Portrait of Churchill Productions is thrilled to present the West Coast Premiere of a powerful play about one of history's most powerful men, CHURCHILL, written by Andrew Edlin, directed by James Horan and starring Edmund L. Shall as Winston Churchill. CHURCHILL will preview on Thursday, September 30 at 8pm and will open on Friday, October 1 at 8pm and run through Sunday, November 7 at the Whitmore/Lindley Theatre, 11006 Magnolia Blvd., in North Hollywood.
It is April 4, 1955. Winston Spencer Churchill, Prime Minister of Great Britain, is in his secret bunker beneath Whitehall in London. At age 80 he is faced with the dilemma of retiring from office and stepping down from a career that has spanned 55 years in Parliament. He led England through World War II, inspiring and rallying the British Empire to withstand the tyranny of Hitler and Mussolini. He garnered the Nobel Prize in Literature for his history of The Iron Duke, Marlboro, his forebear. He was a pivotal figure in the British Empires history. He was a statesman, an orator of tremendous skill, a prolific writer with over 56 volumes of history as well as innumerable newspaper articles, and an impetuous strategist. But throughout his life he maintained a marvelous wit.ANDREW EDLIN (Playwright) was born in Brighton, England, the youngest of three brothers, and the grandson of comedian and actor Tubby Edlin. He was educated at Cranleigh School, Surrey. He went to Magdalen College Oxford on a scholarship, and his time there honed his love of history and writing. Andrew has lived in Fairfield, Iowa since 1991. ‘I have been collecting Churchill anecdotes since childhood, and read over a hundred books on Churchill, by Churchill, or about his times and contemporaries. I have lost track of how many drafts and edits Churchill has been through over sixteen years - a lot!' Andrew enjoys editing plays, and has written several others, but Churchill is the most successful. When he is not acting or writing - he has taken up some musical theater roles including Mr. Bumble and Henry Higgins. Andrew has performed Churchill many times since its 1997 premiere; most recently at Hoyt Sherman Place in Des Moines. His website is churchillplay.com.
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