Middlebury Actors Workshop to Present CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF, 10/17-20

Middlebury Actors Workshop begins its 14th season with Tennessee Williams' masterpiece and Pulitzer Prize winning drama, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

In this classic American play, Brick and Maggie are at the center of a family struggling to come to grips with their secrets, desires, and lies, as they gather to celebrate Big Daddy's 65th Birthday. When it is revealed that Big Daddy is dying of cancer, the sins of the past and desperate hopes for future control of his vast fortune turn family members against one another.

Local actor, director, and educator Steve Small stars as the ailing patriarch, Big Daddy. Small, director of the ART high school theater training program at the Hannaford Career Center, and a founding member of MAW, was last seen as Lennie in the company's 2011 production of "Of Mice and Men."

Big Daddy's favorite son Brick and his wife Maggie are played by New York-based actors Charlie Murphy and Katie Hartke. Hartke met MAW Artistic Director Melissa Lourie, when the two worked together at the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival.

"Working on a play of this caliber, with such an incredibly talented cast is a thrill," says Lourie. "I feel so lucky to have gotten Katie and Charlie up to Middlebury, and to introduce them to our community."

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof runs Thursday October 17 through Sunday, October 20 at Middlebury's Town Hall Theater. Evening curtain times are 7:30 pm Thursday - Saturday and 7:00 pm Sunday. There is a 2:00 pm matinee on Saturday. Tickets, $22 general/$20 matinee/$10 students at the door, are available through the THT Box Office at 802-382-9222,www.townhalltheater.org, or in person Monday-Saturday, noon-5:00 pm.

After the Middlebury run, the production moves to the Paramount Theater in Rutland for a performance on Thursday, October 24 at 7:30 pm. Tickets for the Paramount performance are available through the Paramount Box Office at 802-775-0903, www.paramountvt.org.