playbill vip

The process of choosing plays for upcoming seasons is an involved one!  I look for the right opportunities for the talent of Be Drama members, genres and styles of dramatic work they haven't yet experienced and accessibility for our audience.  We traveled the dramatic spectrum to its limits over the years making the list of things we've NOT done pretty short.

Coming across "Hollywood Arms" last year - by way of my old pal Ryan Mahaffey - was such a blessing in every way!  To not only be able to work on the biographical story of an historical figure but to be able to portray one of the biggest, most important and iconic people in THEATRICAL history is the perfect storm of opportunity for the Be Drama students.  To have a wealth of resources to study from her early work on the Garry Moore Show to Carol Burnett's own successful prime time variety show has been nothing short of inspirational.

Through our work with this emotional yet heart-warming play, we've come to understand not only where Carol came from, but who she grew to be.  She was a little girl raised by her often manipulative grandmother while living as neighbors with the mother who gave her up.  She saw addiction, illness and dysfunction to an alarming extent.  It would have been easy for Carol to wash her hands of her past.  But she embraced it, dealt with the difficult issues and most importantly ... she forgave.  The grace with which she handled every personal obstacle is every bit as important as the theatrical lessons we've learned from one of the most prolific theatrical careers of our time.  

We hope seeing "Hollywood Arms" will mean as much to you as producing it has to us!

JHops