catecha

A Woman Alone is a colorful black comedy about a housewife held prisoner in her own home, driven to attempt suicide by her abusive relationship with a possessive husband, the drudgery of household chores, a passionate affair with a young boy, and constant harassment from her wheelchair bound brother-in-law.

Dario Fo and Franca Rame are Italy's best-known performers, playwrights, and political activists. The courage of their convictions, and their political and social commitment have involved them in numerous controversies with the state, the police, the censors, television, and the Vatican. One of the leading figures in modern farce and political drama, Dario Fo has written over 70 plays, his works have been translated into more than 30 languages, and he received the 1997 Nobel Prize for Literature.

In Kondoleon¹s brilliantly imaginative black comedy, Self-Torture and Strenuous Exercise, two couples are caught in a web of infidelity, loneliness, desire, and denial. As Alvin retreats further and further into his world of vegetables in a quest to understand "God¹s great recipe," Bethany, Carl, and Adel are left fighting their hearts¹ battles on the literary plain. Playwright Harry Kondoleon won the Obie Award, and held Fulbright, National Endowment for the Arts, Rockefeller, and Guggenheim fellowships.

A Woman Alone and Self-Torture and Strenuous Exercise are the second offering in TheatreZone's Actor's Revenge, a festival of actor selected plays. This fall we invited actors to submit proposals for a production they would star in, which were judged by a panel of fellow actors and audience regulars solely on the quality of the actor's past work and their passion for the production. Now, for the first time, some of the finest actors who have worked with TheatreZone over the years have a chance to call the shots! They pick the play, the director, the approach, and cast themselves in the role of their dreams.

Actress Shelley Brown (Anton in Show Business, House of Bernarda Alba, Blood Wedding) is taking a break from her real life as a reasonably cheerful happily married (26 years) successful mother and career woman (in addition to performing regularly and understudying at the Huntington, she is Senior Director of Operations at Children's Hospital Trust) to play two housewives on the verge, driven to attempt suicide. She is also taking the opportunity to work with two of her favorite directors, local actor/director and Brandeis Univ. Professor Emeritus Ted Kazanoff and Vokes Players regular John Barrett.