FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Craig Shafer
(805) 928-7731, ext. 4100
publicity@pcpa.org

PCPA THEATERFEST IS GOING TO
HEAT IT UP
THIS SUMMER

Heat it up with PCPA Theaterfest this summer! The Central Coast’s only resident professional theatre company is proud to present six productions, including an epic musical, a world premiere drama, and an original adaptation of a classic farce. This season celebrates a wide spectrum of theatre from the classic to the contemporary.

Solvang starts to heat up with Godspell, the longest running off-Broadway musical which just completed a successful run in Santa Maria.

The Santa Maria Sun called it, “Bright, bold and funny…a must see.”

The Santa Maria Times wrote, “Godspell is worth spending a spell to hear great voices sing wonderful music.”

The Tribune noted, "Godspell delivers a message that will resonate with today's audiences."

This most popular rock musical plays June 6 through July 27 with a live band on stage and features a playful and poignant score by Stephen Schwartz (Wicked). It includes such songs as "God Save the People," "All Good Gifts" and the international hit “Day By Day.”

The next four shows of the season will first open in Santa Maria and then transfer to the outdoor Festival Theater in Solvang, beginning with the world premiere drama, The Heart’s Desire by José Cruz González. This new work offers the Central Coast community an untold story about a World War II Mexican-American veteran and the struggles he faces upon his return home to California with a new bride, and dreams of a new life. This powerful play investigates the myth of the American Dream: those who have it and those who don’t. It also explores the cost of war on those who have survived it and must now learn to find peace in their newly adopted country.
(Contains adult language)
The Heart’s Desire plays in the Marian Theatre from June 12 through the 28th, and then performs in rotating repertory with Godspell in Solvang from July 3 through the 26th.
The cast includes PCPA Resident Artist Vanessa Ballam who’ll play the new bride Rachel. Her PCPA credits include Godspell, Seussical, and The Sound of Music.
The veteran John Guerrero will be played by Equity Guest Artist Juan Monsalvez whose credits include Manhattan Place Players, East L.A. Classic Theatre, South Coast Repertory, and TVs’ Saints & Sinners and General Hospital.

Next up is Ragtime, the Musical, an epic tale of a young America played out in song and dance. It paints a nostalgic and powerful portrait of life at the turn of the twentieth century. The musical intertwines three distinct stories that poignantly illustrate history’s timeless contradictions of wealth and poverty, freedom and prejudice, hope and despair, and love and hate. The Tony Award-winning score by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty (Seussical) is just as diverse as the “Melting Pot of America” that it seeks to recreate, drawing upon traditional Jewish folk sounds, Vaudeville’s outrageous style, and Scott Joplin to invoke the enlivened spirit of Harlem.
Ragtime plays the Marian Theatre from July 10 through the 26th then the Festival Theater from August 1 through the 24th.
Featured is Equity Guest Artist David St. Louis whose credits include Broadway productions of Rent, Jesus Christ Superstar and Harlem Song, numerous regional credits and TV appearances on Law and Order, One Life to Live, and Trigger Effect. Mr. St. Louis will be playing Coalhouse Walker Jr.
(Contains coarse language)

When audiences want a good laugh, they need look no farther than a Molière farce, and PCPA Theaterfest is more than happy to accommodate with its next production, The Imaginary Invalid. PCPA Literary Manager, Patricia M. Troxel, has newly adapted this French classic which is a scintillating satire on the medical profession. In a sparkling new translation and adaptation, poor hypochondriac Silas Argan hatches a plot to combat his soaring medical costs which includes having his daughter marrying a physician so that he will always have a doctor on call. But his daughter has fallen for someone else and her stepmother wants her in a convent. This riotous script is the perfect prescription for whatever ails you.
The Imaginary Invalid plays August 7 through the 23rd in Santa Maria, then August 28 through September 7 in Solvang.
Playing hypochondriac Silas Argan will be Equity Guest Artist William Youmans. Besides coast to coast regional theatre credits, Mr. Youmans has appeared in Broadway’s Wicked, La Boheme and Big River, national tours of Titanic and Tommy and TV and Film’s Law & Order, N.Y.P.D. Blue, and A League of Their Own and Mrs. Soffell, respectively.
Rejoining the summer company for this production is Equity Guest Artist Leslie Brott. Ms. Brott who will play the Widow Deliverance Dickinson was featured in previous PCPA’s productions of Always…Patsy Cline, Brighton Beach Memoirs and The Matchmaker. She’s since appeared at Utah Shakespearean Festival, Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, GeVa Theatre, Dallas Theatre Center and Madison Repertory Theatre.

Cranking up the heat is Hot Mikado; a big-band rendition of Gilbert and Sullivan’s Mikado, only this version is like getting a generous dash of cayenne pepper with your order. Cultures glide and collide in this hilarious 1940s-style updating of the perennial Gilbert and Sullivan classic. The music is transmuted into blues, Cab Calloway swing, hot gospel and scorching torch songs. This tap-dancing, zoot-suited show is certain to provide the ideal evening out for the whole family.
It will play the Marian Theatre August 29 through September 7 then Solvang’s Festival Theater September 12 through the 28th.
Brad Carroll, a familiar favorite is returning for this production. Mr. Carroll, has left his indelible directing and acting stamp on such PCPA favorites as 1940’s Radio Hour, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and The Wizard of Oz. Last season he launched his own original production, the world premiere of Lend Me A Tenor, The New Musical Comedy. That show is now slated to open on Broadway in the 2009-2010 season.
This summer he returns to play Ko-Ko in Hot Mikado.

The 2008 summer season closes with Conor McPherson’s The Weir. Step into an Irish pub where the centuries-old tradition of storytelling is alive and well. A woman who's just moved into the neighborhood comes in from a cold windy night as locals trade ghost stories. However, it is this young woman from Dublin who shares the most horrifying tale; one of love, loss and longing. The Weir is a bewitching combination of rich dramatic tension and comedic Irish storytelling.
The Weir plays only in the Severson Theatre on the Allan Hancock College Campus in Santa Maria, September 12 through October 5.
(Contains adult language)

Tickets for Summer 2008 are on sale now. Call 805-922-8313 between 1 and 7pm Wednesday through Sunday, or purchase tickets online anytime at www.pcpa.org. Information about Group Sales for 12 or more patrons may be obtained by contacting groups@pcpa.org or by calling 1-800-PCPA-123. The Solvang Festival Theater Box Office opens on June 4. Regular hours are Wednesday through Sunday, 2 to 7pm.