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Before Gulfshore Playhouse produced Kristen Coury’s
highly praised production of “Oleanna” last October
at the FGCU Lab Theatre in Estero and the Norris Center,
Naples, Ms. Coury directed David Mamet’s complex drama
for the Hot Summer Nights at the Kennedy Series in Raleigh,
North Carolina. The production received rave reviews
in both markets. Raleigh’s Roy Dicks wrote that the
Kennedy series “had a winner…that fired on all
cylinders”, Charles Runnells of Fort Myers’ News-Press
wrote “This is actor Alan Campbell's second crack at
the professor. The Tony Award-nominee (he played opposed
Glenn Close in Broadway’s “Sunset Boulevard”)
played the strutting, self-absorbed John in Coury's Raleigh,
N.C., production, and it shows. His character feels comfortable
and lived-in, a pompous professor with a capital "P”…I
can’t wait to see what they come up with next.” The
Naples Daily News called it nearly flawless, citing Coury’s
direction as “nearly invisible here, which is as it
should be.”
Now the highly praised production has been selected as one
of the Ten Best Shows of 2006, as determined
by the theatre critics in the Raleigh-Durham Triangle . In
getting the honor The News& Observer noted: “David
Mamet’s two-character play about sexual harassment
on a college campus doesn’t make a clear case for either
participant. Under Kristen Coury’s taut direction,
Broadway star Alan Campbell and newcomer Meredith Jones gave
complex performances that goaded audiences into intense discussion
at play’s end...”
Gulfshore Playhouse will soon be located in a mixed
use “village”called
Estero on the River, on the corner of Corkscrew Road and US 41, on land generously
donated by the D'Jamoos Group Ltd. The Playhouse is about to officially
launch its Capital Campaign.
The Playhouse will be a state-of-the-art cultural institution that will house
a 550-seat theatre featuring a year-round season of affordable professional
theatre, a 150 seat studio theatre featuring cabaret, Children’s Theatre,
and experimental works. A large part of the building
will be dedicated to the Gulfshore Playhouse Education Lab, offering classes
for all ages in the theatrical arts, such as improvisation, acting, dancing,
writing and stage design.
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