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Bay Area audiences will be given a rare opportunity to see one of his vivid worlds come to life when the work of Peter S. Beagle, iconic American fantasy author best known for his international bestseller The Last Unicorn, will be presented on stage in the World Premiere of GIANT BONES. Written and directed by acclaimed Bay Area playwright Stuart Bousel, GIANT BONES is based on four of Beagle's short stories, as told by a traveling troupe of actors in a distant land. Interlacing myth and memory with dangerous magic and absurd bravery, and culminating in a climactic play within a play that questions who writes history and who remembers it, GIANT BONES runs May 14 through June 19 at the EXIT Theatre (156 Eddy Street, San Francisco). For tickets (previews $15, regular $20-$30, opening $40, Gala $50), call 650 728 8098 or visit www.brownpapertickets.com. Every ticket holder will also receive a free signed hardcover "Gold Sigil" edition of the book that inspired the play. (This out of print book is being reissued for this production, and signed copies, dated by show, will be given only to ticket holders, limiting the size of the edition to the same number that attend the play, making it a rare collectors item.)
GIANT BONES is a play for story-lovers, skillfully weaving together four unique tales told by a vagabond troupe of itinerant actors, adrift in a changing time. Based in the world of Peter S. Beagle's 1993 novel The Innkeeper's Song, from which the later 1997 Giant Bones collection of short stories was drawn, GIANT BONES includes a cast of ten actors playing a variety of roles, plus evocative puppets which bring to life a land of giants, magicians, talking fish, and others, in brilliant blend of folklore and fantasy.
Audiences will join a squabbling troupe of actors as they tell almost-forgotten tales of a man who mourns the extinction of giants in a curious fashion, an evil queen who is tricked and defeated by the humblest of men, and a young woman who makes a pact with a fish that is both more and less than it seems. In the final act the company gets more than it bargains for, when forced to accommodate competing conspiracies while putting on a Royal Command performance.
Peter S. Beagle, author of The Last Unicorn and many other works of fantasy, fiction and non-fiction, currently resides in Oakland, California. As a young teenager Beagle regularly appeared on a weekend radio show, reviewing and discussing books. By the age of fifteen, one of his story submissions caught the eye of Bryna Ivins, fiction editor of Seventeen magazine. At seventeen he landed an agent, the acclaimed Elizabeth Otis, who nurtured the literary careers of Harper Lee and John Steinbeck. By the time he was nineteen he had written his first novel, A Fine and Private Place¸ published by Viking Press. A Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford, Beagle went on to write the non-fiction I See By My Outfit, still considered a classic of American travel writing. In 1968 he published The Last Unicorn, which has sold more than 5 million copies and been translated into more than 20 languages. In 1982 the novel was made into an animated film, with voice talents including Christopher Lee, Angela Lansbury, Alan Arkin, Jeff Bridges, and Mia Farrow. The prolific Beagle has written several other books, story collections, and works of non-fiction, and for decades focused on film scripts and teleplays. Among his work in the latter categories are the animated version of The Lord of the Rings, and the fan-favorite "Sarek" episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Director/playwright Stuart Bousel combined four stories from Beagle's collection of the same title to create GIANT BONES. Since 2003 the Artistic Director of No Nude Men Productions in San Francisco, Bousel has directed a range of classics, from Greek tragedies to Shakespeare to the legend of Dr. Faust, as well as new works, including Derek Walcott's Odyssey, the world premieres of David Duman's Fishing, Alison Luterman's Oasis, and Nirmala Nataraj's The Monk and The Book of Genesis Remixed and Remastered. His works as a playwright include The Exiled, Speak to Me, Love Egos Alternative Rock, Troijka, Housebroken, and Polyxena in Orbit. His play Vincent of Gilgamesh was nominated for the MAC Award in 2001; Wild Blue Peaks was nominated for the Heideman Award in 2003; Matthew 33:6 was a finalist for the Sky Cooper Award in 2007. He is an associate artist with Atmostheatre Inc. and a founding member of the San Francisco Theater Pub. His first novel, Dry Country, was published in 2008.
The cast of GIANT BONES includes Mikka Bonel, Sara Eve Breindel, Katrina Bushnell, Warden Lawlor, Rik Lopes, Kai Morrison, Paul Rodrigues, Jessica Rudholm, Jay Smith, Chris Struett. The production team includes Jim Lively (Sound Design), Ann Monn (Graphic Design), Kai Morrison (Music), Jennifer Pokas (Costume Design), Joshua Saulpaw (Stage Design), Wil Turner (Lighting Design), Lanie Weiland (Props and Puppets). GIANT BONES is produced by Conlan Media Group in association with No Nude Men Productions.
