Newsletter of Town & Gown Players, Athens, Georgia

Celebrating Over 50 Continuous Years of Community Theater

July-August 2006

In This Issue

How I Learned to Drive on the Mainstage	Town & Gown Event Calendar
A Whole Season on Your Fridge	How Did You Learn to Drive?
Second Stage Presents In Flanders' Fields	Where Do Directors Come From?
Banquet? I Don't Even Know It!	Get Your News in the Envoy
"Rosebud"	Board Meeting Schedule
Who's Serving on the Board of Directors	Get in Touch with the Envoy

Visit the Town & Gown home page!

Reservations (706) 208-TOWN (8696) · Lobby/Backstage (706) 548-3854

Vogel Drama a Complex Addition to Town & Gown Mainstage

From the first titillating scene of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play How I Learned to Drive, the audience tumbles headlong through one woman's stories and confessions of growing up in 1960s-70s Maryland.

Through the 90-minute one act, the audience is a passenger on the highway of her memories, a highway that takes us through familial places, awkward adolescent turns, and even a few disturbing detours. In writing this play, Paula Vogel has achieved the seemingly impossible: A story about a taboo subject that is as funny as it is unsettling. The events are recalled by Li'l Bit, a young woman who receives driving lessons from her Uncle Peck. The relationship that develops between them allows the audience to move beyond the expected censure of this situation to see the basic humanity that binds these two characters together. Li'l Bit finds in her Uncle Peck someone who not only cares about introducing her to things she needs to know but, just as importantly, someone who needs to know her.

Veteran actors Bryn Adamson and Rex Totty bring to the T&G stage the considerable talent and experience required to portray these subtly painted characters, characters who are as unstereotypical a victim and victimizer as Lolita and Humbert (from Nabokov's Lolita, which the playwright credits as her inspiration).

Accompanied by a Greek Chorus of supporting characters including T&G regulars Derek Adams and Kris Tanner and newcomers Mary Herman and Laurin Nutt, the impact of their journey on the audience's emotions will tease the memory for a long time to come.

Directed by Allen Rowell (Six Degrees of Separation, Art, Sylvia), the show runs July 7-16, 2006 at the Athens Community Theater; curtain times are 8:00 p.m. for evening performances, 2:00 p.m. for Sunday matinees.

Audience members should note that the mature and sexually explicit thematic material presented by the playwright may not be appropriate for children under 13. The playwright presents the material with delicate brushstrokes and no intent to offend but to rationalize and reveal. It is perhaps because of Vogel's adroitness in this delicate presentation that when the play premiered at the Vineyard Theatre in New York in 1997, it won every off-Broadway award for Best Play, including the Obie, Drama Desk, New York Drama Critics Circle, and Outer Critics Circle.

Town & Gown Event Calendar

July 2006
7-8	How I Learned to Drive on the Mainstage Curtain time 8:00 p.m., post-show reception on opening night Read the story
9	How I Learned to Drive matinee Curtain time 2:00 p.m.
10-11	Auditions for The Tempest 7:00 p.m. Read the story
13-15	How I Learned to Drive Curtain time 8:00 p.m.
16	How I Learned to Drive matinee Curtain time 2:00 p.m.
21-22	Second Stage presents In Flanders' Fields and Other Voices Curtain time 8:00 p.m., post-show reception on opening night Read the story
23	In Flanders' Fields matinee Curtain time 2:00 p.m.
August 2006
5	Town & Gown's annual end-of-season banquet Food! Prizes! Dish! Read the story
11-13	Athens Little Playhouse presents (title TBA) at Athens Community Theater
September 2006
22-23	The Tempest opens the 2006-7 Mainstage season Curtain time 8:00 p.m. Read the story
24	The Tempest matinee Curtain time 2:00 p.m.
25-26	Auditions for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? 7:00 p.m. at the theater Read the story
28-30	The Tempest Curtain time 8:00 p.m.

A Whole T&G Season on Your Fridge

Thanks to Julie Ramsey and Brooke Hatfield, we have a plenitude of memory aids for you.

