NOTE: Performing Arts Studio will be closed for refurbishment
for several weeks in January and February.
See descriptions for locations of events and performances during this time.
All events take place at Hillside Performing Arts Studio
(Las Trampas), unless otherwise noted.
Arrive 15 minutes early to ensure seating.
PERFORMANCES
Our Wild and Precious Lives: Part 2
Peacock Hall, Gateway
Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2 PM
Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2 PM and 7 PM
$10—All proceeds go to The Giving Tree’s sponsored charities.
DAOR President Tance Agius and Instructor Bobbi Ausubel are co-directors of a new full-length play, produced by the Giving Tree Club and performed by DAOR actors and supported by a large production team of DAOR members.
Using the artifice of magical realism, actors in this new full-length play depict just how “magical” it is to live in a community like Rossmoor. Fifteen veteran actors are guided by a grand wizard who inspires each monologist to regale the audience with tales that are funny, wistful and often insightful. A trio of talented musicians provide accompaniment for songs, song parodies and a rather unusual dance routine. A few brief video clips round out the program.
Reservations required.
Reserve tickets at diane.armstrong@comcast.net
or at 925-934-6829.
Be sure to give date and time of performance and how many tickets are requested.Each ticket (payable by cash or check) must be paid for at the door prior to each performance. Reservations will be honored up until 15 minutes before curtain time, after which seats may be sold as general admission.
The cast of Our Wild and Precious Lives: Part 2 includes, from left, back row, Greg Pratt, Marlene Candell, Ros Carol, Judy Graboyes, Carmencita Lozano and Tanc Agius; seated, Cynthia Wilson, Wende Heath, Margaret Bowen, Sharon Noteboom, Marjorie Li, Eliott Tertes and Susan Slizza; and floor, Cecelia Wambach, Aki Rasmussen, Jane Sprouse, Bertha Riley, Karoline DeMar-tini, EJ Koch, Helen Hillman and Bobbi Ausubel.
Your 2 Cents: Kiss of the Spider Woman for Sherlock Hound
by David Wilcox
February 21 , 2 PM
Club Room, Creekside
Free
Playwright David Wilcox studied playwriting under Rod McFadden, a successful bay area and national playwright and a DAOR instructor. His full-length play Latent Image was a finalist in the Contra Costa Times’ new-play contest in 2007. It was also a finalist in the Eugene O’Neil Center’s 2014 national competition. Town Hall Theatre in Lafayette, Calif. produced a staged reading of Latent Image in 2015. His 10-minute play, Getting It Off in Ought Eight was selected by the 2011 Marin Fringe Festival and the 2013 Between-Us 10-minute play festival in New York. His 10-minute The Code won first prize in the University of Illinois’ Gun Play Competition for 2015. The 10-minute Seven Stories Down was a winner in Calif.’ Camino Real’s competition in 2015. Wilcox has also written a full-length play about Galileo and an action-adventure for the stage, The Road Less Traveled By.
Kiss of the Spider Woman… is a murder mystery featuring an abundance of humor. Those familiar with the plays of Tom Stoppard will recognize Wilcox’s play as a parody on such plays such as Dogg’s Hamlet, After Magritte, Jumpers and, of course, The Real Inspector Hound.
Your 2-Cents is a developmental reading program designed to test audience response and get feedback on a first reading of an original new play. Audience members will be issued forms to write their impressions after the play is over. This information is invaluable to the playwright as he revises and attempts to improve the play.
by David Wilcox
February 21 , 2 PM
Club Room, Creekside
Free
Playwright David Wilcox studied playwriting under Rod McFadden, a successful bay area and national playwright and a DAOR instructor. His full-length play Latent Image was a finalist in the Contra Costa Times’ new-play contest in 2007. It was also a finalist in the Eugene O’Neil Center’s 2014 national competition. Town Hall Theatre in Lafayette, Calif. produced a staged reading of Latent Image in 2015. His 10-minute play, Getting It Off in Ought Eight was selected by the 2011 Marin Fringe Festival and the 2013 Between-Us 10-minute play festival in New York. His 10-minute The Code won first prize in the University of Illinois’ Gun Play Competition for 2015. The 10-minute Seven Stories Down was a winner in Calif.’ Camino Real’s competition in 2015. Wilcox has also written a full-length play about Galileo and an action-adventure for the stage, The Road Less Traveled By.
Kiss of the Spider Woman… is a murder mystery featuring an abundance of humor. Those familiar with the plays of Tom Stoppard will recognize Wilcox’s play as a parody on such plays such as Dogg’s Hamlet, After Magritte, Jumpers and, of course, The Real Inspector Hound.
Your 2-Cents is a developmental reading program designed to test audience response and get feedback on a first reading of an original new play. Audience members will be issued forms to write their impressions after the play is over. This information is invaluable to the playwright as he revises and attempts to improve the play.
