Playreaders kicks off new season, June 15, 2007

Theater
Playreaders presents Good as New 
Wed & Thurs, June 20 &21, 7:30pm
St. Paul’s Church
Cardo 6
10 pesos

San Miguel de Allende’s theatrical institution, The Playreaders, opens its 2007/2008 season with a driving, hard-edged comedy, Good as New, by Peter Hedges.

Good as New is a whiplash, coming of age comedy about the secrets people keep from each other. The play follows the disintegration of an educated, affluent Chicago family—parents and teenage daughter—following Mom’s face lift. The daughter is devastated her mother, a personal hero and committed feminist, has violated her core beliefs. Mom is scared to death of losing her husband to a younger woman. And Dad faces his own mid-life crisis of faith, ideals and creeping mortality.

Each character in self-defense from the other lets slip a secret, a lie and once the dam of secrets and lies breaks open, where do the floodwaters stop? Good as New builds to a riveting, surprising and explosive climax. In the end, even through the deluge of disillusionment, disappointment and danger, the love between husband, wife and child offers the hope of redemption, healing and renewal.

Hedges, the author of such classics as What’s Eating Gilbert Grape and About a Boy, is at the top of his game in Good as New. The characters are intelligent and compelling, the language sparks fire and the story is brave, heartbreaking and brutally honest. The New York Daily News called the show “moving as it is funny” and we think you’ll agree.

Three of San Miguel’s finest actors have signed on to perform:

Gwen Holmes plays 16-year-old Maggie, a girl with a ferocious love for her parents and who holds them to perhaps impossible standards, given the frailty of human beings.

John Wharton is Dennis, the brilliant lawyer who argues landmark cases before the Supreme Court and sees his prime passing him by and so does what many do—lets his heart and fidelity wander.

Jill Gottlieb, in her Playreaders’ debut, plays Jan, the enlightened feminist, fresh from a face-lift, high on pain meds and in a desperate attempt to preserve her crumbling marriage. 

Good as New, directed by Michael Gottlieb, is presented at Saint Paul’s Church at 7:30 pm (will begin earlier if the house is full) at the still famous donation of only 10 pesos.

Bringing Still Life to life

Theater
Still Life: A Theatrical and Musical Portrait of Georgia O’Keeffe and Frida Kahlo
Fri & Sat, June 15 & 16, 8pm
Sun, June 17, 7pm
Teatro Santa Ana
Biblioteca Pública
Reloj 50 A
150 pesos

San Miguel audiences have the privilege to see the first full-scale presentation of Still Life: A Theatrical and Musical Portrait of Georgia O’Keeffe and Frida Kahlo, which is co-produced by the National Hispanic Cultural Center and Camino Real. This work is replete with dialogs based on actual correspondence between the two artists, musical interludes and visual projections of the two artists’ works. Do not miss one of the most extraordinary and beautiful productions that has come to San Miguel! Tickets are available at Casa de Papel, Mesones & Reloj; La Tienda at the Biblioteca Pública; the Biblioteca Pública patio.