THE “NIGHT TALK WITH BARRY CHAMPLAIN” TEAM (TRISH BAILLIE, ANTHONY M.C. LEUKUS & THOMAS WEAVER) AT OPEN STAGE.

Open Stage presenting New Version of Eric Bogosian’s 1987 Biting Comedy

Open Stage of Harrisburg will present Talk Radio by Eric Bogosian April 14 to May 5 at the Angino Family Theatre, 223 Walnut St., in Downtown Harrisburg. Talk Radio is directed by Executive Artistic Director Donald Alsedek and is the final offering in the theatre’s four show Subscription Season.

TALK RADIO first premiered in 1987 and was soon adapted into a motion picture directed by Oliver Stone.  The play centers around shock jock Barry Champlain and chronicles the eve of Barry’s talk show going into national syndication.  Barry and his production team encounter talk radio callers that range from the mentally deranged to the simply lonely and everything in between.  The show behind the show features a rare blend of humanity and entertainment found in brutal honesty.

TALK RADIO was recently revived on Broadway, featuring Liev Schreiber in the title role.  Playwright Eric Bogosian was quoted as saying, “Talk Radio kind of surprised people, because they revived it last year, twenty years after it had been written, and it felt fresh. But that’s because I don’t really write about topical stuff; I write about American attitudes, American values, my values, my attitudes. And to the degree that anybody sees things the way I see things, they can relate.”

This new version contains significant additions and rewrites made for the Broadway revival. Anthony M.C. Leukus, a regular at Open Stage, is taking on the role of Barry Champlain.  Mr. Leukus  has appeared at Open Stage in  A LIE OF THE MIND (Mike), TRUE WEST (Lee), FROZEN (Ralph), THE GUYS (Nick), ASSASSINS (Leon Czolgosz), THE BIG BANG (Jed), LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS (Orin), THE THREEPENNY OPERA (Tiger Brown), THE CRIPPLE OF INISHMAAN (Babbybobby), COME BACK LITTLE SHEBA, (Doc), THE FANTASTICKS (El Gallo), [title of show] (Larry, musical director), and AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY (Steve).  he describes Barry as “an opinionated man who cannot stand to be sucked up to. If you’re going to be part of Barry’s world, you better be prepared to defend your opinions.”

Eric Bogosian is a writer and actor who over the last 20 years has authored five full-length plays and created six full-length solos for himself, including SUBURBIA, SEX, DRUGS, ROCK & ROL; POUNDING NAILS INTO THE FLOOR WITH MY FOREHEAD; and DRINKING IN AMERICA. He is the recipient of three OBIE awards and a Drama Desk Award, and has toured throughout the U.S. and Europe.

TALK RADIO will play from April 13 to May 5 at Open Stage of Harrisburg’s intimate Angino Family Theatre, located at 223 Walnut Street on the Street (S) level of the Walnut Street Garage in downtown Harrisburg. The street entrance is off of Court Street.  Join Open Stage for 3rd in the Burg on April 20!

This season is funded, in part, by the Cultural Enrichment Fund, the capital region’s united arts fund.  Open Stage of Harrisburg is a Constituent of Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for American theatre.

Evening Performances (8pm): Apr. 13, 14, 19, 20, 21, 26, 27, 28, May 3, 4, 5

Sunday Matinees (2pm): Apr 22 & 29

Opening Night Performance & Party: Apr 13

Post performance Talkback following April 22nd Sunday Matinee.

Limited $15 tickets are available on Thrifty Thursdays, sponsored by PSEA, on April 19, 26 and May 3

TICKETS: Admission is $29 Regular and $21 Student (with valid ID)

Online: www.openstagehhbg.com

By Phone: 717-232-OPEN (6736)

In Person: at the Open Stage Box Office, located at the theatre, 223 Walut St. (Hours: M-F, 12:30-3pm)

TALK RADIO  is recommended for mature audiences due to language.

Note to Editors: Media passes to all TALK RADIO performances are available by request to stuart@openstagehbg.com.

Next up at Open Stage:  A One-Night-Only Staged Reading of American Foundation for Equal Rights & Broadway Impact’s “8” a new play chronicling the federal trial for marriage equality written by DUSTIN LANCE BLACK (Milk) on Sunday, May 6, 2012 at 7:00pm. A talkback will follow the performance. Tickets are $15.  STORIES FROM HOME: MARKET 2 MARKET will play in June, 2012. A look at two of the city’s most vibrant neighborhoods of today and yesterday: Market Square and Broad Street. The original piece will trace the stories of three family businesses that helped to shape the Harrisburg market areas in the 20th century: JH Troup and Co., MW Goldsmith and Co., and Alsedek’s Restaurant. History, drama, music and storytelling combine to celebrate the city’s past and present.

PRAISE FOR TALK RADIO:

“The most lacerating portrait of a human meltdown this side of a Francis Bacon painting. Like the original production, which starred Mr. Bogosian as Barry, [this revival] allows its star to grab an audience by the lapels and shake it into submission. With Talk Radio Mr. Schreiber confirms his status as the finest American theater actor of his generation.” —New York Times

“More timely today than it was 20 years ago…Eric Bogosian’s Talk Radio is a night in the life of a loathsome Cleveland shock jock who’s about to go national. With Liev Schreiber playing Barry, you get why he’d go far. [He] is dynamic, dangerous and doesn’t make a single false move… Radio crackles with intensity.” —Daily News

“Mesmerizing…this slippery, protean, electrifying nerve center of an actor conjures grand and dirty little illusions.” —Newsday

Open Stage of Harrisburg’s 13th Annual Production to Feature New Set Design!

