Circle Theatre

Unnecessary Farce

by Paul Slade Smith

Circle Theatre
230 W. Fourth Street
Fort Worth, TX 76102
Sundance Square Entertainment District

When:

July 24 – August 23

Shows:

Previews: July 24, 25, 26

Champagne Opening: Thursday, July 31

Performances:

Thursdays at 7:30pm; Fridays at 8:00pm;
Saturdays at 3:00pm and 8:00pm

Tickets:

Preview Thursday and Saturday matinees: $10
Preview Friday and Saturday evenings: $15
Opening Thursday Night: $30
Thursday evenings: $20-$25
Saturday matinee: $20-$25
Friday/Saturday evenings: $25-$30
Students and seniors (65+) receive a $5 discount on any full-priced ticket.
Student Rush tickets are available for half price, at half hour before show time (on standby).
Groups of 10 (or more) receive a $5 discount on each full-priced ticket.
For reservations or season tickets, call 817.877.3040 or stop by the box office, Tuesday through Friday, from 1:00pm to 6:00pm and one hour before show times.
Circle Theatre accepts Bell Helicopter coupons, the KERA Member Rewards Card, Sundance Square Insider coupons and the Star-Telegram Press Pass.

photo by Tim Long Becca Shivers, Jennifer Passion, Chad Gowen Spear

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Circle Theatre presents Unnecessary Farce, Paul Slade Smith’s zany non-stop comedic play, July 24 – August 23.

Robin Armstrong directs a cast featuring Deborah Brown* as Mary Meekly; David Fluitt* as Todd; David H.M. Lambert as Agent Frank; Gary Moody* as Mayor Meekly; Jennifer Pasion as Karen Brown; Becca Shivers as Billie Dwyer; and Chad Gowen Spear* as Eric Sheridan. John Harvey* serves as stage manager. (*Actors’ Equity Association)

The design team for Unnecessary Farce includes Barbara C. Cox, costumes; Clare DeVries, Set; David H.M. Lambert, Sound; John Leach, Lights and Cathy O’Neal, Properties.

About the Play

Deadly bagpipes, a bumbling mayor, incompetent cops and a series of crooks all converge in a hotel room where a repressed accountant is about to trap an embezzler. To crack the case, the cops must overcome their fear of the dark, guns, enclosed spaces, and the opposite sex.

Unnecessary Farce premiered in October 2006 at the BoarsHead Theatre in Lansing, Michigan.

Playwright

Paul Slade Smith began writing Unnecessary Farce, his second play, in Appleton, Wisconsin, as a company member for the national tour of The Phantom of the Opera. As is only fitting, both for the play, and the life of a touring actor - the play was first read aloud in a hotel room in Minneapolis, Minnesota by members of the Phantom cast. Farce received four award nominations from the Lansing State Journal in its world premiere at Michigan’s BoarsHead Theater in 2006. The play has since been making its way around the country, with ten productions or planned productions from Pennsylvania to Texas. He was named one of "50 To Watch" – "writers of exceptional merit and promise" – by The Dramatist magazine in 2007. Paul’s first play, Hymn & Carol, premiered at Chicago’s Shattered Globe Theatre, and will be seen this season at the BoarsHead. His original song from that show, Mary’s Lullaby, was included on the CD Broadway’s Greatest Gifts: Carols for a Cure 2007. Mr. Smith is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America.

Director

Robin Armstrong is directing her second production at Circle Theatre, having directed Snake in the Grass this past fall. She has worked professionally as a director, actor, and fight director in Boston, Washington D.C., San Francisco, and Dallas. Both the Vitality Play Festival (sponsored by the Speaking Ring Theatre Company, Chicago, Illinois) and the Festival of Independent Theatres in Dallas recently produced her original play, Smoldering Ember. She served on the faculty of Interlochen, a nationally renowned arts academy in Michigan, and currently teaches at Collin College. Some of her critical successes as a director in Dallas include Macbeth, Communicating Doors, Betrayal, The Day After the Fair and No Sex, Please, We’re British for Theatre Britain, along with Eleemosynary, and the regional premieres of 52 Pick-Up and Toothpaste & Cigars for Act I Productions. Robin holds an MFA in Directing from Virginia Commonwealth University (Richmond, Virginia).