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Event Details

Directed by Rick Plummer A HILARIOUS play, The Foreigner is a two-act comedy by American playwright Larry Shue. The play has become a staple of professional and amateur theatre. The Foreigner has earned two Obie Awards and two Outer Critics Circle Awards as Best New American Play and Best Off-Broadway Production.


"Something funny is going on in Milwaukee -- to the delight of audiences at the Milwaukee Repertory Theatre." - Variety

"I laughed start to finish at one comic surprise after another...." - The New Yorker

"a constant invitation to relax and laugh at the foolishness of life..." - The Village Voice

"Shue's comedy is positively antic, yet pleseantly seasoned with a few dashes of sentimentality...He has raided comedy's storehouse..." - The Bergen Record


SHOW SYNOPSIS

The scene is a fishing lodge in rural Georgia often visited by "Froggy" LeSueur, a British demolition expert who occasionally runs training sessions at a nearby army base. This time "Froggy" has brought along a friend, a pathologically shy young man named Charlie who is overcome with fear at the thought of making conversation with strangers. So "Froggy," before departing, tells all assembled that Charlie is from an exotic foreign country and speaks no English. Once alone the fun really begins, as Charlie overhears more than he should—the evil plans of a sinister, two-faced minister and his redneck associate; the fact that the minister's pretty fiancée is pregnant; and many other damaging revelations made with the thought that Charlie doesn't understand a word being said. That he does fuels the nonstop hilarity of the play and sets up the wildly funny climax in which things go uproariously awry for the "bad guys," and the "good guys" emerge triumphant.


APPROPRIATE AGES

13 years and up. This show is not recommended for infants or children on laps. Some material may not be suitable for children.


CAST LIST

"Froggy" LeSeuer...............................Michael Ray

Charlie Baker.....................................Sean Gilbert

Betty Meeks......................................Christine Plummer

The Rev. David Marshall Lee............John Klapko

Catherine Simms...............................Kali Findley

Owen Musser.....................................Chuck Dillon

Ellard Simms......................................Jordan Sell

Townspeople......................................Josh Leffew, Fred Sunbeck, Rick Hudson


PRODUCTION TEAM

Director...............................................Rick Plummer

Assistant to Director...........................Sara Brown

Stage Manager...................................Mara Davidson

Set Construction.................................Mik Mikula

Set Painter..........................................Marty Cupp

Costumer............................................Susan Barnard

Sound.................................................Marty Yaple

Lighting...............................................Amanda Collene


SPECIAL NEEDS / CONCERNS

Haze is used and moving and flashing lights. NO strobe lights.


TIMELINE OF EVENTS

6:30 PM - Box Office Opens (Concessions line open in Hardy Hall)

7:00 PM - Theatre Doors Open

7:30 PM - ACT I

8:15 PM - INTERMISSION

8:30 PM - ACT II

9:15 PM - Show ends


TICKETS

GROUPS OF 6 OR MORE SAVE $1.00 OFF EACH TICKET!

Box Seat $30 (comfort seats)

Main Floor $25 (comfort seats)

Lower Balcony $20 (tight leg room in some spots)

Upper Balcony $15 (very tight leg room)


SUPPORT & SPONSORSHIPS

A portion of this show is supported in part by a grant received by the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Presented by special arrangement with Dramatists Play Service, Inc. New York


TICKET POLICY

All ticket sales are final. No refunds.


MEDIA RELEASE

If you, or any member of your group, are photographed or filmed while on the Ramsdell Regional Center for the Arts (City of Manistee) property by an authorized/staff photographer, the photo and/or video belongs to the photographer, and you release to the RRCA, its agents, and employees all rights to exhibit and market this work in print and electronic form publicly or privately, including social media websites.


ABOUT THE FOREIGNER

Winner of two Obie Awards and two Outer Critics Circle Awards as Best New American Play and Best Off-Broadway Production. An inspired comic romp, equal in inventive hilarity to the author's classic comedy The Nerd, the present play enjoyed a sold-out premiere in Milwaukee before moving on to a long run Off-Broadway. Based on what the NY Post describes as a "devilishly clever idea," the play demonstrates what can happen when a group of devious characters must deal with a stranger who (they think) knows no English. "Something funny is going on in Milwaukee—to the delight of audiences at the Milwaukee Repertory Theater." —Variety. "I laughed start to finish at one comic surprise after another." —The New Yorker. "…a constant invitation to relax and laugh at the foolishness of life…" —Village Voice. "Shue's comedy is positively antic, yet pleasantly seasoned with a few dashes of sentimentality…He has raided comedy's storehouse…" —Bergen Record.


ABOUT LARRY SHUE

When he died in a commuter plane crash in September 1985, at the age of thirty-nine years, Larry Shue may not have had an extensive repertoire of written work, but he did leave an impressive legacy of plays. Shue was first and foremost an actor; in fact he took roles in many of his own plays, as well as other television and theatre productions, but his shining triumphs are his full-length comic plays, The Nerd and The Foreigner. Both of these plays were successful and continue to find eager audiences in both the professional and amateur theatre.

