Press Room

Contact: Andrew M. Horn, Executive Director, (917) 692-5440

 

Mailing Address:  P.O. Box 91, Stony Point, New York 10980-0091

Theatre Address:  7 Crickettown Road, Stony Point, NY

Telephone: (845) 786-2873    Fax: (845) 786-3638 

Website: www.penguinrep.org

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

TONY AWARD WINNER MICHELE PAWK STARS IN

NY PREMIERE OF “THE FALL TO EARTH” JUNE 27 – JULY 20

AT PENGUIN REP IN STONY POINT, NY

 

            June 15, 2008 – Stony Point, NY – Tony Award winning actress Michele Pawk stars in the New York premiere of “The Fall to Earth” by three-time Jeff Award winner Joel Drake Johnson June 27 through July 20 at Penguin Repertory Company in Stony Point (Rockland County), New York.

 In Mr. Johnson’s mother-daughter drama, Fay and her daughter Rachel are brought together for the first time in years and their troubled relationship flares up anew, dark secrets are spilled, and a well-meaning cop is caught in the middle.

Penguin Rep artistic director Joe Brancato directs a cast that includes Ms. Pawk as Fay, Laura Heisler as Rachel, and Amelia Campbell as Terry, the policewoman.

“Humor and heartbreak punctuate the play”, says Mr. Brancato, “which takes us on an unfamiliar path down into the hidden terrain of the heart.”

Described by The New York Times as “the gutsiest little theatre” and by The Journal News as a theatre that “continues to astonish,” Penguin Rep celebrates its 31^st season this year.

            Michele Pawk (Fay) has starred on Broadway in such musicals as “Chicago”, “Hairspray”, “Mamma Mia”, “Merrily We Roll Along” and “Seussical the Musical”, and garnered Drama Desk nominations for her performances in “Cabaret” and “Crazy for You”, as well as for her role in the 2006 Off-Broadway drama “The Paris Letter”.

            In 2002, Ms. Pawk earned critical raves for her performance in “Hollywood Arms”, the Carrie Hamilton-Carol Burnett play adapted from Burnett’s memoir, “One More Time”. Her portrayal of an alcoholic who dreams of success as a movie magazine writer, a character based on Burnett's mother, won her the Tony Award as Best Featured Actress in a Play.

            Amelia Campbell (Terry) was nominated for a Tony Award for her performance in “Our Country’s Good” and for a Drama Desk Award for Karoline Leach’s “Tryst”, presented Off Broadway at the Promenade Theatre. Her Broadway credits also include “A Small Family Business”, “Translations”, “The Herbal Bed” and “Waiting in the Wings”.  

            Laura Heisler (Rachel) made her Broadway debut last year in “The Coram Boy” and has starred in regional theatres across the country including the McCarter Theatre, Williamstown Theatre Festival and the Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company.  Last month she was named by The Village Voice as one of Off Broadway’s best actors.

            Playwright Joel Drake Johnson has been awarded three Joseph Jefferson Awards for excellence in Chicago theatre. One of Victory Gardens Theatre's ensemble of playwrights, his comedy “Four Places” premiered earlier this year in Chicago. His earlier plays include “Before My Eyes” and “The End of the Tour”, both at Victory Gardens, as well as “A Blameless Life” and “Tranquility Woods” at Steppenwolf, where “The Fall to Earth” received its world premiere in 2004.

            Now in his 31st year as Penguin’s Artistic Director, Joe Brancato’s credits include the Off Broadway productions of “Tryst,” “Cobb” (Drama Desk winner), “From Door To Door,” “One Shot One Kill,” “Two and a Half Jews,” “Escape from Happiness” (with Marsha Mason), “The Big Swing” (starring Madeline Kahn, Sarah Jessica Parker, Matthew Broderick, and Marisa Tomei), “Dr. Valentine’s Waltz” (featuring John Turturro, Laura Linney, Gina Gershon, and Jane Alexander), and “Hold the Wedding”, produced by Joseph Papp.   

            Curtain times for “The Fall to Earth” at Penguin Rep’s 108-seat, air conditioned Bobbi Lewis Barn Theatre, 7 Crickettown Road in Stony Point, are Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturday nights at 8 p.m., with matinees on Saturday at 4 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m.  The theatre, a converted 1880’s hay barn, has been spruced up inside and out, most notably with completely new seating, carpeting and plenty of free parking.

Individual tickets are $32, and $16 for those 30 and under (age ID required).  Discounts are available for groups of 10 or more. 

            Tickets are on sale now on-line at www.penguinrep.org, by e-mail at boxoffice@penguinrep.org or by calling 845-786-2673.

