2.5 MINUTE RIDE Opens At Manatee Performing Arts Center

Manatee Performing Arts Center is pleased to announce Manatee Players' production of 2.5 Minute Ride for 12 performances, April 5-22, in Bradenton Kiwanis Theater. The author, Lisa Kron, takes the audience on a ride, relaying the comedy and tragedy of her family and their lives as she clicks through family "slides" and tells the story attached to each.

Action Through Acting

Action through Acting is an ongoing series of theatrical productions designed to build awareness of socially relevant issues to our community. Each production is chosen to highlight crucial issues affecting our daily lives and serves as a platform to give voice to nonprofit organizations, their missions, and community programs, and the individuals they serve. The Holocaust Museum was selected to be the Affiliate Partner for the production of 2.5 Minute Ride.

About The Florida Holocaust Museum

2017 marked a monumental milestone for The Florida Holocaust Museum (The FHM) as the Museum celebrated its 25th Anniversary. One of the largest Holocaust museums in the country, and one of three nationally accredited Holocaust museums, The FHM honors the memory of millions of men, women and children who suffered of died in the Holocaust. The FHM is dedicated to teaching members of all races and cultures the inherent worth and dignity of human life in order to prevent future genocides. For additional information, please visit www.TheFHM.org.

"In 2.5 Minute Ride we're taken on a poignant and funny journey, rich in anecdotal detail, through the Kron family album. Among Lisa's eccentric relations, for example, are the grandmother how stuffed her house with cosmetics because she felt sorry for the Avon lady, and the brother, who, residing among wall-to-wall Gentiles in Lansing, Michigan, had to resort to the Internet to find a Jewish bride. And there's Lisa's father, 74-year-old Walter, who, in spite of near-blindness, diabetes and a heart condition, insists on family trips to Cedar Point amusement park in Sandusky, Ohio, the world capital of roller coasters, to take breathtaking ride such as the Demon Drop and Iron Dragon, with Lisa. But this isn't her only journey with her ailing father. Walter, a German-born Jew who attended school with boys in Hitler Youth uniforms and escaped Nazi Germany as a teenager by kindertransport only to return as an American solider assigned to interrogate captured German personnel following the war. His parents, however, were unable to escape. In an effort to better understand her father's personal history, Lisa accompanies Walter to Auschwitz, where his parents were killed, and where she understands more clearly the joys and sorrows of her father's heart. With wit and compassion, Lisa creates a complex, startling and searingly funny meditation on how human beings make sense of tragedy, grief and everyday life." -Dramatic Publishing

"2.5 Minute Ride, which had its New York premiere at The Public Theater, received OBIE, L.A. Drama-Logue, New York Press, and GLAAD Media Awards, and continues to be performed by Lisa and others all over the world..." -www.lisakron.org/Lisa-Kron-Biography.html

"Lisa Kron has been writing and performing theater since coming to New York from Michigan in 1984. Her work has been widely produced in New York, regionally, and internationally. Her plays include the musical Fun Home, a musical written with composer Jeanine Tesori and based on the graphic novel by Alison Bechdel; The Ver**zon Play, which premiered 2012 Humana Festival; In The Wake which received Lortel and GLAAD Media Award nominations, was a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, named a "Best Play of 2010" by TimeOut and Backstage, and was included in the Best Plays Theater Yearbook 2010-2011; Well, which premiered at The Public Theater, was named a "Best Play of 2004" by the New York Times, the Associated Press, the Newark Star Ledger, Backstage, and the Advocate, included in the Best Plays Theater Yearbook of 2003-2004, and moved to Broadway where both she and Jayne Houdyshell received Tony nominations for their performances.

Lisa is a founding member of the legendary OBIE and Bessie Award-winning collaborative theater company The Five Lesbian Brothers whose plays, Oedipus at Palm Springs, Brave Smiles, Brides of the Moon and The Secretaries have all been produced by their theatrical home, New York Theater Workshop, and have been performed widely throughout the country both by the Brothers and by other companies." -www.lisakron.org/Lisa-Kron-Biography.html

General admission tickets are $26 (fees may apply). Student and teacher discounts are available by phone and in-person. Group rates are available. Tickets can be purchased at Manatee Performing Arts Center, 502 Third Avenue W, Bradenton. Box Office hours: 10 a.m.-5p.m., Tuesday-Friday and 10 a.m.-2 p.m., Saturday, by phone (941)748-5875 or online at www.ManateePerformingArtsCenter.com.

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