Photo Flash: Beowulf Alley Theatre Presents LAST OF THE BOYS, 4/10-4/25

Last of the Boys, by Steven Dietz, directed by Susan Arnold, will be presented by Beowulf Alley Theatre, 11 S. 6th Avenue, 85701, downtown between Broadway and Congress. Last of the Boys, a 2006 Pulitzer Prize nominee, is presented in recognition of and to honor our American military families for their shared sacrifice.

"Ben and Jeeter fought in Vietnam, and for thirty years they have remained united by a war that divided the nation. Joined by Jeeter's new girlfriend and her off-the-grid whiskey-drinking mother, these friends gather at Ben's remote trailer for one final hurrah. As the night deepens, the past makes a return appearance, and its many ghosts come flickering to life. This is a fierce, funny, haunted play about a friendship that ends-and a war that does not." Dramatists Play Service 

May be inappropriate for persons under 13 years old.

The Cast includes Royah Beheshti, Mary Davis, Lucas Gonzales, Gabe Nagy, and Clark Ray.

Susan Arnold works in theatre and film as an actor, director, writer and producer. Her directorial credits include Dinner with Friends, and Stones in His Pockets with Beowulf Alley, where she contributes to the Artistic Development Committee. Susan served as Artistic Director for the Attic Theatre in Detroit, MI and is the recipient of several theatre excellence awards for acting and directing. She has appeared on stage in a number of productions including most recently Big 8 in Beowulf Alley's Flaming Guns of the Purple Sage; Cleopatra in Immortal Longings and Claire in the production of The Maids at The Rogue Theatre. She is a member of Screen Actors' Guild and Actors' Equity Association and currently serves as Artistic Director for C.A.S.T. Clean and Sober Theatre in Tucson.

Steven Dietz is an American playwright whose work is largely performed regionally, i.e. outside of New York City. A graduate of the University of Northern Colorado, he moved to Minneapolis and began his career as a director of new plays at The Playwrights' Center and other local theaters. During these years he also formed a small theatre company (Quicksilver Stage) and began to write plays of his own. Commissioned by ACT Theatre in 1988 to write God's Country brought him to Seattle, Washington where he lived and worked in Seattle from 1991 to 2006. He now divides his time between Seattle and Austin, Texas where he teaches playwriting and screenwriting at the University of Texas at Austin. Awards include a PEN U.S.A. Award in Drama (for Lonely Planet); the Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays Award (Fiction and Still Life With Iris); the Lila Wallace/Reader's Digest Award (The Rememberer); the Yomiuri Shinbun Award for his adaptation of Shusaku Endo's Silence; and the 2007 Edgar Allan Poe

Award for Best Mystery for his adaptation of William Gillette's and Arthur Conan Doyle's 1899 play Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure. Dietz is also a two-time finalist for the prestigious Steinberg New Play Award (for Last of the Boys and

Performance Dates, Times and Ticket Prices:

Preview Performance: Friday, April 9, 7:30 p.m. - All tickets $10 this performance only

Opening Night with reception following performance: Saturday, April 10, 7:30 p.m.

Dialogues with... post show discussion following Sunday, April 11, 1:30 p.m.

Thursdays - Saturdays, 7:30 p.m. April 15, 16, 17 and April 22, 23, 24.

Sundays, 1:30 p.m., April 18 and April 25

Ticket Prices, April 10-25:
General, by phone or at the door - $20 (VISA, MasterCard, Discover)

Online only discount - $18 via PayPal or Google (any credit card they accept)

Advance Military Discount - $15 (must present military ID at will call night of performance)

Student/Military Rush - $12 (cash only, ID required, 15 minutes prior to curtain, based on seating availability)

Box Office Phone Number: (520) 882-0555

Run Time with intermission: 2 -1/4 hours

Parking: There is no charge for parking on the street or at meters on weekends and holidays! The first hour of parking at the Pennington Street (at Scott Avenue) garage is free and $2 per hour after that (up to $8 max.). The lot across from the theatre at 6th Avenue and Broadway is available after 5 p.m. weekdays and all day Saturdays and Sundays.

Special Downtown Event Note: Tucson Club Crawl will take place in the evening on Saturday, April 17, but traffic patterns will be adjusted earlier in the day. Please see our website for suggested routes and plan to leave home a little early. The two main streets that will be closed off for the event are 5th Ave between Toole and Broadway (at 8am) and Congress Street between 4th Ave and 6th Ave (closed starting at noon). The City will re-route west bound traffic from Congress Street down Broadway which becomes two way traffic from 4th Ave to 6th Ave. The normAl West bound traffic flow on Congress Street resumes at 6th Ave. Come see the play and then join in the festivities of the Tucson Club Crawl!

Beowulf Alley Theatre Company, a 501 (c)(3) organization, is committed to enriching the community and enhancing appreciation of the arts through the production of innovative, invigorating theatre and theatrical education with the highest standards for acting and production. Equal and fair treatment will be provided to all participants regardless of race, color, national origin, ancestry, religion, gender, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, familial status and/or marital status. Founded on the basis of dialogues with local theatre artists who wanted a permanent home to practice their craft, its intimate 95-seat theatre provides a facility that meets professional standards where performing artists, educators, and technicians can present their skills. Because Beowulf Alley engages a talent and volunteer pool that calls Tucson "home" for its productions, the Theatre is committed to helping grow a new generation of Tucson talent with its programs including education for adults and youth, late night theatre to experiment with and gain experience, readers theatre for playwrights' unpublished works, lunchtime theatre to bring art to the workday and screenings of independent film artists. And true to its roots, the Theatre maintains ongoing dialogues with the community, including Dialogues with theatergoers after the first Sunday matinee performance of each of its main stage plays, at Readers' Theatre nights, and other presentations, providing an opportunity for theatergoers to discuss the plays with the director and artists. Writers who cover the Tucson arts scene say the Theatre provides its audiences with "the best total package"-plays, performances and productions that are high in artistic and technical quality. Beowulf Alley has received critical acclaim, including two Mac Awards and nine MAC nominations. The company has presented over 350 performances to Tucson audiences since 2002 and has served hundreds of theatre artists. The theater also provides performance and rehearsal space for other Tucson theater companies.

For more information, log on to www.beowulfalley.org.  

Photo Credit: Scott Griessel/Creatista