Tickets On Sale Now

Thursday, Friday, Saturday 7:30 PM

May 31, June 1, 6, 7, 8, 13, 14, 15

Sunday  Matinees 2:00 PM June 2 & 9

What happens when one of America’s greatest author/humorists, Mark Twain, and acclaimed contemporary playwright, David Ives, collaborate on a play more than 100 years apart? Hilarity and rousing theatrical fun! The Providence Players of Fairfax (PPF) proudly close its fifteenth anniversary season with the only play Mark Twain ever penned, “Is He Dead?”.   This is a hilarious comedy that focuses on the real-life painter, Jean-Francois Millet.  Though brilliant, he is in debt to a ruthless moneylender, and can’t sell a painting to save his life (literally).  His cohort of bohemian friends convince him to stage his own death to help boost sales.  Authored by Twain in 1898, this play was recently discovered by Twain scholar, Shelley Fisher Fishkin and adapted for the contemporary stage by David Ives. It has only recently hit the professional theater circuit to both critical acclaim and raucous laughter.

Directed by Beth Hughes-Brown and featuring an outstanding cast of PPF regulars and talented newcomers to the PPF Stage.

Written by Mark Twain in 1898 and adapted by David Ives for the 21st century stage and first performed on Broadway in 2007, Twain’s wit and humor are brought to “life and laugh” by this wonderful cast and Director Hughes-Brown’s unique comic touch.

Don’t miss this final production of the Providence Players’ 15th Anniversary Season. On stage, as always at The James Lee Community Center Theater 2855 Annandale Road, Falls Church VA 22031.

Tickets are $18 for Adults $15 for Students and Seniors (62+) and Can Be Purchased Online Here: www.providenceplayers.org, reserved by email at: providenceplayerstickets@cox.net or purchased at the door.

Tickets on Sale Now! Right Here

PERFORMANCE DATES AND TIMES

Thurs., Fri., and Saturday 7:30 p.m.
May 31, June 1, 6, 7, 8, 13, 14, 15
Sunday Matinees 2:00 p.m.
June 2 & 9

A hilarious comedy that focuses on the real-life painter, Jean-Francois Millet.  Though brilliant, he is in dept to a ruthless moneylender, and can’t sell a painting to save his life (literally).  His cohort of bohemian friends convince him to stage his own death to help boost sales.  Authored by Twain in 1898, this play was recently discovered by Shelley Fisher Fishkin and updated by David Ives. This one will have you rolling in the aisles.

As a way of nurturing future theater artists and recognizing the contribution graduating high school seniors have made to the arts community in our region, PPF and Arts Council of Fairfax County have established a scholarship program that provides scholarships to college-bound students from area high schools. Scholarships are limited each year.

PPF and Arts Council of Fairfax are pleased to offer scholarships to graduating seniors from the PPF community with a demonstrated commitment to theater arts who show strong potential for further contributions to theater arts.

Three scholarships, each of $1500, will be available to 2013 graduating seniors with a demonstrated commitment to theater arts who have been accepted to a U.S. accredited college or university or conservatory program with an intent to further contribute to theater arts.  Eligible graduating seniors must (1) reside within the school boundaries of Annandale, Fairfax, Falls Church, George Mason, J.E.B. Stuart, Marshall, Woodson or Yorktown high schools OR (2) have been a member of PPF for at least one year.

The Scholarship Application Form is available online. Additional information is available on our Community Resources page.  Applications must be completed and emailed to providenceplayers@cox.net no later than April 30, 2013. Supplementary materials, including letters of recommendation, listed on the application form must be mailed to PPF at the address shown on the application.  PPF must receive these supplementary materials by April 30, 2013.

Applications will be reviewed by a committee appointed by PPF.  The committee will consist of community representatives, including members of the arts community.  The criteria for the awards shall be as follows:

• 40% based on the applicant’s past involvement in theater arts and contributions made to theater arts;
• 10% based on the applicant’s contribution to Providence Players of Fairfax (if any); and
• 50% based on the applicant’s potential to further contribute to theater arts.

