Photo Flash: ERMA BOMBECK: AT WIT'S END Celebrates Opening Night at Arena Stage
"If life is a bowl of cherries, what am I doing in the pits?" Erma Bombeck, the award-winning humorist and syndicated columnist known for her wry and humorous take on family life, is the subject of the newest project from twin-sister journalists and playwrights Allison Engel and Margaret Engel -- the world-premiere drama ERMA BOMBECK: AT WIT'S END debuting at Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater. The Engels reunite with director David Esbjornson (Arena Stage's Guess Who's Coming to Dinner) following their collaboration on the smash hit Red Hot Patriot: The Kick-Ass Wit of Molly Ivins, which starred Kathleen Turner in its celebrated 2012 run at Arena Stage. ERMA BOMBECK: AT WIT'S END now through November 8, 2015 in the Arlene and Robert Kogod Cradle. Scroll down for photos from the opening night festivities!
Stage and screen actress Barbara Chisholm, seen in the 2014 Oscar-nominated film Boyhood and also in the Austin, Texas production of Red Hot Patriot, makes her Arena Stage debut as Erma Bombeck in this one-woman drama, which looks at the life of the celebrated columnist, drawing upon Bombeck's immense body of work and conversations the Engels had with Bombeck's family, her longtime agent Aaron Priest and Norma Born, who manages her archives.
The creative team for ERMA BOMBECK: AT WIT'S END includes Set Designer Daniel Conway, Costume Designer Elizabeth Hope Clancy, Lighting Designer Rob Denton, Sound Designers Rob Milburn & Michael Bodeen, Dramaturg Jocelyn Clarke, Associate Director Anita Maynard-Losh and Stage Manager Marne Anderson.
Arena Stage is one of the seven originating theaters of the Women's Voices Theater Festival, and ERMA BOMBECK: AT WIT'S END is the second project produced by the theater as part of the citywide Festival, which will feature over 50 productions in the nation's capital region, September through October 2015. For additional information on the Festival, visit womensvoicestheaterfestival.org. For more about Arena Stage, visit arenastage.org.
Photo Credit: Cameron Whitman
Playwrights Allison Engel and Margaret Engel
Associate Director Anita Maynard-Losh and cast member Barbara Chisholm (Erma Bombeck)
Executive Producer Edgar Dobie, Playwright Margaret Engel, Artistic Director Molly Smith and Playwright Allison Engel
Director of Artistic Programming Robert Barry Fleming, Playwright Margaret Engel, Associate Director Anita Maynard-Losh, Playwright Allison Engel and Lighting Designer Rob Denton
Playwright Margaret Engel, cast member Barbara Chisholm (Erma Bombeck), Playwright Allison Engel and Board Chair Beth Newburger Schwartz
Cast member Barbara Chisholm (Erma Bombeck) and Board Chair Beth Newburger Schwartz
Playwrights Margaret Engel and Allison Engel
Cast member Barbara Chisholm (Erma Bombeck)
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