The fine new season brochure is ready for distribution. In a great design, it describes each show in the coming season and adds lots of data about the Players, volunteer opportunities, how to get to the playhouse, and the benefits of belonging to the Friends of Town & Gown.

If you have a 2005-6 season ticket, you'll receive a copy of the brochure by mail in the next few weeks. Others can pick up one in the lobby on performance evenings.

Oh, and magnets. As we did last year, we've created a reminder you can stick to the refrigerator (or your car, if it's made of Detroit steel). If you don't grab one at the ticket counter, it'll grab you.

The Envoy  Asks Three Totally Random Passersby...

How did you learn to drive?

Random Superhero	Gopher-About-Town	Kent Clark
I'm too busy owning the night to drive.	Between takes of Caddyshack.	Still working on it.

War good for something:

Second Stage Presents In Flanders' Fields

We'll teach the lesson that ye wrought in Flanders' Fields.

Moina Michael, 1918

In Flanders' Fields and Other Voices is a staged reading of poems, plays, and short stories on the topic of war. With themes ranging over a wide spectrum from the need for war and the glory of battle to the bitter price paid for armed conflict and its impact on future generations, the sampling of literature will include works by Charles Rann Kennedy, Stephen Maria Crane, Homer, Rudyard Kipling, Sun Tzu, William Shakespeare, John McCrae, and Athens' own Moina Michael.

A Town & Gown Second Stage presentation. July 21-23, 2006. 8:00 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 2:00 p.m. Sunday. $5 general admission (no reservations). For more details visit the Town & Gown web site.

Where Do Directors Come From?

Orientation for Director Hopefuls

Town & Gown seeks directors for two productions in the 2006-7 Mainstage Season. But in the larger view, Town & Gown just always seeks directors.

To get a directing gig with us, you have to be a member in good standing. You need at least three credits with our company, including at least one credit as assistant director on a Mainstage production. The board has some discretion to consider other experience, for example directing with other companies.

The 2006-7 productions still in need of directors are Lady Windermere's Fan (auditions Nov. 13-14, 2006; performances Feb. 16-25, 2007) and Play It Again, Sam (auditions Feb. 19-20, 2007; performances April 13-22). If you're qualified, you may apply by writing to President Andy Garrison or Vice-President Terrell Austin. Either of them can provide you a script to read, too.

So you're asking yourself: What's the deal? Who will help? How much money can I spend? Do I have to go back to college and take directing courses?

The board of directors invites you to take part in an orientation for new, old and prospective directors:
Saturday, July 29
10:00 a.m. at the theater
Bring a pencil and a few bucks for lunch

We're introducing a new edition of the Production Team Handbook at the meeting. It provides a lot of basic and advanced details (although it may be that the most vital chapter is the list of board and committee contacts.) The new edition comes on paper and CD-ROM, too.

If you mean to apply for next season--Mainstage or Second Stage--or just have a long-term interest in directing at Town & Gown, be sure to join us on the 29th.

Banquet? I Don't Even Know It!

• Town & Gown Awards Banquet.
• August 5th.
• Be there or become some sort of social outcast.
• Frivolity and self-congratulatory back-patting are promised, as well as unexpected shenanigans.
• Rumors of a petting zoo and Board Member Dunk Tank are completely unfounded. Completely. Watch your mailbox vigilantly; invitations will grace them in a mere fortnight or two.

What Do You Know That We Don't?

You can get your news in the paper too! Whether it's the inside line on your next production, your psychic encounter with George Bernard Shaw or the ever-popular baby announcement, get your story to the beneficent Envoy editor, Brooke Hatfield.

