MEN ON BOATS Comes to Palo Alto Players in January

Palo Alto Players ushers in 2022 with Jaclyn Backhaus' MEN ON BOATS - a 19th century adventure story about ten men, four boats, and two rivers. Told without men, boats, or rivers.

The company has assembled an all-star cast of Bay Area female and nonbinary actors under the direction of Lee Ann Payne (Players' The Laramie Project, Shakespeare in Love) to tell the true(ish) history of an 1869 expedition, when a one-armed captain and a crew of insane yet loyal volunteers set out to chart the course of the Colorado River.

MEN ON BOATS runs for 11 in-person performances January 14-30, 2022 at the Lucie Stern Theater, located at 1305 Middlefield Road in Palo Alto, with a recording of the performance streaming on-demand January 27-30. In person tickets ($27-$57) and on-demand streaming access ($20 per household) are on sale now at paplayers.org or by phone at 650.329.0891. Current information regarding Palo Alto Players' COVID policies can be found at paplayers.org/covid-19.

Pack your gear for this twenty-first century telling of nineteenth-century American explorer and one-armed Civil War veteran John Wesley Powell, who assembles a brawny band of soldiers, trappers, and adventurers to explore the waterways of the American West. Inspired by Powell's actual travel log from 1869, Jaclyn Backhaus' MEN ON BOATS is provocative, laugh-out-loud theater, performed by a cast of female and nonbinary actors who infuse America's legends of male conquest with a sly blast of subtext.

MEN ON BOATS is directed by Lee Ann Payne. Payne is a Bay Area award-winning director, choreographer, and teacher working from San Francisco to Santa Cruz. She previously directed Palo Alto Players' productions of The Laramie Project (TBA Award recipient), Shakespeare in Love, and choreographed A Day in Hollywood/A Night in the Ukraine here. Other recent Bay Area credits include directing and choreographing Pump Boys and Dinettes (Jewel Theatre Company), Shout! (South Bay Musical Theatre) and Anything Goes (Hillbarn Theatre). When not directing and choreographing, Payne is a performer with local theatre companies including TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, San Francisco Playhouse, 42nd Street Moon, and Jewel Theatre Company.

The cast of MEN ON BOATS includes: Jenni Chapman (Bradley), April Culver (Frank Goodman/Mr. Asa), Naomi Evans (Seneca Howland/Johnson), Melissa Jones (William Dunn), Jennifer C. Maggio (O.G. Howland/Just Jim), Mary Melnick (John Wesley Powell), Maria Mikheyenko (Old Shady), Katie O'Bryon (Hawkins), Patty Reinhart (John Colton Sumner), and Jaime Wolf (Hall).

MEN ON BOATS production team includes set design by Heather Kenyon, lighting design by Kaylyn Erickson, costume design by Sharon Peng, props design by Scott Ludwig, music composition/arrangements by Maria Mikheyenko, and sound supervision by Jeff Grafton.

Tickets for MEN ON BOATS can be purchased online at paplayers.org, by phone at 650.329.0891, or by visiting the Box Office (Tuesday through Friday, 11am - 4pm) at the Lucie Stern Theater, located at 1305 Middlefield Road in Palo Alto. In-person performances at the Lucie Stern Theater begin on January 15 and continue through January 30, with a preview on January 14. In-person performance times are Thursdays at 7:30pm, Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm, and Sundays at 2pm. Masks and proof of vaccination (or negative COVID test within 72 hours for those medically exempt from or ineligible to receive the vaccine) are required to attend in-person performances. A recording of the performance is available to stream on-demand ($20) January 27-30. This production features adult language and is recommended for ages 13 and up.

 

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