MAIN STREET THEATER
2540 Times Boulevard
Houston, Texas 77005-3225

WA TCH ON THE RHINE

by Lillian Hellman
directed by Patti Bean

Box Off ice: 524 - 6706
Administration: 524 - 3622
Production: 524 - 7998

LILLIAN HELLMAN WORK PRESENTED AT MAIN STREET THEATER

HOUSTON -- The next highlight in Main Street Theater's season is a powerful and
compelling drama by one of this century's most celebrated writers. Lillian Hellman's
Watch On The Rhine sets a man's heroic struggle against Nazism, not in Germany, but in
the comfortable affluence of the of late 1930s Washington, DC.

The story begins when Kurt Muller, a leader in the German anti-Nazi underground
arrives with his exhausted family at his American wife's childhood home. Where he
expects to find a safe haven, instead he finds a desperate adversary in a fellow houseguest,
another expatriate European, whose disgraced situation tempts him to expose Kurt to the
Nazis with whom he plays poker at a German Embassy.

Kurt's wife Sara's complacent American family does not see this danger until it
nearly destroys them, reflecting Hellman's assessment of America itself during the rise to
the power of German fascism. However, Kurt's quiet, iron-wined struggle for the very
soul of his country creates an unforgettable portrait of heroism and sacrifice.

Although other plays by Hellman, such as The Little Foxes or The Children's
Hour are better known to theater-going audiences, Watch On The Rhine is considered by
many to be her finest drama.

Main Street Theater's production of Watch On The Rhine will be directed by
Patti Bean. Bean recently directed Wendy Wasserstein's An American Daughter which
was a favorite of many of Houston theater critics and audiences.

WHERE: Main Street Theater in the Village, 2540 Times Boulevard

WHEN: Opening Previews begin Saturday, January 9
Thursdays through Sundays beginning January 14 and ending February 14

TIME: Thursdays 7:30 p.m., Fridays/Saturdays 8:00 p.m., Sundays 4:00 p.m.

TICKET PRICES: Thursdays $13, Fridays/Saturdays $18, Sundays $14
Discount tickets available for students, seniors and groups of ten or more.

BOX OFFICE: 713.524.7606

Rebecca Greene Udden, Founding Artistic Director
Lynn McHenry, Managing Director
Board of Directors: Jo Alessandro Marks, Chairman; Rebecca Greene Udden, Vice President; Victoria Schutter, Secretary; Sarajane Milligan, Treasurer; Frances Edmundson; Lillie Fontenot;
Joan Gol; Tom Hagemann; Ernest J. Henley; Gary Komblith; Rush Lynch, M.D.; Pluria Marshall, Jr.; Joan Murrin; Mary Murphree; Mary Anne Piacentini; Enid Robinson Rosenfeld; Mark Scheid; Larry Selna; Robert Wagnon; Gretchen Weis; Betty Williams; Mary Wright; Maxwell P. Zimmerman.~
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