Culver City Public Theatre Kicks Off Season Tomorrow With THE ODYSSEY

Culver City Public Theatre (CCPT) opens its 14th season of free family friendly summer shows July 14th in Dr. Paul Carlson Park. All performances are open to the public. Founded in 1998, CCPT (a donation and grant supported 501c3 non-profit) is a member of the American Association of Community Theatres (AACT).

CCPT’s 2012 summer-season opens July 14th at 12:00pm with the world premiere adaptation of Homer’s epic poem, THE ODYSSEY. Written and directed by six-year CCPT veteran and LA Weekly Award Nominee Blake Anthony Edwards, THE ODYSSEY, tells the tale of Odysseus’ ten-year journey home from the Trojan War. This is the second show Mr. Edwards has penned for CCPT’s Children’s Popcorn Theatre, the annual CCPT production designed for young audiences; he also wrote last year’s Big Bad Wolf Tales. Park regulars will also recognize him from roles in King Midas, The Good Doctor, Slue-Foot Sue and Pecos Bill, and She Stoops to Conquer, or outside productions of Othello, A Midsummer Night's Dream, A Good Smoke, and In on It, for which he received an LA Weekly award nomination. Cast includes Paul Ellis as Odysseus, James Egan as Dumbocles, Heather Roberts as Narrator, Dean Figone as Zeus, Polyphemus & others, Jake Pitkow as Poseidon, Tiresias & others, Victoria Martinez as Lotus-Eater, Calypso & others, Micah Delhauer as Aeolus, Hermes & others, and Angela Blake as Circe, Helios & others.

A SERVANT TO TWO MASTERS opens July 14th at 2:00pm. Ron Geren makes his CCPT directorial debut with A SERVANT TO TWO MASTERS. A graduate of San Francisco State and American Conservatory Theatre he recently co-starred alongside Paul Sorvino in the feature film "Greetings from the Shore" and is best known for his recurring role as "Quentin" in the "Drew Carey Show." Carlo Goldoni wrote the first version of his Commedia dell’arte comedy A SERVANT TO TWO MASTERS in 1743, with large sections left for improvisation. It was revised a decade later, to a more scripted form which is the version used today. Relying on a cast of stock Commedia characters, the story follows Beatrice, who disguises herself as her deceased brother to collect the dowry from the father of her brother’s betrothed. She does this to free her own lover who was her brother’s murderer. Meanwhile, her servant Truffaldino takes on a second master to feed his overwhelming appetite but not before falling in love. Cast includes James Clark as Truffaldino, Christine Breihan as Beatrice, Faith Streng as Smeraldina/Waiter, Jessica Plotin as Clarice, Stephen Steelman as Silvio/2nd Waiter, Michael Hovance as Florindo. Dean Figone as Dr. Lombardi/1st Waiter, Eric Billitzer as Pantaloon/1st Porter, and Carol Vandergrift as Brighella/2nd Porter.

Alex Wells returns to direct his seventh play with CCPT, THE MATCHMAKER. You may know Mr. Wells from directing CCPT’s “She Stoops to Conquer,” or his 2008 LA Weekly Award win for Best Male Comedy Performance in John Clancy’s “Fatboy” at Need Theatre. In 2011 he directed a reading of “The Wild Duck” by Henrik Ibsen for the Classical Theatre Lab in West Hollywood and he recently appeared as the King in Ionesco’s “Exit the King.” Pulitzer Prize winner Thornton Wilder adapted THE MATCHMAKER from Johann Nestroy's Einen Jux will er sich Machen, which itself was an adaptation of John Oxenford’s one-act farce A Day Well Spent. After a successful 1955 Broadway run THE MATCHMAKER, was adapted to a 1958 film. In 1964 David Merrick based the musical Hello Dolly! on THE MATCHMAKER and that too was adapted to a movie in 1969. The story follows the widower Horace Vandergelder who seeks the services of a matchmaker, Dolly Gallagher Levi, to match him to a new wife. While Dolly tries to match herself to Vandergelder, and convince him to allow his niece to marry her artist love Ambrose Kemper, she must keep Vandergelder from proposing to Irene Molloy. Cast includes Clyde FT Small as Vandergelder, Madison Brightwell as Mrs. Levi, Michael Hanna as Cornelius, Jason Rector as Barnaby, Erin McIntosh as Minnie, Stephanie Pinnock as Mrs. Molloy, Natalia Barzilai as Ermengarde, Laura Boccaletti as Miss Van Huysen, Alon Dina as Ambrose, David Narloch as Malachi, Jake Pitkow as August, Derek Meacham as Rudolph, Bill Quade as Joe Scanlon/Cabman, and Melelani Satsuma as Gertrude/Cook.

To post a comment, you must register and login.