If you're anything like us, we know you've been champing at the bit to get back into our theatre for some top-notch professional performances of some really intriguing new shows. Well, we have a great new season all set for you!

We'll kick it off December 28, 2021 through January 29, 2022 with the engrossing mock-docu-comedy Cats Talk Back, by award-winning New York playwright Bess Wohl, in which several actors who supposedly spent a good part of their lives performing in one of Broadway's longest-running musicals reminisce about their experiences as felines on stage. There are a few surprises, however, so be ready!

Next, February 15 through March 12, we'll bring you the South Florida premiere of Hy Conrad's wickedly funny new play, Quarantine for Two. Hy, the well-known Key West resident who wrote a good many of the Monk episodes, as well as White Collar, and the recent hit, The Good Cop, has taken the trials and tribulations of our pandemic quarantine and turned them hilariously on their heads. The play mixes comedy, intrigue, (and of course) murder, and a neck-bending twist that you won't see coming.

March 22 through April 16, we present Hurricane Diane, the unconventional new comedy from Pulitzer Prize finalist Madeleine George, where the Greek god Dionysus returns to the modern world disguised as the butch gardener Diane, whose secret mission is to seduce mortal followers and restore the earth to its natural state. Where better to begin than with four real housewives from New Jersey? It's a very funny show, but don't let that fool you -- there are some very significant ideas buried within the laughs.

And we end our new season April 29-May 1 with the adorable How To Eat Like a Child and Other Lessons in Not Being Grown Up, starring a host of Key West's finest young and playful actors. The show is based on a book by Nora Ephron, who also wrote the play, along with music and lyrics by John Forster. It's a hilarious romp through the joys and sorrows of being a child, and will touch the child inside everyone in the theater. Our wonderful child actors give 23 lessons in subjects like how to beg for a dog, how to torture your sister, how to act after being sent to your room and how to laugh hysterically. But it's a limited run, so make sure you get your tickets early.

And if you're still uneasy about attending the theater, let us assure you -- we are taking every precaution. The Red Barn has been certified as a Covid Compliant Theater. Our staff has attended the classes at Arts and Science LLC, and we will follow all safety protocols outlined there. The theater will be cleaned and disinfected before each performance, and we'll be asking all our patrons to follow the basic Covid safety protocols...it's the only way we can keep everyone safe so we can once again enjoy our theater.

Tickets for our new season will be available soon. Watch this website and our FaceBook page for more information.

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.

View fullsize

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.

PRESS RELEASE
For further information, call: Bob Bowersox at 302-540-6102

For Immediate Release

---

“The best laid schemes o' mice an' men
 Gang aft a-gley.”

Those iconic lines from Robert Burns’ famous poem “To A Mouse” seem to be quoted a great deal these days, as the pandemic continues to force more and more well-laid plans to be postponed, if not cancelled altogether.

Such is the case with Key West’s Red Barn Theatre, which recently announced it’s carefully-planned 41st Season, which was to take place outdoors under the stars in the venerable theater’s spacious Zabar Courtyard. They called their season theme “Outside the Box” – taking their live productions to their outdoor stage, where social distancing and open spacing would greatly reduce the anxiety of possible COVID infection.

“We had a beautiful stage designed and ready to go,” said Managing Director Mimi McDonald, “which would have kept the audience back about twelve feet. And we’d worked out several protocols regarding spaced out seating by pods, bar service, and were even looking into designing digital programs that could be accessed by your mobile phone.”

It might have worked, but it became apparent that city guidelines regarding entertainers – where they must either be separated from their audience by a Plexiglas partition, or wear masks during their performance – were not going to be feasible for a live theater performance, even outdoors. And concern for the well-being of their patrons as the virus cases were increasing and expecting to continue to do so was put foremost in management’s mind. For the safety of all, the decision was made to postpone until conditions improve.

So until the pandemic abates, or vaccines are more widely available and effective, the Red Barn will hold off on proceeding with their season. This includes the World Premiere of Hy Conrad’s new play, “Quarantine for 2”, planned for January, as well as the planned live performances of Bess Wohl’s “Cats Talk Back” in February, and Jane Martin’s “Sez She” in March.

The Red Barn is going to continue with their streaming offerings however, following the enthusiastic reception of their first online streaming production of Nora and Delia Ephron’s “Love, Loss and What I Wore,” which completes it’s run Saturday.

“We’ll be making an announcement soon on what will be available in the New Year,” said McDonald, “but fans of theater and supporters of the Red Barn should make plans to catch the free streaming of Darrin Hagen’s hilarious ‘With Bells On’, which will run from December 16th through the 20th on our website, redbarntheatre.com.”

“With Bells On” was a smash hit for the Red Barn last Christmas season, directed and costumed by Christopher Peterson and starring Trey Gerrard and Don Bearden. It’s a very funny play about a meek and mild accountant trapped in an elevator with a flamboyant drag queen on Christmas Eve. To view the play, just go to redbarntheatre.com and click on the link for the play.

For now, the Red Barn will continue to monitor developments and the city’s guidelines, and as soon as it is deemed safe, will resume their season of live performances. But for now, it’s a wait-and-see game, as it is with most everyone else.

