Tickets to IngeTheater Festival Now on Sale

The William Inge Theater Festival, the Official Theater Festival of the State of Kansas, will take place April 17-19, at Independence Community College, Independence, KS. Tickets for all Festival events can be purchased at www.ingecenter.org/tickets, or by calling the office, (620) 332-5491, Monday through Friday, between
1:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m.

Donald Margulies, Pulitzer Prize-winning dramatist of Dinner With Friends, and Tony nominee for Time Stands Still, is the Honoree. Margulies will accept the Inge Festival's Distinguished Achievement in the American Theater Award, during a star-studded multi-media Tribute production on Sunday, April 19. He will be present in Independence for all three days of the Inge Festival.

Margulies joins a select roster of world-renowned playwrights who have traveled to the Inge Festival to receive the William Inge Distinguished Achievement in the American Theater Award. This select company includes Arthur Miller, Stephen Sondheim, Edward Albee, Wendy Wasserstein, August Wilson, Tina Howe, David Henry Hwang, and Neil Simon, to name only a few. Upon being notified of this recognition, Margulies said, "I am delighted to receive this career-affirming honor and humbled to find myself in such distinguished company."

"Donald Margulies has delivered a consistently excellent body of work, with humor and punch, in one of the most distinctive voices of the American Theater," noted Karen Carpenter, interim Artistic Director of the Inge Center. "Margulies' ability to excavate both comedy and pathos, in writing about the struggle to belong, to sustain relationships, to find one's purpose in life, has made a lasting impact," Carpenter said, "and shown us that the heartbreak life gives us can be transforming."

On Friday, April 17, 2015, the Festival begins with a bang, crowning a day of workshops and panels with a concert reading of Margulies's latest play, The Country House, which premiered on Broadway this season, at 7:30 p.m. in the William Inge Theater. This farcical play revolves around a theatrical dynasty, an extraordinary leading lady and her brood, ensconced in their family home at a summer theater festival, and all of the mishaps that ensue when a dashing TV star comes into their midst.

A new event follows this year, a Festival kick-off party, Lunar Eclipse, to be held downstairs at the Booth Hotel (10 p.m.to midnight). Dance the night away to special entertainment provided by our musical guests, in this Coney Island boardwalk-themed party, a tribute to Luna Park and Donald Margulies' boyhood home.

Saturday, April 18, the scholars conference begins, and workshops continue throughout the ICC campus, with the Honoree teaching a Master Class in Playwriting. To attend Margulies' Master Class, please complete and submit the application available at http://ingecenter.org/tickets/, as attendance is limited.

At 2:00 p.m. a concert reading of The Moors by Jen Silverman, Otis Guernsey New Voices in Playwriting award winner, directed by Lee Sunday Evans, with special guest performers, will be featured at Memorial Hall, sponsored by the City of Independence, and followed by the award ceremony.

In this comedic send-up of every romantic English story ever set on the moors (think Austen or Bronte?,) we follow a young governess as she arrives at a family estate on the desolate English moors, and can't seem to find the child she is supposed to care for, or the man who invited her. In a game of mysterious and questionable motives, the two eccentric sisters of the house keep their true purpose a secret, as they bring a new member into their home with darkly comic and tragic results.

After enjoying this great play, join friends and family at 6:00 p.m. for the annual Gala Dinner and Cocktail party. This year's gala will take place in the elegant ballroom of the historic Booth Hotel.

Sunday, April 19, festival events include: the Conversation with the Playwright at 11:00 a.m. in the Independence Library; the Loman Family Picnic at the Shelter House in Riverside Park near the Inge sculptures, Scenes at the Inge House, and tours of Inge's Independence, culminating in the annual Tribute to our honoree, Donald Margulies: American Dreamer. The tribute features a multi-media celebration of Margulies' life work, interspersed with scenes from his greatest plays, brought to life by many of his original collaborators from stage and screen.

An all-festival Director's Pass of $210 (a $50 savings) includes all three evening events, The Country House and The Moors, daytime workshops and panels, and two meals: the Gala Dinner & Cocktail Party on Saturday, and Picnic lunch on Sunday at Riverside Park. A Night-Owl Pass is for evening events, including The Country House, the Lunar Eclipse party, Gala Dinner & Cocktail Party, and Tribute, Donald Margulies: American Dreamer, is $115 (a $20 savings). For daytime events only, you can purchase a 3-Day pass to all daytime events for $110 (a $20 savings). Individual tickets for evening events range from $25-$50. The Tour of Inge's Independence and Scenes at the Inge House are each $5 admission, offered separately.

The William Inge Center for the Arts is a proud participant in the Blue Star Theatres program for Military Personnel. Through the Blue Star Program, discounted tickets of up to 50% off are offered when possible to military families. The Inge Center also gives discounts to seniors, college, and high school students. Call the Inge Center office, (620) 332-5491, for discounted tickets.

Tickets can be purchased online at www.ingecenter.org, or on weekdays, 1-5 p.m., either by phone at (800) 842-6063, ext. 5491, or in person at the Inge Center office, Independence Community College Fine Arts Building, Room 107, 1133 Beuland Drive. To order by mail, the box office mailing address is William Inge Center for the Arts, 1057 West College Ave, Independence, Kansas, 67301.

The Inge Festival is named for the late William Inge, an Independence native who won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama (for Picnic,) and Oscar for Best Screenplay (for Splendor in the Grass.)

Major funders of the Inge Center are the National Endowment for the Arts, the William Inge Festival Foundation, the Independence Chamber of Commerce, and the Inge Center's host and chief sponsor, Independence Community College.

To post a comment, you must register and login.