Pie Man Theatre Company to Present COWBOYS ON A DESERT ISLAND

Pie Man Theatre Company (PMTC), in association with New YORK Theatre Company, will present Best Enemies, the latest comedy-drama from Maine playwright Michael Kimball. Best Enemies is an intricate, hilarious and touching portrayal of two "cowboys" stranded together on a tiny tropical desert island when the rodeo cruise ship on which they were traveling blows up and sinks. Rex, in the grand tradition of the American western, is a grim loner with a past and a cowboy hat; Cody, a rodeo clown (or "barrelman"), is a man with a lust for life (and conversation) and an almost pathological curiosity about his secretive island mate. Together, to maintain some semblance of normalcy and to preserve their sanity, they invent an imaginary geography and institute an increasingly bizarre system of laws, but these systems start to break down when they go to war over Rex's cowboy hat. As they rob each other of food and sleep and their carefully constructed universe begins to unravel, three visitors appear, helping them face their mortality and, in so doing, helping examine and come to terms with their lives and the pasts they've been running from.

"It's an age-old question -- and fascination," says director Stephanie Ross. "We've all dreamed of, or maybe dreaded, the idea of being stranded, cut off from the world. Haven't we all desired, at one time or another, to run away from the world, from our troubles, from ourselves? That's at the heart the story of Best Enemies: stranded on a desert island, what would a philandering rodeo clown (with a yearning for understanding) and a vengeful cowboy (determined to keep his past buried) do before they face the truth about themselves?"

Best Enemies, written by Michael Kimball, directed by Stephanie Ross. Featuring Josh Brassard, Jacqueline Ann Cascella, Chris Davis and Cameron Foley. October 15-25, 2015, with a preview performance Wednesday October 14, 2015 (no show October 19 & 20). Curtain for all performances at 7:30pm. All tickets $15 (Wednesday performances are pay-what-you-can). At the Studio Theater at Portland Stage, 25A Forest Ave, Portland ME. Tickets and information: http://www.piemantheatre.org or 207.619.4885.

ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT:

Michael Kimball is the recipient of the 2014 John Gassner Memorial Playwriting Award (New England Theatre Conference) for his recent play Duck and Cover, which was also named BEST PLAY in the 2013 Northern Writes Festival (Bangor, Maine) and the 2014 Dezart Performs Festival of New Plays in Palm Springs, CA, where it has been nominated for 8 Desert Star Awards, including "Outstanding Comedy." His play Ghosts of Ocean House was one of three finalists for the 2007 Edgar Award (Mystery Writers of America), and his novel Undone won the Fresh Talent Award in the U.K. and was a top-ten London Times bestseller. Mike is a frequent contributor to the Maine Playwrights Festival and The Crowbait Club. He teaches scriptwriting and popular fiction at Stonecoast MFA in Creative Writing Program at the University of Southern Maine.

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR:

Stephanie Ross (AEA, SAG-AFTRA) has her Bachelor of Fine Arts from New York University. She trained with David Mamet, William H. Macy, Felicity Huffman, Mary McAnn, Neil Pepe and Robert Bella at the Tony Award-winning Atlantic Theatre Company. She has directed for Falmouth Footlights, Crowbait Club, PortFringe, Freeport Players, Cauldryn & Labrys, the Maine Playwrights Festival and the Samuel French Short Play Festival in NYC. She has taught adult and children's acting classes for Acorn Productions and directed many of their children's theatre offerings under their Fairytale Players banner. Stephanie was the Drama Director in the Massabesic School System until 2014, where she taught and directed theatre for 12 years. In 2015, she was named the new director for South Portland High School's yearly musical. Stephanie directed Michael Kimball's award-winning Duck and Cover in 2013, and is beyond thrilled to once again have the opportunity to direct his brilliant work in Best Enemies. Along with her partner, Josh Brassard, she founded Pie Man Theatre Company in order to bring great plays to life serving the intentions of the playwright.

ABOUT PIE MAN THEATRE COMPANY:

Founded in 2015 by co-artistic directors Josh Brassard and Steph Ross, Pie Man Theatre Company (PMTC) is a professional theatre organization focused on new, emerging and underrepresented works (especially from Maine and New England playwrights) and presenting the classics for today's audiences. PMTC's mission is to "serve the story": the (not-at-all) radical notion that the story being told by a play is its most important element, and that everything we do as theatre professionals must serve to bring the story to the audience in its most essential form. Story, after all, is how we communicate across generations and ages. Story is what makes us human. Visit us at http://www.piemantheatre.org.

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