Cast photo – August: Osage County

(L-R: Dane Peterson, Leah Luker, John McGinnis, Grace Brazeal, Carolyn Messina, Ron Dauphinee, Sandra Taylor, Tam DeBolt, Edwin Booth, Jessica Clark, Julie Steward, Patrick Ian McCall, Brad Riegel)

CITY EQUITY THEATRE

Presents

Tracy Letts’ 2008 Pulitzer Prize & Tony Award-winning play

AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY

Directed by Jonathan Fuller

TWO WEEKS ONLY!

For our first production on the Virginia Samford main stage, City Equity Theatre brings you Tracy Letts’ ferociously entertaining play, the winner of the 2008 Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award for Best Play. This darkly hilarious play brings you the portrait of the Westons; an Oklahoma family so outrageously dysfunctional, that you’ll be squirming in your seat even as you’re doubled-over laughing!

Our production stars many of Birmingham’s finest actors: Sandra Taylor, Carolyn Messina*, Tam DeBolt**, Leah Luker*, John McGinnis**, Dane Paterson**, Edwin Booth, Julie Steward**, Patrick Ian McCall*, Jessica Clark**, Gracie Brazeal**, Ron Dauphinee, and Brad Riegel**, in what promises to be a production talked about for years to come!

MAY 30TH – JUNE 9th

At the historic Virginia Samford Theatre

1116 26th Street South

Thursday – Saturdays at 7:30 pm, Sundays at 2:30 pm

Adult Tickets – $30.00 & $25.00, Groups of 10 or more $17.00

SPECIAL STUDENT WALK-UP PRICE (With school I.D.) Only $5.00!

For Tickets and Information call (205) 251-1226 or go to:

www.cityequitytheatre.org

*Member of ACTORS’ EQUITY ASSOCIATION

**Equity Membership Candidate

Call (205) 251-1206 or go to www.virginiasamfordtheatre.org

FOR MATURE AUDIENCES ONLY—VIEWER DISCRETION ADVISED

Photo courtesy of Leo Ticheli

Meet the Cast and Creatives of August: Osage County – Mattie Fae Aiken – Tam DeBolt

Tam DeBolt made her debut with City Equity Theatre in last summer’s Superior Donuts, as Lady (the homeless woman). Birmingham audiences will also remember her from the stages of Red Mountain Theatre Company (RMTC) in 13 Alabama Ghosts and Jeffrey (Kathryn Tucker Windham), Sweeney Todd (Mrs. Lovett), Chicago (Mama Morton) and Gypsy (Mama Rose), among others. Tam has performed on the stages of Birmingham Children’s Theatre in various productions, and also at Terrific New Theatre, where audiences saw her in the title roles of Sophie Tucker: Last of the Red Hot Mamas and Sister Robert Anne’s Cabaret Class. She has stage direction and set design credits with BCT and was the director of RMTC’s production of Big River in 2011. Regional credits: Steel Magnolias (M’ Lynn), Falsettos (Dr. Charlotte) and The Music Man (Mrs. Paroo).

(From the wings: Tam is a serious talent and a class act. Stage managers should not audibly laugh during performance; she made that difficult during Superior Donuts–her Lady was a stitch, but more than that, Tam took a role that might easily have been played as a crank and gave her real depth and gravitas. It’s a pleasure to watch her work, and she’s a joy to have around: could not be happier to have her as a part of the Weston clan. –PJ)

Meet the Cast and Creatives of August: Osage County – Steve Heidebrecht – Patrick Ian McCall (aka Patrick Johnson)

Patrick is the proud inventor of the neologism “theatrician,” coined to describe multi-purpose practitioners of theatre. Acting credits include: Michael, Abingdon Square (Theatre UAB); Guildenstern, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (Birmingham Festival Theatre), Mona, Fortune and Men’s Eyes (Town & Gown); Hunter, [title of show] (Terrific New Theatre); Grandpa Joe, Willy Wonka (Birmingham Children’s Theatre); and Roy Cohn, Angels in America (Theatre Downtown). Additional credits include: lighting design, Salome (Theatre UAB); sound design, The Ladies of Tennessee (BFT) and The Crackwalker (St. Mark’s Studio Theatre, NYC); scenic artist, Summerfest and OzWorks Production and Design Studios; stage manager, Superior Donuts and Ruined (City Equity Theatre); and director, The Sea Horse (CET). Patrick is honored to serve as Vice-President for City Equity Theatre. During daylight hours, he may be found in the Theatre and Dance office at Samford University, where he is the event coordinator for the School of the Arts. Patrick is the proud father of two amazing daughters, Elizabeth and Katarina, to whom he would dedicate this performance were it not wholly inappropriate.

