The Rose Cottages: Quirky Comedy in Outdoor Performance
Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum (1419 N. Topanga Canyon Blvd. Topanga, CA 90290)
- Full Price:
- $32.00
- Our Price:
- $16.00*
* Additional fees apply.
All offers for The Rose Cottages have expired.
The last date listed for The Rose Cottages was Sunday October 2, 2011 / 7:30pm.
Goldstar Member Tips
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Goldstar Member on Other
Bring good seat cushions.
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Bud Blate on Other
Get there early and sit down. The show starts on time!
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Bud Blate on Where to Park
Easy parking on Topanga, handicp and senior park free in the lot.
15 Goldstar Member Reviews
Michael Edwards
Enjoyed the play. Setting is nice among the trees and foliage. Only complaint is occassional helicopters or planes flying over that drowned out the voices of the actors.Written on Aug 22 2011
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Bud Blate
From the introduction of the Theatricum Rules to the final curtain, this play was a delight. Touching, funny, sweet and filled with honest relationships and emotions, The Rose Cottages is a wonderful way to spend an evening with friends. Plan to grab a bite after the play because you will want to share your feelings.Written on Aug 16 2011
This was our first time at the Theatricum. It was a one evening vacation. WGTB is a rustic retreat-a great way to escape the SFV. And the staff are friendly and eager to please.
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dalvrin
I truly enjoyed the humor the play conveys and how well the actors brought it to life.Written on Aug 29 2011
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Michaela Van Caneghem
The actors fumbled and mumbled their lines. I expected a higher caliber of production from this venue. Too long.Written on Oct 11 2011
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More Information About The Rose Cottages
Description
What makes a family? The Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum presents the West Coast premiere of a comedy about our enduring need to belong, wherever we are and whatever the circumstances. Rose Cottages by Bill Bozzone is part of Theatricum’s “Outdoors and Inspired” 2011 Summer Repertory Season.
In Bozzone’s delightfully quirky comedy, a defacto family is formed when Rose, the beleaguered owner of a rundown, cottage-style motel, grudgingly befriends two unwelcome guests: a penniless, teen skateboarder, and a sassy widow who’s been dumped by her son and his new bride.
"I saw this play 30 years ago when Ensemble Studio Theatre did it in New York, and it’s stayed with me ever since,” explains director Heidi Helen Davis. “In addition to being very funny, Rose Cottages offers a socially powerful message about relationships and the true meaning of family. It reminds us that the face of love is usually unknown, often unexpected, and undeniably beautiful.”
The setting, Rose’s dilapidated tourist motel in South Florida, is perfect for Theatricum’s outdoor stage, while the play is ideal for Theatricum’s inveterate company. At Davis’s request, Bozzone has rewritten the part of Rose, originally imagined for a male actor, for two-time NAACP Theater Award recipient Earnestine Phillips. A Theatricum company member for nearly 20 years, Earnestine has appeared in such productions as The Tempest, As You Like It, Omnium Gatherum, Lettice and Lovage, A Streetcar Named Desire, Macbeth, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Carry It On, Medea and The Miracle Worker. Theatricum artistic director Ellen Geer is the feisty Jessie, abandoned at Rose Cottages by her feckless son – played by longtime company member Aaron Hendry. Hendry, currently celebrating his 15th year at Theatricum, also plays the title role in this season’s Tartuffe. Cast in the role of Lydell is a young newcomer named Graco Hernandez. Hernandez first came to Theatricum’s attention when Geer was a judge for the City Hearts: Kids Say ‘Yes’ to the Arts “Shakespeare Challenge.” City Hearts is a non-profit organization that offers free visual and performing arts classes to children in low-income areas throughout Los Angeles.
“I knew immediately that Graco was something special, even though Cityhearts was his first exposure to theater,” says Geer. “He’s a natural actor. We offered him a scholarship to Theatricum’s Youth Drama Camp last summer, and I’ve even introduced him to my agent.”
“I was skeptical at first,” admits Davis. “I had initially planned to cast older – Graco is only 14 – but we were all blown away when he came in to audition and just nailed it. And in the end – isn’t that what this play is about? Finding family where you least expect it.”
Rounding out the cast of Rose Cottages are Brynn Ann Kerin as Jessie’s new daughter-in-law and Maurice Shaw as a health inspector who puts the future of Rose Cottages in jeopardy.
Bill Bozzone has been a member of EST for over thirty years. In that time he has authored over twenty plays that have been produced throughout the United States, Canada, Europe and Australia. His plays include: Rose Cottages; House Arrest; Korea; Buck Fever (all published by Samuel French;) War (Faber and Faber;) Sonny DeRee’s Life Flashes Before His Eyes; Breast Men (both published by Smith & Kraus;) and Saxophone Music (Broadway Play Publishing.) Bill’s films include Full Moon in Blue Water, which starred Gene Hackman and Teri Garr, and The Last Elephant, which featured John Lithgow and James Earl Jones and was nominated for an ACE Cable Award as Best Film. A short film based on his play, Buck Fever, was shot in 2006 starring John Heard. His fiction has twice been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. Stories have been published in literary magazines including The Los Angeles Review, Takahe, and The MacGuffin, and his work is included in the anthology, Chick For a Day, published by Simon & Schuster. Awards include an NEA Fellowship; grants from both the New York Foundation for the Arts, and the Connecticut Arts Council; fellowships at the Eugene O’Neill National Playwright’s Conference, and the Atlantic Center for the Arts; and the Ensemble Studio Theatre Silver Medal for Theatrical Excellence. Bill received an MFA in Creative Writing from Goddard College and currently teaches writing at Sacred Heart University.
Every summer Heidi Helen Davis directs Ellen Geer in a production for Theatricum. Most recently, she directed Master Class by Terence McNally; a new adaptation of Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard, which she and Geer wrote together; and Long Day's Journey Into Night, for which she was nominated for a Direction Award by the Los Angeles Drama Critic's Circle and for which Geer received the LADCC's Lead Performance Award. Also at Theatricum she has directed You Never Can Tell, Watch on the Rhine, The Seagull, A Streetcar Named Desire, The Glass Menagerie, Sweet Bird of Youth, Lettice and Lovage, Our Town, and Harold and Maude. Other directing credits include Song of Extinction at [Inside] the Ford, which received the LA Weekly award for “Production of the Year,” the LADCC's Ted Schmitt Award for World Premiere of an Outstanding New Play, and the Harold and Mimi Steinberg/American Theatre Critics Association New Play Award - the largest national award for a new play; Not A Through Street, with Nobu McCarthy, for East West Players; Songs of Harmon; and Proof. Heidi currently teaches directing at the Los Angeles Film School, and acting and directing at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco.