Contact: Shirley Howard-Johnson
Shirley@lhtsf.org / 415 345-3980
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Award-Winning Lorraine Hansberry Theatre presents
Two One-Act Plays
The North American Premiere of
Almost Nothing
By Marcos Barbosa • Translated by Mark O’Thomas
&
Day of Absence
By Douglas Turner Ward
Directed by Steven Anthony Jones
September 2, 2011; San Francisco, CA — Lorraine Hansberry Theatre (LHT) will open its 31st season with two one-act plays. First up is Almost Nothing, a mysterious and unnerving yarn by Brazilian playwright, Marcos Barbosa. After intermission, the audience will be treated to Douglas Turner Ward’s clever satire, Day of Absence.
Guilt, tension, fear, and suspense all combine to lead us to an unexpected ending in Marcos Barbosa’s Almost Nothing. Antonio and Sara have just returned home after a skirmish that left an unknown assailant dead; Barbosa gets under his characters skin with great insight. This chilling short will live in the memory for a considerable time.
Winner of the coveted Vernon Rice and OBIE Awards, Day of Absenceis a shrewd satire, written in1965, that recounts the uproarious circumstances that occur in a fictional southern town on a day when all of the black people suddenly and inexplicably disappear. Ward, one of the icons of African-American theater, paints a world where the sudden disappearance of his race causes the town, and the world that surrounds it, to come apart at the seams.
On opening night, October 14, Douglas Turner Ward will be in attendance. He will be fêted before the show at a pre-show cocktail hour and dinner, and he will also attend a post-show VIP reception.
The cast for the two plays includes Carlos Aquirre, Michael Asberry, Wilma Bonet, Rudy Guerrero, Carla Pantoja, Carla Punch, Katie Tkel, Rajiv Shah, and Rhonnie Washington. The stage manager will be Bert van Aalsburg. Both plays will be directed by LHT’s new artistic director, Steven Anthony Jones.
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Tickets for Almost Nothing/Day of Absence are $43–$53. Wednesday–Saturday evening performances are at 8pm; Saturday and Sunday Matinée performances are at 2pm. To purchase by phone or in person, call or visit the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre box office, 450 Post Street, San Francisco, at 415 474-8800, Tues–Fri, 10am–4pm. The box office is also open one hour prior to each performance. Online tickets are available through www.lhtsf.org. For more information, group ticket sales, or to subscribe, call 415 474-8800, or visit Lorraine Hansberry Theatre on the web at www.lhtsf.org.
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Biographies:
Douglas Turner Ward (playwright, Day of Absence) was born Roosevelt Ward Jr. in Burnside, Louisiana in 1930. In 1967, he founded New York’s Negro Ensemble Company with producer/actor Robert Hooks, and theater manager Gerald S. Krone, and served for many years as its artistic director.
As an actor, he made his Broadway debut as one of the moving men in A Raisin in the Sun. However, his first significant artistic achievement was as a playwright; Happy Ending/Day of Absence, a program of two one-act plays premiered at the St. Mark's Playhouse in Manhattan on November 15, 1965 and ran for 504 performances. Ward received a Drama Desk Award for his playwriting.
Raised in New Orleans, Louisiana, he briefly attended Wilberforce University in Ohio, and the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. In 1949, at the age of nineteen, Ward went to New York City, where he worked as a journalist. He then studied playwriting at the Paul Mann Workshop in New York City. In 1956, he began his off-Broadway career as an actor in Eugene O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh. He went on to perform on broadway in A Raisin In The Sun. In 1965, Ward, Hooks, and Krone formed the Negro Ensemble Company. Ward made his playwriting debut that same year with Happy Ending/Day of Absence. In 1967, the Negro Ensemble Company was officially opened with Ward serving as artistic director. Some of the company's notable productions include A Soldier's Play and The River Niger. The River Niger became the company's first play to go to Broadway. It also won a Tony Award for Best Play. Ward has gone on to write other plays including, The Reckoning and Brotherhood.
As a result of Ward's and others' hard work, the Negro Ensemble Company has produced more than two hundred plays and been a place for Black actors to gain experience and prominence in the theatre. Some notable actors who have worked with the Negro Ensemble Company include Louis Gossett, Jr., Phylicia Rashad and Sherman Hemsley. Ward's involvement with the Negro Ensemble Company continues today.
