DUELING DIVAS (...AND A DANDY!) Cabaret Plays Gloucester Stage, Now thru 9/1

Gloucester Stage presents a limited engagement of the Dueling Divas (...and a Dandy!) Cabaret from tonight, August 28 through Sunday, September 1 in the air-conditioned comfort of Gloucester Stage Company at 267 East Main St., Gloucester, MA.

Two of New England's most accomplished performers, Kathy St. George and Kerry A. Dowling, will banter, bellow and bewilder in this humorous and touching cabaret featuring songs from the Great American Songbook. Daniel Robert Sullivan, from the National Tour of Jersey Boys "officiates" this affectionate battle for center-stage between two formidable divas. Song selection includes There's Nothing Like A Dame, What You Don't Know About Women and a medley of Broadway love songs from across the ages among many other songs.

Directed by Eric C. Engel with musical direction by Brian J. Patton, the performance schedule for Dueling Divas (...and a Dandy!) Cabaret is Wednesday, August 28 through Saturday, August 31 at 8 pm; a Saturday matinee on August 31 at 3 pm and a Sunday, September 1performance at 4 pm. The 3 pm Saturday matinee on August 31 is a special Pay What You Can matinee. For this Saturday matinee only the ticket price isPay What You Can. A limited amount of discount tickets are available to Cape Ann residents for all Wednesday and Thursday 8 pm performances. For these performances only, Cape Ann residents can purchase discounted tickets for $20. Advance reservations are strongly suggested to ensure tickets at the discounted price. Year round Cape Ann residents must identify themselves as Cape Ann residents when making a reservation and proof of residency must be presented at the box office the night of the performance. Gloucester Stage is handicapped accessible. Ticket prices are $40 for all performances. Senior citizen & student tickets are $35 for all performances. For reservations or further information, call the Gloucester Stage Box Office at 978-281-4433 or visit www.gloucesterstage.com.

The limited run of the Dueling Divas (...and a Dandy!) Cabaret wraps up with Gloucester Stage's 4th Annual Summer Soiree on Sunday, September 1. The Summer Soiree includes attending the 4pm performance of Dueling Divas (...and a Dandy!) Cabaret and then immediately following the performance enjoying a fun song-filled cocktail reception with the cast and Maestro Brian Patton on the piano in a beautiful Gloucester private home. Food will be catered by Willowrest in Gloucester, MA. Cost to attend is $125 per person (performance + reception), or $85 per person (reception only). Contact the Gloucester Stage Box Office at 978-281-4433 or visit www.gloucesterstage.com to make reservations for this exciting evening.

Kerry A. Dowling was last seen at Gloucester Stage in The Most Happy Fella. Her Boston credits include Clybourne Park, Next to Normal, The Drowsy Chaperone, Nine, The Great American Trailer Park Musical, Reckless, Jerry Springer-The Opera, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Parade, The Women, Bat Boy: The Musical, Company, A New Brain, Triumph of Love, Floyd Collins, Lips Together Teeth Apart, and Songs for a New World all at SpeakEasy Stage Company; Follies with the Lyric Stage Company; Into the Woods at New Rep Theater; and Steel Magnolias and Pal Joey at Stoneham Theater. Ms. Dowling received the 2010 SpeakEasy Stage Outstanding Artist Award.

Stoneham native and Salem State College graduate Kathy St. George makes her Gloucester Stage debut in the Dueling Divas (...and a Dandy!) Cabaret. On Broadway she has been seen in Fiddler On The Roof, directed by Jerome Robbins and Off-Broadway in I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change. Regionally she has performed at Actor's Theatre of Louisville, Long Wharf, Barter Theatre, Riverside Theatre, and Kansas City Starlight. In the Boston area she has appeared in The Divine Sister, Xanadu, and Ruthless! with SpeakEasy Stage Company; 9 to 5 at North Shore Music Theatre; Dear Miss Garland, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Steel Magnolias, and 42nd Street at Stoneham Theatre; Follies, Blithe Spirit, and The Gig at the Lyric Stage Company. Also in Boston she has been seen in Menopause The Musical, Respect, Tell Me On A Sunday, and Shear Madness.

