Mark Fickert & Chuck Huber Photo: Buddy Myers

Waxahachie, Texas. August, 1966. It's the final week of Dallas Cowboys training camp, and friendly rival sportswriters Zinc Tucker and Doyle Miller are in their usual groove. The only things on their minds are cadging drinks and trying to get a scoop on the hot new Cowboys running back. But out of nowhere, there's a major turnover, and suddenly nothing will ever be the same, as Stage West presents the premiere of Larry Herold's wild comedy The Sports Page, beginning its run on Thursday, February 9.

The game-changer for Zinc and Doyle arrives in the form of a new reporter. Who happens to be a very attractive woman. Who works in television. It's a major affront to the good ol' boys club, which jealously guards its access to the fifty-yard line and the run-down hospitality suite they call "The 5 O'Clock Club". But Cowboys PR man Red Gage is eager for the extra publicity provided by Jane Jordan and her camera crew. So he makes her welcome, and now Zinc has to share his room with Scott Young, an eager young reporter from the back of beyond. It quickly becomes a wild ride, with Zinc trying to dodge an enforcer sent to collect on his gambling debt, and everyone angling for some face time with running back Pick Waters, who just might be able to lock up a win for Dallas. This uproarious piece won Stage West's 2010 Texas Playwriting Competition, and audiences are sure to enjoy it!

Larry Herold was born in Dallas and is delighted that the world premiere of The Sports Page is happening in Texas. Larry is a playwright, essayist, fiction writer and journalist whose work has appeared in theaters, magazines, newspapers, books and websites in the U.S. and U.K. He received an MFA in Creative Writing from Texas State University in 2000. His play Preacherosity was produced in London in 2006 at the Jermyn Street Theatre. Larry was selected for the prestigious 2011 Kennedy Center Summer Playwriting Intensive and was a 2010 Tennessee Williams Scholar at the Sewanee Writers' Conference. He is a member of the Playwrights' Center in Minneapolis and the Dramatists Guild.

The Sports Page began as a short one-act play about an aging sportswriter tutoring and abusing an ambitious whippersnapper. But Herold says he quickly realized the story was bigger: "The more I looked into the history of sportswriting and the National Football League, I saw that the guys' story should be set against the vast changes on the sports scene in the 1960's. I grew up in Dallas, when pro football was still a novelty, and attended Cowboy games in the Cotton Bowl. In the summer of '66, the NFL came up with the idea of a “Super Bowl” to wipe out the AFL and give TV a January football game. The idea came together so quickly that CBS, which showed the NFL games, and NBC, which broadcast the AFL, couldn't agree on who deserved to show the big game. So in January of 1967, they both did, simultaneously.

“I set the story in the last training camp before the first Super Bowl, and added a second writer and a P.R. man. Then I realized the entire play had to be about change: the arrival of women into a man's world, the rise of the talented-but-uncooperative superstar, the influence of gambling.”

The Sports Page, directed by Jerry Russell, will feature some familiar Stage West faces. Chuck Huber, acclaimed for his work as Bertie Wooster in our recent Jeeves in the Morning, will play Zinc Tucker, while Sherry Hopkins, who appeared as Florence in Jeeves in the Morning, plays Jane Jordan. Mark Fickert, most recently seen as Byron in the Undermain production of Ages of the Moon, appears as Doyle Miller. Jeff McGee, who played Ashenback in Stage West's Talking Pictures, will be seen as PR man Red Gage, while Bob Allen, whose recent credits include Hump D in Jubilee's Alice Wonder, plays the enforcer Crusher. Making their Stage West debuts will be Joshua Buehler, whose credits include Sebastian in Twelfth Night for Oklahoma Shakespeare in the Park, playing Scott Young, and Bryan Pitts, who appeared as Douglas in Henry IV at Dallas Theater Center, playing Pick Waters.

The set will be designed by Jim Covault. Costume design will be again be handled by Michael Robinson and Dallas Costume Shoppe, who provided costumes for for several Stage West shows, including our productions of New Jerusalem and Arms and the Man. Michael O'Brien will design the lighting, with set décor and props by Lynn Lovett.

The Sports Page will preview Thursday, February 9 at 7:30 and Friday, February 10 at 8:00, and will run through Sunday, March 18. Performance times will be Thursday evenings at 7:30, Friday and Saturday evenings at 8:00, with Sunday matinees at 3:00. The opening night reception will be Saturday, February 11. Ticket prices range from $26 to $30, with discounts for students and seniors. Preview tickets are priced at only $15. Pay What You Can performances will be Sunday, February 12 and Thursday, February 16. Food service is available 90 minutes prior to performances (reservations are necessary), and all Friday nights after February 10 will feature the $35 Prix Fixe Special. Reservations and information are available through the Box Office (817-784-9378), or on the website, www.stagewest.org.

Note: this play does contain some instances of language

Stage West announces an exciting Valentine's Day Event

Stage West is pleased to announce a wonderfully different fundraising event for Valentine's Day 2012. The event, called Acting with the Stars, an Elegant Evening of Love Stories and the Unexpected, will take place at 6pm on February 14, 2012, in the Grand Ballroom at Ridglea Country Club in Fort Worth.

