WAITING FOR GODOT to Play White Box Live Arts, 3/25-4/10

The waiting is over! After 16 years of waiting in the wings, Nobel Prize winner Samuel Beckett's absurdist masterpiece WAITING FOR GODOT returns to San Diego stages with the fruitlessmoon theatreworks 2016 production at White Box Live Arts. Godot was presented at the Lyceum Theatre in 2000 and produced by The Renaissance Theatre Company.

Waiting for Godot will run March 25th (Opening/Press Night) through April 10th at 7:30 p.m. at White Box Live Arts, located at NTC Liberty Station, San Diego. There will be two "pay-what-you-can" Previews on March 23rd and 24th at 7:30 p.m.

Written by Samuel Beckett and Produced and Directed by Aimee Greenberg.

A tragi-comedy written by Nobel Prize winner Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot remains, after innumerable productions worldwide over the past 60 years, "a witty and poetic conundrum" (The Guardian), "humorous and deeply human" (The Press), "entertainment of a high order?" (NY Times) and "something that will securely lodge in a corner of your mind for as long as you live" (The Sunday Times)."The greatest of 20th-century plays" (The New York Times).

The two tramps of Beckett, (nicknamed Didi and Gogo) dally by the side of the road, expecting the imminent arrival of another man. Although they admit that they barely know him and won't even recognize him when they see him, they wait. They wait for Godot.

The play is about what happens while they wait. Who is Godot? The playwright firmly denied that Godot represented God, although many people understand Godot as a spiritual entity, savior or specter.

"Godot is our own personal symbol for salvation, something or someone outside of ourselves who can transform or fix us," says Greenberg."

Didi and Gogo are reminiscent of Chaplin and Keaton. Pozzo and Lucky, the master and slave, are half vaudeville characters and half marionettes. The language of the play has gravity, intensity, and precision. It makes its own comment on man's absurd hope and on the absurd insignificance of man.

A timeless classic, not-to-be-missed production!

Aimee Greenberg (Producer/Director and Artistic Director of fruitlessmoon theatreworks) is a veteran theatre artist whose work has been produced in Europe, Asia and the United States. She has collaborated with Grotowski, Gentile and Boal. A native New Yorker who trained with Sanford Meisner, Wynn Handman, Bill Hickey and Stella Adler, Aimee cut her teeth working in off-Broadway theatres such as Theatre for the New City, Playwright's Horizon, La Mama, Etc. and The Medicine Show. As Founding Artistic Director of the former HEIJERA productions, Greenberg presented over 15 original solo and ensemble works at various venues including Sushi, COCO, Bumbershoot, Barnsdall Art Theatre, LACE, The Carpenter Art Center, LA Women's Theatre Festival, Grand Central Theatre, Huntington Beach Art Center, KOCE-TV and On the Boards. Ms. Greenberg received her Masters in Theatre from Cal State LA and her BA in Theatre from Queens College. She is a recipient of multiple awards including: the Rockefeller/Asian Cultural Council Fellowship, Seattle Original Works, Very Special Arts, Los Angeles Women's Foundation, Susan B. Komen Award and The Los Angeles Endowment. Aimee has taught performance technique, theatre and film studies at international conservatories and universities such as: JAMU, UCSD, CSLA, CSUSM and SDSU.

Quote from Producer/Director Aimee Greenberg: "Waiting for Godot is my favorite play. Directing Godot is like walking the tightrope between pathos and humor, despair and redemption, poetry and concise language. The play is as relevant today as when it was first produced in 1953. You can switch backgrounds; insert different variables of time and place and it will still ring true."

Starring Joe Powers as Estragon (Gogo), Tom Steward as Vladimir (Didi), Fred Harlow as Pozzo, Don Loper as Lucky and Jordi Bertran as A Boy.

Joe Powers (Estragon/Gogo) has worked in theatre for well over thirty years, as an actor, director, playwright, educator, and producer. He currently mentors students in acting and all forms of writing. He holds an M.A. in theatre from San Diego State University and an M.F.A. in creative writing from University of California Riverside. For more information: http://joepowers.webs.com.

Tom Steward (Vladimir/Didi) is an actor, writer and educator originally from the UK. In 2015, Tom played Bottom in fruitlessmoon theatreworks' production of William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, starred in Anthony Shaffer's Sleuth at Scripps Ranch Theatre, and was featured in the comedy Lone Star at The Horton Grand Theatre. Tom starred in the short horror films Gravedigger and The Muse for Neigh-Sayer Productions, Casualty Films' sci-fi short Time-Free Dentistry, and the short suicide-prevention film Demons for TME Productions. Tom will soon start filming on the sitcom The Cast Members. Tom's short play The Only Real Diner in Town was produced in San Diego by New Play Café in 2014. He writes for the entertainment website Spoilit.com and is the author of the Wordpress blog Watching TV with Americans. Tom has taught Film and Television Studies for the past eight years, most recently at Platt College in San Diego.

Fred Harlow (Pozzo) has performed at La Jolla Playhouse, The Old Globe (last show Craig Noel directed) Moxie, Diversionary, Sledgehammer, North Coast Rep, Scripps Ranch, and others. Local favorite roles are Valare in La Bete, (produced at The Fritz), Roy in The Best Mistake (tour for the Playwrights Project) and half the citizens (along with Don Loper) in A Tuna Christmas (Compass Theatre). "Too many years ago" Fred read Notes on a Cowardly Lion by Bert Lahr's son. "Bert was approached to be in the Broadway production and had no clue what he was doing. Long story short he was brilliant," says Harlow, who, ever since has coveted a role in Godot.

Don Loper (Lucky) has performed in Wet (Moxie Theatre), The Cherry Orchard (La Jolla Playhouse), A Christmas Carol and Wings (San Diego Rep), 1776 and Detective Story (Lambs Players) and several productions at the North Coast Rep, including Travesties, The Importance of Being Earnest, Arcadia, The Adjustment, Dancing at Lughnasa, Laughter on the 23rd Floor, Rough Crossing, M. Butterfly, Mastergate and Checkhov in Yalta. Don has also worked at Epik Risk, Moonlight Stage Productions, Ensemble Arts Theatre, Gaslamp Quarter and the Bowery Theatre. Don has a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre from SDSU.

Jordi Bertran (A Boy) played Mamillius in William Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale (The Old Globe) where he has also played Boo Who and Danny Who in Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas! Other theatre credits include Gavroche in LES MISERABLES (Lamb's Players Theatre and the California Youth Conservatory), William in Frankenstein the Musical (Art-In-Relation in Long Beach), Archie in 13 (California Youth Conservatory) and Young Shrek and Peter Pan in Shrek the Musical (California Youth Conservatory). In film he plays the part of Young Daniel in the soon to be released feature film Going South.

Tickets are available at godot.eventbrite.com or at the door.

Photo Credit: SJF Communications.

To post a comment, you must register and login.