B Street Theatre's THE REALISTIC JONESES Begins Tonight

By award winning playwright Will Eno, B Street enthusiastically presents THE REALISTIC JONESES as the first of four shows in our 2016 B3 Series season. THE REALISTIC JONESES will play tonight, January 9, through February 6, 2016.

Bob and Jennifer and their new neighbors, John and Pony, are two suburban couples who have more in common than their identical last names. This existential comedy, pitched in Will Eno's singular voice, finds the darkness, sweetness and hilarity in our fleeting and ordinary days, as we seek to reveal ourselves, and conceal ourselves, often in the same minute. Sometimes there are only short-term answers to life's eternal questions, but all four Joneses, like all of us, are going to try their best, in very different ways.

Taking place in "one of those little towns near the mountains" the play is at once absurd, existential and realistic while also managing to be funny. We hope the B3 Series audiences will be as enamoured as we are over this complex slice of simplicity.

While B Street's Mainstage focuses on producing plays that are more mainstream, the B3 Series allows us to produce works that appeal to the venturesome theatergoer. Since its genesis in 2007, the B3 Series has become one of the many ways in which B Street offers theatre for everyone.

Playwright Will Eno made his Broadway debut with his critically acclaimed new play, THE REALISTIC JONESES. Eno received the PEN/Laura Pels International Foundation for Theatre Award. His plays The Open House and Title and Deed premiered at the Pershing Square Signature Center in 2014 and 2012 respectively. THE REALISTIC JONESES also premiered in the spring of 2012, at the Yale Repertory Theater. Both 2012 plays were named in a short list of Best Plays in The New York Times. His critically acclaimed play Middletown (Horton Foote Prize for Promising New American Play, 2010) received its premiere in winter 2010 at the Vineyard Theatre, and was then produced at Steppenwolf Theatre. His collection of short plays entitled Oh, The Humanity and other exclamations premiered at The Flea Theater in 2007 starring Marisa Tomei and Brian Hutchison. Eno's internationally heralded play Thom Pain (based on nothing) had a successful year long run at the DR2 in New York, after a sold out run at the 2004 International Edinburgh Festival, where it won all the major awards, and then transferred to the Soho Theatre in London. The play is now being produced across the United States, as well as Brazil, Italy, Germany, France, Norway, Denmark, Israel, Mexico and other countries. Thom Pain (based on nothing) was a finalist for the 2005 Pulitzer Prize in Drama. Eno's play The Flu Season received the 2004 Oppenheimer Award for the best debut production in New York by an American playwright. His play Gnit, an adaptation of Ibsen's Peer Gynt, premiered at the Actor's Theatre of Louisville, in the Humana Festival, in the spring of 2013.

Eno's plays have also been produced by the Gate Theatre, the SOHO Theatre, BBC Radio, The Print Room and elsewhere. His plays are published by Oberon Books, TCG, and playscripts, and have appeared in Harper's, The Antioch Review, The Quarterly, and Best Ten-Minute Plays for Two Actors. He has been commissioned by the Royal National Theatre in London and the Yale Repertory Theatre. He is a Helen Merrill Playwriting Fellow, a Guggenheim Fellow, an Edward F. Albee Foundation Fellow, a Fellow of the Cullman Center at the NY Public Library, and was awarded the first-ever Marian Seldes/Garson Kanin Fellowship by the Theater Hall of Fame, as well as the Alfred Hodder Fellowship at Princeton. Will lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Director Buck Busfield has worked for B Street since its creation in 1986. He selects and casts all plays and has directed more than 200 of them, working with some of the nation's finest actors and playwrights. As a playwright himself, Buck has written more than 20 plays; many having received productions at B Street Theatre. He is the recipient of the Arts and Business Council of Sacramento's Executive of the Year award and is a senior fellow of the Mountain Valley chapter of the American Leadership Forum, Class IX. He makes his home in Sacramento with his wife Mehera, and their daughter, Priya.

