Glendales Alex Theatre and Classic and Contemporary American Plays Presents How I Learned To Drive," Nov. 15-17

Classic and Contemporary American Plays (CCAP) in association with the Alex Regional Theatre Board presents the concert staged readings of Paula Vogels 1998 Pulitzer Prize-winning play How I Learned To Drive." Starring Michael Gross, Mimi Kennedy and Mackenzie Philips, How I Learned To Drive" is intimately staged in a 208-seat configuration of the Alex Theatre on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, Nov. 15, 16 and 17 at 7:30 p.m.

(PRWEB) September 24, 2004 -- A wildly funny, surprising and devastating tale of survival... HOW I LEARNED TO DRIVE is the story of a woman who learns the rules of the road and life from behind the wheel." --The New York Times

Classic and Contemporary American Plays (CCAP) in association with the Alex Regional Theatre Board presents the concert staged readings of Paula Vogels 1998 Pulitzer Prize-winning play How I Learned To Drive." Starring Michael Gross, Mimi Kennedy and Mackenzie Philips, How I Learned To Drive" is intimately staged in a 208-seat configuration of the Alex Theatre on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, Nov. 15, 16 and 17 at 7:30 p.m.

How I Learned To Drive" at the Alex Theatre is a two hour and ten minute production with one 15-minute intermission and direction by CCAP co-founder and acclaimed actress Bonnie Franklin.

In car-obsessed America, How I Learned To Drive," set in the 1960-70s Maryland, recounts the relationship between a young girl from a tightly knit lower-middle-class family and her uncle-by-marriage. The story moves through a series of flashback and flash-forward episodes showing the remembered life scenes of the main character, Lil Bit, from the age of 11 to forty-something as she moves through a childs dependence to the promise of a more self-assured adulthood. Lil Bits driving lessons and life lessons, which she receives from her Uncle Peck, establishes the basis of this pedophiliac love story that is mesmerizing, personal, and disarmingly funny. In its praise of the play, the New York Times wrote, ...Uncle Peck [is surely the most engaging pedophile to walk across an American stage... " Lil Bits triumph is that instead of merely demonizing the man who preyed upon her, she looks back on him and his actions with empathy and forgiveness. She sees him finally as a man beset by his own demons.

Vogel populates her play with three actors that she identifies as Male Greek Chorus, Female Greek Chorus and Teenage Greek Chorus. This device connects a very contemporary American drama to ancient classical theater. Vogels script expertly mixes the heavy with the light, the familiar and sentimental with the taboo, yet it refuses to reduce its heroine to the status of victim or to make her oppressor a mere villain.

Paula Vogel (b. 1951) came from a working-class family and knew she would have to make it on her won if she was to make it at all. Her early years were marred by her parents divorce and the loss of a father whom she came to know only in later years when her brother, Carl, was dying of    AIDS. After losing her scholarship to Bryn Mawr College and devoting herself to dramatic literature, she graduated from Catholic University in Washington and then was turned down by the Yale School of Drama. Her earliest plays were also turned down by the Eugene ONeill National Playwrights Conference. In retrospect, she felt that these rejections were good things because they made her learn her craft in difficult and original ways. As a young playwright she found other friends who were trying to write, and they gathered together to read each others work. They occasionally did exercises, which became useful teaching tools for Vogel at Brown University.

Vogel has no fear of controversial subject matter -- including AIDS, pornography, prostitution, and gay and lesbian relationships. Her mastery of humor, language and the varying shades and shadows of morality are well established. How I Learned To Drive" not only won the Pulizer, it also won the 1997 Obie in Playwriting, the Lortel Best Play Award, the Best Off-Broadway Play from the Outer Critics Circle, the Best Play from the Drama Desk, and the Best Play from the New York Drama Critics Circle.

Some of Vogels other awards and honors include a 1992 Best Play Obie for The Baltimore Waltz," about a dying AIDS patient, was written about the death of her brother Carl; two Pulitzer Prize nominations, two NEA fellowships, a Bunting Fellowship, a McKnight Fellowship, the Rockerfeller Foundations Bellagio Fellowship, an AT&T New Play Award, the Fund for New American Plays Award from the Kennedy Center, a Guggenheim, and a Pew Charitable Trust Senior Residency.

Michael Gross -- best known for his portrayal of Steven Keaton, the ex-radical patriarch in the long-running sitcom Family Ties," will portray Uncle Peck in CCAPs production of How I Learn To Drive."

Mimi Kennedy -- starred in five season of the Golden Globe nominated primetime television comedy series, Dharma & Greg." She can boast a list of credits that include Broadway theatre, television drama, variety and comedy series feature film and behind-the-scenes work as director, story editor and voice-over artist.

Mackenzie Philips -- daughter of John Philips (The Mamas & the Papas) got her first film role as an under aged cruiser in American Graffiti" (1973). She was cast as Julie Cooper on the popular sitcom One Day at a Time" and she co-starred on the Disney Channel series So Weird" in 1999. Both Kennedy and Philips will portray Lil Bit at various stages of her development.

General tickets to see the staged readings of Paula Vogels How I Learned To Drive" at the Alex Theatre are available for $25 and $15 (senior citizens and students with valid I.D.) at the box office night-of-show. To charge by phone or for more information, please call (818) 243-2539 or visit the Alex Theatre website at www.alextheatre.org.

Validated parking is available for theatre patrons at three Glendale locations: the Orange Street Parking Garage (parallel to Brand Blvd.); the Marketplace Garage (located at the intersection of Harvard and Maryland Aves.) and the Exchange Parking Garage (on Maryland Ave., south of Wilson Ave.). The House Manager at the theatre will validate parking tickets.

Media Contacts:

Elissa Glickman (eglickman@alextheatre.org)    

(818) 243-2611 x14    

Renee Johnson (rjj530@earthlink.net)

(310) 571-9212

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