Come See Pear Slices 2010

Pear Slices 2010

Directed by
Troy Johnon
and Diane Tasca

Eight 10 Minute Plays
Written by

Members of the Pear Playwrights Group
Paul Braverman, Doug Brook, Helena G. Clarkson, Leah Halper, Margy Kahn, Megan Ma, Elyce Melmon, and Ross Peter Nelson

Cast
Lance Fuller

Maria Giere

Shelley Lynn Johnson
Bill C. Jones
Kate Jopson
Peggy Lynch
Ray Renati*
Alika Spencer

*Member, Actors Equity

 The Plays

1. Timelines tangle as visitors from The Future invade a bedroom and push the re-set button on a couple's missed opportunity . . . to procreate. – Paul Braverman, Out of Time
2. A man and a woman run the gamut of a relationship in ten minutes, performing a courtship dance that might have been choreographed by Samuel Beckett.– Helena G. Clarkson, As Is (No Warranty)
3. Two lifelong friends--one too busy to appreciate life, the other with too little time left--rediscover the ties that bind them, and forge new ones – Megan Ma, Foreign Bodies
4. A creature from Scottish legends crawls out onto California's rocky coast: Half-man, half-seal, and looking for Love, the Selkie encounters an aging flower child and uptight female park ranger. --Margy Kahn, The Selkie
5. A Jewish mother and daughter find temporary sanctuary from the Nazis in a Catholic church in Italy. A friendly priest offers them longterm protection, but they must assume the identity of Catholic nuns. – Elyce Melmon, The Veiling
6. A homeless, wheel-chair-bound Vietnam vet helps a woman find the name of the father she never met in Portland's Vietnam Memorial. – Leah Halper, Eye Level Eye
7. A young woman returns from Italy with a surprising announcement for her parents: She had found God in the person of a polite young man whom she met on the sidewalk in Rome. – Doug Brook, Finding God
8. Two peace activists are stuck for ideas about political theatre. So they cross the River Styx to seek advice from the master--the Greek playwright Aristophanes. –Ross Peter Nelson, The Return of The Frogs

Pear Slices 2010 previews on Thursday, February 11, opens Friday, February 12, and closes on Sunday, February 28. Performances are Thursdays thru Saturdays at 8pm, and Sundays at 2pm; there is also a 2pm Saturday matinee on February 27.

Location: the Pear Avenue Theatre, 1220 Pear Avenue , Mountain View , CA 94043 .

Tickets: Thursdays & Sundays: $20 General / $15 Students + Seniors; Fridays & Saturdays: $25/$20; opening-night gala: $30/$25.

Reservations: 650-254-1148 or www.thepear.org. For credit card orders, call Brown Paper Tickets at 1-800-838-3006..

Plow is Finally Here

Well, we open tonight. What a great time this has been for me. It's so rewarding when you have the chance to work with a group of actors that are all focused on simply making the show the best it can be. We had our preview last night and it went very well. It's interesting to watch the audience respond to "Speed-the-Plow". Much of the dialogue is shocking to our 2010 politically correct ears. Wait, let me rephrase that. In public, people put on their politically correct faces. At home watching t.v. or a movie there is plenty of non-p.c. stuff out there. And at home, in the privacy of our living rooms we laugh. Look at all the popular shows: Jersey Shore, Cops, etc.. But in public, people never want to show that they might find cynical, obscenity filled ideas amusing or entertaining. Thus, many cower, in public. That's one of the reasons I've been so pleased to be able to bring this show to our audience. I like to shake people up and help them get off their self-imposed pedestals. There is often nothing more freeing. Always having to censor our reactions to humorous vulgarity or cynical irony is tiresome. Mamet gives us a chance for an hour or two to be free of that burden.

Come and see the show!



Get your tickets early, as this show is sure to sell out!
Visit our on-line box office or call 1-800-838-3006 for tickets.

Directed by Ray Renati
Starring: Paul Loomis, Jake Vincent, & Sarah Griner

Opens January 8th
runs through
January 24th
Learn more

Paul Loomis as Bobby Gould	Jake Vincent as Charlie Fox	Sarah Griner as Karen

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The Story

Hollywood mid-level producers Bobby Gould and Charlie Fox engage in a verbal boxing match centered on the eternal debate of art versus money. Should Gould recommend to his unseen boss another bad action would-be blockbuster? Or should he put himself on the line for a film adaptation of a spiritual, uplifting, and apocalyptic novel? The office's temp acts as catalyst in this debate. Gould has her read the novel in order to report on it to him later at his apartment. Things get very heated, but we don't want to spoil it for you. So come see the show!

Continue reading more about the play on our web site.

Dissecting Mamet

Directing "Speed-the Plow" has been a challenging and engaging experience. The dialog is difficult for the actors, and even though it seems on first reading to be somewhat broad and disjointed, the writing actually requires a high degree of specificity from a directorial standpoint as well as from an acting standpoint. For instance there are moments when a one of the characters is angry about something. As I work the scene with the actor it becomes obvious that the anger needs to display a certain type of anger. It has to be seen as more of a frustrated sort of anger than a vengeful type of anger. The lines after the outburst simply don't make sense if the appropriate type of anger isn't displayed.

After discovering this, another problem surfaces. You want the actor to respond in a realistic meaningful way that doesn't involve the "forcing" of any particular emotion. So, how do you get the actor to display a particular shade of anger without it becoming forced or fake? It requires a conversation with the actor about the situation and why a more frustrated anger is supported by the given circumstances of the play. Hopefully, you have cast actors that are versatile enough to understand shades of gray and to translate them into grounded and poignant moments on stage. I am happy to say that our cast is exquisite in this respect.

We have a month before the show opens and we are in great shape. One advantage of not having to hire Equity actors is that you can afford to spend more time than normal on a difficult script. This has certainly been the case with this particular play.

More to come soon......

Great Deal on NOVEMBER at A.C.T.

I saw November on Sunday. It's Mamet at his best. Andrew Polk as President Charles Smith is a craftsman at Mamet-speak. He's cynical, hillarious and outrageous. His straight man, Anthony Fusco as his aid Archer Brown plays off of Polk with precision and displays a dry sense of humor that will leave you in side splitting pain. The good kind.

Take of advantage of this offer ......................


November's President Charles P. Smith has a deal for you!

Never one to pass up a deal, President Smith is offering $20 off a pair of Orchestra or Dress Circle seats for select performances of November before it must close November 22. Great seats are available! To save, use promo code MAMET online or call us at 415.749.2228.*

Forward this offer to a friend, or treat yourself to a repeat performance. Don't get stuck on the "piggy plane," catch November before it closes!

Have something to say? Tell us on our Facebook page or on Yelp. Become a fan of A.C.T. and share news about upcoming events, check out our video trailers, and much more.

*All tickets subject to availability. Not valid for previously purchased tickets or exchanges.

American Idiot in Berkeley

Berkeley Rep did it again with American Idiot. The set is amazing, the cast puts out more energy than seems humanly possible, the music hard and loud and wild. This is a great show. With a few tweaks in the dialogue, I could see this being a big hit on Broadway.