 February 18 - March 19, 2005
Director: Barry Hoffman
Producer: Käthe Park
Silver Spring Stage presents Painting Churches by Tina Howe, a loving and humorous portrait of an eccentric aging couple struggling in their waning years and their artist daughter's desire to capture them on canvas, directed by Barry Hoffman and produced by Käthe Park.
 A nominee for the 1984 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Painting Churches reveals the illusions that family members have about one another, and the wounds that they unintentionally inflict in the process of moving on with life. Howe uses her renowned lyrical, sensitive and gently humorous language to contemplate the span of emotions, family, art, illness, and the very essence of life. She has won an Obie Award for Distinguished Playwriting, an Outer Critics Circle Award, and an American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature. Her best known works include The Art of Dining, Museum, Coastal Disturbances, Approaching Zanzibar, One Shoe Off, and her most recent play, Pride's Crossing.
 Gardner (Craig Miller) and Fanny (Millie Ferrara) Church are preparing to move out of their Beacon Hill house to their summer cottage on Cape Cod. Gardner, once a famous poet, now is retired. He slips in and out of senility as his wife Fanny valiantly tries to keep them both afloat. They have asked their daughter, Mags (Jo Klein-Duke), to come home and help them move. Mags agrees, for she hopes as well to finally paint their portrait. She is now on the verge of artistic celebrity herself and hopes, by painting her parents, to come to terms with them and they with her.
Critics have noted: "Beautifully written. . . . A theatrical family portrait that has the shimmer and depth of Renoir portraits." N.Y. Times. "A radiant, loving and zestfully humorous play," Time.
Last season Barry Hoffman directed Art at the Stage which recently received a WATCH (Washington Area Theatre Community Honor) nomination. |
