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ACT is supported in part by the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency, through its regional arts funding partnership, Pennsylvania Partners in the Arts (PPA). State government funding to the arts depends upon an annual appropriation by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and support from the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency. PPA is administered in this region by the Pennsylvania Rural Arts Alliance. |
ACT HeadlinesUpcoming Production
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? February 2010 Recent Productions
Miracle on 34th Street November 2009 
Brighton Beach Memoirs September 2009 
The Sound of Music May 2009
Edward Albee Drama Opens February 18ACT's 2009-2010 season at the Historic Mishler Theatre will continue with Edward Albee's "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" at 8 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday, February 18, 19 and 20, and 2 p.m. Sunday, February 21. The show is recommended for mature audiences due to adult language and situations. Albee's searing drama -- about a young couple invited by a college professor and his wife to their home for a nightcap where they find themselves trapped in a marital battlefield -- was the subject of both high praise and controversy when it first hit the stage in 1962. It won Broadway's Tony and the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Play and was selected to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Drama but that prize's advisory board objected to Albee's use of profanity and sexual themes and overruled the drama jury. The subsequent film a few years brought the show world-wide fame, thanks to the performances and notoriety of its stars, Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. Eric Wolf, director of ACT's version, says the local performance "won't be a carbon of that watershed movie. I think the script allows for the possibility of different interpretations and will emphasize more of the comedic element of the piece, much like the Broadway revival of a few years back starring Kathleen Turner and Bill Irwin." General Manager of AMTRAN, Wolf has directed "Widows and Children First" and "Parallel Lives" for ACT. He played neighbor Jim Bayliss in "All My Sons" last year but cites being one of the zany trio of "The Compleat Wrks of Wllm Shkspr (abridged)" as a favorite ACT performance. A member of ACT's Board of Directors, Wolf chairs both its Nominating and Isaac Awards committees. Those pivotal roles of the incendiary George and Martha are being played at ACT by David R. Leonard of Hollidaysburg and Kate Kale Wolf of Ebensburg. Leonard is probably best remembered by ACT audiences as Captain Hook in "Peter Pan," but he also has appeared in such shows as "She Loves Me," "Widows and Children First," "Noises Off," "The Man Who Came to Dinner" and "A Chorus Line," to name a few. Leonard also directed ACT's presentation of "Come Back to the Five & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean" and assistant directed "The Mousetrap." Seen earlier this season as Kate Jerome in "Brighton Beach Memoirs," Wolf previously has played Penelope Pennywise in "Urinetown: the Musical!," Sissy, the trash-talking waitress in "Come Back to the Five & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean," and the mother , M'Lynn, in "Steel Magnolias." She also has directed "The Compleat Wrks of Willm Shkspr (abridged)," "Crimes of the Heart" and numerous children's theatre summer workshop plays for ACT. Cast as the younger couple in ACT's "Virginia Woolf" are Shawn Foster of Hollidaysburg and Meghan McKelvey of Altoona. Foster was seen as the eager young lawyer Fred Gayley in "Miracle on 34th Street" in November, led ACT's "Blood Brothers" company as The Narrator and also has previously appeared in "She Loves Me" and "Cooking With Gus." He also directed ACT's presentation of the children's play "The Purple Fan." McKelvey returns to ACT having appeared as Young Mona in "Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean" and an Indian in "Peter Pan" while in high school. She also was an eight-year alumni of ACT's Summer Workshops for Children and Teens before heading off to Edinboro University, where she received degrees in Theatre and Speech Therapy last year. Tickets for "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" are $15 plus a $2.50-per-ticket box office fee and may be purchased at the Mishler from Noon to 6 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays by calling(814) 944-9434. Tickets also are available online through the Mishler Theatre box office link on ACT's website. Upcoming Events
Wednesday, February 17, 2010 at 7:30 pm
Thursday, February 18, 2010 - Saturday, February 20, 2010
Sunday, February 21, 2010 at 2 pm
Sunday, February 21, 2010 at 4:30 pm
Sunday, March 7, 2010 at 10 am
Tuesday, March 16, 2010 at 12:30 pm
Tuesday, March 16, 2010 at 7 pm
Wednesday, March 17, 2010 at 10 am
Wednesday, March 17, 2010 at 12:30 pm
Tuesday, March 23, 2010 from 6 pm - 7 pm |