PNT Hosts 'Decade Of Dreams Cabaret' On 9/10

On September 10, 2009 Performance Network Theatre will host "PN 09/10: Decade of Dreams Cabaret", an evening of food, wine and entertainment to begin the 2009-2010 season and to celebrate a decade of excellence in their downtown location.

On September 10 2000, Performance Network held its dedication Gala, christening their current location at 120 E. Huron after a momentous move from its former space in an abandoned warehouse at 408 West Washington. In the nine seasons Performance Network has produced since that time, it has brought the Ann Arbor community 57 fully-mounted professional productions of classics from Ibsen to Tennessee Williams, crowd-pleasing musicals, Tony and Pulitzer prize winners and much more. It has brought ten World Premieres to life, seven of those by Michigan playwrights, three of which garnered nominations for Best New Play by the American Theatre Critic's Association, and one of which has gone on to be optioned for a Broadway production. In the past five years, Performance Network has received the most awards and nominations of any theatre company in the state.

Local celebrity and PNT Associate Artist Malcolm Tulip will host the Sept. 10 cabaret. Tulip will be joined by several of Ann Arbor's favorite performers including Wendy Bloom, mezzo soprano and co-founder of the School for the performing Arts in Ann Arbor, her solo appearances have included performances with the Ann Arbor Symphony, the Rackham Symphonic Choir, Baltimore Choral Arts Society and the Detroit, Flint, Grand Rapids and Toledo Symphony Orchestras; and Bolcom and Morris, Grammy-nominated husband and wife duo William Bolcom and Joan Morris who have delighted audiences across the United States and around the world since 1973.

PN 09/10: Decade of Dreams Cabaret will also showcase performances by well-loved Performance Network artists including fellow Associate Artist John Seibert (director, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Doubt), Broadway veteran Naz Edwards (Souvenir), Frank Pahl (The Day Everything Went Wrong), Lynch Travis (Fences) and others who have graced the stages of Ann Arbor. Surprise guests, and special performances from select shows from the past 10 years will also be featured.

PN 9/10 will also be the grand unveiling of the renovation work currently scheduled for Performance Network's lobby, which will include: new carpeting, new paint colors, an updated donor wall, tiled floor in the concessions area, new cupboard doors and cabinetry in the concessions area, a new coat-check area and new lobby decorations.

Malcolm Tulip is an actor, director, playwright and teacher. At Performance Network he has directed The Day Everything Went Wrong, Amadeus, Retreat From Moscow, Mrs. Shakespeare: The Complete Works, Humble Boy, The Threepenny Opera, Man of La Mancha, Timothy Findlay's Elizabeth Rex, Yasmina Reza's Art, Steve Martin's Picasso at the Lapin Agile, Private Eyes by Stephen Dietz and The Caretaker by Harold Pinter. He directed The Merry Wives of Windsor at the Michigan Shakespeare Festival and wrote, produced and performed in eight original plays under the name of Prospero Theatre Co., including the award-winning Down the Plughole. He is an Assistant Professor and Head of the Directing Concentration in the Department of Theatre and Drama at the University of Michigan, where he teaches Physical Theatre, Acting, Clown and Directing and where he has directed Two by Fassbinder, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, You Can't Take It With You, The Burial at Thebes, The Rover, The Diary of a Scoundrel, The Imaginary Invalid, The Good Person of Szechwan, Lysistrata and The Visit. As an actor he has toured extensively in Europe and the US. More recently, in the US he has performed at Performance Network (Amadeus, I Am My Own Wife, Copenhagen, The White Rose, Molly Sweeney) The Purple Rose (Blithe Spirit) and the New Jersey and Michigan Shakespeare Festivals. He has just returned from The Heritage Repertory Theatre in Charlottesville, VA, where he reprised his roles in I Am My Own Wife. Malcolm studied Dance and Art at Goldsmiths' College, University of London and is a graduate of L'École Jacques Lecoq, Paris. He is also a member of American Actors Equity.

Tickets for the event and champagne afterglow are $100 ($75 tax deductible). $150 VIP tickets ($125 tax deductible) are also available and include access to an onstage VIP reception preceding the event with gourmet appetizers and wine tasting. Programming will begin at 8pm with champagne afterglow following and VIP Reception at 6:30.

Tickets can be ordered at the Performance network Box Office at 734.663.0681, online at www.performancenetwork.org or by coming to the Performance Network Theatre (120 East Huron St., Ann Arbor) Monday-Saturday 11-6 or one hour before a performance.

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