MARTIANS: AN EVENING WITH RAY BRADBURY To Premiere At Whitefire

Created and written by Charlie Mount and Jeff G. Rack. Directed by Jeff G. Rack. Based on the short stories The Strawberry Window, The Blue Bottle, The Messiah and Night Call, Collect by Ray Bradbury. Performed and adapted by permission of Don Congdon Associates, Inc. Presented by Arcane Theatreworks and Whitefire Theatre.

Whitefire Theatre, 13500 Ventura Blvd. (at Sunnyslope), Sherman Oaks, CA 91423. Valet parking available (fee charged) at Augustine Wine Bar, ½ block east of the theatre.

September 7- November 2, 2018, Fridays at 8:00 p.m. Also, Saturday, November 10 at 8:00 p.m. $30. Children and students, $20. Reservations: (800) 838-3006. Online Ticketing: Www.whitefiretheatre.com

America's Storyteller, Ray Bradbury, is our guide to mankind's next great adventure, to our next outpost in outer space, the planet Mars.

Ray Bradbury speaks directly to the audience weaving Martians stories both humorous and harrowing,bringing his characters to life on stage right before your eyes. Characters like Bob and Carrie, a young couple struggling to turn the cold, dead Mars into an Earthly garden. There are Beck and Craig, two soldiers of fortune searching for the legendary Blue Bottle of Mars! Father Niven's religious faith traps a shapeshifting Martian in the form of Christ! Emil Barton is the last man on Mars with only recordings of his younger self to keep him company, or drive him mad!

As Ray creates his stories we come to know the mind and heart of the great writer who believes that humanity can only survive by carrying our culture out into the Universe! Most of the text is taken from Ray's own words, from interviews and books he's written on the art of writing, as well as adaptations of his Martian stories

The Strawberry Window, The Blue Bottle, The Messiah and Night Call, Collect.

Ray Bradbury is played by co-creater Charlie Mount who played him in a production of The October Country and produced Ray's play Falling Upward with Pat Harrington, Jr, both staged at Theatre West in association with Ray's Pandemonium Theatre Company. Also a playwright, Charlie's plays include The Leather Apron Club, Against The Wall (Los Angeles Times Critic's Pick) and Trumpets and Table-Tipping. His directing credits include Acting: The First Six Lessons (with Beau and Emily Bridges), Waiting in the Wings (with Betty Garrett, receiving an Ovation Award nomination),Seascape, Waiting for Lefty (Ovation nominated for outstanding production), Gaslight, and The Fantasticks (with Lee Meriwether). A professional illusionist and Magic Castle member, Charlie has performed at The Sands Casino in Atlantic City, featured on TV's Magic's Greatest Illusions and his magic show Abracadabra was an L.A. Weekly Pick of the Week.

Martians is directed by co-creator Jeff G. Rack whose work as an Art Director for films and commercials, and as an EFX artist, can be seen in many films, including:

Armageddon, Con-Air, Flubber, Mighty JoeYoung, Kundun, and Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes. Probably best known to Los Angeles theater patrons for his award-winning set designs, Jeff has designed and built over 200 productions from Santa Barbara to Edinburgh, Scotland, including Ray's play Falling Upward for Theatre West. He is a multiple Ovation Award winner and received an L.A. Weekly Award for his work on Frank Zappa's Joe's Garage. Shows he has adapted and/or directed for Unbound Production's Wicked Lit include: H. P. Lovecraft's The Unnamable, and The Lurking Fear, Sleepy Hollow, The Dead Smile, The Yellow Wallpaper, Dracula's Guest and Robert E. Howard's Pigeons From Hell. Other shows Jeff has directed are Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Birds, PEN, and The Mystery Plays.

The cast of Martians includes, in addition to Charlie Mount, John T. Cogan, Jason Frankovitz, Paul Gunning, Eric Keitel, Melissa Lugo, Michael Perl, Richard Mooney, Donald Moss and Robert Paterno. Sound design: Joseph "Sloe" Slawinski. Video design: Gabrieal Griego.

Ray Bradbury (1920-2012) is the beloved author of over 600 short stories, over 30 books, numerous plays, screenplays, teleplays and a cantata. He became a working writer while still in his teens, writing jokes for the radio comedians George Burns and Gracie Allen. His first collection of stories, The Dark Carnival, was published in 1947, but it was his 1950 novel The Martian Chronicles that made him a literary star and cemented his name with that of the red planet in the popular imagination. Other best-sellers followed, among them Fahrenheit 451, The October Country and Dandelion Wine. His works have been adapted for feature films, television, stage, opera, and even a ballet (Frost and Fire). He considered himself a fantasy writer rather than an author of science fiction (I'm not a scientist," he asserted). His influences ranged from Shakespeare and Melville to Edgar Rice Burroughs and the Buck Rogers newspaper strip. He received a Pulitzer Prize for his lifetime body of work, as well as the National Medal of the Arts. He won an Emmy Award (for The Halloween Tree). He received a Lifetime Achievement Award from L.A. Weekly for his contributions to theatre. The French made him a Commander of Arts and Letters.

One of Mr Bradbury's favorite films was Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind. "Going to the stars, taking your culture with you, and living forever! That's what it's all about!," Bradbury said. That's a theme that's explored in Martians.

So join Ray Bradbury in a journey to the imagination. As Bradbury used to say, "The French made me a Commander, so I command you to enjoy this play!"

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