THE ROYAL FAMILY, Starring Geer Family, Opens Today at Theatricum Botanicum

Art imitates life imitates art when Theatricum Botanicum artistic directorEllen Geer stars alongside her sister Melora Marshall, daughter Willow Geer and daughter-in-law Abby Craden in an uproarious comedy about a family of actors. Originally written as a thinly disguised parody of the Barrymores,George S. Kaufman andEdna Ferber's winsome spoof about a thespian dynasty is the perfect vehicle for Topanga's first theatrical family. Also in the cast are "defacto" Theatricum family members Alan Blumenfeld, Tim Halligan, Aaron Hendry and Earnestine Phillips, and longtime company member Susan Angelo directs.The Royal Family opens today, June 22 at Theatricum Botanicum in Topanga, the centerpiece of the company's 40th Anniversary Summer Repertory Season.

Meet the Cavendishes, the first family of the American stage, as they sword-fight, swoon and act their way through their daily lives - proving the old axiom that the show, and the family, must go on. Kaufman and Ferber's 1927 vintage comedy is fast-paced, howlingly funny and full of larger than life eccentrics. Three generations of the Cavendish family, all famous actors in their own right, wrestle with their hearts and the pull of two ways of life: secure, dull materialism and domesticity, versus the erratic, egocentric but fulfilling life in the theater. When the youngest Miss Cavendish wants to quit the stage for marital bliss, the family must figure out how to keep her within the theatrical fold.

"This play is a valentine to the theater and to the people who continue to make sacrifices in their lives to make theater happen," says Angelo. "It's all this family knows, and they are ferocious about it. Who better to play these parts than the Geers? They understand what it means to devote their lives to the theater."

The Royal Family first premiered on Broadway in 1927. In 1930, it was adapted by Herman Mankiewicz for the film The Royal Family of Broadway, directed by George Cukor and Cyril Gardner and starring Ina Claire and Fredric March. Noël Coward directed the play on London's West End in 1934 with a cast that included Laurence Olivier, and Edna Ferber herself acted in The Royal Family at the Maplewood Theater in 1940. A revival directed by Elias Rabb, later telecast on PBS, was one of the highlights of the 1975-76 Broadway season, winning the Drama Desk Award and garnering a Tony for Raab. Other revivals include a production by Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre in 2002 and a 2009 Broadway production that starred RoseMary Harris.

The Royal Family opens tonight, June 22 and continues through September 28. Will Geer's Theatricum Botanicum is located at 1419 North Topanga Canyon Blvd. in Topanga, midway between Malibu and the San Fernando Valley. For a complete schedule of performances and to purchase tickets, call 310-455-3723 or log onto www.theatricum.com. Visit Theatricum on facebook: www.facebook.com/theatricum. Follow us on twitter:@theatricum.

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