Hedgerow Theatre Presents THE GOOD DOCTOR, Previews 8/25

Hedgerow Theatre moves into fall with comedy -- Neil Simon's "The Good Doctor." The show will preview on Thursday. Aug. 25, and open Aug. 26 for a run through Sept. 18.

"Simon's a great act to come after our summer Cooney farce," said Producing Artistic Director Penelope Reed. "Everybody loves to laugh, and especially with all of the challenges in our world today, we all need a breather. So it was natural to turn to him."

"The Good Doctor" is one of Simon's rare ventures away from stories set in or about people from New York City. In this 1973 Broadway hit, he adapts short stories by Anton Chekhov, turning them into a series of comic vignettes. Continuity is provided by a character known as The Narrator, based on Chekhov who was also a licensed physician.

Reed feels that "Chekhov's works are universal even though they're more than a century old. He wrote about the comedy of the human condition and Simon expands on them to examine the human comedy from many different perspectives."

"The Good Doctor" also showcases the multi-generational Hedgerow ensemble. "It has two farceurs from the same family," explaiNed Reed, "my husband, Zoran Kovcic, and my son, Jared Reed, who interned here in the early 1990s."

The show's director is Obie and Barrymore Award-winning playwright/actor/director Louis Lippa of Springfield, who was an original company member mentored by Hedgerow founder Jasper Deeter. The cast also includes veteran Susan Wefel, who's been at the theatre since 1978, and Rebecca Cureton, whose parents were Hedgerow Fellows in the 1980s. "This continues our tradition of bringing all the generations together," added Reed.

Performances are at 7:30 p.m. on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. on Sundays through Sept. 18.

For reservations, call 610-565-4211, or visit www.hedgerowtheatre.org. Hedgerow Theatre is at 64 Rose Valley Road, Media.