Decisions on the scholarship awards will be announced by June 1, 2013.

Director Beth Hughes-Brown is pleased and excited to announce the cast for the spring comedy production of Is He Dead? adapted by David Ives based on the play by Mark Twain.  Beth would like to thank all the talented actors who auditioned for this production and made her task of casting the show a most pleasant challenge. The cast includes some Providence Players favorites, some returning actresses and actors not seen on PPF’s stage in some time, and some marvelous newcomers to the Providence Players stage. The production runs from May 31 to June 15.

The Cast of Is He dead? includes:

Millet/Widow: Patrick David

Chicago: Craig Geoffrion

Dutchy: Thane Tuttle

O’Shaughnessy: Christopher Schwartz

Marie: Liz Mykietyn

Cecile: Danine Welsh

Leroux:  John Barclay Burns

Andre: Jason Damaso

Mme. Bathilde: Barbara Gertzog

Mme. Caron: Susan Kaplan

Basil Thorpe: Will MacLeod

Claude Riviere: Betsy Hansen

Charlie: Addie Storvick

King of France: Robbie Snow

Sultan of Turkey: Amanda Snow

Emperor of Russia:  Nick Snow

Click here to find more info on the production.

In Falls Church at The James Lee Community Center Theater – Last Two Performances

Friday and Saturday at 7:30 PM

Tickets will be available at the door.  BUT! Order Your Tickets Today for the Best Seat Selection for This Pulitzer Prize Winning Drama!

“…the Providence Players of Fairfax are serving up some refreshingly meaty artistry in Dinner With Friends, a 2000 Pulitzer Prize-winning drama by Donald Margulies. [Director Tina] Thronson squeezes every drop of realism from Margulies’ yummy script…”  From DCMetroTheaterArts

“Donald Margulies has a gift for writing realistic dialogue. His Dinner with Friends feels like one is eavesdropping on two actual couples. [Director] Thronson has assembled a quartet of appealing actors who bring animation and intensity to their roles and are especially adept at portraying the chemistry and history of each of their relationships… Thronson makes excellent use of the environment, moving her actors around the stage in a wholly authentic way….[capitalizing on] de Alba’s settings..each one detailed and realistic… kitchens and bedrooms perfectly decorated by Kaplan & Winfield, and Gertzog’s lighting design [which] transports the audience with careful, individualized choices for each setting. Margulies’ play requires quiet, real-life exchanges, with the humor coming from the familiar and from the details of the characters [and] The Providence Players of Fairfax has produced an enjoyable version of Dinner with Friends” [From showbizradio.net]

(Click To Enlarge)

Full of humor, warmth, and wisdom, this 2000 Pulitzer Prize winning drama is a funny yet bittersweet look at the marriages of two couples who have been friends for years and the impact on both couples when one of those marriages goes sour. Margulies’ elegant, breezy and witty dialog nourishes the audience as do his poignant insights which are deeply affecting.  The New York Times called this multi-award winning work “A play for our time.”  Dinner with Friends is not for young audiences.  It contains mature themes and language.

Written By Donald Margulies

Directed By Tina Hodge Thronson 

The Laramie Project, Steel Magnolias, Twelve Angry Men, The Man Who Came To Dinner (8 WATCH Nominations-3 WATCH Awards) , Born Yesterday

Featuring an Outstanding Cast of PPF Veterans and One Delightful Newcomer

Beth: Jayne L. Victor  Moon Over Buffalo, All My Sons (WATCH Nomination, Lead Actress) Big Tree Falls, The Shadow Box

(Ten Performances, Three Weekends, Two Thursday Evenings and Two Sunday Matinees to chose from)

Thurs-Fri-Sat Evening @ 7:30 p.m. April  18, 19, 20

At the James Lee Community Center Theater 2855 Annandale Road, Falls Church VA.

