Schedule announced for Dallas’ 2008 Festival of Independent Theatres

by Shawn Parikh

The Dallas theatre community looks forward to three different festivals every year: The Out of the Loop Festival in spring at WaterTower Theatre, Kitchen Dog Theater's New Works Festival which just ended, and The FIT Festival/Festival of Independent Theatres at the Bath House Cultural Center every summer. This will be the 10th anniversary year for the oh-so popular FIT Festival featuring ten local theater companies for four weeks of "eagerly anticipated" performances from July 17 - August 9.

Companies will perform works by Tennessee Williams, John Patrick Shanley, William Inge, and local playwrights Isabella Russell-Ides and Thomas Riccio. Seven theater companies return to the FIT fold from last summer's roster while three first-timers (PublicWorks, The Drama Club, One Thirty Proudctions) are stepping up to make their first-ever FIT appearance.

Single tickets ($12-16) are available as well as festival passes. 2-Week Festival Passes (July 17-27, July 30-August 9) are only $49 and 4-Week Festival Passes are only $69. Festival pass holders receive preferred seating at all performances. No need to make reservations. Just show up at the theater 15 minutes before the curtain, show your pass, and be seated first. To purchase tickets, call 214-528-5576.

Click here for a complete festival schedule or click on one of the titles below if you get intrigued:

• Laughing Wild by Christopher Durang. Presented by Act I Productions. Introspection explodes (as do the laughs!) when an emotionally disturbed female and a spiritually confused male collide in the tuna fish aisle of a supermarket. Desperate to communicate and connect, they grapple with questions of sexuality and divine injustice. Directed by Tom Parr IV.
• Anna Bella Eema by Lisa D' Amour. Presented by Core Performance Manufactory. When 10-year-old Anna Bella and her mother are forced to leave their trailer park home thanks to the hot political issue known as eminent domain, they channel the supernatural to face the life they must live in the world outside. Directed by Elizabeth Ware.
• The Ghost Sonata by August Strindberg. Presented by The Drama Club. This series of short, simple dramas (often called “Chamber Plays”) invites audiences to experience the lasts gasps of a high plains pioneer town. This visually startling depiction by seven talented artists includes a student who ravels to the brink of death and a vengeful, manipulative old man whose reproachful life is inextricably bound to the town's other citizens. Directed by Jeffrey Schmidt. CAST:Eric Archilla, John Flores, Maryam Baig, Cindy Beall, Brad McEntire, David Meglino, Christina Neubrand.
• Coco & Gigi by Isabella Russell-Ides (local playwright). Presented by Echo Theatre. What happens when existential clowns munch metaphysical cookies on a park bench in an abstract expressionist world? Can enlightenment be far off? Okay skip enlightenment, what about true love? Directed by Pam Myers-Morgan & H.J. Steward. CAST: Ellen Locy, John Davies, Jeannette Scott, Ashley Wilkerson.
• The Lady of Larkspur Lotion & Hello from Bertha, two Short Plays by Tennessee Williams. Presented by One Thirty Productions. Two of Tennessee’s Williams’ earliest works are the focus here. Although these pieces were written as two separate and independent plays, this production will focus on how these worlds collide and overlap and why the inhabitants are disposable and interchangeable. Directed by Larry Randolph. CAST: Marty Van Kleeck, Mary Lang, Vikas Adam.
• Orange Oranges & So There by Thomas Riccio (local playwright). Presented by Project X. These two docudrama performance fragments are the first of a series of performances, installations, and media presentations entitled “Simulations.” The series is inspired and adapted from day-to-day life in Dallas. Directed by Thomas Riccio.
• A Murder by William Inge. Presented by PublicWorks Theatre. A man seeking peace and quiet in a boarding house in 1950's New York City becomes entangled in the discovery of a deeply disturbing crime. But the truth behind "A Murder" may be too high a price for him to pay. Directed by Julie Bice & Catherine Hopkins. CAST: Kent Williams, Catherine Hopkins, Tom Parr IV.
• Savage in Limbo by John Patrick Shanley. Presented by Theater Fusion. This Shanley gem is a witty and extremely poignant portrayal of five 32-year-olds whose lives converge one night in a small, quiet bar in the Bronx. Each is searching for change, particularly the brash and implacable Denise Savage, who is desperate to escape the loneliness that engulfs her. Directed by Jamie Baker. CAST: Elizabeth Van Winkle, Leslie Curry, David Lugo, Carrie Bourne, Zane Harris.
• Audience by Václav Havel. Presented by Theater Quorum. Recently released from prison, a dissident writer is forced to take a menial job in a brewery, so he can contribute to society. After being called into the brewmaster's office for what may be a casual conversation or perhaps a criminal interrogation, a beer-swilling confrontation erupts. Directed by Cynthia Hestand. CAST: Nye Cooper, Carl Savering.
• A Permanent Signal by Sherry Kramer. Presented by WingSpan Theatre Company. The U.S. premiere of this wacky comedy finds the famous Siren Sisters, Betty and Noreen, on a mystical mission. They step down from the heavens to harvest the sweetness they planted in Mary eons ago. Unfortunately, Mary's sweetness had an expiration date. What's a Siren to do? Directed by Susan Sargeant. CAST: Beverly Jacob Daniel, Lulu Ward, Jennifer Youle.

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