CAT'S PAW Opens 90th Season at the Beck Center For the Arts

Beck Center for the Arts will present the masterful political thriller, Cat’s-Paw as the opener to the historic 90th season in the intimate Studio Theater. The 90th season will start in the same space the Lakewood Little Theatre began years ago.

Written by award-winning playwright William Mastrosimone , and directed by Beck Center alum and NYC professional William Roudebush, this play will have patrons on the very edge of their theater seats during the run September 22 to October 22, 2023.

In this tight drama, with intel reminiscent a Tom Clancy novel, an unusual terrorist (who is brilliant….and oh, so correct) is the head of a group responsible for a bomb attack at the White House. When a reporter asks if he feels any guilt about the death of innocent people, he replies that hundreds of innocent people die every hour because of what Mankind is doing to its water supply and do the people responsible feel guilt for this? The cat-and mouse-game between the young reporter and the terrorist leads to a shocking conclusion.

Playwright William Mastrosimone, winner of a Los Angeles Drama Critics’ Circle Award in 1982, the John Gassner Award from Outer Critics’ Circle, and two Daytime Emmy Awards in 2003, stated, “In the early 80s I was shocked by the questionable methods of some activists who called themselves environmentalists. At a protest in the Northwest, so-called environmentalists drove 12 inch nails in trees scheduled to be felled so that a logger’s chainsaw would be snagged and the logger injured. That nasty tactic cost a man his arm. A good cause was vitiated. When a car bomb exploded by mistake under misguided activists in California, I saw a clear demarcation between passionate activism and criminality. That was the inspiration for the play. The ends never justify the means— or do they?”

Director Bill Roudebush stated, “Cat’s-Paw, written in 1984, is a play conceived forty years ahead of its time. We weren’t listening back then. Today, even with the most recent events in Flint, Michigan, and East Palestine, Ohio, surrounding our consciousness, so many are still denying the reality of pumping poisons into our environment. This play, unnoticed in its own time, predicts, in a most dramatic and entertaining manner, our present dilemma, as well as the toxic politics, threats and media that engulf and amplify our continued lack of action to address the problems we still continue to ignore…Of course I want to direct one of the most impactful plays I have ever read!!”

Cast includes local talents, Chris Richards (member of Actors’ Equity Association) playing Victor, and Lara Mielcarek (also a member of Actors’ Equity Association) whom many saw in Meteor Shower at Beck Center, plays Jessica. Youngstown performer, Michael Dempsey will play David Darling, and Baldwin Wallace alum Grace Favaro will play Cathy.

Presented through special arrangement with Concord Theatricals.

Recommended for ages 16 and older due to subject matter, onstage violence, and substantial adult language.

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