FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE....June 13, 2007
Contact David Turner, 518-798-7479, dturner@atfestival.org

 

ADIRONDACK THEATRE FESTIVAL 13th SEASON TO OPEN JUNE 28 WITH WORLD PREMIERE OF

BEHAVE YOURSELF by Leslie Ayvazian

Cast of 6 features TONY AWARD NOMINEE Johanna Day (PROOF 2001)
Brenda Currin, Bruce MacVittie, Hal Robinson,
Joan Rosenfels and Brian Russell

The Adirondack Theatre Festival’s summer season of new and contemporary professional theater will open with ATF’s fifteenth world premiere in thirteen summers.  The company that premiered such Off Broadway fare as FULLY COMMITTED, MIMI LE DUCK, BINGO, and IT GOES WITHOUT SAYING is proud to present a new comedy by this award-winning playwright and actress.
 
BEHAVE YOURSELF is Directed by ATF Artistic Director Martha Banta and was developed last summer at ATF as well as the Cape Cod Theater Project under the name BAD CAT.  BEHAVE YOURSELF examines questions of power in married couples through the comical story of Connie (Johanna Day) and Eddie (Bruce MacVittie) a suburban couple whose relationship is turned upside down when Connie takes an “empowerment” class which ends up with her wielding a whip around the house after their daughters leave for school.  Things get more complicated as their neighbors start to hear noises from next door and we meet Connie’s teacher Mistress Lorraine and her politician client.
 
Johanna Day, who was nominated for a TONY Award in 2001 for PROOF, returns to ATF for Artistic Director Martha Banta’s final season after performing in ATF’s acclaimed production of THREE TALL WOMEN in 1996, the first play ATF presented in Glens Falls’ vacant Woolworth Store which went on to become their current home, the Charles R. Wood Theater. Ms. Day’s husband is played on stage by Bruce MacVittie, an actor whose thirty years of credits include playing opposite Al Pacino in AMERICAN BUFALO on Broadway, film appearances in The Cotton Club, Born on the Fourth of July, The Doors, Million Dollar Baby  and most recently, Lonely Hearts  The neighbors from next door are played by Hal Robinson and Brenda Curran, both recreating their hilarious roles from the workshop last summer, and the cast is completed by Joan Rosenfels as Mistress Lorraine and Brian Russell as one of her secretive clients.
 
Leslie Ayvazian is an award-winning playwright and actress who performed her one-woman show HIGH DIVE at ATF in 2005. Other plays have included NINE ARMENIANS which was produced at Manhattan Theatre Club , SINGER’S BOY which premiered at American Conservatory Theater, ROSEMARY AND I at Passage Theatre, and LOVELY DAY which was produced Off-Broadway last year.  As an actress Ms. Ayvazian appeared on Broadway in A NAKED GIRL ON THE APPIAN WAY and LOST IN YONKERS as well as numerous Off Broadway shows and all three versions of LAW & ORDER on television.
 
BEHAVE YOURELF will be the last of fourteen plays and musicals Martha Banta has directed as ATF’s Artistic Director. Besides her work at ATF Banta directed at Cincinnati Playhouse this past season and continued in her role as the Resident Director for MAMMA MIA on Broadway and on tour.  The design team of ATF veterans who have more than 20 shows at  ATF among them will be Matt Frey (Lights) Eric Renschler (Set) Jill Duboff (Sound) and Randall Klein (Costumes).
 
Also coming up at ATF is a two night work-in-progress presentation of TINY FEATS OF COWARDICE on July 1 & 2, a work-in-progress musical solo show by Susan Bernfield. Susan is afraid of planes, vacation, cars, fire, heights, scuba gear, toasters and so much more.  In this show she is brave enough to sing to us about how much of a scaredy cat she is

The Adirondack Theatre Festival’s 13th season will run June 27 – July 28 at the Charles R. Wood Theater, 207 Glen St. in downtown Glens Falls.  Subscription Packages are $66 for 3 shows or $82  for four shows, and are on sale until the season begins. The  Box Office is located at the Charles R. Wood Theater, 207 Glen Street in Glens Falls and is open 12-6pm MON-SAT.  Also call 518-798-WOOD or go to www.ATFestival.org <;http://www.ATFestival.org/> .
 

HIGH QUALITY DIGITAL PHOTOS OF BEHAVE YOURSELF AND OTHER ATF SHOWS PAST AND PRESENT ARE AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD AT www.ATFestival.org/press.