“We’ll be back,” said McDonald. “But for now, let’s all stay safe and do what we can, which for us, is to offer our online streaming theatrical events. We’ll see you soon.”

For more information on the Red Barn, visit redbarntheatre.com.

PRESS RELEASE
For further information, call: Bob Bowersox at 302-540-6102

For Immediate Release

---

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

The pandemic hasn’t left us much to laugh at, but the Red Barn Theatre will have us rolling on our couches for a week and it won’t cost us a dime. As a free holiday gift to all their fans and supporters, the Red Barn will be streaming a film of their 2018 Christmas hit, “With Bells On”, the hilarious play written by Canadian Darrin Hagen. The original production – a sold out smash hit – was directed and (outrageously) costumed by Christopher Peterson and starred Trey Gerrald and Don Bearden.

The free HD quality streaming will be available 24/7 on the theater’s website, redbarntheatre.com, beginning at midnight, Wednesday, December 16th and running through 11:59 pm, Sunday, December 20th. No tickets or sign-ups are required. Just go to the website and click on the link provided for “With Bells On”.

The play is centered around an elevator -- the only thing on the stage. And it’s stuck between floors. Ted (Bearden) appears to be a short, quiet, emotionally unassuming, dweeb accountant who has entered the elevator in his not-so luxurious apartment building, where he’s been living since his recent divorce. Standing next to him – or maybe “towering” over him would be more appropriate – is Natasha (Gerrald), a six-foot-seven-inch (in heels) drag queen dressed like a Christmas Tree, who is completely beside herself because this stalled elevator will cause her to miss her chance to be crowned Christmas Queen in the holiday pageant at the Magic Crystal Palace downtown.

If you’re thinking this is a perfect set-up for some hilarity, you’d be correct. You’re going to laugh a lot. The juxtapositioning of two such opposite characters in such a situation is full of comic possibilities, and Hagen takes complete advantage of them all. The puns and comic lines fly fast and furious, as Ted and Natasha try to find a way to extricate themselves from circumstances neither of them is comfortable in.

But the play is about more than that. Because Ted is not the sadsack milquetoast we initially think him to be, nor is he a prig or homophobe. He actually grows curious about the exotic creature he’s met. And this interest begins to work some magic on an initially hostile Natasha.

As all Key West theaters in this tough time, the Red Barn is struggling to make ends meet, and while they’re more than happy to entertain their friends and patrons for free this holiday, they would not be unappreciative for any donation you might want to make. While you’re there for “With Bells On”, you can click on their “Tickets” page and then on “Donation” and make a donation toward helping the Barn keep the lights on. Any donation is tax deductible.

For more information, visit redbarntheatre.com or call 305-296-9911.

PRESS RELEASE
For further information, call: Bob Bowersox at 302-540-6102

For Immediate Release

---


“Loved it! So well produced!”

“Loved every second…the actors superb, the technology and synchronization amazing.”

“Loved this production...it worked so well online…brilliantly directed, and fabulously acted.”

These are just a few of the unsolicited email comments from patrons who have viewed the Red Barn Theatre’s smash hit online production of Nora and Delia Ephron’s “Love, Loss and What I Wore,” originally scheduled for just a five-day streaming availability as the first production of their new 41st season of professional theatre

But with a response like that, and more demand for extended viewing options, the Red Barn decided that an extra week of online availability for the show was warranted. So the hilarious play – starring five of Key West’s top actresses – has been extended and will remain available online through 11:59 pm on December 5th. Patrons can visit the theater’s ticketing page on their website at redbarntheatre.com. Once the ticket is purchased  – at a very reasonable $10 – the patron will receive an email receipt on which is a special “Watch” or “Watch Video” link to the streaming HD video.

The play is a series of monologues and dialogues between a variety of women of various ages, each of whom delivers funny and poignant stories that have been triggered by their individual experiences with clothing throughout their lives. They touch on virtually everything – from their first Brownie dress to their first prom dress, from bathrobes to bras, from shoes to boots to skirts, and the value of anything black.  It’s impossible not to relate to their tales, especially if you’re a woman…what they talk about is universal to anyone who has worn just about anything. The stories are personal, intriguing, and ultimately very funny.

Love, Loss and What I Wore stars Amber McDonald Good, Melody G. Moore, Peggy Montgomery, Barbara Mundy, and Susannah Wells. It is directed by Carole MacCartee and produced by Bob Bowersox, who has devised a clever way of using the Zoom interface as the world of the play, while making use of film editing techniques to make the play more visually active.

Artist rendering of the new Red Barn Theatre’s “Outside the Box” outdoor performance space.

The production kicks off a full season at the Red Barn, with all of the mainstage productions staged live in an outdoor space in the theater’s Zabar Courtyard. The Love, Loss streaming production is also the kickoff to the theater’s Membership and Subscription drives – a very important part of their operating capital drive. Memberships are available in a number of levels, each with its own percs. Subscriptions are available for their entire 2020-21 season. Single tickets for the are also available.

More information can be found at redbarntheatre.com or by calling 305-296-9911.