Marcos Barbosa (playwright, Almost Nothing) was born in Fortaleza, Ceará in 1977. He studied playwriting at the Instituto Dragão do Mar de Arte e Indústria Audiovisual do Ceará. Plays written while attending courses at the Colégio de Dramaturgia include The Bells (Oficina do Autor Prize, 1997) and Brazier (Lourdes Ramalho Prize, 2000).
Now living in Salvador, Bahia, Marcos Barbosa is currently a professor in the fields of Drama and Theatre Theory at Universidade Federal da Bahia, institution where he obtained his masters degree (2003) and doctorate (2008), developing applied studies on themes such as history play and translation of verse drama.
Marcos Barbosa was a resident in Royal Court Theatre’s International Residency Programme (2002) and had two of his plays (Almost Nothing and At the Table) produced by the RCT (London) in 2004, both directed by Roxana Silbert. Productions outside Brazil also include: At The Table by Lamicro Theatre (New York, 2006), At Play in Harold Pinter’s Fields by Artistas Unidos (Lisbon, 2005) and numerous stagings, readings and amateur productions in United States, England, France and Italy.
Awards won by Marcos Barbosa include: Schermo/Scena Prize (Italy, 2008), Carlos Carvalho Prize (Brazil, 2005), Braskem Prize (Brazil, 2004) and Paulo Pontes Prize (Brazil, 2001).
Steven Anthony Jones (director) has worked professionally on stage, television and film for 37 years. Most recently, he was a core company actor at American Conservatory Theatre (A.C.T.), where he acted, directed and taught, and where he has been seen in November, 'Tis a Pity She's a Whore, Blood Knot, The Imaginary Invalid, After the War, Happy End, Gem of the Ocean, Female Transport, Levee James, Waiting for Godot, Yohen, The Three Sisters, The Dazzle, Night and Day, Buried Child, A Christmas Carol (Scrooge and The Ghost of Christmas Present), Celebration and The Room, "Master Harold"...and the boys, The Misanthrope, The Invention of Love, The Threepenny Opera, Tartuffe, Indian Ink, Hecuba, Insurrection: Holding History, Seven Guitars, Othello (title role), Antigone, Miss Evers' Boys, Clara, Joe Turner's Come and Gone, Saint Joan, King Lear, Golden Boy, and Feathers. Other local theater credits include Fuente Ovejuna and McTeague (Berkeley Repertory Theatre); As You Like It (San Francisco Shakespeare Festival); The Cherry Orchard, Every Moment, and The Island (Eureka Theatre); Sideman (San Jose Repertory Theatre); and Division Street (Oakland Ensemble Theatre). He originated the role of Private James Wilkie in the original production of A Soldier's Play at the Negro Ensemble Company in New York. His many film and television credits include two seasons of Midnight Caller and a recurring role on the NBC series Trauma. Mr Jones received his early theatre training at Karamu House in his hometown of Cleveland, Ohio. He is a graduate of Yankton College in South Dakota. Other experience includes the Cleveland Playhouse, Berkeley Rep, San Jose Rep, and San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, among others.
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ATTENTION CALENDAR EDITORS
Lorraine Hansberry Theatre (LHT) opens its 31st season with a program of two one-act plays, Almost Nothing by Marcos Barbosa and Day of Absence by Douglas Turner Ward. LHT’s new artistic director, Steven Anthony Jones, will direct.
WHEN
PREVIEWS
TUESDAY–THURSDAY, October 11–13, 8pm
OPENING NIGHT
FRIDAY, October 14, 8pm
PRODUCTION RUN
October 11–November 20, 2011
TIME
8pm Thursday–Saturday
2pm Saturday & Sunday Matinêes
WHERE
Lorraine Hansberry Theatre
450 Post Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
Wednesday–Friday $43
Saturday–Sunday $53
Discounts are available for students, seniors (65+), and groups of 10 or more.
To purchase by phone or in person, call or visit the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre box office, 450 Post Street, second floor, San Francisco, at 415 474-8800, Tue–Sat, 10am–4pm. The box office is also open one hour prior to each performance. Tickets are available online at www.lhtsf.org. For more information, group ticket sales, or to subscribe, call 415 474-8800, or on the Web at www.LHTSF.org.
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