STAGES REPERTORY THEATRE
www.stagestheatre.com
Award - Winning Playwright Craight Wright in Houston
for Southwest Premiere of Pulitzer Prize Nominee
THE PAVILION
October 5th - 28th, 2001
"This is a play about Time......At the center of everything in the Universe is you." Philip Lehl (foreground) plays The Narrator in the
Pulitzer Prize nominee THE PAVILION by Award-winning Playwright Craight Wright. (Background) Peter is played by Brian Byrnes and
Kari is played by Anne Quackenbush. THE PAVILION runs through October 28th, 2001 at Stages Repertory Theatre.
“Is the cosmos reborn with every new moment, allowing us to alter the decisions of our past? Must we submit to the relentless forward movement of time, with no chance of re-proportioning the balance of the universe?”
Houston, Tx - Award-winning playwright Craight Wright was in Houston for the regional premiere of his play THE
PAVILION at Stages Repertory Theatre. The play, a Pulitzer Prize nominee, opened Friday October 5th, 2001 following a
dedication ceremony for the newly named John and Jean Yeager Theater. Wright led a post-performance discussion following
the matinee on Sunday, October 7th, 2001, with director Rob Bundy. THE PAVILION runs through October 28th, 2001.
Under the roof of a century - old pavilion, two high school sweethearts - whose long ago breakup was sudden and
unexplained - meet at their 20-year high school reunion. The Pavilion, filled with memories and a symbol of the community’s
identity, is slated for demolition. While the couple struggle to accept the long-term effects of their youthful decisions, they also
must face the loss of an architectural symbol that embodies a way of life - an exercise of surprising relevance in light of recent
events.
“The play is about lost innocence, dreams, and assumptions of what the future holds,” says
director Rob Bundy. “The writing is beautiful, poetic, and straight from the heart.”
A resident of St. Paul, Minnesota, Wright was the 1996 Playwriting Fellow for the National Endowment for the Arts. He has
received numerous fellowships and grants - among them the Pew Charitable Trust / Playwrights’ Center Collaboration Grant,
Jerome Fellowship, and Minnesota State Arts Board Fellowship - and received a Best New Play nomination at the
Barrymore Awards for Excellence in Theatre in 1999.
Performances of THE PAVILION are Wednesday and Thursday at 7:30pm, Friday and Saturday at 8:00pm, and Sunday at
3:00pm. Tickets for preview performances are $19 - $23; tickets for regular performances are $32 - $42, with group rates
and senior / student discounts available. For more information or to make a reservation, please call the Box Office at
713-527-0123. Window hours are 11:30am - 5:00pm Monday, and 10:30am - 6:30pm Tuesday - Saturday. On
performance days, the Box Office remains open through curtain.
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"Do you mean to tell me you called my husband to ask him for permission to take me out? How invasive! You are always doing this to me,
always messing up my life. Because of you the entire universe is ruined forever." Kari (Anne Quackenbush) confronts her old high school
sweetheart Peter (Brian Byrnes) as he attempts to bring back the past in order to correct mistakes, make amends and possibly change the
future in the Pulitzer Prize nominee THE PAVILION by Award-winning Playwright Craight Wright. THE PAVILION runs through
October 28th, 2001 at Stages Repertory Theatre.
STAGES REPERTORY THEATRE
MAINSTAGE................THE PAVILION
DIRECTOR....................ROB BUNDY
CAST
Peter...............................Brian Byrnes
Narrator...............................Philip Lehl
Kari.......................Anne Quackenbush
DATES: October 5 - October 28th, 2001
BOX OFFICE: 713-527-0123
3201 Allen Parkway at Waugh Drive
Tickets available online at www.stagestheatre.com
Student and Senior Citizen Discounts available
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FROM THE DIRECTOR
A poll once asked recently retired professionals to identify things in their life that they wished they had done, now that they
were approaching their final years. The three most often cited regrets were that they did not spend more time in reflective
thinking, that they did not take more risks, and that they were not clearer about the purpose of their lives.
THE PAVILION, Craight Wright’s beautifully wrought play, provokes similar consideration. For instance, what happens if, at
your twentieth high school reunion, it becomes clear that life would have been vastly better had you only stayed committed to
your high school sweetheart? Or, when along the road did we trade in our youthful enthusiasm, optimism and hope for a more
“sensible and pragmatic” approach to life that has left us simply feeling less? And, where to place memories when an
important, long - standing symbol of your past is razed to the ground?
THE PAVILION also explored the notion of cause and effect: a seemingly inconsequential action, easily taken at the time,
provokes an unexpected series of tectonic shifts that grow with the magnitude of a tidal wave. This evening in the theatre
offers an opportunity to reflect on how, as members of the human race, our every action, word and thought serves to influence
- even alter - the universe around us. And perhaps by taking this time to reflect during this period of uncertainty and pain, we
all might feel just a little bit better.
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Kari and Peter (foreground) played by Anne Quackenbush and Brian Byrnes are two high school sweethearts - whose long ago breakup was
sudden and unexplained - meet at their 20-year high school reunion, under the roof of a century-old pavilion. Philip Lehl (background) plays
The Narrator in the Pulitzer Prize nominee THE PAVILION by Award-winning Playwright Craight Wright. THE PAVILION runs through
October 28th, 2001 at Stages Repertory Theatre.
CRAIGHT WRIGHT (Playwright)
Craight Wright’s play THE PAVILION has been licensed all over the country and was seen last season at Florida Stage, City
Theatre, the Jungle Theatre, the Arden and Contemporary American Theater Festival. Future productions will be seen at the
Globe Theatres, Sacramento Theatre Company, Zachary Scott Theatre and the Public Theatre of Maine. His newest play,
Orange Flower Water will premiere in January, 2002 at Los Angeles Stage and Film and will also be produced by The Jungle
Theatre. His play, Molly’s Delicious has been seen at The Group Theatre at the Strasberg Institute in Los Angeles as well as
the Arden Theatre, Summer Theatre at Mount Holyoke and the Possum Players.
He has received several grants and awards over the years, including fellowships in playwright from the McKnight Foundation,
the National Endowment for the Arts and the Minnesota State Arts Board; a Pew Charitable Trust / Playwrights’ Center
Collaboration Grant in 1995, 1996 and 1998; a Jerome Fellowship in 1989 and 1991; and a Barrymore Award for
Excellence in Theatre nomination for Best New Play for Molly’s Delicious.
Other produced plays include The Big Numbers, John Dory, Adventures While Preaching the Gospel of Beauty, Paris, The
Wrong Way Home, Pippi Longstocking and The Christmas Rules.
Publications include Molly’s Delicious and Eugene Onegin by Dramatic Publishing and various selections in Smith and Kraus’
The Best Stage Monologues book series in 1997 and 1999.
Mr. Wright’s current projects include commissions for a musical by the Ordway Theatre and a play by the Great American
History Theatre.
In addition to being a playwright, over the last fifteen years Mr. Wright has worked as a fishmonger, advertising copywriter,
hotel developer and Director of Development for Camp Heartland, the world’s largest camp for kids with HIV / AIDS. As
the co - leader of the alternative rock band, The Tropicals, Mr. Wright has toured with Grammy nominated Semisonic, and
The Tropicals’ first release, Live At The Jungle, was named one of the Top 10 local releases by every leading Twin Cities’
newspaper and weekly. A graduate of United Theological Seminary, Mr. Wright lives in St. Paul, MN with his wife, Lorraine
LeBlanc and their son.