Preview of 'Rounding Third' by Stray Kats Theatre

STRAY KATS THEATRE WELCOMES SPRING WITH BASEBALL COMEDY

Richard Dresser’s “ROUNDING THIRD”
A Hilarious Tribute to Little League Coaches

Runs March 1-17, 2013

In the Alexandria Room at Edmond Town Hall
45 Main Street, Newtown, CT

The Stray Kats Theatre Company, a not-for-profit theatre company located at Edmond Town Hall’s Alexandria Room, 45 Main Street, Newtown CT, will get the jump on America’s favorite pastime with Richard Dresser’s hilarious comedy, “Rounding Third”, directed by the company’s Artistic Director Kate Katcher and starring Equity actors JP Sarro and Steven L. Barron.

The two-hander follows a veteran Little League Coach and his new-to-the-sport Assistant as they lug a duffel bag full of equipment and their personal baggage through an entire season, forming an uneasy alliance for the benefit of the team. Over the course of exhilarating victories, heartbreaking defeats, and interminable rainouts, the two men battle over how to lead the team.

“This play reflects the passions, the joy and the pain that fills the heart of any person who has ever loved a child who was competing for anything, from sports to spelling bees to talent shows." —San Jose Repertory Theatre

Stray Kats is Newtown’s only professional theatre company. Now in its third season, SKTC recently received rave reviews for its staging of Fred Stroppel’s “Small World: A Fantasia”, about the relationship between Walt Disney and Igor Stravinsky. SKTC presents contemporary classics and new works geared toward an adult audience interested in theatre that challenges the mind. “To me, a play is successful if people walk out arguing about it, or if they wake up the next day thinking about it,” says Katcher. The final offering this season will be “Seven”, a profound work by seven award winning female playwrights (Paula Cizmar, Catherine Filloux, Gail Kriegel, Carol K. Mack, Ruth Margraff, Anna Deavere Smith and Susan Yankowitz) on April 28th, based on interviews with seven heroic activists for women’s rights throughout the world.

“Rounding Third” will play Friday and Saturday nights at 8 p.m., Sundays at 2 p.m. from March 1  to the 17.  (There is no show on March 10 due to a conflict at the theatre.)

JP Sarro is a New England native but spent the last nine years working and living in Los Angeles.  His West Coast credits include Disney's Aladdin, Hairspray, The Sound of Music, Man of LaMancha, Tales From Hollywood by Christopher Hampton (Critic’s Pick: L.A. Times and Backstage West), The Odd Couple, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Secret Garden, and Born Tired (Official Selection:  Eugene O’Neill Festival).  His TV/film credits include Our Show (Dir. Larry Charles), Top Gearheads, and Unusual Suspects.  His comedic turns grace commercials for Carfax and Party City.

Steven L. Barron returns to Connecticut after multiple appearances in HBO’s Boardwalk Empire as a nosy, noisy reporter.  He has performed at the Ivoryton Playhouse as the Actor in “The Woman in Black” and as Boolie Werthan in ”Driving Miss Daisy”. A regular performer at the Centenary Stage Company in New Jersey, he has been seen in You May Go Now, A Laughing Matter, Quartermaine’s Terms, Sight Unseen, Tartuffe, and While the Sun Shines.  Steve has also appeared in Good Evening and Moonlight and Magnolias at the Florida Studio Theatre and throughout the U.S. in such shows as Art, Arcadia, The Glass Menagerie, and Moon Over Buffalo.  His New York credits include The Brothers Karamazov at La Mama and Lion Taming in Miami with the Medicine Show.

Richard Dresser is a popular, prolific American playwright whose 14 full-length plays by 2009 and six one-acts that have all been produced. In addition to his plays, he wrote the book for the Broadway musical Good Vibrations and the musical Johnny Baseball which was nominated for seven awards from the Independent Reviewers of New England.. Dresser has also served as a writer and producer for multiple television series, most notably The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd. A favorite at such prestigious events as the Humana Festival in Louisville, Kentucky, the Contemporary American Theatre Festival in West VA, and at the Laguna Playhouse and Old Globe in California, Dresser scored a double whammy in 1987 with premieres of Better Days in Philadelphia and The Downside at New Haven’s Long Wharf Theatre.  His recently published trilogy of plays about happiness in America includes Augusta (working class), The Pursuit of Happiness  (middle class), and A View of the Harbor (upper class). Other plays are Wonderful World, Gun-Shy, Something In the Air, Alone at the Beach, and Below the Belt, named by the Wall Street Journal as the Best new American play of the 1996 season. His latest play is The Hand of God about reality television. He also created and writes the TV/web series Life Coach starring Cheri Oteri for AMC. Dresser now lives upstate New York with his wife and son.

Kate Katcher: Actor, director, & writer.
Debuted on Broadway opposite Zero Mostel and repeated the role of Tzeitel in Fiddler on the Roof with Herschel Bernardi, directed by Jerome Robbins; Wonderful Town with Lauren Bacall; Two for the Seesaw directed by Judith Ivey. Film, TV & New Media: Nurse Jackie; Jon Benjamin Has A Van; Guiding Light; Made for Each Other starring the Masterson brothers and George Segal; A Nice Drive & Planning Ahead, part of the “Husband and Wife” series of webisodes with actor/husband Don Striano, available on YouTube; Scared Stiff TV’s Tiny’s Halloween and Mother. Directorial credits include original productions of Small World: A Fantasia by Fred Stroppel, Our Lady of Allapattahe by Christopehr Demos Brown, and a vast number of musicals and plays with professional and amateur casts. Currently, Kate is Artistic Director of the Stray Kats Theatre Company, Newtown’s first professional theatre company.

JP Sarro and Steven L. Barron appear courtesy of Actors Equity Association.

Tickets are available at www.straykatstheatrecompany.org or by calling 203-514-2221.

            Price:    $30 each when purchased in advance

                        $35 when purchased at the door