Devilishly Clever Comedy THE FOREIGNER Opens June 15 At Little Fish Theatre

Larry Shue's side-splitting comedy about small towns and mistaken identity takes the stage in Little Fish Theatre's production of The Foreigner directed by LFT Company Member David Graham. Winner of two Obie Awards and two Outer Critics Circle Awards as Best New American Play and Best Off-Broadway Production, The Foreigner is a melee of misunderstanding and mischief.

The scene is a fishing lodge in rural Georgia often visited by Froggy, a British demolition expert who occasionally runs training sessions nearby. This time Froggy has brought along a friend, a pathologically shy man named Charlie who is overcome with fear at the thought of making conversation with strangers - so Froggy tells the town locals that Charlie is from an exotic foreign country and speaks no English. Once alone, the fun begins as Charlie overhears much more than he should-an evil plot take the lodge from the owner; the minister's pretty fiancée's secret; and other uproarious revelations made with the thought that Charlie doesn't understand a word being said, all leading to the fiercely funny climax in which things go tumultuously awry.

The Foreigner features two LFT Company Members and a host of new faces to the LFT stage. LFT Company Members Don Schlossman* and Madeleine Drake* play Froggy LeSueur and Betty Meeks (the proprietor of the fishing lodge) respectively. Schlossman is a Groundlings graduate most recently seen at LFT in On the Verge or The Geography of Yearning while Drake last tread the LFT boards in The Night Before The Night Before Christmas. Gregg Lawrence*, a familiar face from LFT's Quartet and an alum of both the Pasadena Opera and Long Beach Opera, plays town heavy Owen Musser. Heather L. Tyler, a Sacred Fools and Rogue Machine ensemble member, plays Catherine Simms, the fiancée of Reverend David Lee. Reverend Lee is played by Chance Dean, whose credits include roles at South Coast Rep and The Old Globe. Trip Langley*, an Actors Co-op alum, takes on Ellard Simms, brother to Catherine, who may not be as dull as he seems. And the immensely introverted man at the center of all the craziness, Charlie Baker, is played by David Lawrence who last appeared at the Camino Real Playhouse.

Director Graham remarks, "Both The Foreigner and The Nerd (Shue's other published play) are really fish out of water stories, and how the fish finally discovers how he or she fits into the new world. This is especially true of Foreigner, where Charlie suddenly finds himself in an environment that could not possibly be more alien to him; within a short period of time, however, he determines not only to try to fit in, but to become an active participant in his new surroundings." On what the audience should expect, "Always funny, sometimes frightening, and never "normal", The Foreigner will have the audience just as uncomfortable as Charlie is with his new situation, but rooting for things to work out for the best before things come to their unusual conclusion."

The Foreigner will run Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00pm June 15 through July 15 with two Sunday 2:00pm matinees on June 24 and July 15. The June 24 matinee features a special Talkback session where the actors and creative team will be available for 10 to 15 minutes for a post-show discussion with the audience.

Founded in 2002 as an artists' ensemble, Little Fish Theatre presents classic and contemporary plays in an intimate setting on Centre Street in downtown San Pedro.

*This production is presented under the auspices of the Actors' Equity Los Angeles Membership Company Rule