Ridgefield Playhouse to Host THE LIFEGUARD Film Event with Creator Liz Garcia, 2/9

Former Ridgefielder Liz Garcia brings the film she wrote and directed, The Lifeguard, to The Ridgefield Playhouse on Sunday, February 9.

The Lifeguard is a film about trying to recapture youth and simplicity and ultimately failing because youth is, of course, only simple in retrospect. This dramedy is written and directed by former Ridgefielder Liz Garcia and will be presented by The Ridgefield Playhouse Film Society Lost & Found Film Series at The Ridgefield Playhouse on Sunday, February 9, at 6:30 p.m. The film stars Kristen Bell, Joshua Harto (actor/producer), Mamie Gummer (Meryl Streep's daughter), Martin Starr and Academy Award winner Amy Madigan. A Q&A with Liz Garcia, Joshua Harto and producer Mike Landry will take place after the screening. In The Lifeguard, a former valedictorian quits her job as a reporter in New York and returns to the place she last felt happy -- her childhood home in Connecticut. At age 29, Leigh (Kristen Bell) decides, rather quickly and rather selfishly, to move back in with her parents. She is having an existential crisis, and life just hasn't turned out the way that she had hoped it would. This event is underwritten by Cohen and Wolf, P.C. and The Ridgefield Press with media sponsor WSHU Public Radio Group.

In high school, Leigh was a straight "A" student and class valedictorian who spent her summers working as a lifeguard at the local public pool. In real-life, she's working as the most junior of reporters at a NYC newspaper, dating the wrong guy and unable to get anybody to take her seriously. Back in Connecticut, Leigh gets her old job as a lifeguard back and begins to systematically regress to her teen years while dragging her few remaining old friends with her. She hangs out with the crowd of local burnouts and starts a relationship with a troubled teenager, played sensitively and convincingly by recently discovered teen actor Alex Shaffer.

For tickets ($10 adults, $7.50 seniors, and $5 students), call the box office at (203) 438-5795, or order online at ridgefieldplayhouse.org. The Ridgefield Playhouse is a not-for-profit performing arts center located at 80 East Ridge, parallel to Main Street, Ridgefield, CT.