Open Stage of Harrisburg presents the highly acclaimed, award- winning play, THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK. The play is an inspiring story of perseverance and hope, which serves as a timeless lesson that the spirit of a child is impossible to deny. Adapted by Wendy Kesselman, the play was first dramatized by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett from the novel Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl, edited by Otto Frank. This production is sponsored by Capital BlueCross.

Open Stage Education Director Anne Alsedek is directing this production, the professional theatre’s 13th annual presentation of THE DIARY. Jim Woland is redesigning and reimagining the set design of the Annex, where the Frank and Van Daan families hid for over two years.  Sound Design is by Michael Banks and costumes are by Open Stage Resident Costume Designer Gwen Alsedek.

The cast includes Evan Brubaker, Lisa Leone Dickerson, Brendan Downey, Emily Fiorenza, Nancy Kraft, Patrick Sanders, Brian Schreffler, Mabel Schreffler, Preston Schreffler, Natalie Snyder and Thomas Weaver.

Second only to the Bible, THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK is one of the world’s most read books. Even if audiences have read the diary and watched the movie, experiencing the live stage play is a unique and moving experience that brings new life to the story and the characters. Set during one of history’s most brutal periods, the Holocaust, the play is based on the actual diary of a young girl who comes of age while hiding from the Nazis in a tiny, overcrowded attic with her family for more than two years. During their confinement, Anne discovers herself as a beautiful, thoughtful, and extraordinary girl. Her story is a constant reminder to us all of the power of the human spirit.

THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK will be performed Saturday, February 25 at 2pm in the beautiful Sunoco Performance Theatre at Whitaker Center, 222 Market St. in downtown Harrisburg. Parking is available in the Walnut Street Parking Garage.

Admission to THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK is $29 regular admission and $21 for students with ID. For all advanced ticket reservations, call 717-232-OPEN (6736), visit openstagehbg.com, or stop by our box office, located at Open Stage, 223 Walnut St., on the street level of the Walnut Street Garage in downtown Harrisburg.

Open Stage of Harrisburg continues Season 26 with August Wilson’s beloved classic MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM, directed by Executive Artistic Director Don Alsedek and featuring Open Stage regular Sharia Benn in the title role. The second play in Wilson’s Century Cycle will run at Open Stage of Harrisburg, 223 Walnut St., Feb 3 – 25, 2011.

Master playwright August Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play is the 1920s entry in his monumental 20th Century play cycle, which explore the heritage and experience of African-Americans, decade-by-decade, over the course of the twentieth century.

It’s Chicago; it’s 1927; and with the Jazz Age in full swing, it’s a moment as full of possibility as risk for Ma Rainey and her band of less-than-merry musicians. Over the course of one rather fraught recording session, we learn of the perils and possibilities that await each of these proud, ambitious artists outside the recording studio walls, and inside their sometimes-tormented hearts.

A celebrated actor and musical talent, Benn returns to Open Stage after her most recent turn in last year’s August Wilson’s THE PIANO LESSON. She has also appeared at open Stage in DOUBT and CROWNS.

“It is always an honor to work on an August Wilson play,” says Alsedek. “I’m truly thrilled to bring this African-American classic to Harrisburg.” Open Stage of Harrisburg’s production also features Ronnie Banks, Aaron Bomar, Leonard Dozier, James Robert Clark, Tanisha Hollis, Jeff Luttermoser, and Jeremy Paterson.

MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM, the second play composed in August Wilson’s 10-play Century Cycle, is the only one set outside of Pittsburgh—taking place, as it does, in Chicago. The Cycle, of which Open Stage has so far produced three, includes: GEM OF THE OCEAN, JOE TURNER’S COME AND GONE, THE PIANO LESSON, SEVEN GUITARS, FENCES, TWO TRAINS RUNNING, JITNEY, KING HEDLEY II, and RADIO GULF. MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM won the 1985 New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play and was nominated for the Drama Desk Award Outstanding New Play and 1985 Tony Award for Best Play.

The design team for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom includes scenic design by Andre Valsing, who most designed THE IMMIGRANT and THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE ABRIDGED at Open Stage, as well as BERLIN TO BROADWAY with Resident Costume Designer Gwen Alsedek, who will be creating the 1920’s pieces for this production; lighting design by Tristian Stasiulis (THE SANTALAND DIARIES); and sound design by Michael Banks ([title of show], A LIE OF THE MIND).

MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM plays February 3 – 25 in the intimate Angino Family Theatre at Open Stage of Harrisburg, 223 Walnut Street, located on the street level of the Walnut Street Parking Garage in downtown Harrisburg. Join Open Stage for 3rd in the Burg on February 17!

Admission to MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM is $29 Regular and $21 for Students with ID. For advanced ticket purchase, call our Box Office at 717-232-OPEN (6736) or visit openstagehbg.com.  No coupon books will be honored for this production.