[Capdist-announce] (no subject)

Wed Jun 1 12:08:20 EDT 2022

Dear Press & Media Friends,

In the coming month, GBPT has four solo shows opening in quick
succession. *Grief,
the Musical...a Comedy* opens this weekend.

Here is info on *The Shot, *and *w*e will soon send you a release on Will
LeBow's* The Bard The Beat The Blues. *Apologies for having to stack these
releases up, but our stage is busy this month. Thank you for keeping eyes
out for info coming soon on *The Bard The Beat The Blues.*

*For Immediate Release*

*Contact: Mike Clary*

*MrMikeClary1 at gmail.com*

*518-267-0683*

*May 31, 2022*

*Great Barrington Public Theater Stages Special Event: Sharon Lawrence
stars in five performances of The Shot, Robin Gerber’s new play exploring
the little-known domestic violence suffered by Katharine Graham before she
became famed publisher of The Washington Post.*

GB Public Theater punctuates the 2022 stage season with four new, solo
performances that run for five weeks, themed to stories of humanity and the
power of a single voice to tell them.

The third show opening in the series is the world premiere of Robin
Gerber’s new play,* The Shot *(June 16-19), directed by Michelle Joyner and
starring Emmy Award-winning actress Sharon Lawrence as Katharine Graham,
whose journey from an isolated, abused young mother to powerful publisher
of *The Washington Post*, brought down Richard Nixon’s White House. Her
backstory takes audiences into the shadows of an abusive marriage that led
to a stunning, life-altering trauma. Katharine's struggle to discover
herself leads her to become the woman who shook up Washington and became a
model of determination and power.

Before her celebrity, Graham was consigned and resigned to the shadows of
male dominion, expected to follow the patterns of quiet if not servile
wifely domestication common to the time. Obedient to rules and standard
roles, she married young and began a family, even stepping docilely aside
when her father turned the family finances and publishing business over to
her husband, although she had long aspired to be a writer and journalist.
>From there followed child-rearing, domestic abuse, a publicly, demeaning
spousal affair, societal humiliation, a broken-down marriage and the
eventual violent trauma that changed her forever. On her own, she
resurrected herself, marshalling her mettle to return to writing and the
iron will to take control of her life and the family company, and to
strategize and assemble the publishing empire that made her name and
changed the country.

*The Shot* is a work of fiction based on playwright Robin Gerber’s
book, *Katharine
Graham: The Leadership Journey of An American Icon*. The backstory exposes
the scourge of intimate partner abuse and domestic violence, and deals with
issues that still define our times--gender bias; financial power; guns in
America; and power structures that subjugate women. Along the way, *The
Shot* explores Katharine Graham’s distinct, winning character, inner
conflicts, fear, and deep faith in love and duty. Her struggles to
persevere and persist exemplifies survival and triumph against overwhelming
odds.

In playwright Robin Gerber’s words, “*The Shot* is a story for this
moment. The #metoo focus on harassment and abuse outside the home must look
inside as well. The first refuge for sexism and misogyny is the treatment
of women as objects for abuse in their domestic life. If we can be abused
with impunity, we can be paid less, denied opportunity and control over our
bodies.”

In choosing *The Shot *to show the power of a single human voice Jim
Frangione, GB Public Artistic Director, explains, “*The Shot *is a personal
story of a famed person who faces and conquers harrowing circumstance that
too many women are forced and expected to face every day. She took on
gender shaming, grappled with self-conflict and mastered self-discovery.
It’s a story of human character that makes us all exceptional.”

*The Shot* is onstage for five performances only, June 16-June 19,
Thurs.-Sun., 7:30pm and 3pm, in the Liebowitz Black Box Theater, Bard
College at Simon’s Rock, 84 Alford Rd, Great Barrington, MA 01230. Tickets
and information are on the Great Barrington Public Theater website
<https://www.greatbarringtonpublictheater.org/>.

[image: The-Shot image.jpg]

###

*Sharon Lawrence as Katharine Graham*:

After earning a degree in journalism from the UNC-Chapel Hill, Sharon went
on become a prominently featured on stage and screen actor. Her television
work includes her multiple EMMY nominated and SAG award-winning run on NYPD
Blue, work in THE GAZE on YouTube earned a 5th Emmy nomination. Her series,
JOE PICKETT, on Spectrum and Paramount+ is in its 2nd season of production
and her Hallmark movies THE CHRISTMAS HOUSE 1 & 2 have both earned GLAAD
nominations. Notable stints on hit shows such as  REBEL, QUEEN SUGAR,
SHAMELESS, DYNASTY, ON BECOMING A GOD IN CENTRAL FLORIDA, DESPERATE
HOUSEWIVES, RIZZOLI & ILES and GREY'S ANATOMY which earning her an EMMY
nomination. Film work includes the indie hits MIDDLE OF NOWHERE from Ava
DuVernay and THE LOST HUSBAND, both on Netflix.  Sharon spent 10 years on
Broadway in *Cabaret, Fiddler on the  Roof *and as Velma in *Chicago *and
since in LA at The Mark Taper Forum, in *Poor Behavior *and *The Mystery Of
Love and Sex, * the cabaret, *Love, Noel, *at the Wallis Annenberg Center
for the Performing Arts, in several roles at the Geffen Playhouse and at
the Pasadena Playhouse in *A Song At Twilight, A Kid Like Jake and Orson’s
Shadow, *for which she was nominated for an Ovation Award and won the LA
Drama Critics Circle Award.

