the Asolo State Theatre, and Ithaca's Central Casting, where she was fortunate to play in 'night, Mother as the daughter of the splendid LaVerne Light. Susannah also directs and she is an Associate Professor in the Ithaca College Theatre Arts Department. Some cherished directing experiences include Floyd Collins, The Light in the Piazza, Dancing at Lughnasa, and Bed and Sofa.

Jesse Bush (Ludie) Previous roles at the Hangar include: Holden in Ever So Humble, Archer in November, Verbeek / Buisson in The Overwhelming, Gaston in Disney's Beauty and the Beast, Lt. Kaffee in A Few Good Men, Lt. Cable in South Pacific and Anthony in Sweeney Todd (a role he later played at the Goodspeed Opera House). Other favorite roles include Davis in Red Light Winter, Edgar / Jane in The Mystery of Irma Vep, Jim O'Connor in The Glass Menagerie, Frederick in Precious Nonsense, Vinny in Tony & the Soprano, Bernie in Unidentified Human Remains (KTC); The Angle of the Sun (KTC, NY Musical Theatre Festival); TV-All My Children, One Life to Live.

Sarah K. Chalmers (Jessie Mae) Sarah is an actor, teacher and community-based theatre artist. She currently teaches acting at Cornell University. Sarah has worked as an actor in Seattle, Chicago, New York and Ithaca. She has taught for the Hangar, Ithaca College, Cornell University and in New York City Public Schools through the Epic Theatre Ensemble. She is the Director of Civic Engagement for the newly formed Civic Ensemble in Ithaca. Sarah has an M.A. in Applied Theatre from the City University of New York and a B.F. A. in Acting from Ithaca College.

R.M. Fury (The Sheriff) R.M. is the former assistant director of the Cornell Interactive Theatre Ensemble (CITE), under the direction of Martha Dewey. After 10 years with the Frontline Improv Theatre in New York, Stanley Kowalski (A Streetcar Named Desire) called at Cornell and he has since been seen on many Ithaca stages over the past thirty-five years. He layed on his back, in a smallish box, for 80 mins a night to play Willie to Ms. Berryman's Winny in Happy Days at the Kitchen Theatre a few yrs back. He is currently working with Theatre Incognito on a remount production of American Buffalo.

Dane Cruz (Ticket Agent #1 / Roy) Mr. Cruz is excited to be a part of the Hangar Theatre's 2012 season. The Trip to Bountiful marks Dane's ninth Hanger production. Others include: Gem of the Ocean, Of Mice and Men, M Butterfly, A View from the Bridge, Lost in Yonkers, Othello, A Few Good Men andHow I Learned to Drive. Dane has been acting professionally for the past 28 years and has worked regionally in theatre and industrial film. He received his training at Florida State University in the BFA acting program and completed his professional acting internship at McCarter Theater in Princeton, New Jersey. Dane is the Director of the Cornell Interactive Theatre Ensemble (CITE), within Cornell University's Office of Human Resources. CITE provides interactive theatre based training to corporate and academic clients nationwide.

Sarah Charles (Thelma) Hangar credits include: MacBeth (Wedge), Titanic, Junie B. in Jingle Bells Batman Smells. Hope Summer Repertory Theatre: Children of Eden, Return... Planet, How I Became a Pirate. Ithaca College: Baby, Children of Eden. Melodramatics. (Cornell University): Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. Ithaca College BFA Musical Theatre, 2013.

Vincent Hannam (Ticket Agent #2 / young Ludie) Hangar credits include: The Little Mermaid, The Adventures of the Dish and the Spoon, Starring Elizabeth Taylor (Wedge). Vincent is currently pursuing his BFA in Acting at the University of Central Florida. His credits include Barefoot in the Park, Bury the Dead, Twelfth Night, andTrojan Women 2.0.

