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The
Penis Responds
Bresette Theatre
Productions announces the Boston premier of “The Penis Responds” by
Oscar winning writer Ernest Thompson directed by Lowell
Williams.
Billy Butler
and Josh Bresette
July 22 through August 5
[Sunday, July 23,
7:30 pm: special reception for the playwright following the
performance]
Plaza Black Box
Theater at the Boston Center for the Arts (Boston, MA) Bresette
Theatre Productions announces the Boston premier of "The Penis
Responds!" by Oscar winning writer Ernest Thompson; directed by
Lowell Williams. July 22 through August 5, with a special reception
for the playwright following the Sun., July 23, performance. Show
times: Wed., Thurs., & Sun. at 7:30 pm; Fri. & Sat. at 8 pm; and Sat. matinees at 4 pm. At the
Plaza Black Box Theater at the Boston Center for the Arts, 539
Tremont Street, South End, Boston. Convenient to the Orange and
Silver Lines; wheelchair access provided. For
advance tickets and information about the show, contact:
Bresette Theatre Productions at 603-430-0770, x101,
tickets@BTproductions.org OR BostonTheatreScene.com
Box Office at 617-933-8600, www.BostonTheatreScene.com; other advance ticket
outlets: the Stanford Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for
the Arts, 527 Tremont Street, Boston or at the BU Theatre, 264
Huntington Ave, Boston.
First there was the
“Vagina Monologues”, praised as the ultimate girl’s night out. Now
Oscar, Golden Globe, and Emmy award-winning playwright Ernest
Thompson has countered with a work of phallic proportions.
The New England
premier of Thompson’s "The Penis Responds" launches Bresette Theatre
Productions 2006 touring season. BT Productions is not only staging
this production to champion Thompson’s new work. They are also
honoring the author, who has a home-base in New Hampshire and has
been serving as a mentor for this new theater company. Thompson has
long been known as being open to the creative input of others and
this current collaboration with BT Productions has proven to be a
mutually rewarding experience.
Just completing
runs at The West Studio Theatre in Portsmouth, NH and the Portland
Stage Company in Portland, ME, the 90 minute "The Penis Responds"
now takes up an impromptu intimate residency in Boston, providing a
tour de force for two actors who play twenty-four characters in
twelve scenes focused on 1 subject. Actors Josh Bresette and Billy
Butler comprise the two-man cast, portraying a wide array of women,
men, children, and aging queens. In turn, the audience will react
with laughter, weeping, and squirming in their seats.
Background
information on the primary participants:
Bresette Theatre
Productions is a new theater company with a unique mission — to
bring theater to the masses with an always "pay what you can"
admission policy, based on the idea that quality live theater should
be for everyone. Founder Josh Bresette had the dream of starting a
non-profit theatre company, which would not only offer high-quality
drama and comedies, but also bring "something different" to the live
theater experience. "I have had this in mind for a while, and
performer Billy Butler was the perfect person to help me kick it
off. He is a theatrical force," says Bresette. For more information,
go to www.BTProductions.org.
Josh Bresette
(Producer/Actor) is a double threat theater practitioner, being
adept at both producing and acting. He has studied both “method” and
“meisner” acting technique in NYC where his first off-off Broadway
performance was in “American Heiroglyphics” written by Larry Myers
and performed at the Theater for the New City. Bresette has been a
member of the Blue Sphere Alliance Theater Company in Los Angeles
and is currently a participant in the 3 year Owner/President Program
at Harvard Business School. He is President of Bresette + Company, a
marketing and consulting firm based in Portsmouth NH, and the
Founder/Managing Director of Bresette Theatre Productions.
Billy Butler (AEA
Actor) has been honing his craft in the backwoods of New Hampshire
and while most people say he is naturally funny others say looks are
not everything. Most recently he played Marty in “The House of Yes”
and has performed all over the country in almost every capacity in
the industry. He once ran away with the 131st Edition of Ringling
Brother's Circus but then ran away from them to settle back in NH to
help mold young minds at Portsmouth High School. He is a member of
the New Hampshire Educational Theatre Guild where his one act
“Weapons of Mass Construction” premiered at their one act festival.
Butler also performs with the comedy troupe “Rebels Without
Applauze” at Improv Boston and plays guitar for the rock band The
Imps.
Ernest Thompson
(Playwright/Mentor) took the adage “write what you know'” and found
the challenge of creating “The Penis Responds” both big and hard.
“The Penis Responds” premiered Off-Off-Broadway with Thompson
co-starring and directing. His other plays, which his mother finds
easier to talk about, include “On Golden Pond” (Tony nominated last
year for Best Revival, starring James Earl Jones), “The West Side
Waltz” (with Katharine Hepburn), “A Sense of Humor” (with Jack
Lemmon), “The One About the Guy in the Bar,” “Murdering Mother,”
“Amazons in August” (playing Boston next season), “White People
Christmas,” “Another Summer” (the “On Golden Pond” musical version),
and the short play collections “Answers and Valentines for Two” and
“American Terrorist” (for this year's Boston Theatre Marathon).
Films include “On Golden Pond” (Academy Award, Golden Globe,
starring Katharine Hepburn and Henry Fonda), “Sweet Hearts Dance”
(with Susan Sarandon and Jeff Daniels), “1969” (with Robert Downey
Jr. and Winona Ryder), “The Lies Boys Tell” (with Kirk Douglas),
“The West Side Waltz” (with Shirley MacLaine and Liza Minnelli),
“Out of Time,” and “The Live On Golden Pond” (with Julie Andrews and
Christopher Plummer). Thompson is currently in preproduction for the
Providence, RI shoot of “The Love Line”, in which he co-stars with
Boston based actress Pamela Lambert. For more information, log onto
www.ernestthompson.net.
Lowell Williams
(Director), a well-known local actor and playwright, was a founding
member of KISTheater, where nine of his one-act plays were produced
in their annual Theatre-By-The-Pool play festival. Other writing
credits include the screenplay “All That is Love & Laughter”
(finalist in the Chesterfield Film Project, 2001), “Feeding the
Ducks” (2002 AACT Drama Festival winner), writer for the NH Theatre
Awards, and “The Warmth of the Cold” (winner of the Best Original
Play at the NH Theatre Awards for Yellow Taxi Productions in April
2005). Directing credits include “Picasso at the Lapine Agile” for
the Nashua Theatre Guild in 2003 and “Tape for Yellow Taxi” in 2004.
Williams holds an MFA from Goddard College and is a member of the
Dramatists Guild of America.
Boston Center for
the Arts (BCA) is an urban cultural village, incubating and
showcasing the performing and visual arts and artists of our time.
Occupying a city block in Boston's historic South End, the BCA
provides a creative home for artists, a welcoming destination for
audiences, and an arts connection for youth and community. For more
information, visit www.bcaonline.org.
marycurtin@comcast.net
"dedicated to staging
insightful entertainment, particularly in non-traditional
venues"
http://www.marycurtinproductions.com
 
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