Production Company to Present THE BLUE MOON DANCING Reading, 4/27-28
By: Tyler Peterson Apr. 16, 2014
The Production Company's Managing Director of the 2014 Reading Series, Dean Farell Bruggeman, and Artistic Directors August Viverito and T L Kolman proudly announce the third selection for the company's new-play-reading series with Ed Graczyk's beautiful The Blue Moon Dancing, directed by David Youse. The reading takes place at our new studio space, dubbed The Production Company Workspace, at 14731 Oxnard St., Van Nuys, CA 91411, on Sunday, April 27 @ 7 pm, and Monday, April 28 @ 8 PM. Admission is complimentary.
The Blue Moon Dance Hall provides an escape from the daily routine of our lives-a place where we hope to find a piece of excitement to forget our chores. But for its cast of idiosyncratic regulars it is also a refuge for hopes, dreams, fantasies and lies. This particular day at The Blue Moon includes a wedding, a tornado, Elvis, an attempted suicide and the face of Jesus in a water stain on the ceiling. Something is always brewing down at The Blue Moon.
Bringing life to the play's wonderful characters are Laura Pursell as Connie, Jennifer Lynn Davis as Bernice, Tiffany Cole as Nadine, Jason Britt as Eugene, Christine Ostrander as Pearl Jean, Edmund Shaff as Howard, Michelle Simek as Leona, Judy Nazemetz as Roselle, Richard Lucas as Rodney, John Couch as Joel, and Lane Allison as Della.
THE BLUE MOON DANCING
Sunday, April 27 @ 7 PM; Monday, April 28 @ 8 PM. Please note that The Reading Series is at THE PRODUCTION COMPANY WORKSPACE, 14731 Oxnard St., Van Nuys, CA 91411, between Van Nuys Blvd. and Kester Ave. Plenty of free parking right out front.
Ed Graczyk (playwright) is probably best known as the author of Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean, which was produced on Broadway starring Sandy Dennis, Cher, Karen Black and Kathy Bates, and directed by Robert Altman. It has been translated into eight languages and has received close to 1,000 productions worldwide, and counting.
A successful film, Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean, with the same cast and director, received the Best Film Award at the Chicago International Film Festival (the first American film to do so) and appeared on the year-end ten best film lists of The Boston Globe, USA Today and The Los Angeles Times. At the Belgium International Film Festival, Graczyk received the award for Best Screenplay.
Graczyk's A Murder of Crows premiered at Players Theatre of Columbus in Columbus, Ohio, where he was producing artistic director for twenty years. It was then produced Off-Broadway starring Kim Hunter and Michael Higgins. Hometown Heroes was awarded the Rosenthal New Play Prize by the Cincinnati Playhouse, where it was produced starring Ralph Waite and M Emmett Walsh. It has also been produced by the Sacramento Theatre Company. A Country Christmas Carol, a musical retelling of the Dickens classic with music by David Tolley and lyrics by John Dempsey (The Witches of Eastwick, The Fix), also premiered at Players Theatre of Columbus. Set in rural Ohio during the Depression, this play was produced every Christmas for four years starring Russ Thacker.
Graczyk's other plays include Weeds and My Time Ain't Long, a one-man play for Keith Carradine based on the life of Jimmie Rodgers, the father of country music.
Among his twelve plays for young people are the rock musicals Aesop's Falables, Electric Folderol and To Be. Others includeLivin' de Life!, based on the stories of Joel Chandler Harris, The Rude Mechanicals, Imagine That!, Appleseed: a Play of Peace, andCourage: a Play of War. He has received the Charlotte Chorpenning Cup awarded annually by the Children's Theatre Association of America to "an outstanding writer of children's plays who has received national recognition." Graczyk has been recognized by the Ohio Theatre Alliance for his contribution to theatre in the State of Ohio and is a recipient of the Ohioana Library Award.
David Youse (director) is committed to building awareness of nonprofit organizations by directing and producing live theater events through his experience and knowledge as an actor and advocate for over twenty-five years. David and his company, Four Things Productions, produced the 25th Anniversary staged reading of The Normal Heart by Larry Kramer, in Los Angeles, at The Geffen Playhouse, which benefited The Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center, directed by Academy Award winner Joel Grey. This production was the inspiration for the 2011 Broadway revival with Joe Mantello, John Benjamin Hickey, Ellen Barkin and others, directed by Mr. Grey and George C. Wolfe. David produced Charles Busch as Katharine Hepburn in Matthew Lombardo's Tea At Five to benefit The Ali Forney Center, directed by Rob Ruggiero, in 2011. And in 2012, he raised monies and awareness for the New York and Los Angeles chapters of JDRF, presenting the 25th Anniversary of Robert Harling's Steel Magnolias, directed by Judith Ivey. Steel Magnolias will receive a full production this fall, directed by Ms. Ivey at The Alliance Theatre, in Atlanta, GA. As an actor, David is a member of The Production Company in Los Angeles, and managing director of its Second Stage series. He has performed in The Car Plays for Moving Arts Theater Company at La Jolla Playhouse, Segerstrom Arts Center, and RedCat; was seen as Uncle Peck in How I Learned To Drivefor The Production Company and, most recently, appeared in Paul Coates' The End Of It at the Matrix Theatre with Kelly Coffield-Park, directed by Nick DeGruccio. David has appeared in more than thirty successful television series, including recurring roles on Chicago Hope, Beverly Hills 90210, China Beach, and Days of Our Lives. In film, he can be seen opposite Matthew Modine in The Neighbor, along with The Broken Hearts club, Fake, and Bloodhounds of Broadway. His short film, The Callback, which he wrote, directed, and in which he plays every character, is a film festival favorite. The documentary short film The Audience, in which David is the subject, is currently playing the film festival circuit, as recently as The Sebastopol Documentary Film Festival this month.
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