WaterTower Theatre Presents Diana Sheehan in FULL GALLOP, 8/11-31

WaterTower Theatre Producing Artistic Director Terry Martin today announced its production of Full Gallop, produced by WaterTower Theatre, August 9-31, 2014. The WaterTower Theatre production of Full Gallop will be directed by Terry Martin and stars Diana Sheehan as Diana Vreeland. The production opens Monday, August 11.

Full Gallop is part of The Studio Theatre Discover Series is made possible, in part, by The Town of Addison.

Performances of all Discover Series productions are in the Addison Theatre Centre's Studio Theatre, which is located at 15650 Addison Road in Addison, Texas. Performance times are Wednesdays and Thursdays at 7:30 PM, Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00 PM, and Sundays at 2:00 PM. Tickets are $22 to $27.50 and can be purchased by calling the WTT Box Office at 972.450.6232 or online at www.watertowertheatre.org. Group rates are also available.

Written by Mary Louise Wilson and Mark Hampton and directed by Terry Martin, FULL GALLOP stars Diana Sheehan as Diana Vreeland and Ellen Tracy as Yvonne. Set and Properties Design: Terry Martin. Lighting Design: Bryant Yeager. Costume Design: John Ahrens. Sound Design: Kelsey Leigh Ervi. Wig Design: Coy Covington. Production Stage Manager: Angie Turner

As editor of Harper's Bazaar and Vogue magazines, and as a member of the International Cafe Society, Diana Vreeland chronicled the extraordinary people and events of her time. Full Gallop is a portrait of this remarkable woman at a turning point in her life. The one-woman play, starring Diana Sheehan and directed by Terry Martin, is set in August 1971 at Diana Vreeland's Park Avenue apartment. She has just returned home to New York after four months in Europe --- a trip she took after being fired from Vogue magazine. She throws an impromptu dinner party in the hope that a wealthy friend who is invited will bankroll her in starting a magazine of her own. Other friends, however, attempt to persuade her to take a job at the famed Metropolitan Museum of Art. In her distinctive style, once she decides in which direction her life will move, she goes at it "full gallop."

Multi-award winning Director Terry Martin is in his 14th season as Producing Artistic Director of WaterTower Theatre where he has overseen more than 85 productions.

Some of his more than 60 directing credits at WTT include The Mystery of Irma Vep, Putting It Together, The Grapes of Wrath, Spring Awakening, Rockin' Christmas Party, Our Town, The Lieutenant of Inishmore, Black Pearl Sings!, The Full Monty, As You Like It, Almost, Maine, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Man of La Mancha, Humble Boy, The Crucible, Take Me Out, A Country Life (which he adapted from Chekhov's Uncle Vanya and won the 2005 Rabin Award - Best New Play), Cabaret, It Ain't Nothin' But The Blues, Company, An Inspector Calls, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, The Laramie Project, You Can't Take It With You, Book of Days, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (2002 Rabin Award - Director of a Play), Sweeney Todd (2002 Rabin Award Nomination - Director of a Musical), Desire Under the Elms, Ravenscroft, Rockin' Christmas Party (2000, 2001), Enter the Guardsman (2001 Rabin Award Nomination - Director of a Musical), Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill and Little Shop of Horrors (2000 Rabin Award Nomination - Director of a Musical) among others. For Plano Repertory Theatre, he has directed Journey's End (2000 Rabin Award - Director of a Play), Dracula, La Bête, Little Shop of Horrors and Pump Boys and Dinettes. Terry was named "Best Theater Director" in the Dallas Observer's "Best of Dallas 2002."

He has appeared on stage at WTT in Our Town, Blackbird (2008 Dallas Fort Worth Theatre Critics' Forum Award), The Woman in Black, Dinner with Friends, The Guys, Bash: Latterday Plays (2002 Rabin Award Nomination - Actor in a Play) and at PRT in The Only Thing Worse You Could Have Told Me... (1998 Rabin Award - Actor in a Play, 1998 Dallas Theater Critics Forum Award), The Woman in Black (2000 Rabin Award Nomination - Actor in a Play), and Lonely Planet.