She has been part of THE SHOT’s creative team since it’s first reading at
Ojai Playwright’s Conference in 2017. Non-profit service plays a major role
in Sharon's life as former Chair of  the Women in Film Foundation, current
Chair the BoD of Heal The Bay and as a Trustee of the Screen Actors Guild
Foundation.

[image: image.png]

Actor Sharon Lawrence, credit GBPT

*Michelle Joyner-Director *

Michelle has had a career as a successful hyphenate for over 30 years in
New York, Los Angeles, and more recently, the Berkshires. As an actor she
enjoys a prolific career in television and film including numerous series
regular roles, guest stars, has dozens of commercials and feature films.
She is probably best remembered by those with vertigo as the girl who fell
from Sylvester Stallone’s grasp in CLIFFHANGER.

Theater credits include originating the lead in LIFE SENTENCES by Richard
Nelson at Second Stage NY, ANNAPURNA at The Chester Theater in the
Berkshires, 8: THE PLAY at The Public Theater, ROMEO AND JULIET at Indiana
Rep, opposite Michael Cerveris and Viggo Mortensen, as well as many Los
Angeles productions. Since returning to western Mass, Michelle has worked
at PS21 performing an original piece in SHE/HER last season which she will
be taking to Edinburgh this summer. She is also a member of Shakespeare and
Co and there was recently in THE APPROACH. Michelle has written, directed
and performed in many plays at Berkshire Playwrights Lab and is a member of
Berkshire Voices.

As a screenwriter, Michelle has written 10 studio films for FOX
SEARCHLIGHT, WORKING TITLE, UNIVERSAL, MIRAMAX, and HBO FILMS. She has done
film adaptations from books by best-selling authors Jane Smiley, DH
Lawrence, Katherine Harrison, Richard Bausch and many others. She wrote and
performed the short play ASKING FOR A FRIEND for Berkshire Playwrights Lab,
and recently completed her first full-length play IODINE.

As a director, Michelle has helmed plays with Shakespeare and Co, most
recently THE WAVERLY GALLERY; Santa Monica Rep; Greenlight Productions; The
Edinburgh Fringe Festival; Ojai Playwrights Conference and others. She
directed the short film SWEET NOTHINGS and a filmed version of THE SHOT.
She will direct THE SHOT in the United Solo Festival in New York City in
the fall, with Sharon Lawrence.

She is also a spoken word performer and a repeat performer on THE MOTH and
other story salons on the west coast. She is a professional acting coach
and dramaturg, and leads THE LONG TABLE, a women’s writing group.

[image: image.png]

Director Michelle Joyner-Credit GBPT

*Robin Gerber-Playwright*

*The Shot**, *Robin’s first play, was selected for the 2017 Ojai
Playwrights Conference. After a well-spent youth involving drugs, sex and
feminist activism, Robin took the next logical step and became a
Washington, D.C. lawyer. She worked on Capitol Hill for a legendary leader
of the House of Representatives, before leaving to be a union lobbyist
during the Clinton years. Robin’s post-politics writing life includes: The
bestselling advice book,* Leadership the Eleanor Roosevelt Way*
(Penguin), *Katharine
Graham* (Penguin), *Barbie and Ruth*, about the founder of Mattel
(HarperCollins), and the novel *Eleanor vs. Ike*, which imagines Eleanor
Roosevelt running for President in 1952 (HarperAvon). Robin has toured the
professional speaking circuit, motivating audiences at many Fortune 500
companies with stories from the lives of great women leaders. She has also
appeared as a guest historian for the Biography and History channels and as
a featured historian on the CNN/HBO documentary series *First Ladies* speaking
about Eleanor Roosevelt. robingerber.com

*Great Barrington Public Theater*
<https://www.greatbarringtonpublictheater.org/> was founded by Artistic
Director Jim Frangione and Executive Director Deann Simmons Halper to
create opportunities for theater artists in the Berkshires and neighboring
regions. Great Barrington Public Theater recognizes the many excellent
playwrights, actors, directors, designers, administrators and technicians
living in the Berkshires and surrounding areas. Our objective is to bring a
mix of new and contemporary plays to the stage in a variety of formats; to
generate and foster creative and rigorous opportunity for local theater
artists, while engaging our theatergoing public with new and contemporary
readings, workshops, and fully staged productions, involving local talent
as often as possible, and always keeping ticket prices affordable.

*###*
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