Providence Players of Fairfax

Are you aching for a creative outlet? Just want to engage with other artists to create something imaginative and fun? Well great news! A new opportunity has just POPPED UP!

In a time of social distancing and the shuttering of live theater, Providence Players of Fairfax wants to continue, in a small way, to offer quality, affordable, entertainment experiences to current and new audiences, while at the same time furthering our core values of participation and learning through creative expression. If you have seen one of Providence Players’ PopUp performances at the Italian Café, you are familiar with the PopUp mission of providing our members opportunities to expand artistically while broadening our audience, membership, and repertoire.

It is with that mission in mind that we are happy to announce that we will be adapting our PopUp format to include short, online performances our community can participate in and/or enjoy from the comfort and safety of your own home. You can see an example here.

Follow Providence Players on social media for POP UP opportunities to:

• Perform in our next project. Shows will be cast through an open call for volunteers based on a mix of preference and best fit. As time goes on, preference will be given to those who haven’t performed yet or in a while.  Keep an eye out for opportunities on our website and social media!
• Direct! We at Providence are always committed to quality. Every project will have a director to do some table work, give notes, and apply a cohesive vision to the performance in partnership with the technical lead. E-mail us at info@providenceplayers.org with the subject line “PopUp Director,” if interested. If you have never directed with Providence, a board member will partner with you on the project.
• The whole package! Tired of waiting for Providence to post a show? Have one of your own you would like to do and already have a cast in mind? E-mail info@providenceplayers.org with the subject line “PopUp Pitch”, a copy of the script and a brief paragraph (<200 words) summarizing your pitch. Someone will be in touch to work with you.
  • We will review all pitches, but acceptance is not guaranteed
  • We currently prefer shows that are around 10-40 minutes long (one acts)
  • We will help you look into the rights availability for your show

Just interested in watching the performances? Be sure to follow Providence Players on social media and subscribe to our YouTube channel.

You can guarantee connecting with this offering by liking and following the Providence Facebook Page, joining the Providence Players Facebook Group and following the Providence Players on Instagram.

And just like our in-person performances, we encourage you to make a night of it with dinner AND a show! The Italian Café is still serving delicious takeout for you and your friends and family to enjoy.

Providence Players will always work to provide an artistic outlet to help sustain and develop our community of member artists, no matter what challenges we face. We look forward to creating with you once again.

Patrons, Donors & Fellow Artists,

We are a small theater company, but we have one big and important value at the core of who we are:  “commitment to community.”  We take that seriously.

As a result of the Coronavirus, we know that people are being impacted in significant ways:

• Risk of a life-threating illness
• Anxiety and fear
• Lost wages – due to furlough or layoff
• Lack of access to the essentials (food, medicine)
• Social isolation and loneliness

And though we can’t address all of these issues, we can provide some support to those who do.

Will you join us?

Today, we announce that we have established a COVID-19 Emergency Assistance Fund and will apply all donations given to us to help support those negatively impacted by this crisis. We have received donations in the form of donated tickets from show cancellations and are asking you to join us now to increase the impact these donations will have.  We will apply the value of these donated tickets to match all donations made to help others in our community during this pandemic.

Read more

On Sunday January 19, a small group attended the WATCH (Washington Area Theatre Community Honors) nomination event at the Birchmere.  Many thanks to Mario Font for representing Providence Players as its WATCH liaison. We are pleased and proud to announce the nominations for Providence Players productions of And Then There Were None and Leaving Iowa.  And the nominees are:

Nominations for And Then There Were None

• Outstanding Hair Design in a Play – Beth Harrison & Robbie Snow
• Outstanding Makeup Design in a Play – Beth Harrison
• Outstanding Properties in a Play – Tara Tripp & Kathy White
• Outstanding Set Design in a Play – John Coscia

Nominations for Leaving Iowa

• Outstanding Costume Design in a Play – Robbie Snow
• Outstanding Sound Design in a Play – Christopher Crockett
• Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play – Michael Bagwell as “Dad”
• Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play – Amy Griffin as “Mom”
• Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play – Charlene Sloan as “Multiple Characters”
• Outstanding Lead Actor in a Play – Bobby Welsh as “Don Browning”
• Leta Hall Outstanding Ensemble in a Play
• Outstanding Direction of a Play – Julie Janson
• Outstanding Play

Congratulations to all the nominees.  The WATCH Awards Event will take place at the Birchmere on Sunday, March 22.

On behalf of Providence Players of Fairfax, Director Amanda Ranowsky is pleased to announce the cast of Enchanted April, by Matthew Barber.

In this gentle and romantic comedy, two London housewives pool their savings to rent a villa in Italy for a ladies-only holiday away, reluctantly recruiting a pair of difficult upper-class women to share the cost and the experience. Against the backdrop of a country still reeling from World War I, the women join together under the Mediterranean sun, seeking a necessary balm of sunshine and renewal.  Soon joined by the villa owner, husbands and lovers, the four women clash — and then begin to bond and bloom.  Enchanted April won the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding New American Play in 2003, along with numerous Tony Award nominations.  Single tickets on sale now!

CAST
(* denotes Providence Players debut)

Lotty – Jessa Whitley Hill*
Rose – Andra Whitt
Caroline – Lindsey June
Mrs. Graves – Beth Whitehead
Costanza – Eleanor Tyler*
Mellersh – Christopher Crockett
Frederick – Chris Persil
Antony – Chuck O’Toole

Read more

A remarkable director and cast present Picnic.  Opens Friday, March 20.

