Play With Your Food (PWFY) – Fairfield County’s innovative lunchtime theater series -- has announced the selections for its upcoming productions in Westport (March. 4-6) and Fairfield (March 11).
Shows are presented at Toquet Hall in Westport and at Fairfield Theatre Company. In March, lunch will be provided by Nicholas Roberts in Westport and Safita in Fairfield.
Now in its 12th year, PWYF provides patrons with a theater experience that includes a gourmet buffet lunch, a selection of one-act play readings and post-event discussions with professional actors and playwrights – all packed into a 90-minute program.
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The selections for March will be filled with excitement and humor, promises Artistic Director Carole Schweid. Productions will include Molly and James by Sheila Walsh, The Interview by A.R. Gurney and Baby Food by Pulitzer Prize-winner David Lindsay-Abaire.
“We get so excited when we find these short gems by such
accomplished authors,” says Schweid. “Molly and James is about an imaginary meeting between the great Irish novelist James Joyce, and one of his most beloved characters, Molly Bloom. The Interview, about a father and son on their way home from a college interview, is written with heart and humor, and Baby Food will entertain the audience as an off-kilter couple searches for the perfect godparents.”
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Cast members in March will include Katie Sparer (Stratford), Brian Carter (Westport), Marty Bongfeldt, (Danbury), Eileen Lawless (Norwalk), Donald Warfield (Fairfield) and Alan Zeller (Milford).
The PWYF season concludes next month with performances at Toquet Hall taking place April 1-3 and Fairfield Theatre Company productions occurring on April 8. In addition, Play With Your Food at the Greenwich Arts Council is offered March 26-27 and April 16-17.
The remainder of the 2014 Play With Your Food season include excerpts from Noel Coward’s Private Lives, featuring TV and film personalities Daniel Gerroll and Patricia Kalember, who recently performed the work together at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis. Also on the roster is Arthur Miller’s glimpse at immigration in Grandpa and the Statue.
Refinements at FTC have enhanced the Fairfield offerings, notes PWYF Managing Director Inge Maki. "Enhancements at FTC now include enjoying lunch either in the newly renovated art gallery or on the stage of the theater,” said Maki."Eating lunch in these warm, cozy spaces has heightened
the overall PWYF experience for our audiences."
Tickets for all Play With Your Food shows, including lunch, are $43. To purchase tickets, and see a complete schedule and locations, visit www.jibproductions.org or call the box office at (203) 293-8831 Monday-Friday between 10 a.m and 4 p.m.
The PWYF concept, and caliber of performances, has been praised by the New York Times as well as local media, critics and audiences.
ABOUT THE ACTORS
Marty Bongfeldt (Danbury) - recently starred in Music Theatre of Connecticut’s production of God of Carnage, and is on the faculty there. She was also featured in MTC's productions of Doubt and Ancestral Voices. She started working professionally as a child doing commercials and theater, later adding feature film and television credits with such directors as Ron Howard and Brian DePalma. She has also worked extensively off Broadway and in regional theater in musicals as well as plays.
Katie Sparer (Stratford) - Broadway: Revival Awake and Sing; Off B'way: Renovations (Theatre for the New City), A Shayna Maidle, The Rise and Fall of Daniel Rocket, etc. Regional: The Alley, Studio Arena, Cincinnati Playhouse, Boston Post Rd Co, and many events at the Quick Center at Fairfield University.
Brian J. Carter (Westport) - Original cast of Wit (Pulitzer Prize), off Broadway The Dybbuk, In the Shadow of the Glen, The Curate Shakespeare, Henry IV. TV: Pan Am and Law and Order. He has performed in play readings at the Westport Country Playhouse, most recently in Any Wednesday and the classic, Mr. Roberts.
Eileen Lawless (Norwalk) appeared in the New York premiere of Who Will Carry the Word. At Stamford Theater Works, she played Joan in Murder In Green Meadows and Betty in Betty the Yeti. Other favorite plays: The Shadow Box, The Childrens Hour, and Long Day’s Journey into Night at The Schoolhouse Theater in New York. She created a drama program at a local high school collaborating with professional groups such as Westport Country Playhouse and Shakespeare on the Sound. She has also been featured on TV's Law and Order and many TV and radio commercials.
Allan Zeller (Milford) has worked in regional theater, film, television and radio. Some theater credits include: Junior in the West Coast Premiere of Dearly Departed, Hersch in the World Premiere of Phoenix Café at Theatre Artists of Marin, and Erwin Trowbridge in Three Men on a Horse, Sacramento Theatre Company. He has an MFA in Acting from the UC at Davis and can be seen in the short Indy film, originally shown at the Big Apple Film Festival, Oh, Promise Me!
