Press Release
“The Velocity of Autumn” by Eric Coble, an explosive dramatic comedy, will be presented at the Tin Shed Theater on February 21 and 22 at 7pm and on the 23rd at 3pm. Tickets are $5 at the door.
Produced by the Patagonia Creative Arts Association and directed by Gail Cleveland, the play is a wonderful exploration of coming to grips with one’s past and future.
Alexandra (Janice Pulliam) is an 80-year-old artist in a showdown with her family over where she’ll spend her remaining years. (“Going gently into that night, or going anywhere at all, is obviously not an option for Alexandra,” said the New York Times in a review.) In her corner are her wit, her passion and the fact that she has barricaded herself in her Brooklyn brownstone with enough Molotov cocktails to take out the block. But two of her children have their own secret weapon: estranged son Chris (Caleb Weaver), who returns after 20 years, crawls through Alexandra’s second-floor window and attempts to be the family’s mediator.
“This production will be a staged reading,” said Ms. Cleveland, who has acted in and directed numerous productions over the last ten years. “It will be a fully acted play with scripts in hand, movement, appropriate costumes, a few pieces of furniture and no set or props. This type of show allows the actors to explore the script and their characters without the extra time of memorizing their lines.
“It allows a theater to produce shows that are thoughtful, and sometimes controversial, without spending money on set, props, and numerous costume changes. For actors, it allows those who love to act, but have numerous family and work commitments to spend a shorter time rehearsing and eliminates the time spent memorizing. For the audience, this type of theater focuses on the characters and the story.”
“The Velocity of Autumn” is fundamentally a study of Alexandra, a woman of intelligence and firm will, wrestling with the inevitable diminishments that come with age as well what it means to age in this country. Secondly, Christopher grapples with the dissatisfactions of his life and his family connections which he has avoided for 20 years.