FROM THE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, JANUARY 2009:

"THE IMAGINARY INVALID"

Well YAY! We have finally "mounted" our first full production in a year - our one hour translation/adaptation of Moliere's classic "The Imaginary Invalid" opened on his birthday, January 15. I forgot to get a cake. And of course since Moliere's last play ridicules the greedy narcissism of quack medicine prevalent in his time, the cast had just recovered from taking turns getting sick. Even Mary, our beloved director, was out for two days with a mysterious stomach flu. "Invalid" may well be the "Macbeth" of comedy. I must research that, though I'm sure some grad student already has. Moved into the wonderful Pacific Asia Museum. The Parson's Nose board team headed by Holly Hawkins and Karen Frederiksen, prepped the PAM lobby area and is staffing the shows with generous volunteers. The following early reviews are most encouraging.

BACKSTAGE
"...Director Mary Chalon allows Davis and his cast to adopt the grand flourishes that make the play lively, including breaking the fourth wall and drawing the audience into the story.
Davis is perfect as the self-absorbed hypochondriac. Faulkner and Pajer are delightful as the lovers. It is Rogosheske, though, who gives Davis a run for his money. Both add the comic touch that elevates this production. Holly Victoria's silly beards and effective costumes are a plus.

Davis' adaptation retains the French character and some of the original's vocabulary as it streamlines the tale. The production is a cheerful diversion and accomplishes with flair and good humor its stated goal of bringing classics to a general audience, including school-age children."

LA WEEKLY
"...Under Mary Chalon's direction, the production evolves with outsized brio -- a stylistic approach that succeeds by virtue of Davis' considerable acting skill, in tandem with the talents of Pajer and Chandler, both of whom render their shtick with calibrated craft. Designer Holly Victoria's lovely period costumes add professional polish."

FUNDRAISER JANUARY 31 - "GETTING TO KNOW YOU"
Long time friend and board member Maggie Ewing is organizing a Parson's Nose "Getting to Know You" fundraising evening at her new "Ewing designed" home overlooking the Rose Bowl on January 31.For more information please call 626-403-7667.

COME JOIN US, JUST A FEW PERFORMANCES LEFT
I hope you all make the effort to come see this wonderful play by perhaps the world's greatest comic writer. As I said it is his last work. Jean Baptiste Poquelin collapsed onstage after its fourth performance. His wife and company had asked him not to perform, but he remarked that there were too many who needed the evening's income. He was taken to his home, where of course no doctor would tend him. The author of "Tartuffe" was also, of course, refused the last rites by the priests of Saint Eustache. But the Sisters of Mercy, whom he had often sheltered in Paris, tended their old friend in his final hours, and with the intercession of Louis XIV, whom he had served for so many years, he was at last buried, under cover of night, in hallowed ground. "Imaginary Invalid" is not a criticism of medicine so much as the acknowlegement by a dying comedien, at the end of his life, that Nature will eventually hold out her hand and we cannot deny it. And that in the time we have we should live, love and appreciate the gift of Life we've been allowed.

--------------------------------------------------------

PARSON'S NOSE READERS THEATER
We've had great fun and success with our reading series, bringing ten wonderful classic works to the public, free of charge, in Jameson Brown's convivial coffee house setting. We still search for our own space, but are grateful to have a locus in Pasadena for our fans to gather. We've also been able to take a couple of readings over to Villa Gardens in Pasadena to bring our senior fans some theater. As always we find the senior population to have a somewhat more elevated consciousness about theater than the general public, perhaps a tribute to the days when arts education in California was more accessible.
After our Pacific Asia Museum run we'll be teaching our workshops at The Gooden School in Sierra Madre, then I'm off to direct Dorian Bandy's production of Rousseau's opera "The Cunning Man" at Cornell, then back for our reading of "The Pied Piper of Hamlin -- A Musical" at Jameson Brown.

We'll see you at "Imaginary Invalid!"

Lance Davis