THE FOREIGNER Launces Moonlight Stage Productions' Winter Season, 11/12

Moonlight Stage Productions opens its 2009/10 winter season with Larry Shue's side-splitting comedy THE FOREIGNER beginning Thursday, November 12 and continuing through Sunday, November 29. 

The award-winning comedy centers on Charlie Baker, a British science fiction magazine proofreader whose wife finds him boring. He has joined his eccentric Army friend Froggy LeSueur on a much needed getaway to a rural fishing lodge in Georgia. But the pathologically shy Charlie is terrified at the prospect of having to converse with strangers at the lodge for three
days. In an attempt to help his shy friend, Froggy introduces Charlie as an exotic foreigner who
neither speaks nor understands English.

It isn't long before Charlie's new persona backfires and the mix of good-hearted and slow-witted lodge guests begin sharing their deepest secrets and sinister plans with the foreigner all the while thinking he can't understand what they are saying to him. Comic chaos ensues with non-stop hilarity leading to an uproarious climax!

Moonlight Stage Productions Artistic Director Kathy Brombacher directs THE FOREIGNER for the second time having staged a critically acclaimed version as part of the Moonlight's 1996/97 winter season. The founder of Moonlight Stage Productions' summer and winter seasons, Brombacher has been honored by the San Diego Critics' Circle with a Craig Noel Award for Theatrical Trailblazer in 2005 and a KPBS Shiley Patté Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2006.

Featured in the cast are Howard Bickle (San Diego) as Charlie Baker, "the Foreigner,"; Charlie Riendeau (San Diego) as Froggy; Dagmar Fields (Spring Valley) as Betty; Aimee Nelson (Costa Mesa) as Catherine; Paul Morgavo (San Diego) as the Rev. David Lee; Paul Canaletti (Oceanside) as Owen Musser; and Ryan Hunter Lee (Vista) as Ellard. The production staff includes Scenic Designer Dixon Fish (Fallbrook); Lighting Designer Paul Canaletti (Oceanside); Sound Designer Peter Hashagen (San Diego); Costume Designer Roz Lehman (Vista); and Properties Coordinator Sue Givens (Carlsbad). Brooke Baldwin (Vista) is Stage Manager and is assisted by Sarah Ahlquist (Vista).

The 2009/10 Winter Season at the Avo Playhouse is produced by Moonlight Stage Productions, a program of the City of Vista. Additional funding is made possible by the Moonlight Cultural Foundation, a non-profit organization that benefits the performing arts in North County. For more information about the Foundation, call (760) 630-7650.

Performances of the show are Thursdays through Saturdays at 7:30 pm, and Saturdays and Sundays at 2:00 pm at the Avo Playhouse, located at 303 Main Street, Vista. Tickets are $21-$29 and are on sale at the VisTix Ticket Office, located at 600 Eucalyptus Avenue in Vista. Tickets can also be purchased by phone at (760) 724-2110 and online at www.moonlightstage.com.