RED BARN SETS ONLINE STREAM FOR “SEZ SHE”
PRESS RELEASE
For further information, call: Bob Bowersox at 302-540-6102
For Immediate Release
Key West’s Red Barn Theatre will present the fourth online offering of its 41st season with a streaming production of Jane Martin’s funny and provocative “Sez She”, starring a stellar cast of 16 of Key West’s top female actors, directed by the Barn’s artistic director, Joy Hawkins.
The show will run March 8-20 and can be accessed through the theater’s website at redbarntheatre.com. Tickets are only $10, with viewing available 24/7 on any platform with an internet connection, be it TV, phone, or tablet.
The Barn has had great success with its previous three streaming offerings online, “The Big Bang” and “Love, Loss and What I Wore” last Fall, and the hilarious Christmas and New Year’s hit, “With Bells On.” The quality of the shows and the performances shine through in the streamers, and response has been positive.
“Sez She” is the late Martin’s final play in a series that has featured the broad perspectives on life of modern-day women, told in a series of intimate and revealing monologues. Two previous plays, “Talking With” and “Vital Signs”, have won numerous awards, including the American Theatre Critics Best Play Award. Martin, herself, has been nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for another of her plays, “Keely and Du”.
“Sez She” offers humorous and outspoken takes on everything from the fun of regressing to our childhood to the grownup "wheeee" of sex, from celebrating Damn Fools Day to the virtues of being green (yes…the color green). They touch chords of hilarity, surprise, homespun philosophy, frustration, and even political commentary. Each and every one of them has you hanging on every word.
The actors in the play are: Susannah Wells, George DiBraud, Caroline Taylor, Carolyn Cooper, Erin McKenna, Marjorie Paul Shook, Jessica Miano Kruel, Amber McDonald Good, Gerri Louise Gates, Melody G. Moore, Nicole Nurenberg, Zoe Hawkins-Wells, Vanessa McCaffrey, and Mimi McDonald.
“These are women who are caught in some way,” Hawkins said, “and I guess we’re all caught in our own particular moment – our background, our station in life, and what we do with it. They take you through all kinds of reactions – warm, enthusiastic, flabbergasting, humorous, outspoken. They tell it like it is, with deep truths that any woman – or man – can relate to.”
Hawkins comment is an interesting one, given that there has always been a controversy over exactly who Jane Martin really was. The prevailing theory is that “she” was actually a man named John Jory, who founded and produced the prestigious Humana Festival of New American Plays in Louisville, KY, where many of Jane Martin’s plays had their world premieres. Martin never gave an interview, and never appeared at any awards ceremony where her plays were honored. Jory, himself a playwright, was asked point-blank if he was “Jane Martin”, but he refused to answer the question, saying only “I’m not going to talk about that.”
Whether written by a man or woman, Jane Martin’s “Sez She” is a powerful, engaging, provocative play perfectly tuned to the times we are living through right now. The Minneapolis Star-Tribune called it
“…enormously entertaining, more like a Disney World ride aimed at adults. Lean back, take a deep breath, and grasp the handrail firmly.”
Sounds like it’s well-worth the $10 ticket. Patrons will also have the opportunity to add a supporting donation when they check out – a quick and easy way to help support the Red Barn’s efforts to keep theater alive while we fight through these difficult times.
For more information, visit redbarntheatre.com or call 305-296-9911.