Quotidian Theatre Company Special Event!
We’re thrilled to announce that one of DC’s finest local actors and playwrights, Steve LaRocque, has agreed to premiere his latest work here at Quotidian Theatre Company! Next Sunday, April 29th, our 2pm matinee of Dancing at Lughnasa will be followed by a free reception and a complimentary performance of Steve LaRocque’s new one-man show Byline: Ernie Pyle.
Many of you know LaRocque’s work as a playwright from such pieces as While We Have the Light, September 11th Was a Tuesday, and Monday Evening 1942, all of which had their world premieres at Quotidian. LaRocque is also a veteran actor whose work onstage has been described by critics as “consummate” and “spellbinding.” As a master of understated humanity, nuanced subtlety, and staggering versatility in both light comedy and heavy drama, he has long been beloved by area theatre-goers. His performances here at Quotidian Theatre Company include our current production of Dancing at Lughnasa and many others.
In his one-man play, Byline: Ernie Pyle, LaRocque inhabits the character of the famous real-life World War II correspondent. The piece was given a public reading at The Kennedy Center’s Page-to-Stage Festival, and was well-received by that audience. We are extremely proud to present this new work from one of our favorite artists.
“I have long felt that the quiet intensity and personal scope of Ernie Pyle’s war accounts make him a perfect exponent of the kind of theatre that the Quotidian Theatre Company has been putting on stage for the past fifteen years.” — Steve LaRocque
Tickets for this special event are limited. Group reservations are encouraged, and the patron who brings the largest group in attendance will be awarded a gift from Salon Fusion on Rockville Pike, as well as two free subscriptions to Quotidian Theatre Company’s 2012-2013 Fifteenth Anniversary Season!
The matinee of Dancing at Lughnasa on Sunday, April 29th begins 2pm at The Writer’s Center (4508 Walsh St, Bethesda, MD 20815). A complimentary reception will follow the performance, after which LaRocque will take the stage again for Byline: Ernie Pyle. Further details about Byline: Ernie Pyle and Dancing at Lughnasa follow below.
Space for this special event is highly restricted, so please make your reservations now. Tickets are just $25, or $20 for students or seniors, paid for at the door in cash or by check. Call 301-816-1023 or email quotidiantheatre@comcast.net to reserve.
About the plays:
Staged for the first time at this Quotidian Theatre Company special event, Byline: Ernie Pyle is a one-man show written and performed by perennial Quotidian favorite Steve LaRocque.
Ernie Pyle, the great World War II correspondent, was one of the first “embedded” reporters. He went to war with sailors and aviators, anti-aircraft gunners and mule packers, medical teams and combat engineers, and, above all, his beloved infantry, “the underdogs… without whom wars cannot be won.”
Pyle covered the London Blitz, the North African campaign, the invasion of Sicily and bitter mountain fighting in Italy, the Normandy invasion, and the glorious liberation of Paris. His now-famous dispatches chronicled the day-to-day stories of everyday American citizens who became warriors at a time of urgent need, and their triumphs and sacrifices that ultimately won the war.
Byline: Ernie Pyle features Steve LaRocque as Pyle himself, recounting the major events of the war in Pyle’s own words. The actor becomes the reporter, appalled at the tragic waste of war and the brutal conditions it imposes on the men who fight it, yet convinced of the need for it, and personally committed to going back to it, again and again, until the end.
Widely regarded as playwright Brian Friel’s masterpiece, Dancing at Lughnasa is a memory play about five unmarried sisters eking out their lives in a small Irish village.
Dancing at Lughnasa won the 1992 Tony Award for Best Play, and Time Magazine called it “the most elegant and rueful memory play since The Glass Menagerie.”
Our production of this touching Irish drama is now open and runs through May 20. Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm, and Sundays at 2pm, with one added 2pm performance on May 19.
Dancing at Lughnasa is directed by Craig Allen Mummey and features David Dubov, Rebecca Ellis, Doug Krehbel, Steve LaRocque, Leah Mazade, Stephanie Mumford, Laura Russell, and Alyssa Sanders.
This special event, pairing Dancing at Lughnasa with Byline: Ernie Pyle, is on April 29 only. Dancing at Lughnasa runs approximately two and a half hours, including one intermission. Byline: Ernie Pyle runs approximately one hour.
If you have any questions, please email us at quotidiantheatre@comcast.net.
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