Upcoming: Vanities, San Pedro Playhouse Cellar, San Antonio, February 4 - March 6

Received directly from the San Pedro Playhouse, San Antonio:

-- presents --

VANITIES

by Jack Heifner

directed by Laurie Dietrich

February 4 through March 6

Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 2:30 p.m.

(No matinee on Sunday, February 6.)

San Pedro Playhouse Cellar Theater, 800 West Ashby Place, San Antonio, TX 78212

TICKETS: Adults - $23 with a $3 discount for seniors 60 plus and active military; Students to age 22 with valid ID - $13. A $2 facility/admin fee applies to each ticket. Call 210-733-7258 or visit sanpedroplayhouse.com for tickets.

The comedy Vanities by Jack Heifner opens in the San Pedro Playhouse Cellar Theater on February 4 with weekend performance through March 6. Directed by Laurie Dietrich, the cast includes Heather Kelly, Rainya Mosher and Emily Spicer, all popular leading ladies.

In the early 1960’s, Joanne, Kathy and Mary are vivacious cheerleaders. Five years later, in their college sorority house, they confront their futures with nervous jauntiness. When they reunite briefly in New York in 1974, their lives have diverged and old-time banter rings false. This snapshot-sharp chronicle of the lives of three small town Texas girls is both a bittersweet comedy and a glimpse of the way many of us grew up. Jack Heifner's play captures the spirit of a bygone era as well as the eternal complexities of friendship.

Heifner is the author of more than 25 plays, 17 in publication. He is best known for his play Vanities, which ran for five years in New York becoming one of the longest running plays in off Broadway history. He is also the author of Comfort and Joy; Natural Disasters; Heartbreak; Bargains; Running on Empty; Jumping for Joy; Boy's Play; Home Fires; The Lemon Cookie; Patio / Porches; and other plays produced in New York, Los Angeles and theatres around the country.

See additional image at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Uncle Vanya, Classic Theatre, San Antonio, August 20 - 30

San Antonio's Classic Theatre has opened its second season with a beautifully designed, perceptive and subtly paced production of one of my favorite works, Chekhov's Uncle Vanya.

That's the shorthand version of the title. It was published as Uncle Vanya - Scenes from Country Life. Although at the heart of it there sits an eternally frustrated love triangle -- Vanya and Dr. Astrov both yearning for the unhappily married Yelena -- the play contains much, much more.

These scenes from country life contain an uneasy, boozy friendship between Vanya (John Minton) and Dr. Astrov (Anthony Ciaravino). Vanya and his niece Sonya (Laura Darnell) have spent long years managing the estate so as to finance the studies and urban living expenses of Sonya's father Serebryakov. Serebryakov (Allan S. Ross) has now retired to the estate, gout-ridden, cranky and self-important, after a mediocre academic career. We see relatively little of him, but we see a lot of his current wife Yelena (Emily Spicer) , who is scarcely older than his daughter Sonya.

As in all of Chekhov's dramas, we listen to conversations about the dissatisfactions of rural life, discussions of frustrated ideals and idle speculations about the future. His characters are as vivid as life but anything but heroic -- they are, instead, tentative, indecisive and yearning, perhaps the first in theatrical history to portray those very modern qualities.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Upcoming: Uncle Vanya, Classic Theatre, San Antonio, August 20 -

UPDATE: Click for ALT review, August 24

Received directly:





presents
Uncle Vanya
by Anton Chekov
August 20 - 30
at the Jump-Start Theatre

One of Chekhov's four great comedies,Uncle Vanya deals with desperation, an illicit affair and attempted murder. Chekhov's richly textured characters come into conflict as they struggle with the harsh reality that they are becoming expendable.

DATES: August 20-30, 2009 Thursday-Saturday at 8:00pm Sunday at 3:00pm
All performances are at the Jump-Start Theatre in the Blue Star Arts Complex at 1400 S. Alamo,San Antonio
For Tickets, Call 1-800-838-3006 or purchase on-line
For information about Season Passes, Group Rates, Discounts please call 210-589-8450

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .