Press Room:
Over the Tavern

The Willows Theatre Company, one of the Bay Area’s most celebrated professional theaters, presents a play of hilarious proportions, Tom Dudzick’s Over the Tavern. Willows Theatre Artistic Director Richard Elliott will direct. Over the Tavern opens June 17 and runs through July 17, 2005, at the Willows Theatre, 1975 Diamond Boulevard, Concord, CA. Preview performances begin June 13.

In 1959, there was Elvis and Ike, drive-ins and tail fins, The Honeymooners and the Hula Hoop. Life was simple. Or was it? In Buffalo, New York, all hell is breaking loose over Chet’s Bar and Grill. Ellen and Chet Pazinski are trying to maintain a bit of normalcy in their Polish-Catholic household as they watch their son Rudy, a bright, wise-cracking 12-year-old, lock horns with a ruler-cracking no-nonsense nun (Rudy: “I read where there are over 1,300 religions in the world. I’d like to shop around.” Sister Clarissa: “Stop thinking. Your instructions were to memorize. It’s thinking that gets you into trouble.”) Older brother Eddie (15) provides the brawn to Rudy’s brains, and both are out to salvage the reputation of their Italian-film-loving sister, Annie (16). Meanwhile, another sibling, learning-disabled Georgie (13), is picking up a vocabulary from his brothers that is making mom cringe. Over the Tavern throws a hula hoop over 50’s America and captures a family dynamic that would have uncoiled Ward Cleaver like a metal-fatigued Slinky. Over the Tavern will keep theatergoers in stitches, even if you don’t remember meatless Fridays (which Rudy speculates Jesus mandated for the Apostles “to help their fish business”).

THE PLAYWRIGHT

Like Rudy Pazinksi, Tom Dudzick was born in Buffalo to Polish-Catholic parents. He and his siblings (one of whom was mentally challenged) grew up over a tavern. His father was a basketball player (in the play Chet is a former baseball player). Unlike Rudy, he never talked back to the nuns at the Catholic school he attended. Dudzick was in his twenties before he began questioning the rules and doctrine of the Catholic religion.

After a brief stint in acting, Dudzick wrote and produced dinner theatre for about five years in Western New York. In 1979, shortly after moving to New York City, his award-winning one-act comedy Me, Too, Then was published by Samuel French. Tom Dudzick currently resides in Nyack, New York, with his wife and two children.

Over the Tavern is the first play of a family trilogy. Premiering in 1994 at the Studio Arena Theatre in Buffalo, the play became a smash hit, running for three years. It has been produced all over the country at major regional theatres in Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Oregon, and California.

Ed Blanc, of the Pittsburgh Tribune Review, writes: “Over the Tavern, with a heart as big as its belly laughs, is the nearest Catholic equivalent to date of Neil Simon’s tenderly Jewish-American Lost in Yonkers and his Brighton Beach trilogy. Dudzick’s is a voice that tells us who we were, which is, after all, the first measure of who we have become.”

THE CAST

David Beal (Rudy Pazinski) portrayed the Ugly Duckling in last year’s Willows SummerStage Junior production of Honk! Jr., and appeared in three mainstage productions in 2004: Children of Eden, Gypsy and Night of the Hunter. Mr. Beal is a 7th-grader at Orinda Intermediate School in Orinda, and recently participated in the world finals of the “Odyssey of the Mind” program.

Cindy Goldfield* (Ellen Pazinski) last appeared on the Willows stage as Gussie in Merrily We Roll Along, which she also choreographed. Prior to that she was featured as Dottie in In the Beginning (2000), Sr. Amnesia in Nuncrackers (1999), Miraid in Brimstone (1998 Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Award), and Rosalind in Moon Over Buffalo (1998). She also directed Annie Warbucks at the Willows in 1996, and most recently appeared as Earth Mother in Menopause the Musical at Theatre 39 in San Francisco. Ms. Goldfield, who received her theatrical training at UC-Irvine, lives in San Francisco with husband Leigh and children Jack and Calem.

Michael Ray Wisely* (Chet Pazinski) was last seen at the Willows as Captain Smollett in Treasure Island, and as the cussin’ sheriff Ed Earl Dodd in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. He was also featured in the Willows’ 1998 production of Foxfire. Most recently, Michael Ray appeared at the Magic Theatre in the American premiere of Rebecca Gilman’s The Sweetest Swing in Baseball. Other local credits include: A Christmas Carol  for Center Repertory, Fugitive Kind at Marin Theatre Company, On the 20th Century with American Musical Theatre, Love’s Labours Lost with the San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, Desire Under the Elms at San Jose Repertory Theatre, and The American in Me at the Magic Theatre, as well as performing for San Jose Stage, Pacific Alliance, Shotgun Players, and others. Mr. Wisely lives in Richmond with wife Wendy and daughter Olivia.

