Event

PASTORELLA

In this new comedy (or is it a tragedy?) Gwen (Kat Bushnell) is a recent college graduate who has been cast as Chloe in a small theater production of Tom Stoppard's "Arcadia". Hanging around backstage, she befriends Warren (Justin Gillman), who is playing Valentine, and who also occasionally directs for the company. Warren is involved in a stormy romance with Josh (Nathan Brown), the company's leading man, whose career is exploding at the same time his relationship with Warren is imploding. Stage manager Cliff (Charles Lewis III) and managing producer Anya (Larissa Archer) work to the keep the show together, but between the squabbling leads, reluctant ingenue (Brandice Thompson), icy diva (Valerie Fachman), and world's most unlikely bromance (Ben Calabrese and Andrew Chung), it's a rough road from final dress to final performance.

Part backstage comedy, part meditation on the state of small theater in America, PASTORELLA is written and directed by Stuart Bousel ("Everybody Here Says Hello!"). Tightly paced, occasionally scathing, ultimately bittersweet, it reflects two decades of making theater and all the excitement, disappointment, love, betrayal, and discovery of the self that a life in a collaborative art form often entails.

Stage managed by Linda Huang, with design work by Cody Rishell.

Presented by No Nude Men Productions, a company in residence at The EXIT Theatre.