Dog Days Theatre Returns for Second Season

Following a successful inaugural summer season in 2017, Dog Days Theatre will return to the FSU Center for Performing Arts with Joe Orton's farce What the Butler Saw and a modern adaptation of Henry James' The Turn of the Screw. The season opens on Thursday, July 12 and closes Sunday, August 26. Tickets may be purchased for $30 for either production separately, or a two-show season package is available for $55. Specially-priced previews and opening night receptions are also scheduled. Dog Days Theatre's 2018 season is made possible with support from The Observer, Sarasota County Tourist Development Tax Services, The Exchange, and WUSF Public Media, and is presented by FSU/Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training.

"Our first season of Dog Days was wonderfully successful," says Greg Leaming, Producer of Dog Days Theatre and Conservatory Director for Asolo Conservatory. "We are all so happy to make this project an annual event in Sarasota; something that appeals to our year-round community and will satisfy an intelligent, sophisticated audience looking for lighter fare suitable to the dog days of summer in Florida."

Dog Days Theatre is a special initiative of FSU/Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training, where current students in the program are able to work alongside Conservatory graduates and professional actors from around the country. Plays are presented in the Cook Theatre in the FSU Center for Performing Arts: an intimate 161-seat theater which showcases strong production design and the craft of the actor.

The final play from British playwright Joe Orton, What the Butler Saw was written in the swinging '60s, but points a very acerbic finger at the sexual fixations of today. This wild comedy centers around psychiatrist Dr. Prentice's seduction of his secretary, and his increasingly madcap attempts to hide the affair from his wife, a randy bellhop, and the Minister of Mental Health. What the Butler Saw plays July 12-29.

Penned by Henry James, a pillar of American literature, The Turn of the Screw tells the haunting story of a young governess caringfor two children in Essex following the sudden death of their parents. After she witnesses one inexplicable supernatural event after another, the governess is forced to question if these events are paranormal or a symptom of her ownimagination. Playwright Jeffrey Hatcher (Compleat Female Stage Beauty, The Government Inspector, Tuesdays With Morrie) adapted the novella for the stage in 1997. The Turn of the Screw plays August 9-26.

Tickets for What the Butler Saw and The Turn of the Screw are $30 for matinee and evening performances. A two-show season package is available for $55. Both productions will also stage two previews performances each, one pay-what-you-can and one for $25. Tickets to either opening night performance are $40 and includes a post-show reception. To purchase tickets, call (941) 351-8000 or 1-800-361-8388, visit www.asolorep.org, or visit the Asolo Repertory Theatre Box Office at 5555 North Tamiami Trail in Sarasota. The box office closes at 5:00 p.m. when there are no evening performances, and phone reservations close one hour before all performances.

ABOUT THE CONSERVATORY

The FSU/Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training is a celebrated three-year graduate program culminating in a Master of Fine Arts degree. For more than 40 years, tens of thousands of actors from across the continent have auditioned for admission. A maximum of 12 students are admitted each year. In their second year, the students perform in the Cook Theatre, a 161-seat space designed to create an intimate experience for the audience and actors. Third-year students are seen on the Mertz Stage working with the Asolo Repertory Theatre's professional actors in exciting and significant roles.

For more information, visit http://www.asolorep.org/conservatory.

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