THEATRE + COMEDY

Main Street Theater presents the world premiere of Driftwood by Lans Traverse. With previews March 27, 28 and 30, Driftwood opens April 1 and runs through April 25 at Main Street Theater – Rice Village, 2540 Times Blvd. (There are no performances on April 2 or 4.) Performances are on Thursdays at 7:30pm, Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm, and Sundays at 3pm. NOTE: Following the April 3 and April 17 performances of Driftwood, Main Street Theater will be hosting talkbacks with playwright Lans Traverse.

About Driftwood
A wheat farm in Alfalfa County, OK is the setting for Lans Traverse’s raw and gripping play Driftwood. Moving between 1933 and 1954, the play exposes the gritty underbelly of a family torn apart by greed. Crowther, the son who was given a medical education while his sisters went to work, moves like a snake amongst his family members, tricking his sisters out of their inheritance and ultimately turning his own parents out of their house. Yet in the end, it is Crowther who must face what he’s done and stand alone, while the strength of family brings the others together and gives hope for the future.

Says playwright Lans Traverse, “First and last though, this is a story about the family, about the foolishness of some, and the heartache caused by others, about acts of betrayal that are sometimes committed by our nearest and dearest, and about strength and loyalty and steadfastness.”

A finalist at New York's Summer Play Festival, Driftwood will have its world premiere at Main Street Theater.

About Playwright Lans Traverse
Lans Traverse was born in New Jersey, and her school years were divided between Pennsylvania and Oklahoma. She studied acting at Northwestern University, followed by the American Academy in New York City. From there, Ms. Traverse won a scholarship to train at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. London remains her primary residence.

Her early career spent as an actress, where she appeared in British television and on the West End Stage. Later in life she came to playwriting. Coleslaw and Coconut Cream Pie, the first of four plays, was a Finalist at the Eugene O'Neill Playwrights' Conference and is a runner up this year in the Eileen Heckart Playwriting Competition; it will receive a staged reading in Ohio this May. Last November it was given a staged reading in the UK at York's Theatre Royal and will return for a four-week run in the Autumn 2010. It has been translated into Italian and will also be produced in Rome in early 2011.

The second play, The Kiss of the Sun for Pardon, was a Finalist for the Verity Bargate Award at London's Soho Theatre and was workshopped there last October. It will be included in Theatre 503's 2011 Spring Season.

Driftwood, a Finalist at New York's Summer Play Festival, is having its world premiere in April 2010 here in Houston at Main Street Theater. Her screenplay adaptation of Driftwood has just received the John Muir Gold Award at the Yosemite International Film Festival.

Ms. Traverse is currently working on the fourth play, O Come, All Ye Faithful.

She is married to actor, Ronald Pickup. She has two children also in the theatre: her son Simon is a film production designer and aspiring director, and her daughter Rachel is an actress.

About the Production
Cheryl L. Kaplan, director of last season’s nationally acclaimed production of Awake and Sing!, returns to direct Driftwood. The cast includes Jim Salners (The Last Night of Ballyhoo, Caroline, or Change) as patriarch Orville with Karen Ross (Morning Star, Sunday in the Park with George) as his wife Alice; their children Crowther, Evelyn, and Bernice are portrayed by Justin Doran (The Busy World Is Hushed, The Best Man), Carolyn Johnson (Mr. Pim Passes By, Translations), and Jennifer Dean. Bethany McCade (The Last Night of Ballyhoo) plays Crowther’s wife Ramona; Josh Taylor (Third) is the Young Man.

The design team includes Jeffrey S. Lane (set design), Deborah Anderson (costume design), Eric Marsh (lighting design), Janel Badrina (sound design), and Trey Otis (properties design). Rob Babbitt is the production stage manager.

Since 1975, Main Street Theater has produced high quality professional theater for audiences of all ages through its MainStage productions and Main Street Youth Theater. The Main Street Theater Kids On Stage program offers performing arts classes and camps for children 5 years to 14 years of age. The organization produces plays at two locations, 2540 Times Boulevard in Rice Village and 4617 Montrose Boulevard at Chelsea Market.

Main Street Theater is a member of the Fresh Arts Coalition, a collaboration of 25 arts organizations that work collectively to raise awareness of the size and diversity of the arts in Houston, and a constituent of Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national service organization for not-for-profit theaters. Main Street Theater offers a lively year-round repertory of classic and contemporary plays for audiences of all ages and provides a much-needed showcase for Houston theater professionals. Main Street Theater is also a member of Actors’ Equity Association and of ASSITEJ, the world theatre network of theatre for children and young people. Main Street Theater is funded in part by grants from the City of Houston through the Houston Arts Alliance, and the Texas Commission on the Arts.