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Lettice and Lovage at Oregon Stage Works Hollywood film and television writer-director Janet Greek makes her Southern Oregon directorial debut with "Lettice and Lovage," an Oregon Stage Works' presentation, opening at 7:30 p.m., Thursday evening, March 27 in the Elfinwood Room of the Ashland Springs Hotel. This witty, warm hearted comedy, written by British playwright, Peter Shaffer, reunites Rogue Valley favorites Brandy Carson and Shirley Patton, last seen together in a local production of Terrence McNally's "A Perfect Ganesh." An Ashland resident the past ten years, Greek, like a number of film industry artists, chooses to live in the Rogue Valley and commute to work in Southern California. Among her directing credits is the MGM feature film, "Spell Binder," several television movies, including "River of Souls," "Going to Extremes," "The Outsiders,", "The Outsider" and "Over My Dead Body." She has directed episodes of "L. A. Law " "Northern Exposure," "Xena," "Melrose Place," "St. Elsewhere," and "Babylon 5," for which she was honored with a Hugo Award. A native of Ohio, Greek graduated from Wittenberg University and received a master's degree from San Francisco State. While in the Bay Area, Greek was a founder of the San Francisco Playwright's Guild, and worked with local playwrights developing original plays for production. Under her stewardship, the Guild produced six plays each year. In Los Angeles, Greek worked as a director in conjunction with Jerome Lawrence and his University of Southern California Master Class in Play writing and directed several of the plays developed in that class. She has also staged the Samuel Beckett plays "Waiting For Godot" and "Endgame" with all-female casts, as well as John Gaure's "The House of Blue Leaves," and the perennial favorite "Charlie's Aunt." Greek reports she was drawn to "Lettice and Lovage," because, as she puts it, "this wonderful play uses comedy to explore the often painful subject of abandoned dreams and ideals, and the price one pays for that kind of self- betrayal; as well as the joy that can be rekindled when one finds the courage to embrace these ideals again. This theme develops within the context of a growing friendship between two extreme, and extremely different, women." Playwright Pete Shaffer is best known for such highly charged dramas as "Equus," "Amadeus" and "The Royal Hunt of the Sun," which pit youthful visionaries against middle aged mediocrities. In Shaffer's foray into comedy we have that same conflict , but this time the main characters are two middle-aged women. "Lettuce and Lovage" charts the change from antagonism to growing friendship between tour guide, Lettuce Douffet, and Lotte Schoen, her superior at the Preservation Trust. We first meet Lettice giving a tour of Fustian House in Britain. The patter of the highly eccentric and theatrical Lettice has grown so rich with her own elaborate (and quite humorous) invention that it no longer has much semblance to the truth. After one of Lettice's more egregious embellishments, Lotte, the efficient bureaucrat, fires her for not following the fact list issued by the Preservation Trust. Yet there is something about this woman who sees the past so vividly and who refuses to accept the mediocrity of the present that awakens something inside Lotte. This time the two opposites reach an accord., in a comedy that, in the words of one reviewer "is caring, compassionate, funny, meaningful, and terrifically entertaining." Brandy Carson makes her second appearance for Oregon Stage Works as the flamboyant Lettice. Carson, who acted in OSW's "Inspecting Carol," has enjoyed a television and film career in Los Angeles and New York. Locally she has worked with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, the Southern Oregon University Theater Department, Oregon Cabaret, Rogue Music Theatre, Ashland Community Theater and in Actors' Theatre productions of "How I Learned to Drive" "A Perfect Ganesh," "Cyber Serenade," "The Dining Room," "I'd Know You Anywhere", "The Madwoman of Chaillot" and "Morning's At Seven." Co-starring as Lotte Schoen, Shirley Patton created over sixty roles in thirty seasons with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Patton also acted with George Chakiris in George Bernard Shaw's "Don Juan in Hell" for Lyric Theatre. A graduate of Stanford University, She has performed at Southern Oregon University, the New Playwright's Theatre, and Actors' Theatre in "The Perfect Ganesh," "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" and with her husband, Bill Patton appeared in the recent production of A.R. Gurney's "Love Letters" to benefit Oregon Stage Works. Also in the cast are Denise Guillot who has performed locally in OSW's reading of "Companion Pieces," as well as "Getting and Spending, " "The Sunshine Boys," "The Road to Mecca" and "Twelve Angry Jurors;" and Bruce Lorange, a Minnesota native and a Pasadena Playhouse graduate. Lorange was featured in OSW's reading of Irwin Shaw's "The Gentle People." A mainstay in local heatre productions, he also worked in theatre and television in Southern California before coming to Ashland. Rounding out the cast are Nancy Zuffich, Joi Shannon, Brian Wallace and Ernie Griswold. Peter Alzado, producing artistic director of Oregon Stage Works, points out that Lettice's motto, "Enlarge, Enliven, Enlighten" reflects what he sees s the mission of OSW. In his opinion, "Lettuce and Lovage" fulfills all three commands with ease. Lettice and Lovage" will preview Tuesday and Wednesday, March 25 & March 26 and open Thursday, March 27 at 7:30 P.M. running Thursday through Saturday evenings at 7:30 P.M. with matinees Sundays at 2 P.M. through May 4. Tickets are $17, general admission, $15, students and seniors, and are available at Paddington Station and Tree House Books in Ashland. For information and reservations, call Oregon Stage Works at 482-2334. LINKS: REVELS: Main | Calendar | Dining | Movies | T.V. DAILY TIDINGS: Main | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Opinion | Columnists | AP News | Subscribe | Archives | Weather | Classifieds | Contact Us | Privacy Copyright 2003 Ashland Daily Tidings 541.482.3456. 1661 Siskiyou Blvd., Ashland, OR 97520. Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. - Advertisers -