Only weeks ahead of Halloween THE TURN OF THE SCREW opened this weekend at the Just Off Broadway Theatre in Kansas City. Julie Shaw directs the Spinning Tree Theatre production of the novella from the story by Henry James. THE TURN OF THE SCREW runs through Halloween weekend, closing on Sunday November 1.
Spinning Tree Theatre presents 'Turn of the Screw' Oct. 15-Nov. 1 Critically-acclaimed Spinning Tree Theatre is once again bringing to the stage a Kansas City premiere with 'The Turn of the Screw,' beginning Oct. 15 and continuing through Nov. 1 at Just Off Broadway Theatre, 3051 Penn Valley Drive, Kansas City, Missouri.
Michael's novel draws directly on his experience working with the disabled (For more than five years he's also been President and sometimes ED of Pathways Academy, a school for kids with Autism and other learning issues). Falling tells the story of people who have been shelved in nursing home warehouses, or have otherwise lost their livelihood and value to society, and the narrative arc explores how the human dimension continues to shine in these human beings.
In his own life Michael has discovered that people who are in the process of losing their identities, occupations, and old friends are able to help him recognize a deeper truth about the human predicaments they share. This is a human truth which he also finds celebrated in Eastern spiritual teachings. Encountering the core of humanity in people whose familiar lives have dissolved, he seeks to learn their secret while he still has time on my side.
About the Book:
Larry works in an Albuquerque nursing home and like many of its residents he is not thrilled to be at this last-stop warehouse for old folks. Trained as a counselor, he hardly notices the human spirit flowing around him until he meets Bill Foster. Bill, a successful clinical psychologist, is lying comatose after a left hemisphere stroke, as Philip Cook, one of his oldest patients, leans over the hospital bed listening intently to his inarticulate attempts to speak.
Through Philip's uncanny understanding of Bill's incoherent mutterings, an unlikely collaboration begins, linking the unconfident Larry with the experienced but speech-damaged Dr. Bill. That summer, with Larry's wife and son out of town, Bill's counseling practice helps renew Larry confidence as a therapist andat the nursing home-he starts to see residents, families, and fellow staff as fellow human beings.
But old traumas (the drowning death of his brother and his misplaced blame of his father) run deep: each step seems to open the door for further falls from grace.
This is a novel about disability and the human depth that is left behind after the loss of physical and cognitive faculties. It is also a book about the power of forgiveness.
Falling on the Bright Side is available in both print and ebook formats.
Book Details:
Falling on the Bright Side
By Michael Gray
Publisher: ABQ Press
ISBN: 978-0991604630
ASIN: B00U6JZFZ0
Pages: 325
Genre: Fiction (mainstream)
About The Author:
Before coming to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he now reside with his wife and two sons, Michael Gray lived in Montreal, Canada and published short stories and poetry in the Antigonish and Wascana Reviews. He traveled in Europe for six months and South America for three months, but it was while working on farms, ranches, and an open-pit copper mine in Canada that he heard a door into the future creak open.
Michael's memoir, The Flying Caterpillar (ABQ Press, 2012), as well as being a travel log of his life to-date, gives an account of his two decades with Friends in Time and explores the teachings and encounters which have proved to be valuable for a lifetime. In 2012, he also published Asleep at the Wheel of Time (ABQ Press), a SF novel about Whales, Aliens and humans. Both these books express his concern about the state of planet Earth in light of our accumulating indifference to the plight of our only home.
For review copies, author interviews, or more information please contact:
Michael Gray
Email: mgray (at) nmia.com
Author: http://www.michaelgrayauthor.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MichaelGrayAuth
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Michael.Gray.Author
Gang violence erupts at the Arts Asylum in Kansas City and the audience erupts with a thunderous standing ovation for WEST SIDE STORY on opening night Saturday August 22. Michael Grayman and Andrew Parkhurst direct WEST SIDE STORY, which opens the fifth season of Spinning Tree Theatre, recreating the choreography of Jerome Robbins who directed and choreographed the entire original production.
West Side Story opens the fifth season of productions for Spinning Tree Theatre in Kansas City, Missouri, running August 20 through September 5. The musical production will be staged at The Arts Asylum located at 1000 E. 9th Street in Kansas City. The Arts Asylum was established to provide assistance, studio, and gallery space for a variety of artists.
As spectacular as the lights of the Aurora Borealis, that is how Spinning Tree Theatre lit up the stage on opening night of Fiddler on the Roof at the Just Off Broadway Theatre. Jerry Bock wrote the music, Sheldon Harnick the lyrics, and Joseph Stein the book for Fiddler on the Roof, a musical based on Tevye and his Daughters (or Tevye the Dairyman) and others stories written by Sholem Aleichem.
A line from the play best describes Black Pearl Sings when Susannah Mullally says, "Pearl is a pearl." Black Pearl Sings opened on Saturday March 7 at the Just Off Broadway Theatre in Kansas City, Missouri. The production marks two firsts for Spinning Tree Theatre, the production of a local playwright and the first time the company utilized a director outside the organization.
Hale Centre Theatre (HCT) brings the classic, well-known love story based on the 1990 film into the New York City of 2015. Audiences will be charmed by the dynamic music, urban set design, and theater magic. GHOST THE MUSICAL plays tonight, February 20 through Saturday, April 11.
Spinning Tree Theatre in Kansas City announced their 2015-2016 season schedule, which includes two plays and two musicals. The season will premiere Spinning Trees first dance musical. Venues and dates for the 2015-2016 season are to be announced later. The production company is currently searching for a permanent home, after four years of renting venues in the Kansas City area.
Hale Centre Theatre (HCT) brings the classic, well-known love story based on the 1990 film into the New York City of 2015. Audiences will be charmed by the dynamic music, urban set design, and theater magic. GHOST THE MUSICAL plays Friday, February 20 through Saturday, April 11.
?Hale Centre Theatre (HCT) is ringing in the New Year with the long-lost production of Is He Dead? written by American author Mark Twain. The play was 'rediscovered' in a drawer of Twain's forgotten works at the University of California at Berkeley in 2001. It has since appeared on Broadway and will hit HCT's stage tonight, December 31, 2014, through Saturday, February 7, 2015.
It's your last week to vote for the 2014 BroadwayWorld Delaware Regional Awards! Check out the latest live stats as of December 26th. Voting closes at the end of the year, in under one week!
Time is ticking on your last chance to vote for the 2014 BroadwayWorld Delaware Regional Awards! Check out the latest live stats as of December 19th. Voting closes at the end of the year!
?Hale Centre Theatre (HCT) is ringing in the New Year with the long-lost production of Is He Dead? written by American author Mark Twain. The play was "rediscovered" in a drawer of Twain's forgotten works at the University of California at Berkeley in 2001. It has since appeared on Broadway and will hit HCT's stage Wednesday, December 31, 2014, through Saturday, February 7, 2015.
City Theater Company gets their Irish up for the 21st season, opening in December with a reimagined staging of James Joyce's The Dead. Richard Nelson won the Tony Award for Best Musical Book in 2000 for his adaptation of the short story that closes out Joyce's seminal collection The Dubliners. The music is by Shaun Davey, with lyrics conceived and adapted by Richard Nelson and Shaun Davey.
Each time I think that the performing arts in Kansas City cannot get any better Spinning Tree Theatre opens another production and proves there is no limit to the highest quality shows available to local audiences. Opening night for Violet at the Just Off Broadway Theatre on Saturday November 8 was no exception, as some of the most talented actors in the area delighted the audience with another outstanding performance.