Samuel Beckett's Happy Days

Description

Climate Theater & Rogue Theatre present Happy Days by Samuel Beckett starring Patty Gallagher

Tucson’s award-winning theatre company, The Rogue Theatre, will join the Climate for a one-weekend-only production of Samuel Beckett’s Happy Days, April 25, 26, and 27, 2008.

Happy Days is one of Beckett’s later works and has been hailed as one of his best. In the play, the resilient Winnie is buried to her waist in the earth. While she ponders the meaning of existence, her husband, Willie, reads the newspaper and looks at dirty postcards.

In the leading role of Winnie, is Bay Area theatre artist, Patty Gallagher. Patty is Assistant Professor of Theatre Arts at UC-Santa Cruz where she directs courses in physical theatre, mask performance, Balinese dance, and clown traditions. She is also Director in Residence for the Clown Conservatory, a year-round training program of the San Francisco School of Circus Arts. She has performed clown and buffoon with Teatro Cronopio and studied in Laboratorio Grupo Malayerba. She has worked with the New Pickle Circus, Fool Time Circus, Folger Shakespeare Theatre, San Francisco Circus and the Weird Sisters Ensemble. She has performed and directed workshops in Asia, South America, Europe, and the U.S., and recently was a Fulbright Scholar in Quito, Ecuador. She is a founding member of Local Hero, a physical theatre ensemble.

Patty is currently Artist in Residence at The Rogue Theatre where she has played Shen Te in The Good Woman of Setzuan and Ranevskaya in The Cherry Orchard. The Tucson Weekly describes her: “the appealing Patty Gallagher explores more shades of puzzlement, insecurity and forthrightness than anyone knew existed.” (April 2007)

Happy Days also features Joseph McGrath as Willie. It is directed by Cynthia Meier.

This is the third presentation in Climate Theater’s April Fool’s series. Featuring a month of clowning from such artists as John Gilkey (Cirque du Soleil), Summer Shapiro (Pants!) and Daniel Passer & Wayne Wilson (La Reve). Climate’s artistic director, Jessica Heidt says, “I have been hearing about Patty’s work for years and I’m a huge Beckett fan so I’m thrilled to be able to present this show.”

Funding for this performance is made possible by grants from Arizona Commission on the Arts, National Endowment for the Arts, Tucson Pima Arts Council, and UC Santa Cruz Committee on Research and its Arts Research Institute. This special one-weekend performance is part of a three-city tour including Quito, Ecuador and Tucson, Arizona.

Kathy Allen- Arizona Daily Star April 4, 2008

" Patty Gallagher's Sonnerie, a jester who communicates through bells (hence the name), is poetry in motion. The character never said a word, but we knew what she felt and what she was thinking with the shake of a leg or a shrug of the shoulders. Gallagher, Rogue's artist in residence, teaches physical theater and clown traditions at the University of California-Santa Cruz. She knows what she's doing, and it's a joy to watch her. "

James Reel - Tucson Weekly 4/3/08

Patty Gallagher, as a mute minstrel who communicates through pantomime and bell-ringing, knows exactly what this show needs, and is an amazing bundle of precision energy and high spirits.

Friday April 25 & Saturday April 26 at 8PM
Sunday, April 27 at 2PM

Tickets $15 general seating; $20 reserved

Tickets available at http://www.climatetheater.com

Climate Theater is located at 285 9th St (at Folsom), San Francisco, CA

More Info

Link

http://climatetheater.com/

Call

415-263-0830 (Box Office)