Administration

Communications

Annual Guest Artist Production to Stage Brighton Beach Memoirs
Wednesday, April 20, 2005

Related Links

C-SC Theatre Department

Step into a nostalgic world of boyhood, baseball and life as the Culver-Stockton College Fine Art Department stages its 19th annual guest artist production with Neil Simon’s comedy classic Brighton Beach Memoirs, featuring guest artist Michael Brainard.

Brainard, known for his soap opera roles on ABC’s “All My Children” and NBC’s “Santa Barbara,” will make his second appearance on the C-SC stage. In 2002, he played the lead male role of Valmont in the production of Les Liaisons Dangereuses. In Brighton Beach Memoirs, Brainard will play the role of Jack with all of the other roles will be played by C-SC students.

Performances will be held on Wednesday, April 20, through Saturday, April 23, at 7:30 p.m. in Mabee Little Theatre, located in the lower level of the Robert W. Brown Performing Arts Center on campus in Canton, Mo. Ticket prices for the show are $8 for adults and $6 for students.

Brainard, a Hollywood-based actor, has experience in film, television and theater. He played the role of Joey Martin on “All My Children” from 1988-1991, and in 1994-1995. From 1991-1993, he played Ted Capwell on “Santa Barbara.” As a guest artist, he has appeared on CBS’s “Family Law” and USA Network’s “Silk Stalkings” and “Circus of the Stars XVII.” He will be appearing in the upcoming film “The Untitled Onion,” a sketch comedy movie. Brainard has also written and directed two plays, “A Murder of Crows” and “Looking for Some Posse.”

Brighton Beach Memoirs, one of Simon’s most widely respected plays, is a story based about his memories growing up in New York City just before World War II. The play takes the audience back to 1937 Brooklyn. It tells the life of Eugene Jerome, an aspiring young writer existing in his teenage years by fantasizing about girls, literary fame and baseball. As the Jerome family home comes to a time of anguish, Eugene is there to write it all down and bring it back to life with his own humor.

C-SC’s annual guest artist production is an opportunity for students and faculty to experience theater with a professional actor/actress. Students are able to work with the actor onstage, behind the scenes, and in workshops and masterclasses, learning new techniques in the art and sharing first-hand experience of how the “business” works on a day-to-day basis. C-SC is the only school in the region to bring in a professional guest artist working in theater, television and/or film each year to work with students.

The play is under the direction of Haidee Heaton, assistant professor of theatre. For more information or to reserve tickets, contact the Fine Arts Office at (573) 288-6346 or e-mail finearts@culver.edu.