Tickets are $18 for Adults $15 for Students and Seniors (62+) and Can Be Purchased Online Here: www.providenceplayers.org

Email: providenceplayerstickets@cox.net

Phone: 703-425-6782 (Leave Message)

In Falls Church at The James Lee Community Center Theater – Three Performances This Weekend (Friday-Sunday)

Friday and Saturday at 7:30 PM

Final Sunday Matinee at 2:00 PM

Still Lots of Choices to see “Dinner With Friends”:  Thru April 20th. Tickets will be available at the door.  BUT! Order Your Tickets Today for the Best Seat Selection for This Pulitzer Prize Winning Drama!

  “…the Providence Players of Fairfax are serving up some refreshingly meaty artistry in Dinner With Friends, a 2000 Pulitzer Prize-winning drama by Donald Margulies. [Director Tina] Thronson squeezes every drop of realism from Margulies’ yummy script… David Whitehead is bang-on persuasive as a beguiled and grounded Gabe. His timing and temperament prove airtight… Melissa Dunlap is a charmingly fastidious Karen… Jayne L. Victor as crumpled Beth, in one steamy bedroom scene with estranged lawyer-husband Tom..really hit her mark as an emotional cyclone… [Michael] Donahue [as Tom] is some hot stuff, making us uncomfortable as he violates others’ space or bursts through someone else’s prescribed boundaries. He simply simmers. [The Play’s settings designed by Raedun de Alba with decoration and properties by Susan Kaplan and Sue Winfield feature]…a foodies’ kitchen realistically designed and cluttered … dueling tables for two, bedrooms angling as battlegrounds — suggests a truer, temporal state of affairs. It’s the beautiful mess in which we more often find ourselves. Technical Director Jimmy Gertzog [provides] lifelike sound effects that are perfectly timed and hauntingly real lighting effects. Dinner With Friends is neither for the faint of heart nor the weak of stomach. Its blend of brutal honesty and merry malfeasance is meant to be savored with your closest pals…” Terry Byrne, DCMetroTheaterArts.com

(Click To Enlarge)

Full of humor, warmth, and wisdom, this 2000 Pulitzer Prize winning drama is a funny yet bittersweet look at the marriages of two couples who have been friends for years and the impact on both couples when one of those marriages goes sour. Margulies’ elegant, breezy and witty dialog nourishes the audience as do his poignant insights which are deeply affecting.  The New York Times called this multi-award winning work “A play for our time.”  Dinner with Friends is not for young audiences.  It contains mature themes and language.

Written By Donald Margulies

Directed By Tina Hodge Thronson 

The Laramie Project, Steel Magnolias, Twelve Angry Men, The Man Who Came To Dinner (8 WATCH Nominations-3 WATCH Awards) , Born Yesterday

Featuring an Outstanding Cast of PPF Veterans and One Delightful Newcomer

Beth: Jayne L. Victor  Moon Over Buffalo, All My Sons (WATCH Nomination, Lead Actress) Big Tree Falls, The Shadow Box

(Ten Performances, Three Weekends, Two Thursday Evenings and Two Sunday Matinees to chose from)

Thurs-Fri-Sat Evenings @ 7:30 p.m. April 12, 13, 18, 19, 20

Final Sunday Matinee@ 2:00 p.m. April 14

At the James Lee Community Center Theater 2855 Annandale Road, Falls Church VA.

Tickets are $18 for Adults $15 for Students and Seniors (62+) and Can Be Purchased Online Here: www.providenceplayers.org

Email: providenceplayerstickets@cox.net

Phone: 703-425-6782 (Leave Message)

In Falls Church at The James Lee Community Center Theater – Three Performances This Weekend

Running for Three Weekends with Two Thursday Evening Performances, Two Sunday Matinees and on Friday and Saturday Nights at 7:30

Lots of Choices to see “Dinner With Friends”: April 5th thru April 20th. Tickets will be available at the door.  BUT! Order Your Tickets Today for the Best Seat Selection for This Pulitzer Prize Winning Drama!

Full of humor, warmth, and wisdom, this 2000 Pulitzer Prize winning drama is a funny yet bittersweet look at the marriages of two couples who have been friends for years and the impact on both couples when one of those marriages goes sour. Margulies’ elegant, breezy and witty dialog nourishes the audience as do his poignant insights which are deeply affecting.  The New York Times called this multi-award winning work “A play for our time.”  Dinner with Friends is not for young audiences.  It contains mature themes and language.