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Contact: Andrew M. Horn, Executive Director, (917) 692-5440

 

Mailing Address:  P.O. Box 91, Stony Point, New York 10980-0091

Theatre Address:  7 Crickettown Road, Stony Point, NY

Telephone: (845) 786-2873    Fax: (845) 786-3638 

Website: www.penguinrep.org

 

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

 

PENGUIN REPERTORY COMPANY ENTERS ITS FOURTH DECADE WITH

UNPRECEDENTED LINE-UP OF NEW PLAYS, CHILDREN’S MUSICALS,

PLAY READINGS & SPECIAL EVENTS THROUGHOUT ROCKLAND COUNTY

 

            March 28, 2008 – Stony Point, NY - Penguin Repertory Company is entering its fourth decade of staging cutting edge and classic professional productions with an unprecedented line-up of new plays, children’s musicals, expanded staged readings, and innovative special entertainment events encompassing all three corners of Rockland County. 

            Building on the coming season of four outstanding new dramas and comedies, Penguin is inaugurating a Children’s Theatre Festival, and is extending the popular “Play with Your Food” series from four to five readings – all at Penguin’s Bobbi Lewis Barn Theater in historic Stony Point, New York. 

            In addition, the Cultural Arts Center at SUNY Rockland Community College in Suffern will be the venue of the world premiere of “Neil Berg’s Enchanted Evening,” presented jointly in September by Penguin Rep and Neil Berg’s Leftfield Productions. 

            Moreover, Penguin is partnering with Riverspace Arts in Nyack to present two performances of the hit show, “The Devil’s Music: The Life and Blues of Bessie Smith,” also in September, fresh from an engagement at the Cape Playhouse in Cape Cod. 

            Another popular event, Penguin Rep’s Annual Auction, will encore in September. 

            Season subscriptions, special event tickets, and more information can be obtained by going to www.penguinrep.org or calling 845 786-2873. 

            Penguin Repertory Company, Rockland County’s first year-round, non-profit professional theatre, was founded in 1977 in a century-old hay barn converted to a theatre, by Rockland residents Joe Brancato, Artistic Director, and Fran Newman-McCarthy, Treasurer of the Board of Trustees.

            Described by The New York Times as “the gutsiest little theatre” and by The Journal News as a theatre that “continues to astonish,” Penguin Rep celebrated its 30^th anniversary last year and spruced up its theatre with improvements inside and out, most notably completely new upholstered theatre seats.      

            Penguin’s 2008 mainstage season of plays, performed at Penguin’s intimate, 108-seat theatre on Crickettown Road in Stony Point, includes: 

            “The Vows of Penelope Corelli,” a new comedy celebrating marriage Italian-American style by Richard Vetere, May 16 to June 8.  For Penelope Corelli of Queens, it’s “til death do us part” – even if her husband left to buy a pack of gum five years before and her daughter’s fiancé is wanted by the Feds. With a little luck and lots of love – to say nothing of winning the 53 million dollar lottery – she vows there’ll be a happy ending after all.

            Tony Award winning actress Michelle Pawk (“Broadway Arms”) stars in the New York premiere of Chicago playwright Joel Drake Johnson’s “The Fall to Earth,” June 27 to July 20. When Fay and her daughter Rachel are brought together for the first time in years, their funny, frustrating relationship flames up anew, while a well-meaning cop is caught in the middle. According to Artistic Director Joe Brancato who will stage “The Fall to Earth,” “this off-beat, heartbreaking new work examines how the relationship between a parent and a child constantly changes, yet always seems to stay the same”.

            “Ten Percent of Molly Snyder,” a high-energy comedy by Richard Strand about being driven to the brink by government bureaucracy, Aug. 15 to Sept. 7. When Molly Snyder asks the Department of Motor Vehicles to correct a typo on her driver’s license, she inadvertently unleashes a mass of red tape that threatens to engulf her home, her career, her sanity and, even possibly, her life.

            And “The Woman in Black,” a haunted house, supernatural doings thriller adapted from Susan Hill’s gripping story by Stephen Mallatratt, runs Oct. 10 to Nov. 2.  A grieving lawyer believes a curse has been cast over him and his family by the spectre of the woman in black. In an attempt to exorcise the spirit he engages a young actor to help him tell the story, but as the border between reality and fantasy blurs, the horror starts anew.

            Mainstage season subscriptions start as low as $86 for the four plays ($64 for patrons 30 and younger). Subscribers receive priority seating, discount tickets for guests, priority ticketing for special events, and discounts at local restaurants and stores, among other benefits. 

