Summer Fools Festival

The 39 Steps
Adapted by Patrick Barlow
From an original concept by Simon Corble & Nobby Dimon
Direction by John Glenn
July 6 – July 31, 2010 – Part of the Summer Fools Festival

A Hitchcock masterpiece mixed with a juicy spy novel - add a dash of Monty Python and you have THE 39 STEPS

The first play is so OVER THE TOP the Company decided to roll all 3 of its summer festival shows into one. Company of Fools is one of the few theatres in the nation fortunate enough to have secured the rights to the highly successful and wonderfully theatrical The 39 Steps.Perfect for ages 9 to 90!

In THE 39 STEPS, a man with a boring life meets a woman with a thick accent who says she's a spy. When he takes her home, she is murdered. Soon, a mysterious organization called "The 39 Steps" is hot on the man's trail in a nationwide manhunt that climaxes in a death-defying finale! A riotous blend of virtuoso performances and wildly inventive stagecraft, THE 39 STEPS amounts to an unforgettable evening of pure pleasure! Company of Fools’ production features Andrew Alburger, Jennifer Jacoby Rush, Richard Rush and Joel Vilinsky.

This show is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts, The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, and Judith & Richard Smooke.

Edward Albee's
Who's Afraid of Virgnia Woolf
Direction by K.O. Ogilvie
October 13 – 30, 2010

Winner of the 1963 Tony Award for Best Play. The Broadway production of this play was a shattering and memorable experience and proclaimed the author as a major American playwright. "This is a Big One." —NY Journal-American.

When George, a disillusioned academic, and Martha, his caustic wife, invite a handsome young professor and his mousy wife home for a nightcap, an innocent night of fun and games quickly turns dark and dangerous. Long-buried resentments are unleashed as George and Martha turn their razor-sharp wits against each other, using their guests as pawns in their verbal sparring. Company of Fools’ production stars Jana Arnold and Scott Creighton.

Moonlight & Magnolias
By Ron Hutchinson
Direction by John Glenn
December 14 – 31, 2010

Frankly, my dear, this is one funny play…a rip-roaring farce… [With] witty, pointed dialogue and hilarious situations…" —NY Daily News.

1939 Hollywood is abuzz. Legendary producer David O. Selznick has shut down production of his new epic, Gone with the Wind, a film adaptation of Margaret Mitchell's novel. The screenplay, you see, just doesn't work. While fending off the film's stars and gossip columnists, Selznick sends a car for famed screenwriter Ben Hecht and pulls director Victor Fleming from the set of The Wizard of Oz. Summoning both to his office, he locks the doors and the three men labor over five days to fashion a screenplay that will become the blueprint for one of the most successful and beloved films of all time.Company of Fools’ production features Andrew Alburger and Scott Creighton.

Dead Man's Cell Phone
By Sarah Ruhl
Direction by Denise Simone
February 16 – March 5, 201

“I never had a cell phone. I didn’t want to be there, you know. Like if your phone is on you’re supposed to be there. Sometimes I like to disappear. But it’s like — when everyone has their cell phones on, no one is there. It’s like we’re all disappearing the more we’re there.” – Jean, Dead Man’s Cell Phone.

That commonplace gadget we are advised to turn off when the lights in the theatre go down, or when the plane takes off, becomes a mysteriously powerful channel for transformation. This poetic fantasy about a woman forced to confront her own assumptions about morality, redemption and the need to connect in a technologically-obsessed world is by playwright Sarah Ruhl, recipient of a MacArthur “Genius” Grant and Pulitzer Prize finalist for her play The Clean House.