WESTPORT -- Performing arts producer JIB Productions has announced its Play With Your Food program at Toquet Hall in Westport on Jan. 15, 16 and17 and at Fairfield Theatre Company on Jan. 22.
Now in its 11th season, PWYF is a theater program that includes a buffet lunch and dessert, short-play readings by professional actors and a post-show discussion. Performances are held from noon to 1:30 p.m.
on dates in January, February, March and April. January’s lunch will be catered by Norwalk’s Nicholas Roberts Gourmet Bistro in Westport and by The Pantry, based in Fairfield, for the production at FTC.
Opening the season this month will be: an excerpt from “Dinner With Friends,” a Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Donald Margulies, “Color Coordination” by Benjamin Conrick” and “Move On or Sondheim at Studio 54” by Michael McKeever, a PWYF favorite playwright.
“We chose these plays to both amuse and move our audiences,” notes Artistic Director Carole Schweid. “’Move On or Sondheim at Studio 54’ is a play about a song. Friend and foe of the great Stephen Sondheim are bound
to get a lot out of this inspired little comedy. ‘Dinner with Friends ‘is a story about food, family and friendship, and the bottom line in ‘Color Coordination’ is, that when it comes to the big moments in life, it all comes down to what to wear.”
A high-caliber cast will bring the stories to life, adds Schweid. “Local professionals Susan Vanech (Fairfield) and Jodi Stevens (Weston) will be joined by New York’s Dustin Sullivan and Josh Sienkiewitz. This high-voltage ensemble is a blast to work with. They’ve all worked nationally,
Off Broadway, in television, and with us. We’re very excited to welcome them back.”
The Fairfield Theatre Company is looking forward to the upcoming PWYF season, reports FTC’s Producing Artistic Director John Reid. “We are thrilled to host another season of plays from our friends at JIB Productions,” he states. “FTC started as a theater company 10 years ago and, although our primary focus has been live music in
recent years, these productions help keep us in touch with our roots, which is important to FTC and to the community.”
He adds, “We look forward to hosting and producing more theater in the days ahead and Play With Your Food is an important part of that vision. We just could not be more pleased with this collaboration
During 2013, performances at Toquet Hall in Westport are set for Jan. 15-17, Feb. 5-7, March 5-7 and April 2-4. At Fairfield Theatre Company, productions will be held Jan. 22, Feb. 12. , March 12 and April 9. Performances also will be held at the Greenwich Arts Council in Greenwich on Jan 23-24, Feb 13-14, March 13 and April 24-25.
Tickets are priced at $43 per show and include lunch. To
purchase tickets and see complete schedule, visit www.jibproductions.org
or call the box office at (203) 293-8831 Monday-Friday. between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.
About JIB Productions
JIB Productions introduced the successful Play With Your Food (PWYF) in 2003. Since then, PWYF has provided audiences throughout Fairfield County with a dynamic midday theater experience that includes a gourmet buffet lunch, a selection of one-act play readings and discussions with actors and playwrights – all packed into a 90-minute program.
The PWYF concept, and caliber of performances, has been praised by the New York Times as well as local media, critics and
audiences.
JIB also is the creator of the “Short Cuts” short
film and discussion events and the annual holiday-themed presentation of
“Season Readings.”
