<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span> <font size="4"> </font></span><font size="4">Theater
Voices</font> of Albany announces an adventurous line-up of plays for its 23rd
season.<span> </span>The award-winning troupe,
which has presented free-of-charge staged readings since 1989, is offering a
roster that includes rarely-performed works by Harold Pinter and Jean Cocteau,
as well as a fresh, contemporary script by Joanna McClelland Glass and a
beloved American romance by Richard Nash.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">The first production, to be
presented October 15-17, 2010, will be TRYING</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">by Joanna McClelland Glass,
directed by Carol Charniga.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span> </span>This richly scripted, bittersweet play is set in 1967
when Francis Biddle—Attorney General under FDR and Chief Judge of the Nuremberg
trials--is 81 years old and trying to put his life in order. An elegant, but
sharp and cantankerous man, Biddle struggles with the trials of age and failing
health. His wife has forced upon him a new secretary from the Canadian
provinces named Sarah-- all of 25 years old--and the two struggle to find a way
to communicate. These two strangers, at dramatically different places in their
lives, unexpectedly and forever influence one other.<span> </span><i>Trying</i> is
based upon Glass’ own experience as Biddle’s personal secretary.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Times;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">The second production, to be
presented February 11-13, 2011, will be THE HOTHOUSE <span> </span><span> </span>by
Harold Pinter, directed by David Girard</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Times;"><span> </span><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">In
this early work by the Nobel Prize-winning playwright, the scene is a state-run
institution, whose inmates are kept behind locked gates at all times, and
referred to by numbers rather than their names. But to find the epitome of insanity in this mysterious
establishment, one need look no further than its administrators, led by the superintendent, </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Times;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Roote,
and his questionable associates.
The mysterious death of one patient and an equally surprising birth by
another, bring matters at this dysfunctional institution to a head. This “comedy of menace” was revised and
directed by Pinter himself in 1980.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;">The third production, to be presented April 8-10,
2011 is <span style="font-family: Times;">THE RAINMAKER</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Times;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">by Richard Nash,
directed by Eileen Schuyler</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Times;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"> The
blazing heat of a rural town in the Depression-era American West provides the
setting for Nash’s 1954 award-winning classic. The Currie family—a father, two brothers and their spinster
sister Lizzie--worries more about her marriage prospects than about their dying
cattle. When a confidence
trickster named Starbuck arrives, promising to bring rain in exchange for $100,
a series of events are set in motion that enable Lizzie to see herself in a new
light. Translated into over 40
languages, this captivating play was revived on Broadway in 1999, and was made
into both a renowned film and a musical, </span><i>110 in the Shade</i></span><span style="font-family: Times;">.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;">The final production, to be presented May 20-22,
2011, is <span style="font-family: Times;">LES PARENTS TERRIBLES </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">by Jean Cocteau,
directed by David Baecker</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Times;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"> Cocteau’s
1938 play—in a sharp translation by Jeremy Sams—has taken the conventions and
clichés of middle-class boulevard comedy (infidelity, adultery, mistaken
identity) and woven them into an alternately hilarious and ferocious
farce. Set in a prewar Paris
rambunctiously self-absorbed and unaware of the coming deluge, this audacious
play features a handsome, surprisingly innocent young man, whose announcement
that he has fallen in love throws his family into a volcanic turmoil. The play had successful revivals in
London and New York in the 1990s.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in; line-height: 150%;">Theater Voices of
Albany is a group of dedicated actors and directors, who for two decades have
presented both new and classic works, with the specific goal of emphasizing the
richness of the playwrights’ language. Each production is a fully performed
staged reading, but with minimal scenery and simple costumes.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span> </span>The group is funded in
part by the City of Albany and the New York State Council on the Arts Community
ART$ Grant.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; line-height: 150%;">Contact: <a href="mailto:info@theatervoices.org" target="_blank">info@theatervoices.org</a> or 518-438-5503</p>