SALT LAKE ACTING COMPANY PRESENTS (A MAN ENTERS) BY ELAINE JARVIK & KATE JARVIK BIRCH, DIRECTED BY ALEXANDRA HARBOLD.
‘What kind of man claims to know about intelligence and
can’t even see how important his own kids are?”
-Rosie (a man enters)
On November 2, 2011 Salt Lake Acting Company will present the World Premiere of (a man enters) by Utah playwrights and mother/daughter duo Elaine Jarvik and Kate Jarvik Birch in our intimate Chapel Theatre. The play is a semi-autobiographical and a wildly whimsical comic odyssey about love and family - and what happens after.
First presented last season as a reading in SLAC’s New Play Sounding Series, (a man enters) introduces us to Rosie, an anxious thirty something who is frantically attempting to create the perfect birthday party for her grandmother in hopes that her father Peter will show up. Peter M. Curtis is famous for winning a Nobel Prize for his work in artificial intelligence yet he remains a mystery. Peter is remarried and he hasn’t seen Rosie or her brother Milo in twenty years. The script comically explores the family’s relationship with the idea of Peter, as they each fill his void with their own fantasies.
Director Alexandra Harbold describes the natural humor and honesty of the play: “When someone is absent, you cannot say what you need to say or ask all the questions you need to ask; sometimes you just need a really good fantasy. The Jarviks’ play wrangles with questions of abandonment in a wry, completely unexpected way as Rosie and her family play with the potent, volatile magic of a hoped for encounter.”
(a man enters) started as Elaine & Kate’s own personal catharsis. It was a way to bring to life something that could only happen in their imaginations —a way of seeing and interacting with a man who'd removed himself from their lives so many years before.
“After a while we had to let go of our own longings and eccentricities, and instead write the play that the characters needed.” Elaine says, “Real life was a perfect jumping off point, but once we let go of reality, the play came to life.”
ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHTS:
ELAINE JARVIK has spent most of her Utah writing career trying to report the facts, first for the Deseret News and more recently as a freelancer. She is thrilled now to make stuff up. She got her start as a fledgling playwright at Salt Lake Acting Company in a 2004-2005 workshop taught by the theatre’s then Playwright-in-Residence, JT Rogers. Three years later, SLAC presented a reading of her short play, DEAD RIGHT, which had been produced at the 2008 Humana Festival of New American Plays in Louisville. Last season, her full-length play THE COMING ICE AGE was produced by Pygmalion Theatre Co.
KATE JARVIK BIRCH is a visual artist who loves writing as much as she loves painting, and being a true procrastinator, is happy to ping pong between the two passions. She knew she could die happy when her paintings showed up on the set of Glee. Her essay "Private Parts" was published in the literary journal Isotope in 2008 and her short story "Donald" and essay "Mega Volcanoes" were both chosen as finalists in the 2009 Writer's at Work Fellowship Competition. (a man enters) is Kate's first foray into playwriting and she's happy to report that she only wanted to kill her mother a few times during the writing of this play.
FACT SHEET
SLAC PRODUCTION (A MAN ENTERS)
PLAYWRIGHT Elaine Jarvik & Kate Jarvik Birch
DIRECTOR Alexandra Harbold
CAST Joyce Cohen, Terence Goodman, Amanda Mahoney, Deena Marie Manzanares, Jesse Peery
SET DESIGN Keven Myhre
COSTUME DESIGN Brenda Van Der Wiel
LIGHTING DESIGN Jim Craig
SOUND DESIGN Josh Martin
PRODUCTION STAGE MANAGER Nick Fleming
DATES Previews: November 2 & 3 2011
Opening: November 4, 2011
Closing: December 4, 2011
TIMES Previews: Wednesday & Thursday- 7:30 p.m.
Regular: Wednesday - Saturday- 7:30 p.m.
Sun- 1:00 p.m. & 6:00 p.m. (New Time)
NOW PLAYING
GOD OF CARNAGE by Yasmina Reza, with Darrin Doman, Nell Gwynn, Zack Phifer, Christy Summerhays
DATES Opened: October 12, 2011
Closing: November 6, 2011
TIMES Regular: Wed – Sat - 7:30 p.m.
Sun- 1:00 p.m. & 6:00 p.m.
COMING SOON
SLAC PANEL DISCUSSION ‘Parents: Do we Deserve a Star or a Time Out?’
MODERATOR Terry Gildea
PANELISTS Matthew Davis, Muffy Mead-Ferro, Joe & Melanie Borgenicht
DATE & TIME Sunday, October 23, 2011 @ 4 PM
________________________________________________________________________
SLAC NPSS reading A NIGHT WITH THE FAMILY
Sponsored by the Jarvis and Constance Doctorow Family Foundation and the Dramatists Guild Fund
PLAYWRIGHT Matthew Ivan Bennett
DIRECTOR Mark Fossen
CAST Michael Gardner, Mark Gollaher, JJ Peeler, Teresa Sanderson, Richard Scott, Cassandra Stokes-Wylie
DATE & TIME October 24, 2011 @ 7 PM
SLAC NOTES
Tickets for SLAC productions range from $15-$41 depending on performance. Discounts available for students, 30 & under, and groups of ten or more.
Season subscribers are the heart of Salt Lake Acting Company. See A MAN ENTERS and the rest of the season as a subscriber and always pay the lowest price while having the privilege to exchange your tickets as many times as you want for free. Becoming a subscriber is the best way to support this unique theatre.
Season ticket packages that include 5 plays range from $61-$186.
Tickets available at 801-363-SLAC (7522), at www.saltlakeactingcompany.org, or in person at 168 West 500 North, Salt Lake City, Utah 84103
SLAC is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 professional theatre found in 1970 and is dedicated to producing, commissioning and developing new works and to supporting a community of professional artists. SLAC has been nationally recognized by the Shubert Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Edgerton Foundation, among others. SLAC operates under a STP Actors Equity Association contract. SLAC is a Constituent Member of Theatre Communications Group, a national organization for non-profit professional regional theatres, and the National New Play Network.
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