Theater Schmeater Finds Catch-22, January 20th

Theater Schmeater will present Joseph Heller's classic satire Catch-22 from January 20^th through February 25^th.

 During the second half of World War II, a soldier named Yossarian is stationed with his Air Force squadron on an island near the Italian coast. Yossarian and his friends endure a nightmarish, absurd existence defined by bureaucracy and violence: they are inhuman resources in the eyes of their blindly ambitious superior officers. The squadron is thrown thoughtlessly into brutal combat situations and bombing runs in which it is more important to capture good aerial photographs of explosions than to destroy their targets. Their colonels continually raise the number of missions that they are required to fly before being sent home, so that no one can ever go home. Still, no one but Yassarian seems to realize that there is a war going on; everyone thinks he is crazy when he insists that millions of people are trying to kill him.

 Josh Beerman will direct a cast that features Patrick Allcorn, Phillip Clarke, Rob Jones, Alyssa Keene, Erin Knight, Matt Lyman, Jason Marr, Brian Claudio Smith, Sean Patrick Taylor, and James Weidman.

 A week after Catch-22 debuts, Theater Schmeater will add another entry to their popular late-nigh series with Kevin Hammond's serial soap opera parody Crescendo Falls, running through February 25^th.

 Theater Schmeater is a nonprofit theater organization dedicated to producing great plays simply and fostering a love of theater as an art in future audiences. 2006 marks the 14^th anniversary of the theater, which was voted Best Fringe Theater of Seattle by Seattle Weekly readers in 1998, 1999, 2002, and 2003.

 For tickets call (206) 325-6500, or visit www.schmeater.org for more info.