ABOUT THE CAST:

Jennifer Jones: Elizabeth Nunziato - Ms. Nunziato is a founding B Street Theatre Company Member, appearing most recently in 5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche. For the B Street Theatre Family Series, she was last seen in Snow White and Rose Red. She recently made her feature film directorial debut with Stolen Moments, an NK Media/Iron Mountain Films production. Elisabeth has been performing on stage, in film, commercially and in voice-over for more than two decades. She has been fortunate enough to work with Academy Award winners Danny Glover, Robin Williams, Forest Whittaker and Robert Duvall. Her commercial work has been featured in award-winning projects both national and regional. She is partnered with her husband Jason Kuykendall in NK Media, winner of the 2011 National Addy, the world's largest advertising competition.

Bob Jones: Dave Pierini - David began working for the B Street Theatre in 1990. He started as an actor for the B Street Theatre School Tour (then called The Fantasy Theatre), then started to write and direct for the Tour. David has acted steadily in B Street productions from its inception in1991. In 2004,B Street Producing Artistic Director Buck Busfield suggested David try to write an adaptation of the beloved children's book, The Boxcar Children. Thus began a long fruitful relationship with the B Street Family Series.

Pony Jones: Dana Brooke - Dana is a founding member of B Street Theatre's Acting Company where she has performed in over 20 productions. She was most recently seen at B Street in Outside Mullingar. Her New York credits include Hate Mail, Love a Pig and Venencia (with Chita Rivera). Internationally, Dana traveled to India twice, appearing in I'll Become Yours, in 2010, and returning this year for B Street's production of Around the World in 80 Days. Dana has appeared in such television series as Damages, Ed, and Canterbury's Law. Ms. Brooke makes her home in New York City.

John Jones: John Lamb - John is a company member of the B Street Theatre. Former roles on the B Street stage include Brother Brightbee et al. in The Book of Liz, Brent in While We Were Bowling, Johnny in Juno and the Paycock, Pete/Danny in Almost, Maine, Clyde in Jack Goes Boating, Nicky Giblin in The Seafarer, Donnie in The Foursome and Huey in Italian American Reconciliation. He has acted in the B Street Family Series productions of Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse, The Canterville Ghost, The Boxcar Children, The Princess and the Pauper, Johnny Tremain, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Rumpelstiltskin, the Swiss Family Robinson, Junie B. Jones, Jingle Bells, Batman Smells, The Three Musketeers, Snow White and Rose Red, The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County and Other Stories and most recently A Christmas Carol. Directing credits include Women Who Steal, The Tale of the Allergist's Wife, Earshot, The Maintenance Man, Beauty and the Beast and The Big Bang.

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The newest series of the B Street Theatre has a more serious and dramatic focus and features new contemporary plays for the more adventurous theatregoer. The B3 Series opened with a Pulitzer Prize winning drama on September 25, 2007 and presents four to five new plays each season. The B3 Series currently operates in the 112- seat theater space at alternate times than the scheduled Family Series productions.

B Street Theatre is a non-profit, professional theatre company producing primarily new work for adults, families and children. The two-theatre playhouse on B Street in Midtown Sacramento is home to the Mainstage Series, B3 Series and Family Series, each created to feature intimate, quality theatre for audiences year-round. Recognized as one of the nation's top professional theatres, B Street Theatre has produced more than 160 world premieres written by B Street playwrights and numerous productions which were world, national, West Coast or regional premieres.

B Street Theatre was originally founded in 1986 with the purpose of bringing the excitement of live performance to children through the B Street Theatre School Tour. This educational outreach program still serves over 200,000 students in Northern California annually.

B Street Theatre programs include the Mainstage Series, B Street Theatre Family Series and Family Series Student Matinees (for school field trips), the B3 Series, B Street School Tours, Sketch Comedy, B Street Acting Conservatory and Studio for Young People, and the B Street Theatre Internship program for pre-professional/post- college training.

In 2014, B Street brought its most popular play ever, "Around the World in 80 Days", to India. The original cast performed in three Indian cities, furthering the organization's mission by bringing high quality theatre to an international audience, while also raising money for Indian educational enrichment and schools and partnering with an overseas performing arts center with the hope of future international collaboration. B Street Theatre has produced over 250 professional productions since 1986.

The mission of B Street Theatre is to promote education and literacy, social interaction, and cultural enrichment by engaging children and adults in the highest quality theatre arts and playwriting.

More information at www.bstreettheatre.org.

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