Written By Donald Margulies

Directed By Tina Hodge Thronson 

The Laramie Project, Steel Magnolias, Twelve Angry Men, The Man Who Came To Dinner (8 WATCH Nominations-3 WATCH Awards) , Born Yesterday

Featuring an Outstanding Cast of PPF Veterans and One Delightful Newcomer

Beth: Jayne L. Victor  Moon Over Buffalo, All My Sons (WATCH Nomination, Lead Actress) Big Tree Falls, The Shadow Box

(Ten Performances, Three Weekends, Two Thursday Evenings and Two Sunday Matinees to chose from)

Thurs-Fri-Sat Evenings @ 7:30 p.m. April 5, 6, 11, 12, 13, 18, 19, 20

Sunday Matinees @ 2:00 p.m. April 7 & 14

At the James Lee Community Center Theater 2855 Annandale Road, Falls Church VA.

Tickets are $18 for Adults $15 for Students and Seniors (62+) and Can Be Purchased Online Here: www.providenceplayers.org

Email: providenceplayerstickets@cox.net

Phone: 703-425-6782 (Leave Message)

Three Weekends – Two Thursday Evening Performances –

Two Sunday Matinees – Fridays and Saturday Nights at 7:30

Lots of Choices to see “Dinner With Friends”: April 5th thru April 20th  BUT! Order Your Tickets Today for the Best Seat Selection for This Pulitzer Prize Winning Drama!

Full of humor, warmth, and wisdom, this 2000 Pulitzer Prize winning drama is a funny yet bittersweet look at the marriages of two couples who have been friends for years and the impact on both couples when one of those marriages goes sour. Margulies’ elegant, breezy and witty dialog nourishes the audience as do his poignant insights which are deeply affecting.  The New York Times called this multi-award winning work “A play for our time.”  Dinner with Friends is not for young audiences.  It contains mature themes and language.

Written By Donald Margulies

Directed By Tina Hodge Thronson 

The Laramie Project, Steel Magnolias, Twelve Angry Men, The Man Who Came To Dinner (8 WATCH Nominations-3 WATCH Awards) , Born Yesterday

Featuring an Outstanding Cast of PPF Veterans and One Delightful Newcomer

Beth: Jayne L. Victor  Moon Over Buffalo, All My Sons (WATCH Nomination, Lead Actress) Big Tree Falls, The Shadow Box

(Ten Performances, Three Weekends, Two Thursday Evenings and Two Sunday Matinees to chose from)

Thurs-Fri-Sat Evenings @ 7:30 p.m. April 5, 6, 11, 12, 13, 18, 19, 20

Sunday Matinees @ 2:00 p.m. April 7 & 14

At the James Lee Community Center Theater 2855 Annandale Road, Falls Church VA.

Tickets are $18 for Adults $15 for Students and Seniors (62+) and Can Be Purchased Online Here: www.providenceplayers.org

Email: providenceplayerstickets@cox.net

Phone: 703-425-6782 (Leave Message)

Order you Tickets Today for the Best Seat Selection for This Pulitzer Prize Winning Drama!

Full of humor, warmth, and wisdom, this 2000 Pulitzer Prize winning drama is a funny yet bittersweet look at the marriages of two couples who have been friends for years and the impact on both couples when one of those marriages goes sour. Margulies’ elegant, breezy and witty dialog nourishes the audience as do his poignant insights which are deeply affecting.  The New York Times called this multi-award winning work “A play for our time.”  Dinner with Friends is not for young audiences.  It contains mature themes and language.