Shue was destined for the world of the stage. He graduated cum laude from Illinois Wesleyan University, where he received a B.F.A. in 1968. After a stint in the army he began his career as a professional actor and playwright with the Harlequin Dinner Theatre in Washington, D.C. and Atlanta. It was not long before John Dillon, artistic director at the Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, offered a job to Shue at the Rep. Shue left the dinner theatre circuit to start a promising phase in his career. Although Shue was an experienced actor, Dillon knew Shue had written skits and short plays since his college days. He encouraged a reluctant Shue to use his writing skills. Without the loving bullying of Dillon, the world may never have seen Shue's twisted humor and heartwarming work.

Although he was a superb playwright, Shue admitted he found the writing process unpleasant. In a 1984 interview Shue admitted, “The thing that gets these plays written is stomach churning fear. They are selling the tickets for the play, so I know I must finish it. I worry about it all the time.” Many hours writing the comedies were spent on a bench overlooking Lake Michigan and Milwaukee's Central Library, according to a recent article in JSOnline: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (http://www.jsonline.com, November 2004).

Fortunately, he did finish both his final plays. The Nerd was first seen at the Milwaukee Repertory Theatre in April 1981 where Shue played the part of the architect. The Foreigner also had its premiere at the Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, on January 1983. It continued a long off-Broadway run.

Shue may have been a reluctant writer, but like any playwright he had his reasons for writing The Foreigner and other theatre works. Rep actor James Pickering, for whom Shue wrote the lead character in The Nerd, said, “As you can tell from Larry's plays, he had an extremely active verbal imagination. His skill at writing comedy was hard-wired into him. It was in his DNA” (Jaques).

Shue himself revealed the real reason for writing in a 1984 interview when he said, “The end result is so much fun. I try to write all the parts like I would want to play them.” That statement sounds a lot like one of the reasons the character Charlie kept up his farce in The Foreigner.

Shue has been described as many things, including shy, funny, eccentric, and talented. He loved acting, his comic writing was surprising and a bit unpredictable, and his theatrical interests extended to fiddling with make-up, disguises, and prosthetics. He used his kitchen as a laboratory to experiment with his favorite disguise material, foam latex. His kitchen turned lab was probably one of the reasons he spent most evenings eating out at an establishment called Ma Fisher's. Yet, the best way to know him is to see his plays. “What was really remarkable about Larry is people who know his plays really know him” (Jaques), according to friend Amlin Gray, a resident playwright at the Rep during the time Shue was a member of the company and later, after Shue's death, his brother-in-law (he married Shue's sister, Jackie).


Shue has a long list of acting credits that include parts in The Mystery of Edwin Drood, American Buffalo, One Life to Live, The Foreigner, and The Nerd. He also wrote and appeared in the shorts A Common Confusion, The Land of the Blind, and Another Town. He also won two Obies and two New York Drama Critic Awards during his lifetime. His playwright credits include Siliasocles, the one-act Grandma Duck is Dead, a one-act children's musical My Emperor's New Clothes, and a political drama Wenceslas Square. At the time of his death, Shue was working on a film adaptation of The Foreigner for Disney.


ABOUT RICK PLUMMER

Rick Plummer has directed over 150 productions and played as many roles in a thirty-five year career as a professional actor, director, and theater educator. Dr. Plummer managed the Theater and Performing Arts program at West Shore Community College. Before assuming that position, he created and managed an award-winning touring theater in Missouri, and directed acting programs at both the University of Alabama, The University of Alabama at Birmingham, and The University of Arkansas at Little Rock.

Rick’s acting and directing credits include film, stock, tour, TV, outdoor drama, dinner theater, Shakespeare festival, and university and community theater. Onstage, he has been seen in Journey to the Day (in a production starring both Justine and Jason Bateman), as Caesar in Julius Caesar, Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire, Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman, and Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady. Most recently audiences have seen Rick in How I Learned to Drive, Escanaba in Da Moonlight, Dracula, Othello, and Much Ado About Nothing. He is seen as the chief villain in the film, Mickey Matson and the Copperhead Treasure and as Jim Wellington in the soon-to-be-released God Bless the Broken Road. Rick served two years in Vietnam in 1968-1970, and now lives in Ludington, Michigan along with his wife, professional actress Christine, his 39 year-old son Stephen and his wife Ellen, their 26 year-old son Elliot and his wife Hannah, 23 year-old daughter Emma Grace, 21 year-old son Kaedin, as well as four cats and a dog.


Venue Information

Ramsdell Regional Center for the Arts
101 Maple Street
Manistee, MI 49660
+1 (231) 398-9770

Organizer Information

Ramsdell Regional Center for the Arts


101 Maple Street
Manistee, MI 49660
+1 (231) 398-9770

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