Photo Flash: First Look at HAPPY BIRTHDAY, WANDA JUNE at Burbage Theatre Company

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, WANDA JUNE the only play by the great American satirist Kurt Vonnegut Jr, directed by Wendy Overly, begins previews January 7 as the first play in the Burbage Theatre Company's winter series, This Winter's War. Happy Birthday, Wanda June runs through February 5 at Aurora Providence, 276 Westminster Street, Providence, RI. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast onstage below!

"This is a simple-minded play about men who enjoy killing, and those who don't." Set in post-war 1960s America, Kurt Vonnegut Jr.'s Happy Birthday, Wanda June tells the story of a notorious and presumably dead war-hero's return home. He is met with the realization that in his absence, those he left behind now seem to value life and peace over death and destruction. His wife must decide to stay her newly educated and evolved course and protect her son, or allow her husband to bulldoze her back into the dark ages of misogyny and helplessness. Vonnegut's play is a brilliant satire about post-war America's tragic attempt to seek out the next battle to fight.

"I have been itching to produce this play since our first read in 2011," says Artistic Director Jeff Church, "Kurt Vonnegut had the unqiue ability to see the whole of humanity through the eyes of his characters. His stories are complex in the simplest ways. They are riotous and irreverant, truthful and uncanny. Yet all the while they carry with them a looming sense of impending doom, not just for the characters themselves, but for the whole of mankind. Happy Birthday, Wanda June is as much about a War hero's fight to remain relevant in a world that has moved on and a woman facing the daunting presence of her past, as it is about prejudice and injustice, about American's relationship to War and polarized opinions in a time of great transition. We at Burbage feel, in our current social and political climate, where our politicians purport predjuice as policy, it's time to turn an inward eye. To laugh at ourselves and the blunders of society, while being exposed to the harrowing truth that we are to blame."

In the ensemble are: Allison Crews, Penelope Ryan; Nicolas Griffin, Paul Ryan; Andy Stigler, Harold Ryan; Jim Sullivan, Looseleaf Harper; Justin Paige, Herb Shuttle; Dillon Medina, Dr Norbert Woodly; Emeline Herreid, Wanda June; Geoff Leatham, Major Seigfried von Konigswald; and Rae Mancini, Mildred.

On the creative team are: Wendy Overly, director; Natalie Brough, stage manager; Andrew Iacovelli, technical director; Trevor Elliot, scenic design and carpentry; and Sharon Carpentier, head mistress.

Tickets are $10-$20. Visit www.burbagetheatre.org or contact info@burbagetheatre.org for reservations and more info.

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