{"id":41281,"date":"2017-08-22T09:35:24","date_gmt":"2017-08-22T15:35:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/?p=41281"},"modified":"2017-08-22T09:38:44","modified_gmt":"2017-08-22T15:38:44","slug":"theatre-oxford-opens-its-20th-season-with-neil-simons-brighton-beach-memoirs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/theatre-oxford-opens-its-20th-season-with-neil-simons-brighton-beach-memoirs\/","title":{"rendered":"Theatre Oxford Opens its 20th Season with Neil Simon’s Brighton Beach Memoirs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Theatre Oxford<\/strong>, which is entering its 20th year of entertaining the Oxford-Lafayette Community<\/strong>, kicks off this season Thursday, August 24 with an early Neil Simon<\/strong> classic, Brighton Beach Memoirs<\/em>. The highly anticipated opener will be the first performance to utilize the new stage at The Powerhouse<\/strong>, and is directed by Kayleigh Graham<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI have been working with Theatre Oxford for many years, and I was just put on the board. They asked if I wanted to direct it, because it has a sensitive subject matter . . . it [deals a lot with] coming-of-age,\u201d said Graham. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cNeil Simon is an American master of comedy,\u201d said Graham. \u201cInstead of doing The Odd Couple or Laughter on the 23rd Floor, we decided to go with a more autobiographical one. This is the first in a series of plays that he did about his life. It\u2019s more of an introspective into . . . wanting to be a writer and the awkwardness of that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The play, a coming-of-age tale, focuses on the narrator and main character Eugene Jerome, played by Oxford native Jacob Hall<\/strong>, who is on the cusp of turning 15. Hall is no stranger to acting\u2014his first performance was actually at The Powerhouse and you may recognize him from last year\u2019s Oxford Film Fest community film Firemax as Roundabout.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very relatable playing a boy who wants to be a writer going through puberty, whose family doesn\u2019t always understand him and he doesn\u2019t always understand them,\u201d said Hall. \u201cIt feels almost like a flashback to me.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Jacob lives with his family in an overcrowded house in the Brighton Beach area of Brooklyn<\/strong> during the Great Depression<\/strong>. His father works two jobs while his oldest brother makes efforts to hold down a steady gig to help out.<\/span><\/p>\n

Eugene\u2019s brother, Stanley, is played by Joshua Heylin<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cStanley is 18, so he\u2019s at the in-between of leaving teenage era and coming into adulthood,\u201d said Haylin. \u201cHe is struggling between what he believes is right versus what he needs to do keep his job. It\u2019s a balance between responsibilities and his morals. I was in a very similar situation at my second job so I can definitely relate to that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Throughout rehearsals, the themes of the play resonated more and more with the cast and crew.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we chose [this play] we didn\u2019t realize how relevant it would be,\u201d said Graham. \u201cThe more we\u2019re working with it and working through it, I see that it is still [here]\u2014being poor, cramped, and forced to do things you don\u2019t want to, and the worry for [yourself] and your loved ones out in the world.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

As well as marking 20 years of Theatre Oxford, Brighton Beach Memoirs<\/em> will be the first play on the new stage at The Powerhouse.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe usually start building the Sunday before we open and I won\u2019t sleep for about 24 hours,\u201d laughs Graham. \u201cWe\u2019re very excited to have a new stage to put it on.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>If you\u2019re interested in getting involved in Theater Oxford, they always have room regardless of experience. Geoff Knight<\/strong>, playing the father, will be making his acting debut.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt seemed like something that would be fun to do,\u201d said Knight. \u201cI read through the play and thought, \u2018Why not?\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Susan Bradley<\/strong>, playing Aunt Blanche, is in a similar boat as Knight. Bradley had no experience prior to this show but wanted to get involved along with her daughter Taylor who plays Laurie, the youngest sister.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re interested, just come audition,\u201d said Bradley.<\/span><\/p>\n

The performance is open to all ages, though the cast emphasizes that the play is as PG-13 as the movie.<\/span><\/p>\n

Tickets are available at theatreoxford.com<\/a> for $15 and will also be available at the door the night of the shows at The Powerhouse, August 24\u201327. Performances will begin at 7:30 pm Thursday through Saturday, with a matinee on Sunday at 2 pm.\u00a0\"The<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Theatre Oxford, which is entering its 20th year of entertaining the Oxford-Lafayette Community, kicks off this season Thursday,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":253,"featured_media":41282,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[127],"tags":[10837,10813,10839,10840,8543,642,4,3153,10838,3,1673,753],"class_list":["post-41281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-theatre","tag-20-years","tag-brighton-beach-memoirs","tag-geoff-knight","tag-jacob-hall","tag-kayleigh-graham","tag-ms","tag-oxford","tag-powerhouse","tag-susan-bradley","tag-the-local-voice","tag-theatre-oxford","tag-tlv"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/2017-08-22-cast-and-crew-BBM.jpg?fit=620%2C349&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/253"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41281\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}