This fall, Retro Productions proudly presents Holy Days by Sally Nemeth. Directed by Peter Zinn (writer/director: Off-Broadway hit Rumspringa), this haunting depression-era tale makes its New York City premiere November 6 -21, 2009.
In April 1936, Kansas is plagued with drought and decay in the wake of The Great Depression. America migrates toward work but one family is rooted to their barren farm, haunted by loss and a once-prosperous life. As another spring approaches with no sign of renewal they begin to adapt to the inevitable, eroding with their surroundings even as they learn to accept their fate. The Los Angeles Times said of the original production: "Sally Nemeth's Holy Days is a stage poem. It is uncommonly affecting, an elegy for the lost souls in the dying plains who clung to their blighted homesteads like bees to a poisoned hive."
Holy Days is a four character drama featuring performances from: Lowell Byers (Look After You, FringeNYC 2009), Heather E. Cunningham (Vital Theatre; Artistic Director, Retro Productions), Joe Forbrich* (Stuff Happens, The Public; Rose Rage, The Duke on 42nd Street; A Soldier's Play, Second Stage. TV: Det. Joe Cormack, Law and Order), and Casandera M. J. Lollar (The Tender Trap, When You Comin' Back, Red Ryder?, Retro Productions) *performing courtesy of Actor's Equity Association.
Peter Zinn directs; Scenic designers: Jack and Rebecca Cunningham, lighting designer/scenic design: Justin Sturges, costume designer: Debra Krajec, stage manager/sound designer, Jeanne Travis* and properties design is by Heather Cunningham and Casandera Lollar.
Retro Productions' Holy Days opens Friday, November 6th, 8pm at the Spoon Theater and continues Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8p.m. and Sundays at 3p.m. through November 21st. All performances take place at the Spoon Theater, located at 38 West 38th Street on the 5th Floor, New York, NY 10018. The Spoon Theater is air conditioned and fully handicapped accessible. Take the 7, B, D, F or V to 5th Ave/Bryant Park, or the B, D, F, V, N, R, W, Q to Herald Square. Lot parking available nearby.
Tickets to Holy Days are $18, $15 Students and seniors with valid ID. Tickets can be purchased online at www.retroproductions.org, or by calling Theatermania at 212.352.3101. The theater box office accepts cash only and opens one half hour prior to show time. There is a $5 student rush with valid ID, based on availability. Retro Productions participates in the TDF Voucher program. For group rates, inquire to retroprods@gmail.com. There is no late seating for this production.
Retro Productions received recognition from their first two productions of Catholic School Girls and Mrs. California (as River Heights Productions) then gathered momentum in their second season with the Retro production of Still Life. Directed by Ric Sechrest, Still Life received accolades from playwright Emily Mann: "Your production got it...Every aspect of the experience was first rate. Retro is clearly a company dedicated to creating impeccable work that truly matters," and earnEd Heather E. Cunningham a 2007 Back Stage Performance to Remember. Retro Productions put themselves on the map in their third season producing Sally Nemeth's Mill Fire and What I Did Last Summer, called "...first-rate: brisk, sweet and occasionally quite moving," by playwright A.R. Gurney. This, their first season in residence at The Spoon Theater, garnered six 2008 New York Innovative Theatre Award nominations: two for performance and four for design, a New York Magazine ‘Off-off Broadway pick' and the growing reputation of ‘the finished effect of a Retro Production' (The Fab Marquee, Mill Fire). Retro's fourth season included The Tender Trap, called "a powerful display of New York's dramatic talent," (offoffonline) and When You Comin' Back Red Ryder?, of which Leonard Jacobs exclaimed in his review for Back Stage, "...sepia hues are not the way Red Ryder drives drama... It's a play about the rich core of fear; how the simple folk who symbolize America's goodness are so easily made vulnerable by the guileful and crafty. Ric Sechrest's production puts all of this across wonderfully."
Retro's 5th Season continues in spring 2010 with William Marchant's The Desk Set. Tim Errickson (Artistic Director, Boomerang Theatre Company) directs the 1950's office comedy May 7 - 22, 2010. To support current and future productions, Retro Productions hosts retro-themed, seasonal fundraising parties, starting this fall with a Halloween Party and Fall Festival, October 22nd, 2009. Additionally, Retro's antique, vintage and gently used set pieces and props are often recycled and re-sold. For more information, please visit www.retroproductions.org.