Turn, Turn, Turn: a New Season at Town & Gown

As it must to all seasons, the final curtain of the 2005-6 season will fall on July 23. But unlike Charles Foster Kane, we go on:

The Tempest, by William Shakespeare Sept. 22-24, Sept. 28-Oct. 1 Director: Steven Carroll Auditions: July 10-11	A magical, musical tale of revenge and romance. The royal family of Naples finds itself stranded by a storm at sea on an enchanted island populated by fantastic creatures under the command of a sorcerer with a score to settle. Shakespeare's final masterpiece, the play and its poetry explore universal themes of love, freedom and forgiveness.
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee Nov. 10-12 and 16-19 Director: Elissa Hadley Auditions: Sept. 25-26	Winner of the 1963 Tony Award for Best Play, here is a brilliantly written tale of a married couple with a terrible secret that has been the foundation of their relationship. Their world starts to crumble when they invite another couple over for a nightcap in this scorching, scalding, revealing and completely engrossing drama.
Lady Windermere's Fan, by Oscar Wilde Feb. 16-18 and 22-25, 2007 Director: Apply now! Auditions: Nov. 13-14, 2006	An uproarious psychological study chronicling misunderstandings and deceptions in Victorian high society. One of Wilde's most popular plays, this hilarious comic masterpiece sparkles with sardonic wit, clever paradoxes, humorous quips and jealous snits.
Play It Again, Sam, by Woody Allen April 13-15 and 19-22, 2007 Director: Apply now! Auditions: Feb. 19-20	Linda and Dick have been nagging their friend Allan Felix to start dating after a painful divorce. In his indefinite way, Allan agrees. Things are looking up now that he's following the relationship advice he gets from the shade of Humphrey Bogart. The comedy earned three Tony nominations.
The Trip to Bountiful, by Horton Foote June 22-24 and June 28-July 1, 2007 Director: Marie Bruce Auditions: April 16-17	The poignant story of Carrie Watts, the role which won Geraldine Page an Academy Award. The Trip to Bountiful features Horton Foote's signature blend of realism, humor and heartbreak as we journey with an aging widow chafing under the constraints of age (and a snippy daughter-in-law), yearning to escape to the remembered charm of her youth.

Board and Membership Meeting Schedule 2006

The board of directors meets on the third Tuesday of each month at the Old Athens Jail on Meigs Street. Any member of Town & Gown may attend board meetings. For times and other details, send an email to President Andy Garrison.

Mark your calendar now: August 5, Town & Gown end-of-season banquet. Watch the Envoy and your mailboxes for more details.

The Annual Meeting of Town & Gown members will take place in October 2006.

Board Members and Other Department Heads

President	Andy Garrison	president@townandgownplayers.org
Vice-President	Terrell Austin	vicepresident@townandgownplayers.org
Secretary	Alison Hooper	secretary@townandgownplayers.org
Treasurer	Patty Freeman-Lynde	treasurer@townandgownplayers.org
Membership	Kris Tanner	membership@townandgownplayers.org
Envoy Editor	Brooke Hatfield	envoy@townandgownplayers.org
Friends of Town & Gown/Development	Amy Miller	development@townandgownplayers.org
Facilities	Allen Rowell	facilities@townandgownplayers.org
Front of House	Kelly McGlaun Fields Amy Wildey	house@townandgownplayers.org
Second Stage	Steven Carroll	secondstage@townandgownplayers.org
Publicity	Julie Ramsey	publicity@townandgownplayers.org
Season Tickets	Marie Bruce	seasontickets@townandgownplayers.org
Webmaster	Eric Wagoner	webmaster@townandgownplayers.org

Town & Gown Players is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization. Your gifts are tax-deductible.

Town & Gown Players
P.O. Box 565
Athens, Georgia 30603
Lobby and backstage phone: (706) 548-3854
Reservations service: (706) 208-TOWN (208-8696) · Please call during regular business hours

Our website includes great links, a form to place your name on our e-mailing list, a map, photographs, history, features about our upcoming shows, and lots of other information. There's even a page where you can sign up to work as an usher, sell tickets, etc.

Comments, suggestions, or questions regarding the newsletter or Town & Gown membership? Contact Membership Chair Kris Tanner or Envoy Editor Brooke Hatfield.

Brooke Hatfield edits and publishes the Envoy six times a year, more or less. Webmaster Eric Wagoner and Ben Teague designed the online version.

© Town & Gown Players 2006