A Stone Carver at Purple Rose Theatre

NOTE: The Purple Rose Theatre Company is pleased to announce an added Valentine’s Day performance of their current production A Stone Carver by William Mastrosimone on Tuesday, Febuary 14th at 8:00 p.m. Tickets prices are the weekday rate of $25.

The Purple Rose Theatre Company continues its 2011/12 Season with A Stone Carver, a heartfelt story about the rekindling of a father-son relationship by William Mastrosimone. The production will enjoy an eight-week engagement from Thursday, January 19 – Saturday, March 10, 2012. Eight low-priced previews of A Stone Carver will be performed Thursday, January 19 – Thursday, January 26, with Press Opening on Friday, January 27, 2012. There will be two matinees performed for students at 11:00 AM on Tuesday, February 7 and Tuesday, March 6.

A Stone Carver tells the story of a retired stonemason who clings to the past and his son who refuses to look back. When Agostino, a seventh-generation stone carver is evicted from his home to make space for a highway, he barricades himself in his house, determined to outlast the bulldozers. In a last-ditch effort to save his father from jail, Raff, Agostino’s only son, arrives at the house with his new fiancée. A battle of wills ensues, putting their already-rocky relationship to the test. Can Raff convince his father to move forward before it’s too late?

Inspired by events in the playwright’s own life, A Stone Carver was first produced in 1987 at Seattle Repertory Theatre under the title, The Understanding. This production will mark PRTC resident artist Rhiannon Ragland’s professional directing debut (Flint, MI). The cast will feature PRTC artistic director Guy Sanville (Chelsea, MI) as Agostino, Matthew David (Flint, MI) and Charlyn Swarthout (Union City, MI).

Founded in 1991 by acclaimed actor and Chelsea native Jeff Daniels, The Purple Rose Theatre Company (PRTC) is a leading American theatre dedicated to producing the new American play and creating opportunities for Midwest theatre professionals. The PRTC is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit professional theatre operating under a Small Professional Theatre agreement with the Actors’ Equity Association. The PRTC promotes the development of new American theatre and its practitioners, provides valuable educational opportunities for young artists, and, through consistently high quality production values, has earned the respect of local and national theatre communities.

WILLIAM MASTROSIMONE
William Mastrosimone is an American playwright and screenwriter from Trenton, New Jersey. He attended high school at The Pennington School and received a graduate degree in playwriting from Mason Gross School of the Arts, a part of Rutgers University. His plays include The Woolgatherer, Extremities, Shivaree, and Cat’s Paw. He also wrote Bang Bang You’re Dead, which can be downloaded from the Internet and performed by students for free. Other plays include The Afghan Women, A Stone Carver and Nanawatai, upon which the film The Beast is based. Two other plays are Sleepwalk, a story again focusing on the traumas of modern teenage life, and Dirty Business, a play about a party girl caught between the mafia and the newly elected President of the United States. His screenwriting credits include Into the West and the adaptation of his play Extremities. He won a Daytime Emmy Award for Bang, Bang You’re Dead and was nominated for a Prime Time Emmy for Into the West and The Burning Season.

GUY SANVILLE
Guy Sanville celebrated his sixteenth anniversary as Artistic Director of The Purple Rose Theatre Company last May. He has directed over 40 productions for the PRTC, including 25 World Premieres. He has appeared in seven plays for the Rose, most recently in Sea of Fools (Dickie Deerfield) and Born Yesterday (Harry Brock). Locally, he has also appeared at the BoarsHead Theatre and Jewish Ensemble Theatre. He has appeared in several films including Escanaba in da Moonlight, Super Sucker, Chasing Sleep and The Lost Treasure of Sawtooth Island. He is a proud member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, Actors’ Equity Association and Screen Actors Guild. A longtime admirer of playwright William Mastrosimone, Sanville explains why this particular play is special to him: “A Stone Carver has always moved me. It’s a relatively simple story about a father and his son. It’s the stuff of a lot of great drama: the idea that sons are always trying to measure up to their father’s notions of what it means to be a man, that moment in a father’s life when he has to try to accept the man the boy has become, the sense that there is always something unfinished in the relationship. It’s a story that just about every father and son can relate to.”