Horton Foote (Playwright) His first play, Texas Town, was produced Off-Broadway in 1941. Since then he has had plays produced on Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway and at many regional theatres. Plays include Dividing The Estate, The Last of the Thorntons, Young Man From Atlanta, The Chase, The Traveling Lady, The Trip to Bountiful, Night Seasons, Tomorrow, The Habitation of Dragons, The Orphan's Home Cycle, Roots in a Parched Ground, Convicts, Lily Dale, The Widow Claire, Courtship, Laura Dennis, Vernon Early, The Roads to Home, The Carpetbagger's Children and The Day Emily Married. He received Academy Awards for his screenplay adaptation of To Kill A Mockingbird and his original screenplay, Tender Mercies. He received the Pulitzer Prize for his play, The Young Man From Atlanta, the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Achievement Off-Broadway and the Outer Critics Circle Special Achievement Award for the Signature Series of his plays. In 1996 he was elected to the Theatre Hall of Fame. In 1998 he was elected to membership in the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and at the same time received from the Academy the Gold Medal of Drama for the entire body of his work. In 2000 he received the PEN/Laura Pels Foundation Award for Drama, New York State Governor's Arts Award and in December of that year he was given the National Medal of Arts Award by President Clinton. In 2006 his play, The Trip to Bountiful, won the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Revival and he was given the Drama Desk Lifetime Achievement Award for his body of work. His memoirs, Farewell and Beginnings, are published by Scribners.

Stephanie Yankwitt (Director) This is Stephanie's fourth year with the Hangar Theatre. She currently serves as Associate Artistic Director: Head of Casting & New Work. During the past four seasons Stephanie has served as a Director, Artistic Associate, the Casting Director for all Mainstage productions, Recruiter & Mentor for the Resident Lab Acting Company, Head of the Literary Department, producer of the Hangar Pilot Reading Series, and Artistic Producer of the Kiddstuff Theatre for Young Audience Seasons. Past directing credits at the Hangar include Rounding Third on the mainstage, Love Makes the World Go Round for the CabarETC. Series, and If You Give a Mouse a Cookie andWilly Wonka, Jr. for the Kiddstuff season. Other directing credits include serving as Associate Director on Broadway of the world premiere of November and the recent revival of American Buffalo, both by David Mamet, The Receptionist by Adam Bock (MTC), Our Lady of 121st Street by Stephen Adly Guirgis (North Carolina premiere), and the premieres of Letters to the End of the World by Anton Dudley (NYU/Stella Adler Studios), and All That I Will Ever Be by Alan Ball (at NYTW).

Peter Flynn (Director/Hangar Artistic Director) Peter is currently the Artistic Director of the Hangar Theatre in Ithaca, New York, where he directed 2012's Lend Me a Tenor starring Michael McCormick, Janet Dacal and Emily Skinner, Full Gallop with 3 time Tony nominee Dee Hoty. Last season Peter directed the world premiere of Tim Pinckney's play Ever So Humble starring Andréa Burns. Other Hangar credits include directing Tony nominee Emily Skinner in Dirty Blonde, Natascia Diaz as Aldonza in Man of LaMancha, and Wally Dunn in David Mamet's November. Broadway credits: Actors' Fund concerts of On the 20th Century with Douglas Sills & Marin Mazzie, Chess with Josh Groban & Adam Pascal, and Funny Girl with Whoopi Goldberg, Andrea Martin, & Jane Krakowski. Off-Broadway credits: Lee Blessing's Two Rooms - Lion Theatre, Henry & Mudge, & Junie B. Jones (nominated for two Lucille Lortel Awards including Best Musical), and Rhapsody in Seth - Actors' Playhouse starring Seth Rudetsky. Regional credits: 1776 at the Ford's Theatre starring Brooks Ashmanskas, Barrio Grrrl! - Kennedy Center, Sleuth & Man of LaMancha (Carbonell Award, best director) - Maltz-Jupiter Theatre, Guys and Dolls - Engeman Theater, Gypsy - St. Louis MUNY (starring Karen Mason), The Piano Lesson and The Crucible - Tampa Performing Arts Center, A Child's Christmas in Wales - National Theatre of the Deaf. As a writer, Peter is the author of Lily, a musical adaptation of Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth written with writing partner, composer/lyricist Brooks Ashmanskas. They are currently under commission at the Huntington Theatre writing the musical adaptation of For Love of the Game. He is a graduate of Northwestern University.

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