The Ringwald Announces Special Staged Reading Series

The Ringwald Theatre is bringing to its stage a series of staged readings exploring the AIDS crisis, as seen by Broadway playwrights at the time. Talkbacks with each creative team will follow each performance.

Artistic Director Joe Bailey said, "I've long been thinking about these plays that served such a purpose at the height of the crisis in the 1980s and early 1990s that just don't see the light of day anymore. I wanted to honor those plays and give audiences a chance to see some works that rarely, if ever, get produced these days."

The series will run all four Mondays in April at 8:00 PM. All 4 performances will be Pay What You Can, and all proceeds will go to The Ringwald Theatre.

The plays being presented are:

• April 3, 2017:

As Is by William M. Hoffman. Directed by Topher Alan Payne. "There are some subjects audiences would just as soon not hear about in the theater, and surely one of them is AIDS, the lethal illness dramatized by William M. Hoffman in his play, ''As Is.'' But it would be a mistake for any theatergoer to reject this work out of squeamishness. Strange as it may sound, Mr. Hoffman has turned a tale of the dead and the dying into the liveliest new work to be seen at the Circle Repertory Company in several seasons. Far from leaving us drained, ''As Is'' is one of the few theatrical evenings in town that may, if anything, seem too brief."-Frank Rich, New York Times, March 11, 1985

• April 10, 2017:

Eastern Standard by Richard Greenberg. Directed by Joe Bailey. "If Mr. Greenberg's only achievement were to re-create the joy of screwball comedies, from their elegant structure to their endlessly quotable dialogue, ''Eastern Standard'' would be merely dazzling good fun. But what gives this play its unexpected weight and subversive punch is its author's ability to fold the traumas of his own time into vintage comedy without sacrificing the integrity of either his troubling content or his effervescent theatrical form. ''Eastern Standard'' opens with its characters meeting cute in a Manhattan restaurant; it ends with them toasting their future happiness on a Long Island beach. Yet in between, both Mr. Greenberg's people and his audience have been rocked by the plight of a city in the midst of ''a nervous breakdown.'' It's a city where developers rob the poor of their homes and the entire citizenry of its sunlight. It's a city where people constantly wake up with hot sweats -whether they are guilty perpetrators of financial corruption or innocent victims of AIDS."

-Frank Rich, New York Times, October 28, 1988.

• April 17, 2017

The Baltimore Waltz by Paula Vogel. Directed by Kelly Komlen. "Vogel's uproarious, searching and finally devastating creation adds up to the very best of theater. Even to say that this is the theater's most deeply felt and richly expressed response to the AIDS plague is to diminish its powers. With an almost omnipresent stuffed rabbit and jokes about a disease called Acquired Toilet Disease (ATD)..."The Baltimore Waltz" sounds like one of those cutesy, self-indulgent...new plays that can make theater-going a dreaded experience. Yet despite all those things -- no, in large part because of them --Vogel's reflection on the life and death of her brother Carl not only stands as her personal response to AIDS...(the play's dedication reads: "to the memory of Carl -- because I cannot sew") [h]er play speaks for all of us who have lost friends to this intolerable, unstoppable epidemic. Yet more than that, this is a profound and timeless play about death and grief and remembrance."

-Malcolm L. Johnson, Hartford Courant, February 16, 1992

• April 24, 2017

Safe Sex by Harvey Fierstein. Director TBD. "Fierstein, author of such groundbreaking theatrical works about gays as Torch Song Trilogy and the book for La Cage aux Folles , turns his attention to the AIDS crisis. These three one-act plays are unconnected except in their exploration of the psychological ravages of the disease. Although none of the characters is actually ill, all have suffered radical changes in their relationships and view of the world; all find that the very concept of "safe sex" inhibits their ability to connect, not just sexually but also emotionally, with others. In dealing with a topical subject, Fierstein movingly depicts the age-old difficulties and joys of loving. Highly recommended."- Susan Thach Dean, Chicago P.L.

Doors open 45 minutes before show time. The events are Pay What You Can. We invite you to enjoy the performances and show your generosity in the form of a donation with cash or credit/debit card. The Ringwald Theatre is located at 22742 Woodward Avenue in the Times Square of downtown Ferndale.

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