Barbara Grant* (Sister Clarissa) most recently appeared at the Willows as Hannah Ferguson in The Spitfire Grill and Penny Sycamore in You Can’t Take It With You. She has also been seen in Willows productions of Joyful Noise; Look Homeward, Angel; and Funny Girl; among many others. She created the role of Jeanne Carr in John Muir’s Mountain Days, and won a Bay Area Theater Critics Circle award for her performance as Roisin in the Willows’ production of Brimstone in 1997. Ms. Grant is a long-time resident of Alamo, and also serves as Development Director for the Willows Theatre Company.

Sophia Holtz-Elliott (Annie Pazinski), a veteran of the Willows Theatre Conservatory training program, has appeared in Willows productions of In the Beginning and John Muir’s Mountain Days, and in Willows SummerStage productions of Pippin, Phantom, and Les Miserables, among others. Ms. Holtz-Elliott, 16, just completed her sophomore year at Campolindo High School in Moraga, where she appeared in productions of Les Miserables and My Favorite Year, and is a member of the Chamber Singers.

Sam Haese (Eddie Pazinski), an 8th grader at Stanley Middle School in Lafayette, appeared in last season’s production of Night of the Hunter. He is also an avid musician.

Darren Barrere (Georgie Pazinski) has appeared in productions of Ragtime at TheatreWorks and Diablo Light Opera Company and in The Time of Your Life at the American Conservatory Theater. At the Willows he has been featured in To Kill a Mockingbird, John Muir’s Mountain Days and Night of the Hunter. Mr. Barrere, 15, recently completed his freshman year at Campolindo High School in Moraga.

PRODUCTION TEAM

 As Artistic Director of the Willows since 1986, director Richard Elliott has overseen the company’s growth from a small community theater to a nationally recognized professional LORT theater company, recipient of two NEA grants for the commission of new outdoor drama, and has overseen the development and production of more than 15 new plays and musicals.  Elliott has directed over 100 productions, garnered two Shellie awards, and won the Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle director’s award for the West Coast premiere of Brimstone.  He has produced and directed the acclaimed musical Mountain Days, based on the life of John Muir, and is currently overseeing the development of a newly commissioned piece, Sacagawea.  Mr. Elliott is a recipient of the Arts Recognition Award from the Arts & Cultural Commission of Contra Costa County. He holds a B.A. in Theatre from West Virginia Wesleyan College and a Master’s of Fine Arts from the University of Arizona.

The design team for Over the Tavern includes Shaun Carroll (Properties and Set Dressing), Jonathan Retsky (Lighting), Peter Crompton (Scenery), Lyle Barrere (Sound) and Loran Watkins (Costumes). Chris Butler* is production stage manager.
(*member, Actors' Equity Association)

Ticket and Schedule Information

Tickets are $30-$35 with discounts for students (6-18), seniors (65+) and groups (10+).  To purchase tickets call (925) 798-1300 or order online.  Performances are Tuesday through Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday at 8:00 p.m., and Sunday at 7:30 p.m., with matinees Wednesdays at 3:30 pm, Saturdays at 2 p.m., and Sundays at 3 p.m.   

The Willows Theatre is located at 1975 Diamond Blvd. next to CompUSA and REI in the Willows Shopping Center in Concord, across the street from the Concord Hilton and one block east of the Willow Pass Road exit off Highway 680. 

The Willows Theatre Company daytime box office is located at 1425 Gasoline Alley, Concord, at the corner of Bisso Lane, one block north of Concord Avenue, behind the EXPO Design Center.  The daytime box office hours are Monday-Saturday 10 A.M. – 6 P.M. and Sunday Noon-5 P.M.  The theatre box office and will-call window, located in the theater lobby, opens one hour prior to each performance.

Recipient of the 2002 Cyril Award of the San Francisco Business Arts Council for Nonprofit Arts Excellence, the Willows Theatre Company is led by Artistic Director Richard Elliott and Managing Director Andrew Holtz. The Willows Theatre Company 2005 sponsors are Rocco’s Pizzeria of Walnut Creek, Industrial Lumber of Martinez, Contra Costa Newspapers, Alphagraphics of Walnut Creek, the Crowne Plaza Concord, and US Bank (student/teacher discount ticket sponsor).

Archives

1776
Noises OFF
Cabaret
Oliver
Deathtrap
2005 John Muir Summer Festival
Over the Tavern
Judgment at Nuremberg
AIDA