Written By Donald Margulies

Directed By Tina Hodge Thronson 

The Laramie Project, Steel Magnolias, Twelve Angry Men, The Man Who Came To Dinner (8 WATCH Nominations-3 WATCH Awards) , Born Yesterday

Featuring an Outstanding Cast of PPF Veterans and One Delightful Newcomer

Beth: Jayne L. Victor  Moon Over Buffalo, All My Sons (WATCH Nomination, Lead Actress) Big Tree Falls, The Shadow Box

(Ten Performances, Three Weekends, Two Thursday Evenings and Two Sunday Matinees to chose from)

Thurs-Fri-Sat Evenings @ 7:30 p.m. April 5, 6, 11, 12, 13, 18, 19, 20

Sunday Matinees @ 2:00 p.m. April 7 & 14

At the James Lee Community Center Theater 2855 Annandale Road, Falls Church VA.

Tickets are $18 for Adults $15 for Students and Seniors (62+) and Can Be Purchased Online Here

Last night (March 17, 2013), at the Birchmere in Alexandria, Virginia, Washington area community theater companies celebrated their “Tony Awards” style evening: The 13^th Annual Washington Area Community Theatre Honors (WATCH) Awards. 126 productions (43 musicals, 83 plays) from 33 theater companies performing from Annapolis, MD. in the east, to Fauquier County, VA in the west and covering the greater DC, MD, Northern Virginia region were adjudicated this year.

The Providence Players of Fairfax (PPF) were honored with 8 awards (the most awards for any company this year) for two productions in a year marked by the broadest distribution of nominations and awards by company since WATCH was formed. Congratulations to all PPF award winners and nominees and to all 33 WATCH member community theater companies.

The PPF 2012 WATCH Award winners were:

Outstanding Set Design in a Play: Raedun Knutsen & Chip Gertzog, For Side Man

Outstanding Set Decoration in a Play: Lisa Church & Chip Gertzog, For You Can’t Take It With You

Outstanding Sound Design in a Play: Jimmy Gertzog & Chip Gertzog, For Side Man

Outstanding Light Design in a Play:  Chip Gertzog, For Side Man

Outstanding Properties in a Play: Susan Kaplan, For Side Man

Outstanding Costume Design in a Play: Robbie Snow, For You Can’t Take It With You

Outstanding Hair Design in a Play: Beth Harrison, For You Can’t Take It With You

Outstanding Makeup Design in a Play: Beth Harrison, For You Can’t Take it With You.

PPF garnered a total of 19 nominations for three productions for the 2012 WATCH award season, again, the most of any single company. Here is the full list of PPF nominations by production:

Side Man

Outstanding Play: Jayne Victor, Producer, Mike Donahue, Stage Manager, Jimmy Gertzog, Director

Outstanding Direction of a Play: Jimmy Gertzog

Outstanding Light Design in a Play: Chip Gertzog

Outstanding Makeup Design in a Play: Beth Harrison

Outstanding Properties in a Play: Susan Kaplan

Outstanding Set Construction in a Play: Chip Gertzog et al

Outstanding Set Decoration in a Play: Kathy White

Outstanding Set Design in a Play:  Raedun Knutsen & Chip Gertzog

Outstanding Set Painting in a Play: Chip Gertzog

Outstanding Sound Design in a Play: Jimmy Gertzog & Chip Gertzog

Sleuth

Outstanding Properties in a Play: Robbie Snow et al

You Can’t Take it With You

Outstanding Costume Design in a Play: Robbie Snow
Outstanding Hair Design in a Play: Beth Harrison
Outstanding Makeup Design in a Play: Beth Harrison
Outstanding Properties in a Play: Chip Gertzog
Outstanding Set Construction in a Play: John Coscia
Outstanding Set Decoration in a Play: Lisa Church & Chip Gertzog
Outstanding Set Design in a Play: John Coscia
Outstanding Special Effects: Chip Gertzog

10 judges from the 33 member companies see and score each of the 126 shows, each actor and each production element. The high and low scores are eliminated and the remaining 8 scores are averaged. The top 5 or 6 scorers in each category receive nominations with the high score receiving the WATCH Award in that category.

The Providence Players first joined WATCH in 2004. Press coverage of the 2012 WATCH Awards may be viewed at:

DC Metro Theater Arts.com

ShowBizRadio.net

Washington Area Community Theatre Honors