(From the wings: What a difference a quarter-century makes. In 1987 I was a freshman at UAB, playing in O’Neill’s The Hairy Ape with Carolyn Messina, our Barbara for this production, and City Equity co-founder Alan Gardner, who appeared onstage at play’s end naked but for a gorilla mask; our scenic designer, Nicole Allan, was designing lights for the show (and kept Alan tastefully lit in expressionist shadows).  It also marked my introduction to Sandra Taylor, who taught Alan when he still played lineman for Berry High School, and who’d directed Carolyn the prior season in UAB’s Dark of the Moon— I remember standing in the booth at Bell Theatre, hearing this voice booming out from the back of the house: “Oh, Melissa [Shafer, UAB’s TD at the time], this set is just wonderful!” A few weeks later, Carolyn, Alan, Nicole, Dane Peterson, and I all worked together on BCT’s A Christmas Carol…

And now here we are. This cast is something very special. Our first readthrough crackled with a life and spontaneity one hopes to find by opening night, and it’s only getting better with each rehearsal. I’m profoundly grateful for the opportunity to work with this fabulous bunch of people, on this incredible play, at this time. –PJ)

Meet the Cast and Creatives of August: Osage County – “Little” Charles Aiken – Dane Peterson

Having resided in New York City, Mr. Peterson served as the Founding Vice President of the Birmingham Area Theatre Alliance (2003), the Theatre Director for John Carroll Catholic High School (1997 to 2007), Founding Artistic Director at the Dane Peterson Theatre Series (1999 to present) and Director of Production and Education at Birmingham Children’s Theatre (2008-2013.) He currently serves as Program Director for the Southern AIDS Coalition.

Mr. Peterson is an Associate Member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC) and an Equity Membership Candidate with Actors Equity Association.

Off-Off Broadway Acting Credits Include: Minerva’s Muscles (NYC Binge Festival); Thirty-Seven Stones or the Man who was a Quarry (Working Man’s Clothes); Bar Scene (New York is Dead).

Regional Acting Credits Include: I Am My Own Wife (Birmingham Festival Theatre); Cabaret (“Emcee”), Evita, 110 In the Shade, Gypsy (UAB Town and Gown); The Composer is Dead (Alabama Symphony Orchestra); The Normal Heart (“Ned”), Amadeus (“Mozart”) (DPTS); Little Shop of Horrors (“Seymour”) (Magic City Actors Theatre); Scrooge, The Musical (BCT); Secrets Every Smart Traveler Should Know, Sweet and Hot: The Songs of Harold Arlen, The Big Bang (Terrific New Theatre); Once in a Lifetime (Hoover Library Theatre); The Wizard of Oz, Joseph… Dreamcoat, “Amos” in Chicago (Red Mountain Theatre Co); and as a guest artist in the Nationally Ranked production of Urinetown, the Musical (Birmingham-Southern College).

As an educator, Mr. Peterson has been recognized numerous times in the “Who’s Who Among America’s High School Teachers” as well as being given the “US Presidential Scholars Program Teacher Recognition Award” by the US Department of Education in 2001.

[From the wings: Dane has been a pleasure to watch in this role since the first audition. It’s hard to believe that when we first met he was playing Tiny Tim in A Christmas Carol at Birmingham Children’s Theatre; today he’s a multi-hyphenate theatre practitioner and a consummate professional, bringing a wealth of experience and commitment to our production. Thank you, Mr. Peterson, for contributing your time and talents…and be careful with that casserole! —PJ]