MEET THE DIRECTOR

Michael Donahue is a current PPF board member and has been actively directing and acting with Providence Players since 2009.  Also, an award-winning director, Michael directed August: Osage County in last year’s season as well as productions of Front Page, Calendar Girls and House of Blue Leaves.  Michael has an MFA in Theater Directing and was Artistic Director for Playhouse on the Square’s Professional Theatre for Youth in Memphis, TN and Associate Artistic Director for HITT Productions.

Q: Why did you want to direct Picnic? 

A: “The play Picnic takes place on just another Labor Day in the sleepy town of Liberty, Kansas when the train whistle blows signaling the anticipation both of a potentially disruptive arrival and the possibilities of adventure beyond the constraints of the town.  A pandora’s box of longings are released which results in an intense journey full of humor but also the mystery of the journey’s end.  This is a Labor Day that none of the characters will ever forget.  I was compelled to direct this story with all its theatrical possibilities.”

Read more

By Matthew Barber
Directed by Amanda Ranowsky

Play Synopsis

In this gentle and romantic comedy, two London housewives pool their savings to rent a villa in Italy for a ladies-only holiday away, reluctantly recruiting a pair of difficult upper-class women to share the cost and the experience. Against the backdrop of a country still reeling from World War I, the women join together under the Mediterranean sun, seeking a necessary balm of sunshine and renewal.  Soon joined by the villa owner, husbands and lovers, the four women clash — and then begin to bond and bloom.  Enchanted April won the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding New American Play in 2003, along with numerous Tony Award nominations.

Providence Players of Fairfax is:

• A non-profit community theater troupe. All participation is on a volunteer basis. No members of the cast or crew are compensated.
• A membership organization. Membership is not required to audition. If cast, all actors (and in fact, all volunteers), are required to become members of Providence Players of Fairfax ($25 per individual or $60 per family – three or more) for the season (if not already a member).

Casting Announcement

Providence Players is casting 8 roles (5 Women and 3 Men).  No roles are precast, and all roles are open.  All backgrounds, ages, ethnicities welcome and encouraged to audition!  All welcome!

Download all three documents: Audition Announcement, Form and Theater Access Schedule.

Audition Dates

• 7:00 p.m. Monday, February 24
• 7:00 p.m. Tuesday, February 25
• Callbacks, by invitation only:  7:00 p.m., Wednesday, February 26

PLEASE RSVP to info@providenceplayers.org with the date you plan to attend.

Actors who audition one night may be asked to come back a second night, if available. You are not required to be available multiple evenings to be considered. The Director reserves the right to extend the audition period pending initial audition response. Read more

“This is an absolute gem of a production in an intriguing, more than intimate, space. Go see it. Leave the kids at home. Then look at each other and wonder.”

“The two actors, Ari Post as Thomas Novachek and Andra Whitt as Vanda Jordan give two of the best performances I have seen all year. They are, simply put, mesmerizing.” 

~Mary Ann Johnson, Maryland Theater Guide Critic.

(Read the full review by clicking the banner below)

Audience members shared:

“Wonderful performance… this show is smart, funny and surprising.”
“Fantastic! Very entertaining.”
“Excellent production in an intimate and fun space at The Italian Cafe in Falls Church.”  

Read more

But tickets are already gone for the first weekend!  Three performances remain!

Don’t delay!

Thomas is a playwright and director, desperately in need of an actress. When Vanda arrives several hours late to her audition for a play based on a nineteenth-century erotic novel, Thomas is less than impressed. But Vanda’s masterful performance flips the script on his expectations and turns the session into a tango for dominance between actress and director, woman and man, a provocative exploration of gender roles and the intricate dynamic of artistic collaboration.  Hailed as “seriously smart and very funny” by The New York Times, Venus in Fur is a laugh-out-loud study of the politics of sex and power that’s guaranteed to charm and mesmerize.  This play contains strong language, sexual situations and adult content. Read more

A remarkable director and cast present Venus in Fur, by David Ives.  Opens Thursday, January 30.

MEET THE DIRECTOR

Jimmy Gertzog is a long-time member, marking over two decades of creativity at Providence Players.  He recently directed Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike in spring 2017 and the award-winning production of Side Man in early 2012.  Jimmy played Ed Carmichael in PPF’s revival of You Can’t Take It With You, and Jim in Big Tree Falls.  More often his credits come from technical roles, especially sound design, set construction, and lighting (Bobby Gould in Hell, Lovers & Executioners, The Front Page, Phantom Tollbooth, Calendar Girls, Of Mice and Men, Little Shop of Horrors).

Read more

On behalf of Providence Players of Fairfax, Director Michael Donahue is pleased to announce the cast of Picnic, by William Inge.

On a sweltering Labor Day morning in a small Kansas town, the women of a quiet neighborhood on the wrong side of the tracks are preparing for the annual picnic. Their lives are disrupted when Hal Carter, a muscular and charming young drifter, hops off the freight train, and heads straight for Mrs. Potts’ hospitable home.  Hearts are broken and lives are changed, as Hal’s lively, dangerous, masculine energy wakes up the sleepy community.  William Inge’s Pulitzer Prize winning drama explores themes of sexuality, repression, restlessness, and rites of passage.  Picnic won the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best Play in 1953, and featured Paul Newman in his Broadway debut.  Single tickets on sale now!

CAST

Madge – Jaclyn Robertson
Rosemary – Jayne Victor
Millie – Raeanna Larson
Irma – Anastasia Brunk
Christine – Tara Tripp
Mrs. Potts – Deborah Davidson
Flo – Sara Joy Lebowitz
Hal – Ari Post
Alan – Alex Marshall
Bomber – Mike Sarisky
Howard – Bobby Welsh

Read more