MST Launches Post-show Discussions, AWAKE & SING Talkback Held 5/17

By: May. 05, 2009
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Main Street Theater adds an educational dimension to its programming with its new series of post-performance discussions with actors, directors, and theater experts. The talkbacks will follow the second Sunday matinee in each production's run.

For the upcoming production of Clifford Odets's 1934 masterpiece Awake and Sing!, the talkback will follow the Sunday matinee on May 17. Main Street Theater's Director of Education, Troy Scheid, hosts Rice University Professor Christina Keefe and the production's director Cheryl L. Kaplan in a discussion with the audience of the economic and social circumstances that inspired Odets to write Awake and Sing!; the influence of the Group Theatre, which first produced the play; and the play's relevance today.

Main Street's production runs through June 7 at Main Street Theater - Rice Village, 2540 Times Blvd. Performances are on Thursdays at 7:30pm, Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm, and Sundays at 3pm. Tickets range from $26 - $36 and are on sale in person at the Main Street Theater Box Office, 2540 Times Blvd., via phone at 713.524.6706, or online at www.mainstreettheater.com

Christina Keefe, Lecturer in the Theatre Program at Rice University, has been a professional actor for over 20 years, working both in New York and regionally at such theaters as The West Side Arts, The Wilma Theatre, Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, Lyric Stage, and The Warehouse Theatre. She has taught acting, voice, movement, and directed for Duke University, Lehigh University, University of Houston, Muhlenberg College and DeSales University. Christina has also served as Artistic Associate at both the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival and The Warehouse Theatre.

Christina has studied with Stella Adler. She received her BFA from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and her MFA from the University of South Carolina. She has completed the Shakespeare Intensive with Shakespeare & Co. and has a certificate from the British American Drama Academy. Christina also has her own private voice practice working with Houston professionals and teaches Ashtanga and Hatha yoga. She is a member of Actors' Equity, Screen Actors Guild and the Voice and Speech Trainers Association.

"Do what is in your heart, and you carry in yourself a revolution," says Jacob, the quiet and misunderstood patriarch of this Jewish family in 1935 in the Bronx. Clifford Odets' passionate, tumultuous, and ultimately hopeful Awake and Sing! tells the story of Bessie Berger and her boisterous family as they struggle with poverty and the hardships of the Great Depression. Full of life and fervor, Awake and Sing!, creates a rich and lasting tribute to the dreams and aspirations of America's working class. In a departure from his usual role as director of this period-style comedy, Steve Garfinkel will appear as Jacob, a role originated by Morris Carnovsky and played in the 2006 Broadway revival by Ben Gazzara.

Clifford Odets was a founding member of the famed Group Theatre, for whom he wrote Awake and Sing!, Waiting for Lefty, Till the Day I Die and Golden Boy among many others. He also wrote for Hollywood (including "The Sweet Smell of Success") and continued his playwriting career into the 40's and 50's with The Big Knife and The Country Girl. 

Since 1975, Main Street Theater has produced high quality professional theater for audiences of all ages through its MainStage productions and Main Street Youth Theater. The Main Street Theater Kids On Stage program offers performing arts classes and camps for children 5 years to 14 years of age. The organization produces plays at two locations, 2540 Times Boulevard in Rice Village and 4617 Montrose Boulevard at Chelsea Market.

Main Street Theater is a member of the Fresh Arts Coalition, a collaboration of 25 arts organizations that work collectively to raise awareness of the size and diversity of the arts in Houston, and a constituent of Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national service organization for not-for-profit theaters. Main Street Theater offers a lively year-round repertory of classic and contemporary plays for audiences of all ages and provides a much-needed showcase for Houston theater professionals. Main Street Theater is also a member of Actors' Equity Association and of ASSITEJ, the world theatre network of theatre for children and young people. Main Street Theater is funded in part by grants from the City of Houston through the Houston Arts Alliance, and the Texas Commission on the Arts.

 


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