The evening is centered around a unique piece of entertainment. Six local celebrities will pair up with six professional actors to recreate scenes focusing on love from the American stage. Guests will vote on their favorites, and the winning pair will receive the Acting with the Stars 2012 trophy! In addition, the evening will feature unexpected moments of improv centered around themes of the heart.

Competing for the trophy will be: Tim Carter, President and CEO, OmniAmerican Bank; Wendy R. Davis, State Senator, District 10; Jeffrey W. Halstead, Chief of Police, Fort Worth; J.R. Labbe, Editorial Editor, Star-Telegram; Johnny Rutherford, 3-time winner of the Indianapolis 500; and Darren K. Woods, General Director, Fort Worth Opera.

Guests will arrive beginning at 6:00 for mingling and checking out raffle and auction items, and then be seated for a dinner which will include Chicken Scaloppini and the Ridglea's Black Forest Cake. After dinner, guests may continue making auction bids, and enjoy some dancing. At 8:00, the competition will begin, emceed by KTVT Channel 11 anchor Karen Borta, and at the conclusion, guests will cast their ballots. After all is tallied, the trophy winners will be announced, as well as the auction and raffle winners; guests may then enjoy more mingling and dancing, and visit our photo booth for a special fun photo.

Tickets are $125 for individuals; the ticket price includes a drink coupon, dinner, chocolate and a rose, and the commemorative photo. Individual sponsorship tables of 10 are available at $2,000, and there are also corporate sponsorship tables available.

Tickets are available through the Stage West box office at (817) 784-9378, or online through the link on our website at www.stagewest.org.

The event steering committee is Bronson Davis, Chairman, along with Julie Crawford, Sterling Lauer, Nancy Madsen, Madison Mauze, Pamela Pierce, Dana Schultes, Carol Stanford, and Lori Urso.

STAGE WEST ANNOUNCES 2011-2012 SEASON

Stage West is pleased to announces its lineup for the 33rd season! The new season offers a uniquely entertaining mix of plays, ranging from Shaw to Stoppard, and including the winner of Stage West's 2010 Texas Playwriting Competition. They are:

Arms and the Man, by George Bernard Shaw
October 20 – November 27
When an enemy soldier breaks into Raina's room seeking refuge, her life is turned upside down. After all, her father is an army major, and her fiance, a dashing war hero. This charming and funny Shaw tale was first produced in 1894, and has been on Broadway six times since then.

New Jerusalem, by David Ives
January 5 – January 29
In 1656, Amsterdam has given special asylum to the Jewish community, but with one caveat: no Jew may speak of religion to any local resident. Baruch Spinoza's radical beliefs on God and religion draw him into a riveting trial which irrevocably challenges Western thought.

The Sports Page, by Larry Herold
February 9 – March 18
Dallas playwright and former sports writer Larry Herold takes a comic look back at a Dallas Cowboys training camp in 1966, when the whole media world is about to change. Television has landed in the form of the first woman reporter in a man's world. How things have changed!

The Real Thing, by Tom Stoppard
March 29 – April 29
Playwright Henry and actress Annie have fallen love—but is it the real thing? And what, exactly, is the “real thing”? “A funny, smart play, vibrating with contemporary concerns—art and life and sex and sacrifice and rock classics.” (New York Post) As potent today as it was when it opened in 1984, and one of our all-time faves.

What the Butler Saw, by Joe Orton
June 28 – July 29
A philandering psychiatrist, his nymphomaniac wife, and a totally mad psychiatric examiner from the government provide the fodder for this wacky, subversive farce. In one door and out the other has never been more irreverent, funny, and wise all at the same time.

Around the World in 80 Days, by Mark Brown
August 16 – September 23
This zany adaptation of the Jules Verne novel chronicles what may have been the first “Great Race.” Phileas Fogg has wagered his entire life savings that he can accomplish the feat of the title. He and his resourceful manservant, Passepartout, confront a series of misadvantures as the clock and the calendar press relentlessly on.

Tickets for the 2011-2012 season are now on sale, and range in price from $130 to $150, with discounts for students, seniors, and teachers. Orders sent by September 30 will receive an additional discount. For more information, call Stage West at (817) 784-9378. Tickets may also be purchased online at www.stagewest.org.

Special Added Attraction!

This one is not part of the season, but Stage West will also be presenting Red Hot Patriot: The Kick-Ass Wit of Molly Ivins, by Margaret Engel and Allison Engel
May 10 – June 17
The story of the famously brassy newspaper columnist who wrote for the Dallas Times-Herald and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, and was a frequent op-ed contributor for the New York Times and the Washington Post. A true Texas original, who skewered the political establishment and the “good ol' boys” with sharp-tongued wit and wisdom. This one has been a smash wherever it has played to date.

Visit Stage West:

Stage West
821 W. Vickery St., Fort Worth, Texas 76104
Metro (817) 784-9378 (STG-WEST)

On-Line at: WWW.STAGEWEST.ORG