A FLEA IN HER EAR Opens At KC Rep 5/22

After a week of wildly successful previews, Georges Feydeau's comic romp A Flea in Her Ear opens tonight at Kansas City Repertory Theatre. Tony-nominated (The Color Purple) director Gary Griffin directs a new adaptation by David Ives. The show runs through June 7.

The classic bedroom farce is based on a hilarious series of misunderstandings, clandestine assignations and misplaced jealousies between husbands, wives and lovers, which is played out with precision and breathtaking speed.

Griffin is one of American theatre's foremost directors. He has worked in New York, London and Chicago, where he is associate artistic director of Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, which last year won a Tony Award for outstanding regional theatre. His many honors include numerous Chicago's Joseph Jefferson Awards for directing; 11 Tony nominations for his Broadway staging of The Color Purple, including one for best musical; and an Olivier Award for outstanding musical production and a nomination for best director for his London staging of Stephen Sondheim's Pacific Overtures.

Ives is a contemporary American playwright whose playwriting credits include Is He Dead? and New Jerusalem. He has also adapted 22 American musicals for New York City Center's Encores! series, South Pacific with Reba McEntire and Jubilee at Carnegie Hall and he has also adapted My Fair Lady for the New York Philharmonic.

The 14-actor cast of A Flea in Her Ear includes New York and Chicago actors Carol Halstead (Raymonde Chandebise), Anne L. Nathan (Lucienne Homenides), John Pasha (Romain Tournel), Thom Rivera (Carlos Homenides), Jonathan Root (Camille Chandebise) and John Scherer (Victor Chandebise/Poche). The remaining actors are from Kansas City: Allan Boardman (Baptiste), Martin Buchanan (Etienne), Scott Cordes (Ferraillon), Katie Kalahurka (Antoinette), Lauren Lubow (Eugénie), Michelangelo Milano (Rugby), Mark Robbins (Dr. Finache) and Cheryl Weaver (Olympia).

The design team includes Mara Blumenfeld (costume design), Jack Magaw (set design), Jason Lyons (lighting design) and John Story (sound design).

A Flea in Her Ear is the final play of the Rep's 2008-09 season, Eric Rosen's first year as artistic director.

Now in its 44th season, Kansas City Repertory Theatre is its region's only member of the prestigious League of Resident Theatres (LORT) and serves as the professional theatre in residence at the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC). The Rep produces mainstage plays and special events at Spencer Theatre on the UMKC campus and Copaken Stage located in downtown Kansas City. Kansas City Rep employs more than 250 professional artists, technicians and administrators, and serves more than 100,000 patrons annually.

All performances and events for A Flea in Her Ear will take place at Spencer Theatre in the James C. Olson Performing Arts Center on the UMKC campus where Kansas City Rep is the professional theatre in residence. Tickets for A Flea in Her Ear cost $15-$50 and youth tickets (18 years and younger and students with valid school ID) are $15.

For information about performance times and ticket options, call the Rep Box Office at 816-235-2700 or visit www.kcrep.com

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