After growing up in south Alabama, Terry spent 12 years in New York City working in theatre, television and film. While there, he directed and acted at The Village Theatre Company, Carnegie Hall Studios and Theatre at St. Marks as well as television appearances on ABC's One Life to Liveand NBC's To Serve and Protect. He holds a BFA from the University of Alabama and has trained professionally with Sanford Meisner, Fred Kareman, Wynn Handman, Sally Johnson and Lehmann Byck. Terry presently teaches on-going acting classes in the Sanford Meisner Technique at WTT, as well as having served as Adjunct Professor of Acting at the University of Texas at Dallas.

Diana Sheehan is an award-winning actor and singer who relocated from New York to Dallas in the fall of 2008.

Diana has performed her cabaret shows at New York's Triad, San Francisco's Plush Room and Boston's Club Cafe championing the American Songbook and featuring such composers as Jerome Kern, Cole Porter and George Gershwin.

Diana's show, Nobody's Hart: the Lyrics of Lorenz Hart was the winner of BEST OF THE LOOP at the 2013 Out of the Loop Fringe Festival and enjoyed a sold-out run. Diana debuted Nobody's Hart: the Lyrics of Lorenz Hart at the Sammons Center for the Arts in the fall of 2012. Diana's cabaret show Midway was awarded BEST OF THE LOOP at the 2012 Out of the Loop Fringe Festival.

For the roles of Edith and Little Edie Beale in Grey Gardens at the Watertower Theatre, she received the 2009 Dallas-Fort Worth Critics Forum Awardand the 2009 COLUMN AWARD for Best Leading Actress in a Musical. Her Dallas-area debut in Irving Berlin's As Thousands Cheer at Lyric Stage also received the Dallas-Fort Worth Critics Forum Award. She has also performed in Shooting Star at WaterTower Theatre.

Diana's CD, Nobody's Hart: Lyrics by Lorenz Hart is available at www.cdbaby.com

Single Tickets for both Venus in Fur and Full Gallop: Wednesday and Thursday at $22.00; Friday, Saturday and Sunday at $27.50, Preview performance tickets at $20.00

To buy tickets, visit www.watertowertheatre.org or 972-450-6232 or in person at WaterTower Theatre Box Office (Tuesday - Friday, 12pm to 6pm, Addison Theatre Centre, 15650 Addison Road, Addison, Texas 75001).

Now in its 17th season, WaterTower Theatre began life in 1996 with 136 brave subscribers. Today, with over 2000 subscribers and a budget of $1.3 million, it consistently earns rave reviews in The Dallas Morning News, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Dallas Observer, and other local publications. With 104 Dallas Theatre League Leon Rabin Award Nominations and 28 wins to its credit, as well as 17 Dallas Fort Worth Theatre Critics Forum Awards, WaterTower Theatre is home to the finest local talent.

WaterTower Theatre has produced 5 world premiere productions and 16 regional premiere productions to date. WaterTower Theatre's tradition of world premiere programming includes the musicals Song of Motherhood and Blind Lemon: Prince of Country Blues. Dramatic world premieres include Free Fall with Sandy Duncan, Baptized to the Bone by Dave Johnson (which is enjoying healthy post-WaterTower Theatre life) and A Country Life, Producing Artistic Director Terry Martin's southern adaptation of Anton Chekhov's Uncle Vanya. Both Blind Lemon and A Country Life earned WaterTower Theatre a Dallas Theatre League Leon Rabin Award for Best New Work.

WaterTower Theatre is committed to nurturing emerging talent and expanding audiences. The annual Out of the Loop Fringe Festival strives to present new work by local and national writers. A major part of WaterTower Theatre's education program partners professional artists and technicians with students at our Summer Performing Arts Conservatory, where students ages 8 - 18 learn "life skills through theatre skills." In addition, master classes and workshops for professional performers offer an opportunity for continued education at the local level.

WaterTower Theatre gratefully acknowledges the support of: The Town of Addison, TACA, Texas Commission on the Arts, The National Endowment for the Arts and The Shubert Foundation.

WaterTower Theatre gratefully acknowledges the generosity of the following season sponsors: Ackley Financial Group/ARMOR Wealth Management, Frost Bank, Atmos Energy, Barbara and Bob Bigham: the Baylor Oral Health Foundation, Don and Barbara Daseke, Liberty Capital Bank, Robert Mayer, Jr., The Pinnacle Family of Companies, PlainsCapital Bank, Wells Fargo Bank, Rainmaker Advertising, Women of WaterTower Theatre and the WaterTower Theatre Board of Directors.

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