Home

PRESS PAGE

PLAY CAFE presents

BANG!
by Mark Jackson
Joan Grinde - Director/Tech & Set Design
Lauren Steiner - Movement
Karole Langlois - Composer

featuring
Elizabeth Daly as Eleanor; Warden Lawlor as Benny:
Lily Oglesby as Kate; Thor Aagaard as Jim;
Miranda Calderon as Shelly; Joan Grinde as Joan

Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2004
C central, venue 54
Carlton Hotel, North Bridge

August 6 - 30 (no show 15)
4pm (70 minutes)
£7.50 / £6.50

Venue box office: 0870 701 5105 / www.CtheFestival.com
Fringe box office: 0131 226 0000 / www.edFringe.com


PRESS RELEASE
Press Contact:
Before July 26: Miranda Calderon on 001 510 435 7571
OR
After August 1 in Edinburgh: 077 5981 6717 or Miranda Calderon
OR
The C venues press office on 020 8452 2550 / After 24 July 0131 624 1550 C venues

BANG!
"This Show Is a Turd!"

In this hysterical and poignant slice of backstage life, only one person shows up to see Cockroach Infestation, the weird political play-within-the-play. Violence, slapstick, and personal revelation ensue when the audience member is mistakenly inspired by what she thought was a bold, autobiographical confession. BANG! is a comedy as much about theatrical conventions as it is about conventional theatre and the people who practice it.

Actors struggle so much with commitment that this play almost didn’t make it to Edinburgh. Not to mention the play-within-the-play—perhaps a typical case of life imitating art. Luckily, a group of actors impassioned by this lack of integrity decided to put on a show that both satirizes and humanizes the current (de)generation of American theatre—BANG!

Warning: If you’re the only one in the audience the actors might just cancel the play and invite you backstage of BANG!

PRESS PHOTOS
Click on photo for high resolution (300dpi) version.

Shelly (Miranda Calderon) grabs Jim (Thorvald Aagaard) as Benny (Warden Lawlor) and Eleanor (Beth Daly) look on in BANG!

Benny (Warden Lawlor), Eleanor (Beth Daly), Jim (Thorvald Aagaard) and Shelly (Miranda Calderon) in BANG!

BIOS
Mark Jackson (playwright) Mark Jackson is the founding Artistic Director of Art Street Theatre, San Francisco, for which he has written and/or directed numerous plays. Most recently he wrote and directed The Death of Meyerhold for Shotgun Players. Mark has also written and/or directed for Encore Theater Company, Magic Theater, Theater Valentine, EXIT Theatre, Il Teatro 450, and the POTRZEBIE Dance Project. He was a playwright in residence at the 2003 Djerassi Resident Artists Program, and is a 2004/05 Humboldt Foundation German Chancellor Scholar.

Lily Oglesby (Kate) Lily Oglesby was last seen playing Holly in The Listening Room at The Magic Theater. Before that she performed the role of Bianca in Troijka and before that, Emily in Speak To Me, both performed at Theater Spanganga. Prior to that she played Shelby in the Willows Theater production of Steel Magnolias. Her other Bay Area credits include Lois in The Ghost of Molly Malone with the Three Wise Monkeys' Company, Sasha in Summer People (an ACT MFA production), Alice in The Alice Unit (a BOA one-act) and as Louise in Russell Blackwood's Shocktoberfest. Her extensive background includes many years as a dancer. She studied theater at Wesleyan University, ACT in San Francisco, and at London's Central School of Speech and Drama. She has lived and taught around the world. She currently teaches drama at ACT and Sanchez Elementary School in San Francisco.

Thorvald Aagaard (Jim) Bay Area credits include appearances with the San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, Napa Valley Shakespeare Festival, Dreamweavers Theatre, Napa Valley Musical Theatre, and (as part of a national tour) the National Theatre for Children. He has performed his solo show about John Milton at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and in California. Thorvald teaches acting at Pacific Union College, and should do more writing than he does.

B. Warden Lawlor (Benny) Is a native San Franciscan. He is a graduate of the American Musical Dramatic Academy in New York City. His most recent work includes The Blond at the Party at the Climate Theater, A Night of Terror with the Thunderbird Theater Company and Edward II and Troijka With No Nude Men Productions. When not on stage Warden is most happy in a kitchen where he is the master of all that is Chocolate.

Elizabeth Daly (Eleanor) At age 11, Elizabeth began acting in musical theatre productions. She traveled the world as part of an a cappella singing group, appeared at the Edinburgh fringe festival, and has acted in numerous independent films and theatre productions. She is featured in a film being showcased at Cannes in 2004.

Miranda Calderon (Shelly) was last seen as Ophelia in New Shakespeare Company’s production of Hamlet. In the San Francisco Bay Area Miranda has also worked with Lunatique Fantastique, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, No Nude Men Productions, and Theatre Rhinoceros, as well as studied theatre with Mark Jackson. After receiving her BA from Columbia University, Miranda performed in Love & Happiness at the 2001 Edinburgh Fringe Festival before living in Madrid, Spain for a year, where she acted with Madrid Players and Teatro Lagrada.

Joan Grinde (Director and Joan) is a child of the academic world, Joan has earned her Master's of Fine Arts degree in Theatre Pedagogy and Directing from Virginia Commonwealth University. Over the past three years she has enjoyed a diverse career in San Francisco, having been Production Manager for the San Francisco Mime Troupe and Theatre Rhinoceros, Box Office Manager for the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra, and Senior Facilities Manager for the San Francisco GLBT Center. Joan also spends her time producing and directing for her own production company, UStickEm Productions, for which she has recently presented the cross gender versions of /Fool For Love/ and /A Streetcar Named Desire/.

Lauren Steiner (Movement) is a dancer, choreographer, aerialist, and clown. She thinks that there is nothing more gorgeous than being goofy. She has danced for the North Coast Ballet Company, Mills College Repertory Theatre, Terry Sendgraff and Dancers, and Junko Sodeyama & Dancers and choreographed and toured with Make*A*Circus, a San Francisco based circus. She studied dance at Mills College and has studied aerial arts with Terry Sendgraff, Circomedia, San Francisco Circus Center, and Trapeze Arts. She recently founded Eat Cake Productions, a San Francisco based aerial dance theatre, born of Lauren’s love for combining comedy, flight, dance, and theatre. Lauren also teaches clowning, trapeze, and bungee dancing.