Daniel Robert Sullivan made his Gloucester Stage debut in 2012's Carnival. On tour he has been seen as Tommy DeVito in Jersey Boys in Toronto and in the National, and International Companies. Off Broadway he has appeared in I'm Getting My Act Together And Taking It On The Road at the York Theatre; Rangoon with Pan Asian Rep; and What You Get and What You Expect with New York Theatre Workshop. Regionally he has been seen at Kansas City Rep, Utah Shakespeare Festival, Arizona Theatre Company, Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey, Hudson Stage Company, Music Theatre of Connecticut, Oregon's Broadway Rose, Theatre-By-The-Sea, and Virginia's Barter Theatre. Mr. Sullivan is the author of a new theatre memoir: Places Please! (Becoming a Jersey Boy).

Director Eric C. Engel is in his seventh year as Gloucester Stage Artistic Director following two seasons as Producing Director and three as a guest director. Most recently at Gloucester Stage he directed the 2013 season opening production of Spring Awakening and the 2012 productions of Round and Round the Garden, Carnival and Nine Circles. In 2011 he directed Living Together, The Most Happy Fella, the world premiere of Last Day and the return ofTrying. In 2010 he directed Table Manners, the world premiere of Tender and Trying. In 2009 he directed Gloucester Stage productions of The Breath of Life and The Goat, Or Who is Sylvia? His Gloucester Stage directorial debut was 2002's The Subject was Roses. Other Gloucester Stage directing credits include the Elliot Norton Award winning Collected Stories, Israel Horovitz's My Old Lady, Long Day's Journey into Night, Spinning into Butter,The Heidi Chronicles, The Belle of Amherst, Going To St. Ives, Doubt: A Parable and the world premiere of Our Son's Wedding.

Mr. Engel has been a director and arts administrator in the Boston area for over 20 years, and is currently Director of Memorial Hall/Sanders Theatre and College Theater Venues in the Office for the Arts at Harvard University. In 2009 he directed The Year of Magical Thinking at Boston's Lyric Stage Company which transferred to Gloucester Stage in summer 2009. He has directed over 75 productions for numerous companies, including Lyric Stage., SpeakEasy Stage Company, Súgán Theatre Company, and as an artist in residence at Harvard University, Emerson College, The Boston Conservatory and Brandeis University, where he earned his MFA. He has directed the world premieres of Alan Brody's The Housewives of Mannheim at Boston Playwrights' Theatre, John Kuntz's Miss Price at Boston Playwrights' Theatre, and Sing Me to Sleep at the Coyote Theatre, which received the Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Production by A Fringe Company. As a founding member, Managing Director and Resident Director for The Nora Theatre Company, Mr. Engel staged the critically acclaimed productions of Death of a Salesman which received Elliot Norton Awards for Outstanding Director and Outstanding Production by A Small Resident Company, Equus, Morning's at Seven and Orphans. Recently, for Boston's Publick Theatre, he directed the East Coast Premiere of Bill Cain's 9 Circles and Entertaining Mr. Sloane (his fourth Elliot Norton Award-winning production).

Dueling Divas (...and a Dandy!) Cabaret runs from August 28 through September 1 at Gloucester Stage, 267 East Main Street, Gloucester, MA. The performance schedule is Wednesday, August 28 through Saturday, August 31 at 8 pm; a Saturday matinee on August 31 at 3 pm and a Sunday, September 1 performance at 4 pm. Ticket prices are $40 for all performances. Senior citizen & student tickets are $35 for all performances. For reservations or further information, call the Gloucester Stage Box Office at 978-281-4433 or visit www.gloucesterstage.com.

Pictured: Divas Kathy St. George and Kerry Dowling battle for center stage in Gloucester. Photo Credit: Gary Ng.