Theatre Southwest Presents WONDER OF THE WORLD, Opens 12/31

Theatre Southwest will present their production of David Lindsey-Abaire's play, WONDER OF THE WORLD, beginning December 31st with a special New Years Gala. The show will run through January 23rd. The cast for the production will include James Reed, Stacy A. Spaeth, Ananka Kohnitz, Cheryl Tanner, Brian Heaton, Jeanette Sebesta, and John Kaiser. The show is directed by David Holloway.

The production centers around a truly desperate housewife who flees to the honeymoon capital of the world on a frantic odyssey of self-discovery, joining forces with some real characters along the way, for a wild ride over Niagara Falls in a barrel of laughs.

David Lindsay-Abaire (Playwright) received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2007 for his play Rabbit Hole. Born in 1969 into a working-class Boston family, he later attended a prestigious New England boarding school and went on to study writing with Christopher Durang at Juilliard. Others of his plays include Fuddy Meers, Kimberly Akimbo, and Dotting and Dashing, as well as books for the musicals High Fidelity and Shrek. As he once noted, "My plays tend to be peopled with outsiders in search of clarity."

David Holloway (Director) made his first appearance at TSW in 1973 in Teahouse of the August Moon. The list of plays he has directed includes California Suite, Tobacco Road, Charley's Aunt, The Rainmaker, Accomplice, Forty Carats, Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean, Catholic School Girls, The House of Blue Leaves, A Few Good Men, Mary, Mary, Lu Ann Hampton Laveerty Oberlander, Line, and Broadway Bound, plus several productions in the Festival of Originals. As an actor, David has appeared here in A Doll's House, Lovers and Other Strangers, Harvey, The Lion in Winter, Don't Just Lie There, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, On Golden Pond, California Suite, Faustrop, Gingerbread Lady, When Ya Comin' Back, Red Ryder?, The Secret Affairs of Mildred Wilde, Woman in Mind, Wrong Turn at Lungfish, George Washington Slept Here, Angel Street, Never Too Late, To Kill a Mockingbird, Twelve Angry Men, roles in several Festivals of Originals, and most recently, The Wayside Motor Inn. Elsewhere around Houston, he has also been seen in Equus, The Enclave, Raft of the Medusa, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Glengarry GLen Ross, and the Houston Shakespeare Festival.

James Reed (Kip)is feeling "all snuggie" in his sixth TSW production, having performed here in The Seven Year Itch and Matching Designs in The Festival of Originals last season, plus A Thirties Affair (FOO 2008), Imaginary Invalid, and Exact Center of the Universe. Other recent local credits include Doubt, The Dirty Talk/Pillow Talk, and On Borrowed Time.

Stacy A. Spaeth (Cass) is thrilled have such hilarious material to play with, and opposite the most talented people ever! Most recently seen here in Wanda's Visit as part of Comedy Tonight, she has numerous TSW credits: The Seven Year Itch, Private Lives, The Odd Couple (Female Version), Impossible Marriage, Exact Center of the Universe, Chapter Two, Stay Carl Stay, plus a FOO or two. Elsewhere, she's played favorite roles in Same Time, Next Year, Barefoot in the Park, It's a Wonderful Life, Baby Dance, Rumors, I Hate Hamlet, and The Women. Stacy's professional experience has been with Murder Mystery Players at Dave & Buster's and JL Productions in various "whodunits."

Ananka Kohnitz (Lois) has been active in the Theatre World since the age of 7, when she started her 17-year professional dance career, touring nationally with musicals, training as an actress at The American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco and the Colorado Shakespeare Repertory. Ananka wears many hats in theatre, as an actor, director, and set designer. Among her many acting credits are The House of Yes, A Comity of Eros, A Streetcar Named Desire, The Odd Couple (Female Version), Blithe Spirit, The Vagina Monologues, The Food Chain, It Could be Any One of Us, You Can't Take it With You, Absurd Person Singular, Come Back to the 5 and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Towards Zero, A Company of Wayward Saints, Accomplice, Man of the House, Who Was That Masked Man, Spider's Web, A Piece of My Heart, Rumors and The Hollow, plus several children's productions. Her favorite classical leading roles are Antigone, Salomé, and Regarding Electra. Ananka has a great passion for Shakespeare, with leading roles in 11 of his plays. Her directing credits include Alone at Last, The Beauty Queen of Leenane, Times Square Angel, Veronica's Room, Under the Oleanders, Night Must Fall, Bad Seed, How He Lied to Her Husband, Four Dogs and a Bone, The Unexpected Guest, The Last 20 Minutes, Laughter on the 23rd Floor, God, Murder and Apple Pie, The Monkey's Paw, Spoon River Anthology, and No Exit.

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