Endangered Species Project Holds Reading of THE REMARKABLE MR. PENNYPACKER Today

Endangered Species Project is tickled to once again blow the dust off an undeservedly dusty script - the astoundingly charming family comedy, THE REMARKABLE MR. PENNYPACKER. Playwright Liam O'Brien honors, by reference and imitation, the great George Bernard Shaw, who died two years before PENNYPACKER's premiere. The play, O'Brien's only work for the stage, was founded on a true story that occurred in O'Brien's family.

It was a solid Broadway hit in 1952; it featured the marvelous Burgess Meredith. In the inevitable movie, released in 1959, Clifton Webb starred with Charles Coburn and Dorothy McGuire. Because it has plenty of roles for young people, it was once a staple at community theatres. But the main reason it came to ESP's attention is a somewhat sentimental one:

PENNYPACKER's production at the Cleveland Play House in 1964 had for its prop-mistress a young woman named Susan Ludlow, and a featured member of the cast was a certain Clayton Corzatte (core member). This was the play during which this inestimable couple met.

ESP tips its hat one more time to their beloved Clayton by making this month's reading a fund-raiser for the ALS Association - all proceeds after costs will be donated by ESP to the Evergreen Chapter of that worthy organization.

THE REMARKABLE MR. PENNYPACKER will be directed by ESP core member Richard Ziman, and will feature, in his ESP debut, the equally remarkable R. Hamilton Wright, surrounded by Mary Ewald, Eric Ray Anderson, Rod Pilloud, Lisa Carswell, David Goldstein, Joe McCarthy, Aidyn Stevens, Brett Brennan and Allan Armstrong,with Jessica Martin, Shannon Erickson, Tessa Weinland, Omar Sullivan, Cameron Lee, Nathaniel Shipley, Nate Grams and Teddy Shipley as the Pennypacker children.

The reading will take place at 7 p.m. tonight, July 8 at the Stage One Theatre at North Seattle Community College - see below for directions! Doors will open at 6:30.

ESP is a confederation of Seattle theatre artists dedicated to presenting plays that seldom get full productions. In the present economic straits in which regional theatre now finds itself, much of the so-called established international repertoire is neglected, for various reasons: there are too many different settings, or the casts are too large, or, simply, the publicity requirements of selling a play that is both "old" and unfamiliar to general audiences may seem too daunting.

They feel that while it is an essential duty of theatres to develop new work, their group sees a parallel need to celebrate older or otherwise neglected plays, and to explore the genius of playwrights such as Maxwell Anderson, George Abbott, Harold Brighouse, Zona Gale, Arthur Wing Pinero, and so many more.

Through their simply staged presentations, they hope to lend live voices to plays that are now silent on our bookshelves. For more about ESP and previous shows, visit http://www.endangeredspeciesproject.org

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