NAPPANEE - The Round Barn Theatre at Amish Acres will open its 2008 season with the second stage production of Neil Simon's Pulitzer Prize- and Tony Award-winning play "Lost In Yonkers."It is the coming-of-age tale of two brothers, Arty and Jay, who are left in the care of their Grandma Kurnitz and Aunt Bella in Yonkers, New York, by their desperate father Eddie, who needs to work as a traveling salesman to pay off debts incurred following his wife's death.
Grandma is a severe, frightfully intimidating immigrant who terrified her children as they were growing up, damaging each of them to varying degrees. Bella is a sweet but mentally slow and highly excitable woman who longs to marry an usher at the local movie house so she can escape the oppressive household and create a life and family of her own. Her brother Louie is a small-time, tough-talking hoodlum who is on the lam, while her sister Gert suffers from a breathing problem with causes more psychological than physical.
"Lost In Yonkers" was a critical and popular Broadway success that led to a film adaptation in 1993. Although many of Simon's plays had won major dramatic awards before this, "Lost In Yonkers" was the first Simon play to win the Pulitzer Prize. Many critics consider the play to be Simon's best work and the pinnacle of his career. Although the play is technically labeled a comedy, it is in fact a hybrid. The deep levels of pain that Simon explores in his characters and humorous dialogue ultimately help the play to strike a balance between tragedy and comedy.
"Lost In Yonkers" is the fifth play produced as a Second Stage production of The Round Barn Theatre.
The Second Stage production series began in 2004 as the brain child of Round Barn Theatre veteran and second-year Artistic Director Jeremy Littlejohn. The intimate venue of The Locke Township Meeting Hall located in the Greeting Barn gift shop was the original home of "Plain and Fancy," and was therefore the perfect location to launch an entirely new theatre program.
"The whole idea behind starting this series was to give the audience a taste of something different," Littlejohn said. "We strip these works down to the bare essentials and focus on the actors and the language. It's acting in its most pure form."
Second Stage productions have included "The Glass Menagerie," "Driving Miss Daisy," "Enter Laughing" and "Steel Magnolias."
Because of the overwhelming demand for tickets to the 2007 production of "Steel Magnolias," the number of shows for "Lost In Yonkers" has been increased from six to 14. "Lost In Yonkers" opened March 1st and continues every Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. through March 30. It is directed by Jeremy Littlejohn, and tickets are $15 for adults and $6 for students up to 17 years old. Reservations can be made be calling the Box Office at 800-800-4942, Ext. 2, or online at AmishAcres.com
Round Barn Theatre 2008 season tickets remain on sale and include a grand season of musical classics, including "The Fantasticks," "Plain and Fancy" celebrating its 22nd anniversary at Amish Acres, "The Music Man," "Carousel," "Kiss Me Kate," and for the holiday season, "A Wonderful Life." All six of these dynamic and entertaining musicals can be purchased for $129.22. Plus, subscribers receive additional benefits such as discounted tickets to "Lost In Yonkers," the staged reading of "Carmelina" and for the first time, a non-musical play, "Our Town." "Our Town" will be produced on the Joseph Stein Stage of The Round Barn Theatre. Season subscriptions may be purchased by calling the box office at 800-800-4942, Ext. 2, or online at AmishAcres.com