The Dixie Swim Club
by Jessie Jones, Nicholas Hope and Jamie Wooten
Director: Linda Kelp
Producer: Jon Rasmussen
March 20, 21, 22, 2 PM
Five Southern women, whose friendships began many years ago on their college swim team, set aside a long weekend every August to recharge those relationships. Free from husbands, kids, and jobs, they meet at the same beach cottage on North Carolina’s Outer Banks to catch up, laugh, and meddle in each other’s lives. THE DIXIE SWIM CLUB focuses on four of those weekends and spans a period of thirty-three years. As their lives unfold and the years pass, these women increasingly rely on one another, through advice and raucous repartee, to get through the challenges (men, sex, marriage, parenting, divorce, aging) that life flings at them. And when fate throws a wrench into one of their lives in the second act, these friends, proving the enduring power of “teamwork,” rally ’round their own with the strength and love that takes this comedy in a poignant and surprising direction.
by Jessie Jones, Nicholas Hope and Jamie Wooten
Director: Linda Kelp
Producer: Jon Rasmussen
March 20, 21, 22, 2 PM
Five Southern women, whose friendships began many years ago on their college swim team, set aside a long weekend every August to recharge those relationships. Free from husbands, kids, and jobs, they meet at the same beach cottage on North Carolina’s Outer Banks to catch up, laugh, and meddle in each other’s lives. THE DIXIE SWIM CLUB focuses on four of those weekends and spans a period of thirty-three years. As their lives unfold and the years pass, these women increasingly rely on one another, through advice and raucous repartee, to get through the challenges (men, sex, marriage, parenting, divorce, aging) that life flings at them. And when fate throws a wrench into one of their lives in the second act, these friends, proving the enduring power of “teamwork,” rally ’round their own with the strength and love that takes this comedy in a poignant and surprising direction.
Curtain Up!: Fifty Years of British Humor
Director: Tancred Agius
April 17, 18
Curtain Up!: House of the Holy Moment
Director: Jean Wilcox
May 15
Proof
by David Auburn
Director: Gary Green
Performance Dates: June 19, 20, 21
Auditions: TBD - Late April/Early May
M-2; F-2
On the eve of her twenty-fifth birthday, Catherine, a troubled young woman, has spent years caring for her brilliant but unstable father, a famous mathematician. Now, following his death, she must deal with her own volatile emotions; the arrival of her estranged sister, Claire; and the attentions of Hal, a former student of her father's who hopes to find valuable work in the 103 notebooks that her father left behind. Over the long weekend that follows, a burgeoning romance and the discovery of a mysterious notebook draw Catherine and the other characters into the most difficult problem of all: How much of her father's madness—or genius—has she inherited? Winner of the 2001 Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award for Best Play.
by David Auburn
Director: Gary Green
Performance Dates: June 19, 20, 21
Auditions: TBD - Late April/Early May
M-2; F-2
On the eve of her twenty-fifth birthday, Catherine, a troubled young woman, has spent years caring for her brilliant but unstable father, a famous mathematician. Now, following his death, she must deal with her own volatile emotions; the arrival of her estranged sister, Claire; and the attentions of Hal, a former student of her father's who hopes to find valuable work in the 103 notebooks that her father left behind. Over the long weekend that follows, a burgeoning romance and the discovery of a mysterious notebook draw Catherine and the other characters into the most difficult problem of all: How much of her father's madness—or genius—has she inherited? Winner of the 2001 Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award for Best Play.
Curtain Up!: Love in the Time of Caller ID
By Rod McFadden
August 21
By Rod McFadden
August 21
Sylvia
by A.R. Gurney
Director: Kevin O'Byrne
Performance Dates: October 16, 17, 18
Auditions: TBD - Late August/Early September
M-2; F-3/4
Greg and Kate have moved to Manhattan after twenty-two years of child-raising in the suburbs. Greg's career as a financial trader is winding down, while Kate's career, as a public-school English teacher, is beginning to offer her more opportunities. Greg brings home a dog he found in the park—or that has found him—bearing only the name "Sylvia" on her name tag. A street-smart mixture of Lab and poodle, Sylvia becomes a major bone of contention between husband and wife. She offers Greg an escape from the frustrations of his job and the unknowns of middle age. To Kate, Sylvia becomes a rival for affection. And Sylvia thinks Kate just doesn't understand the relationship between man and dog. The marriage is put in serious jeopardy until, after a series of hilarious and touching complications, Greg and Kate learn to compromise, and Sylvia becomes a valued part of their lives.
by A.R. Gurney
Director: Kevin O'Byrne
Performance Dates: October 16, 17, 18
Auditions: TBD - Late August/Early September
M-2; F-3/4
Greg and Kate have moved to Manhattan after twenty-two years of child-raising in the suburbs. Greg's career as a financial trader is winding down, while Kate's career, as a public-school English teacher, is beginning to offer her more opportunities. Greg brings home a dog he found in the park—or that has found him—bearing only the name "Sylvia" on her name tag. A street-smart mixture of Lab and poodle, Sylvia becomes a major bone of contention between husband and wife. She offers Greg an escape from the frustrations of his job and the unknowns of middle age. To Kate, Sylvia becomes a rival for affection. And Sylvia thinks Kate just doesn't understand the relationship between man and dog. The marriage is put in serious jeopardy until, after a series of hilarious and touching complications, Greg and Kate learn to compromise, and Sylvia becomes a valued part of their lives.