Beth Dell
Managing Director
Beowulf Alley Theatre
11 South 6th Avenue
Tucson, AZ 85701
(520) 622-4460 Admin.
(520) 882-0555 Box Office
theatre@beowulfalley.org
www.beowulfalley.org
Usual Office Hours:
Tues-Fri 10:30a-4p plus
additional production hours

2 tickets to “The Beauty Queen of Leenane”

Beauty Queen of Leenane by Martin McDonagh
Directed by Sheldon Metz
February 25-March 13, 2011

Loaded with savage irony, surreal humor and a touch of melodrama, Martin McDonagh’s The Beauty Queen of Leenane looks at the malevolence of people leading hopeless lives.

Set in 1989 in the small village of Leenane (pronounced leh-nan) in Connemara, County Galway, Ireland, the play tells the darkly comic tale of Maureen Folan, a plain and lonely woman, and Mag, her manipulative aging mother, whose interference in Maureen’s first and possibly final chance of a loving relationship set in motion a terrifying train of events.

…a proper, perfectly plotted drama that sets out, above all, to tell a story as convincingly and disarmingly as possible.  –New York Times

Anglo-Irish playwright Martin McDonagh has no formal training, but a sheaf of plays he wrote during one long stretch back in 1994 turned him into one of the most celebrated new English-language dramatists of his generation. Nearly all of McDonagh's plays are set in Ireland, and draw heavily from Irish idiom and culture in their skewering of once-sacrosanct literary and political ideals.McDonagh became the first playwright since William Shakespeare to have four of his plays produced professionally in London in a single season. A school drop-out, McDonagh wrote “Beauty Queen” in just eight days and earned a London Critics Circle Award and Evening Standard Award (both in 1996), a Drama Desk Award (1998), and six Tony Award nominations, four awarded (1998).

Sheldon Metz, Director, directed the MAC Award-nominated Proof and the World Premier of Gavin Kayner’s Noche de los Muertos at Beowulf Alley. He currently serves on Beowulf Alley’s Artistic Development Committee and is Program Chair for the Old Time Radio Theatre. Sheldon is an actor, set designer, director and served as Executive Director of A.C.C.T., too! - The Association of Commercial and Community Theatres - the West Coast Theatre Conference (Los Angeles) and The Theatre Conference (New York). He also served as a Producing Director for the Playwrights Kitchen Ensemble (PKE ), under the Artistic Direction of Dan Lauria.

Beowulf Alley Theatre Company, a 501 (c)(3) organization, is committed to enriching the community and enhancing appreciation of the arts through the production of innovative, invigorating theatre and theatrical education with the highest standards for acting and production.

Formed in response to dialogues with local professional actors who wanted a permanent home for theatre artists from the Tucson community, BATC’s mission is to create captivating experiences for its patrons, students, and the Tucson community through the highest artistic and technical quality productions and education programs. And true to its roots, BATC also strives to provide a theatre where performing artists, educators, and technicians can develop and present their skills.

Beowulf Alley's unique name was formed by combining two words that reflect opposite ideas. Beowulf (recognized as the oldest known Anglo-Saxon literary work possibly transcribed from oral performance) stands for the strong traditional and classical theatrical form, whereas Alley is evocative of a contemporary, urban, edgy approach to theatre. The merged name of Beowulf Alley therefore boldly reflects the company’s goal to present a broad range of works with the greatest excellence, integrity and innovation.