FIXED
WHEN: MAY 4-21, Thursday through Saturday at 7:30pm and Sunday at 3pm during the first weekend of a run, and Friday at 7:30pm, Saturday at 3pm and 7:30pm, and Sunday at 3pm during the second and third weekends.
WHERE: The Mill Hill Playhouse is located at 205 E. Front Street, at the corner of Montgomery Street in Trenton, NJ. Free guarded on-street parking.
TICKETS: $20 - $33 ($38 Saturday night). Student, group and senior discounts available.
To purchase tickets call (609) 392-0766, or visit www.passagetheatre.org.
Passage Theatre Company, Trenton’s Barrymore Award-winning theatre company, will close its 2016-2017 season with the world premiere of Resident Playwright David Lee White’s Fixed, directed by Maureen Heffernan.
What would you sacrifice for the people you love? Ronnie doesn’t want help. Valerie and Daryl don’t want to reunite. But high school vows bind pretty tightly. Broken promises and dark humor fill David Lee White’s new play about friendship, mental illness, and facing the truth.
Fixed was originally commissioned by the NJPAC Stage Exchange, a program of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (John Schreiber, President & CEO). The cast includes Phillip Gregory Burke, Deena Jiles, Maria Konstantinidis, and Alicia Rivas.
In addition to producing the play, Passage will sponsor a community dialogue centered on mental health at 6:30pm on May 3, at Thomas Edison State University’s Prudence Hall at 111 West State Street in Trenton. Local community leaders such as Reverend Armstrong of Shiloh Baptist Church, Reverend Hernandez-Granzen of Westminster Presbyterian Church, and Janet Haag of NAMI Mercer will work with Passage to create a flexible and informative dialogue on an issue with immense importance for Trenton.
“Once again, Passage is pointing to the elephant in the room,” says Artistic Director June Ballinger. “This time it’s the question of what our society is doing to address proper care for those with mental health challenges who are without private resources or the education on how to navigate the existing system. We look forward to hearing illuminating and perhaps prescriptive points of view during our post-show panels.”
David Lee White is a New Jersey-based writer/performer/educator. For 14 seasons, he was the Associate Artistic Director of Passage Theatre, where he spearheaded the education and new play development programs. He has written several plays familiar to audiences throughout New Jersey, such as Blood: A Comedy, Slippery as Sin, and White Baby, which all premiered at Passage. David also worked with Passage’s Artistic Director June Ballinger to create the shows Trenton Lights and Profiles, using interviews with Trenton residents on the topics of race, identity and history in Trenton, NJ. Other plays currently in development include The Festial Quartet, Ways To Be Happy, Rocket Sex Magic, Live Stream (with Sarah Donner and Adam Immerwahr), and The Angry Grammarian (with Jeffrey Barg). For the past two years, White has been performing in his one-person show entitled Panther Hollow, a comedy about the years he spent battling chronic depression in his youth. So far, the play has been seen at Pittsburgh’s Arcade Comedy Theatre in Pittsburgh, Point Park College, Passage Theatre, The New Jersey Fringe Festival, and NYC’s United Solo Festival. Since 2005, he has been creating oral-history based plays with Trenton area teens based on social and cultural issues, including If I Could, In My Hood, I Would…, Fire Girls, Urban Central, Get Off the Bus, and Bobashela. This Trenton Life, created with the Trenton Central High drama club, was the subject of an Emmy-Award nominated broadcast on PCK Media’s State of the Arts.
Maureen Heffernan is delighted to be making her directing debut at Passage Theatre Company in her hometown of Trenton, NJ. Most recently she has directed over 10 productions at Florida Repertory Theatre including Dancing at Lughnasa, Sylvia and Little Foxes, all of which received praise from the Wall Street Journal among other critics. Over the past 30 years, Maureen has directed more than 90 professional theatrical productions nationally. Some of her favorite theaters include Florida Repertory Theatre, Pittsburgh Public Theatre, Crossroads Theater Company, PlayMakers Repertory Company, Pennsylvania Stage Company and New York’s John Houseman Theater and Ensemble Studio Theater. Maureen also served as Artistic Director for George Street Playhouse, and as Acting Artistic Director at Delaware Theater Company. Maureen has been recognized as a leader in arts education throughout the country and as an innovator in arts programming for special populations. She was the founding Artistic Director of the Unlimited Potential Theater Company of Very Special Arts in New Jersey. She also inaugurated the Drama Therapy Program for the Center for Cognitive Rehabilitation at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. Maureen has served as the Executive Director of the Institute for Arts and Humanities Education and most recently as Director of Arts and Education for Young Audiences New Jersey and Eastern Pennsylvania. Maureen is a member of the faculty of the School of Arts and Communication at The College of New Jersey where she teaches Integrated Visual and Performing Arts. Most recently at the college, Maureen left the directing chair to appear on stage playing Benjamin Franklin in an all-female production of the musical 1776. Maureen is a proud member of both Actors Equity Association and Stage Directors and Choreographers Society.