SHEAR MADNESS Arrives in Sarasota's Florida Studio Theatre, 2/23

The cast and creative team of SHEAR MADNESS arrived in Sarasota this week to begin rehearsals at Florida Studio Theatre. SHEAR MADNESS opens February 23 for a limited two-week engagement. The production returns to the Gompertz stage after it ran for nine sold-out weeks last season.

SHEAR MADNESS is an interactive murder mystery where the audience gets to solve the crime. Set in a Sarasota hair salon, join your favorite salon owner Tony, his gum-chewing assistant, Barbara, and the rest of the gang as they piece together the crime scene after a murder happens upstairs.

The dynamic cast will feature some familiar faces: four of the six actors return to the Gompertz stage for another dose of whodunit fun! Michael Kevin Baldwin, Juliana Black, and Timothy Goodwin will reprise their roles as "light on his toes" Tony Whitcomb, the sassy stylist Barbara DeMarco, and loud-mouth detective Nick O'Brien, respectively. Nick Caruso, who was last seen as the gumshoe assistant Mikey Thomas, will return as bad boy Eddie Lawrence. All four of the returnees have also played in several SHEAR MADNESS productions all over the country, bringing their comedic skill and expertise to Sarasota.

New to SHEAR MADNESS and the Sarasota cast are Jeremy Ellis-Gladstone as Mikey Thomas and Lisa McMillan as the wealthy socialite Mrs. Schubert.

Co-Creator and Original Director of SHEAR MADNESS, Bruce Jordan, returns to FST to direct the production. Jordan has been acting, directing and producing in theatre, television and film for the past 30 years, but never did he expect to be the producer/director of the three longest-running nonmusical plays in the history of American theatre. ("Shear Madness"- Boston, "Shear Madness"- Chicago, "Shear Madness"- Washington, D.C.). A founding member of Rochester's GeVa Theatre, Jordan has directed classic and Contemporary Theatre from Moliere to Coward and from Shaw to Simon. He's also appeared in scores of plays from Hedda Gabler to You're a Good Man Charlie Brown. He made his television debut in 1970 on All My Children and his "big screen" debut with Barbra Streisand in The Way We Were.

SHEAR MADNESS, by Paul Portner, adapted by Marilyn Abrams and Bruce Jordan, with original direction by Bruce Jordan, is in the Guiness Book of World Records for longest-running play in the world. Originally written by German writer, Paul Portner, in 1963 and titled Scherenschnitt, Shear Madness was a result of collaboration between two friends, Marilyn Abrams and Bruce Jordan in the summer of 1976. SHEAR MADNESS premiered at the Lake George Dinner Theatre in 1978, making its Off-Broadway debut at the Charles Play-house Stage II in Boston, MA on January 29, 1980 and is still running with success. SHEAR MADNESS went on to open at The John F. Kennedy Center: Theatre Lab in Washington D.C. in 1987 and continues in 2010.

During its initial run in Lake George, SHEAR MADNESS was produced as a work in progress. Abrams and Jordan allowed the actors to improvise each night, playing on and using good audience response. This eventually formed the "final" script, which is also adapted to each city the show plays in. Jordan continues to encourage the actors to "let the audience win," keeping the magic in the show and pleasing audiences across the nation.

SHEAR MADNESS will run for a two-week limited engagement at Florida Studio Theatre's Gompertz Theatre, beginning February 23, 2011. Single tickets are priced $32 to $34 and may be purchased by calling the Box Office at 941-366-9000 or by visiting the website at www.floridastudiotheatre.org.

Limited Engagement Performance Schedule
Wednesday, February 23, 2011 at 8:00pm
Thursday, February 24, 2011 at 8:00pm
Friday, February 25, 2011 at 8:00pm
Saturday, February 26, 2011 at 2:00pm & 8:00pm
Sunday, February 27, 2011 at 3:00pm & 8:00pm
Tuesday, March 1, 2011 at 8:00pm
Wednesday, March 2, 2011 at 8:00pm
Thursday, March 3, 2011 at 8:00pm
Friday, March 4, 2011 at 8:00pm
Saturday, March 5, 2011 at 2:00pm & 8:00pm
Sunday, March 6, 2011 at 3:00pm & 8:00pm

Photo by Amy Steinmetz

To post a comment, you must register and login.