Individual tickets to mainstage productions are $32, and $16 for young people (30 and under).  Discounts are available for groups of 10 or more.  Special reduced-priced weekday matinee performances for groups are available. 

            Performance times for the 2008 season are Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturday nights at 8 p.m., with matinees on Saturday at 4 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m.

            Neil Berg, who’s toured the country and beyond with his hit “100 Years of Broadway” show, debuts his newest show, created for Penguin, “Neil Berg’s Enchanted Evening,” at RCC’s Cultural Arts Center on Saturday, Sept. 27, at 8 p.m.  It celebrates Broadway’s great love songs, performed by the Great White Way’s hottest talent.  Tickets are $35 ($30 for subscribers). 

            This year Penguin is kicking off a new Penguin Children’s Theatre Festival, featuring three musical shows, perfect for kids 4 to 10.  Presented by the Vital Theatre Company at Penguin, the shows include:  “The Bully,” on July 8; a reprise of the enormously successful “Pinkalicious,” July 15 and 16; and, “A (Tooth) Fairy Tale,” Aug. 19 and 20.  Children’s Theatre Festival shows are performed at 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.  All tickets are $16. 

            “The Devil’s Music: The Life and Blues of Bessie Smith,” which was conceived by Penguin Artistic Director Joe Brancato, written by award-winning playwright Angelo Parra, and stars the incomparable Miche Braden as Bessie, returns home to Rockland hosted by Riverspace Arts on Main Street in Nyack for two performances only, Saturday, Sept. 20, 8 p.m., and Sunday, Sept. 21., 3 p.m.  Tickets are $25 ($20 for Penguin subscribers). 

            The annually sold-out Play with Your Food series of readings of new play, which includes a “brown bag” dinner catered by Pasta Cucina, adds a fifth evening this year.  The reading nights are June 2, July 7, July 21, Aug. 18, and Sept. 8.  The July 7 reading features Penguin’s Birthday Barbecue.  Each reading, beginning at 7 p.m., is $20; a subscription for all five readings is $75. 

            Penguin will be holding its third Annual Penguin Auction on Sunday, Sept. 14 at the Stony Point Center.  Mark your calendars for this fun and fast-paced fund-raising event. 

            To take advantage of the various Penguin Rep mainstage subscription plans (starting at $86) and discounts, along with subscriptions and tickets to Penguin’s programs and events, go to

Penguin Rep’s newly redesigned website at www.penguinrep.org or call 845 786-2873. 

 

 

Penguin Rep FACT SHEET

Now entering its fourth decade as a vibrant theatrical company, Penguin Rep has not only introduced dozens of new plays but has seen them move to New York City, across the country, and around the world.  “Tryst” by Karolyn Leach, which played Off Broadway at the Promenade Theatre, made its American premiere (with the title “The Mysterious Mr. Love”) under Penguin Rep’s auspices. “The Man Who Was Peter Pan” by Allan Knee, a play commissioned and originally produced by Penguin Rep, was the basis for “Finding Neverland,” the movie starring Johnny Depp.  “2 1/2 Jews” by Alan Brandt, which premiered at Penguin Rep, enjoyed an 11-month Off Broadway run. 

Also produced by Penguin, James Sherman’s “From Door to Door” ran Off Broadway at the Westside Theatre and last year the company co-produced Staci Swedeen’s “The Goldman Project” with Abingdon Theatre in New York. “The Devil’s Music: The Life and Blues of Bessie Smith” by Angelo Parra was presented at The Hartford Stage, following sold-out runs at Florida Stage and in New York. “Cobb” was produced by actor Kevin Spacey Off Broadway and by Spacey and producer-director Garry Marshall in Los Angeles.  “One Shot, One Kill” played at Primary Stages.  And Warren Leight’s “Glimmer, Glimmer and Shine” was seen at the Manhattan Theatre Club and at the Mark Taper Forum.

In 1977, an empty century-old barn in Stony Point, New York, became a repository of dreams as the home of Rockland County’s first year-round non-profit professional theatre – the Penguin Repertory Company.  In the 30 years that have followed, Penguin Rep founder and Artistic Director Joe Brancato has brought outstanding professional actors and playwrights together, including such acclaimed artists as Celeste Holm, Andrew McCarthy, Joy Behar, Robert Klein, Tovah Feldshuh, David Canary, and Regina Carter, and such accomplished writers as Warren Leight, Arthur Laurents, Elizabeth Swados, Lanie Robertson, William Mastrosimone, Angelo Parra, and Jon Marans.