Directed by Jerry Ruiz '00

Produced by Ray Courtney '01 and Lauren Winkler '01

Loeb Mainstage

April 7-9 and 13-15

STORY: When Artie, a mediocre piano player from Queens, decides to send his loony wife to a "rest place," he thinks he'll finally move to California and take one last shot at becoming famous. Throw into the mix three wacky nuns, a deaf starlet and a son with a plan to bow up the Pope: Artie has one explosively funny situation on his hands. The House of Blue Leaves is a darkly comic look at America's obsession with fame and the failing hopes of one man becoming "too old to be a young talent."

BUZZ: Even though it was written 30 years ago, The House of Blue Leaves is as cutting edg

e today as then, revealing American society's prevailing obsession with the elusive quest for fame and the ultimate destruction this leads to. Ruiz's vision of this darkly sardonic comedy is what he calls "hyper-realism" in a Quentin Tarantino like style. As he suggests, "the play is rooted in reality, but it is definitely not realism. It has a wacky, off the wall, semi-cartoonish feel. The characters are just off-kilter enough that its not like your regular realistic, living room comedy, and the events that happen throughout the course of the play takes it even further."

PICASSO AT THE LAPIN AGILE

By Steve Martin

Directed by Jessica Shapiro '01

Produced by Dorothy Fortenberry '02 and Heather Stone '01