PRIME Productions Announces its Debut with LITTLE WARS

PRIME Productions, a new professional theater company in the Twin Cities, announces their debut with the regional premiere of Little Wars by Steven Carl McCasland at Mixed Blood Theatre, May 5 - 21, 2017.

It's France, 1940. Tensions are high. The booze is flowing. War is coming. Little Wars features Lillian Hellman, Dorothy Parker, Gertrude Stein, Agatha Christie, Alice B. Toklas and Muriel Gardiner having the best what-if dinner party you can imagine. Together they'll drink, scoff and face their demons. Everyone has a confession. Someone has a secret.

Directed by Shelli Place, the cast features Candace Barrett-Birk* (Guthrie, Old Log), Sue Scott* (Prairie Home Companion, Mixed Blood), Elizabeth Desotelle* (Chanhassen, Old Log), Laura Adams (Park Square, Minnesota Jewish Theatre Company), Vanessa Gamble (History Theater, Illusion), Alison Edwards* (Roundabout-NY, Alabama Shakespeare), and Miriam Schwartz (Guthrie, Workhouse Collective). * Member, Actors' Equity Association

About PRIME Productions:

PRIME Productions, founded in 2016, is the newest professional theater to launch in the Minneapolis/St Paul region, focused on "Celebrating women in their second act." The mission is to highlight and give voice to underrepresented women of a certain age that society too often marginalizes or altogether eliminates from the collective narrative.

PRIME Productions came out of the realization that there was a scarcity of opportunities within the theater for women in their prime. "The Twin Cities is rich in experienced female talent, " says co-founder Shelli Place, "but there's a gap in the plays and roles to fully utilize that resource." PRIME Productions' mission is to fill this gap with plays and staged readings, along with workshops, that will employ more female theater artists and address the issues relevant to an aging population. The co-founders are Alison Edwards, Elena Giannetti and Shelli Place.

Alison Edwards, although new to the Twin Cities, has spent the last 40 years in New York acting in theatre, film, TV and, more recently, audio books. In New York City she performed at the Roundabout Theatre, the New York Shakespeare Festival and the Riverside Shakespeare Festival. She spent four years at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival and understudied Judith Light on the national tour of WIT. She holds a BFA from Boston University and attend The American Conservatory Theatre Training Program. She is a member of Actors' Equity Association and SAG-AFTRA.

Elena Giannetti has been a part of the Twin Cities acting community for over 30 years, performing in front of the camera and on many local stages. Her stage credits include work at the Guthrie Theater, Park Square Theatre, Children's Theatre Company, Mixed Blood and more. Elena is also a director and producer, most recently directing A Midsummer Night's Dream at Park Square Theatre. She is a graduate of Macalester College with a BA in Dramatic Arts and is a member of SAG-AFTRA

Shelli Place is a director of plays, musical revues & fashion shows and a producer of presentations, product launches & awards ceremonies for Fortune 500 companies.

Shelli created a variety of shows for The Walt Disney Company and is an Executive Speech Coach. Minnesota credits include: direction/choreography for Minnesota Jewish Theatre Company, Old Log Theater, Theater NOW, Theatre Unbound and Hennepin Theatre Trust. An experienced actress, she is a member of Actors' Equity Association, SAG-AFTRA & ATAS. Shelli has a BFA in Acting from Southern Methodist University.

To post a comment, you must register and login.