Amphibian Stage Productions Announces 2012 Season

Amphibian Stage Productions is set to embark on its 13th season of plays that challenge the way we see the world around us. The adventure continues as Amphibian Stage Productions brings to Fort Worth six plays by playwrights both new and seasoned.

Amphibian's main stage season will include three full productions at the Hardy and BetTy Sanders Theater, located at the Fort Worth Community Arts Center: Mr. & Mrs. Fitch by Douglas Carter Beane, The Understudy by Theresa Rebeck, and Fiction by Steven Dietz.

Amphibian will also continue its renowned reading series, "'Phibs at The Modern," at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth with Two Rooms by Lee Blessing, The King's Face by Steven Young, and The Ding Dongs or What is the Penalty in Portugal? by Brenda Withers.

Tickets for the main stage season are $25 for adults, $20 for seniors, and $15 for students. Tickets for readings at The Modern are $15 for adults, $10 for seniors, and $5 for students. Tickets for the 2012 Season go on sale on December 16, 2011 and can be purchased at www.amphibianproductions.org or by calling 817-923-3012.

About the Plays

Two Rooms
Written by Lee Blessing
January 30, 2012
The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth
An American teacher is held hostage in a dark room after being captured in Beirut. His wife holds a vigil for him in an empty room in their house outside DC. Michael dictates unsent letters to his wife from his cell, while Lainie vies between Walker, a journalist intent to tell her story to the public, and Ellen, a State department official who wants to keep her quiet. First performed in 1988, Lee Blessing's Two Rooms is as relevant as ever, navigating the worlds of politics, journalism, and terrorism, while examining the ties that bind people together and the forces that would tear them apart.
"The playwright's eye is penetrating... In [Two Rooms], Mr. Blessing reaffirms his authority with timely political questions." - The New York Times

The King's Face
Written by Steven Young
March 5, 2012
The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth
US Premiere
At the battle of Shrewsbury, King Henry IV's crown is at last secured, only to have his son, Prince Harry of Monmouth, struck down with an arrow to the face. The Prince is given up for dead. As a last resort, surgeon John Bradmore is summoned to examine the young royal. Over the course of several days, the pair develop a unique bond, while examining questions of war, religion, patriotism, and what it means to lead a nation, revealing the true temperament of the future King Henry V.
"Totally engaging... an absorbing and satisfying evening, with plenty to muse on. Real, living history." - Fringe Review

Mr. & Mrs. Fitch
Written by Douglas Carter Beane
April 12-29, 2012
The Hardy and BetTy Sanders Theater
Meet gossip columnists Mr. and Mrs. Fitch. When the social circuit no longer provides juicy morsels, and when the pressure to create news in our never-ending news cycle becomes just a bit much, it's time to toss back the martinis, dish out the bon mots, and realize that great celebrity can just appear out of thin air. This wicked, urbane comedy is a scathing look at who is in, who is out, and who may not even exist at all.
"A riotous deep dive into the shallow waters of gossip. Media-savvy urbanites will savor every crazy morsel." - Entertainment Weekly

The Understudy
Written by Theresa Rebeck
July 19-August 5, 2012
The Hardy and BetTy Sanders Theater
Regional Premiere
The star he's working with doesn't get the play. The disgruntled stage manager happens to be his bitter ex-fiancé. The set technician is high. Just another day in the life of an understudy. The most thankless job in theatre takes center stage in Theresa Rebeck's bitingly funny look at the underbelly of the acting world. Through the course of a dress rehearsal, we glimpse all the genius, bitterness and ridiculousness that underscore a life in showbiz.
"Pulverizingly funny" - The Wall Street Journal
"A razor-sharp black comedy" - Entertainment Weekly

Fiction
Written by Steven Dietz
September 13-30, 2012
The Hardy and BetTy Sanders Theater
Best-selling authors Michael and Linda Waterman treasure their honest marriage, until a harsh twist of fate compels them to read each other's diaries. Between the lines, stretching deep into the past, a secret liaison with a mysterious stranger surfaces, forever altering married life's delicate balance of fact and fiction.
"Take this as a fact. Fiction, a new play by Steven Dietz, is a work of uncommon insight - an adult, unsparing and yet often witty look at the intimate relationship between a man and a woman during a time of crisis." - Associated Press

The Ding Dongs or What is the Penalty in Portugal?
Written by Brenda Withers
December 3, 2012
The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth
Regional Premiere
When a sweet-faced couple shows up on a suburban doorstep, an unsuspecting homeowner finds himself the victim of a surreal home invasion. Using wit and wordplay to mask a more sinister threat, the couple wages a battle over indigenous rights from the living room, and we are asked to examine the brutality that fuels our system of private property.
"Brenda Withers is out to mess with your head and knock you off balance. She succeeds... By the end of The Ding Dongs, you feel almost as dazed and dislocated as the hapless homeowner. You've also developed considerable admiration for Withers's skills as a playwright who can toy so expertly with the line between possession and dispossession, between everyday suburban life and surreal nightmare."

About Amphibian Stage Productions
Amphibian Stage Productions is a non-profit theatre company founded in 2000 by three alumni of TCU's Department of Theatre who strive to produce innovative and engaging works of theatre that challenge the way we see the world around us. Now in its twelfth season, Amphibian has produced numerous groundbreaking and challenging plays (some regional premieres, others US or world premieres) that foster a deeper understanding of ourselves as members of the global community. The company is widely recognized for its stylistically and thematically varied scripts.
Committed to nurturing young and diverse audiences, Amphibian has developed a strong internship program, a summer acting workshop for teens, and a dynamic outreach project, Tad-Poles, that is steadily increasing the company's visibility and following. The group travels to schools and community centers, performing and spreading a message of multicultural collaboration and tolerance.

In addition, actors visit schools to lead acting workshops and talkback sessions with students. The company actively reaches out to young people and strives to foster a new generation of audience members by offering students very low cost or free tickets to all performances.

Amphibian is generously funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, Texas Commission on the Arts, the Arts Council of Fort Worth and Tarrant County, Ann L. & Carol Green Rhodes Charitable Trust, Amon G. Carter Foundation, Alcon Foundation, the Nell V. Bailey Charitable Trust, Wells Fargo Bank, Mrs. Betty J. Sanders, The Rug Company, Out of Nowhere Website Design, Bates Container, Pier 1 Imports, and the Devonian Society, a group of Amphibian's devoted donors who are proud to be the force behind nurturing the next generation of artists and audiences.

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