Good Morning Gloucester

Gloucester Stage continues the NeverDark series with a special staged reading of Harold Pinter’s The Birthday Party featuring Gloucester’s Academy Award nominee Lindsay Crouse on Tuesday, August 11 at 7:30 pm. There will be a Talk Back with the director and actors following the reading. In The Birthday Party Stanley Webber is an unassuming piano player living in a rundown boarding house on the English coast. Two sinister strangers, Goldberg and McCann, arrive supposedly on his birthday. As the celebration progresses the strangers turn Stanley’s birthday party into a nightmare. The reading is directed by Courtney O’Connor and features Lindsay Crouse, Allyn Burrows, Chelsea Diehl, Tom Grenon, John Porell, and Brett Milanowski. Admission to the reading is Pay-What-You-Wish. For information about the staged reading of Harold Pinter’s The Birthday Party and the NeverDark series, call the Gloucester Stage Box office at 978-281-4433 or visit www.gloucesterstage.com.

Gloucester resident and Gloucester Stage favorite Lindsay Crouse was last seen at Gloucester Stage in her award winning role inDriving Miss Daisy. Academy Award nominee Lindsay Crouse made her Gloucester Stage debut in 2007 in The Belle of Amherst; followed by a return to Gloucester Stage in 2008 in Going To St. Ives, in 2010 in Table Manners, in 2011 in Living Together and in 2012 in Round and Round The Garden. A long-time veteran of the New York stage, Lindsay Crouse has performed off and on Broadway, and has won the Obie and Theater World Awards. At the Geffen Theater in Los Angeles, she starred with John Mahoney in Conor McPherson’s The Weir, breaking the theater’s box office records. On television, Ms. Crouse has guest-starred on C.S.I.,Criminal Minds, Law and Order, E.R, NYPD Blue, Colombo,Murder She Wrote, Touched By An Angel, Hill Street Blues, Frasier, ARLI$$ and Alias. She spent a season as the infamous Professor Maggie Walsh on Buffy The Vampire Slayer. She appeared on all three television networks simultaneously playing recurring characters on Providence for NBC, Hack for CBS, andDragnet for ABC. She has played three different characters on Law and Order, and appeared as the formidable Judge Andrews on Law and Order SVU. A feature film veteran, some of Ms. Crouse’s best known films include The Insider, The Verdict, House of Games,Slapshot, Communion, All The President’s Men, Prince Of The City, Daniel, The Arrival, Indian In The Cupboard, Mr. Brooks andPlaces In The Heart, for which she received an Academy Award nomination. Ms. Crouse currently teaches around the country a class that is unique in the world, combining principles of Buddhism with principles of drama, creating a fresh approach to acting, writing and directing in all media.

A longtime Gloucester resident, Ms. Crouse began spending her summers in Gloucester as a child and does not miss a summer on Cape Ann. Her parents began summering in Gloucester in the late 1940’s as an escape from New York City. Lindsay’s father playwright Russel Crouse found inspiration on Cape Ann. He often worked here with his longtime partner and collaborator Howard Lindsay. Their partnership of over 28 years is one of the longest in theatre history and responsible for such hits as The Sound of Music, Anything Goes, Life With Father and the Pulitzer Prize winning The State of the Union among others.

NeverDark is a series of second-stage events that include lectures, talk backs, film screenings, play readings, and other events designed to enhance the knowledge and enjoyment of all Gloucester Stage Mainstage productions. The NeverDark series continues with the staged reading of Harold Pinter’s The Birthday Party on Tuesday, August 11 at 7:30 pm All NeverDark events are Pay-What-You-Wish. For information about the NeverDark series, call the Gloucester Stage Box office at 978-281-4433 or visit www.gloucesterstage.com.