Hilarious Solo Show BUYER & CELLAR To Open April 7 At Live Arts

The Live Arts 2022/23 Transformations Season continues with Jonathan Tolins' delightfully comic solo show, BUYER & CELLAR, directed by Jude Hansen. BUYER & CELLAR will have 16 performances in the Founders Theater, April 7 through April 29, 2023, at Live Arts Theater, 123 E. Water Street in Charlottesville. Tickets are $27 for adults or $22 for students and senior citizens and are available through the Box Office at livearts.org/tix, 434-977-4177 x123, or by emailing boxoffice@livearts.org. BUYER & CELLAR is presented by Strauss Construction.

Live Arts hosts two special events for BUYER & CELLAR: An opening night reception follows the performance on Friday, April 7 and a post-show audience talkback follows the performance on Thursday, April 20 (7:30pm curtain). As an added bonus, audiences can enjoy a Streisand-inspired songfest in the third floor lobby before the show on select evenings. The bar and concessions will be open one hour prior to each performance and after the show.

Playwright Tolins got the idea for BUYER & CELLAR from Barbra Streisand's coffee-table book My Passion for Design, which showed off her subterranean emporium. "The performance should feel like spending time with a friend who has a great story to tell," says Tolins.

In the deliciously witty one-hander, narrator Alex is a struggling LA actor, recently canned from a Disneyland gig, who takes a somewhat strange job working in the Malibu basement mall of a mega-superstar. He wasn't a big Barbra queen before, but when Her Majesty Herself shows up, the bonding begins. This outrageously funny solo show will delight the audience as it explores the price of fame and the value of "things."

Live Arts' production of BUYER & CELLAR is directed by Jude Hansen and showcases local actor Jack Clifford as Alex More, who is currently in the MFA Professional Actor Training Program at UVA. BUYER & CELLAR also features a dynamic creative team many with UVA connections: Elizabeth Rose (production stage manager and choreographer); Russell Petro (scenic design); Kyndal Harrison (lighting design); Sarah Harden (sound design); Mimi Halpern (costume and properties design); and Javier Perez (projections design).

BUYER & CELLAR was first presented by Rattlestick Playwrights Theater in New York in April 2013. The show premiered Off-Broadway in June 2013 at the Barrow Street Theatre. Both productions starred Michael Urie as Alex More.

Jonathan Tolins is a playwright and screenwriter. After premiering at The Pasadena Playhouse, his play The Twilight of the Golds opened on Broadway in 1993. His Off-Broadway credits include If Memory Serves, The Last Sunday in June, and Secrets of the Trade. His film work, with screenwriting partner Seth Bass, includes The Twilight of the Golds starring Brendan Fraser and Faye Dunaway, and Martian Child starring John Cusack and Amanda Peet. Television work includes Night Rap on HBO, Queer As Folk on Showtime, the 2000 and 2002 Academy Awards, and the 2003 Tony Awards. Tolins co-wrote The Divine Millennium Tour and The Showgirl Must Go On, both for Bette Midler. He has written articles for Opera News, TheaterWeek, and Time Magazine, and is a contributor to Huffington Post.

Jude Hansen was most recently seen on stage at Live Arts as both Jason and Rexy in THE LEGEND OF GEORGIA MCBRIDE (2022). In Chicago, career highlights include producing (and starring in) Angry Fags at the Steppenwolf Garage Rep Series and directing the award-winning production of The Submission. As a company member, Jude performed in numerous productions and readings for Pride, Films and Plays. Jude was also a company member with Shapeshifters Theatre who produced monthly evenings of theater at the Irish American Heritage Center. Other Chicago companies Jude has worked with include The House Theatre, Kinematics, Piccolo, Halcyon, and Redmoon. Jude is a prior recipient of the Australian National Young Playwrights award.

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