Photo Flash: Coeurage Theatre Company Presents UNDER MILK WOOD

Coeurage Theatre Company, LA's Pay What You Want theatre company, has announced the final production of its 10th Anniversary season, Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas, directed by Ryan Wagner. Opening is on Saturday, August 3, at 8pm. Under Milk Wood will play through August 24 only at the Greenway Court Theatre in Hollywood.

The cast features (in alphabetical order) Ellie Aviles, Roni Geva, Martin Hillier, John McKetta, Nas Mehdi, Becky Poole, Sammi Smith, and Eddie Vona. Alternate cast members are (in alphabetical order) Barry Saltzman, Alex Vaughan, Brianna Webb, and Bree Wernicke. Scenic design is by Tom Buderwitz, lighting design is by Azra King-Abadi, costume design is by Vicki Conrad, and sound design is by Joseph V. Calarco. Original music is by Gregory Nabours and Surrija with Nabours serving as music director. Ryan Wagner is dialect coach, Martin Hillier is dialect advisor, and the stage managers are Sheldon Peregrino and Edward Khris Fernandez.

Revisiting a landmark production from its inaugural season, Coeurage returns to the "little Welsh village that never was" for Dylan Thomas's poetic masterpiece. Director Ryan Wagner is once again at the helm of Thomas's "play for voices" to close the company's 10th Season, inviting audiences to share in the "movements and countries and mazes and colours and dismays and rainbows and tunes and wishes and flight and fall and despairs and big seas of their dreams."

Dylan Thomas (1914-1953) was a Welsh poet and writer whose works include the poems Do not go gentle into that good night and And death shall have no dominion; the 'play for voices' Under Milk Wood; and stories and radio broadcasts such as A Child's Christmas in Wales and Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog. He became widely popular in his lifetime and remained so after his premature death at the age of 39 in New York City.

Ryan Wagner is a founding member of Coeurage Theatre Company. He has served in a variety of roles including actor, director, stage manager, and graphic designer. Directing credits for Coeurage include Under Milk Wood (2010), Is He Dead?, and Translations. He is an associate director of Institutional Advancement at Center Theatre Group and a lecturer at the Rady School of Management at UC San Diego. He has a BFA from CSU Fullerton and an MBA from UC San Diego.

The regular performance schedule is Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 8pm through August 24. There will be additional performances on Wednesday 8/14 at 8pm (alternate cast), Sunday 8/18 at 7pm, and Wednesday 8/21 at 8pm. All seats are available on a Pay What You Want basis and may be reserved online at www.coeurage.org/buytickets or by calling (323) 944-2165. The Greenway Court Theatre is located at 544 N. Fairfax Avenue in Hollywood, 90036.