Engagement Rules by Rich Orloff, originally uploaded by FatherDalton.
World Premiere Champagne Opening at the Detroit Repertory Theatre
November 3, 2011 and running until December 23rd with a special New Year’s Eve performance
The World Premiere of ENGAGEMENT RULES by Rich Orloff will have its Champagne Opening on Thursday, November 3, 2011 at 8:30 PM at the Detroit Repertory Theatre. This grand celebration will kick off the Detroit Repertory Theatre’s 54th Season in the heart of Detroit. ENGAGEMENT RULES, a hilarious look at young love and old love re-making the “rules”, will run Thursdays through Sundays until December 23, 2011, with a special performance on New Year’s Eve. Performances are Thursdays and Fridays at 8:30 PM, Saturdays at 3 PM and 8:30 PM, and Sundays at 2 PM and 7:30 PM. Tickets remain the most affordable in the Region for professional, union, not-for-profit theatre at $17 in advance, and $20 at the door, and may be purchased with Visa or MasterCard by calling the Box Office at (313) 868-1347, with never a surcharge. The Detroit Rep is located at 13103 Woodrow Wilson, Detroit, MI 48238. More information may be found at www.detroitreptheatre.com
ENGAGEMENT RULES concerns two couples, one about to get married and one married over fifty years, who help each other as they confront questions of love, mortality and the nature of the soul.
It’s mostly a comedy.
Tom and Donna each have tripped over love in the past but have found each other. They have decided to create their own rules of engagement, shoot the dice and get married. On the other hand, Phil and Rose have been married over 50 years. Tolerance rules their mutual foibles until both decide to alter their rules of engagement.
But rules always have a way of going awry especially where there is love. There seems to be no exemption for age and no exception for youth. These two couples are friends but the advice they share about love is laughable no matter how straight faced it is delivered.
Wisdom and love are seldom companions and love seldom triumphs without tribulation. Tom and Donna face a crisis that could tear their love asunder. But they learn that love will triumph when Engagement, not avoidance, Rules.
Detroit Rep Artistic Director Bruce Millan is the Director of ENGAGEMENT RULES. As one of the founders of the Rep he has a long list of directorial credits and accolades, but most Rep audiences know him for his personal contact with them performance after performance. He has assembled a cast of two Rep resident company favorites and two newcomers to the Repertory stage. Kelly Komlen (DEARBORN) who performed to critical acclaim last season at the Rep in A STRANGE DISAPPEARANCE OF BEES will portray Donna. Harold Uriah Hogan (SOUTHFIELD) last seen at the Rep in A LESSON BEFORE DYING is Phil, the cynical satirist. Newcomers to the Rep, Trudy Mason (DEARBORN) and Charlie Newhart (CANTON) round out the cast of ENGAGEMENT RULES as Rose and Tom, respectively.
Rich Orloff is an award-winning playwright living in New York. He is the author of over 60 full length and one-act plays. His one-acts have had over 700 productions on six of the seven continents, including a staged reading in Antarctica.
General admission to ENGAGEMENT RULES and all of the plays on The Detroit Repertory Theatre’s 2011/12 Season will remain the unheard of price of $17 per ticket in advance and $20 at the door. The Rep’s “Anytime, Multi-use” Gold Double Subscription for TWO will remain $100 and a Silver Single Subscription stays at $50. 10-ticket Bargain Booklets, Regular and Matinee, will still be $110 and $100 respectively and make great mini-fundraisers.
For tickets, Subscriptions, Bargain Booklets or Fundraising dates, call 313-868-1347.
The oldest professional non-profit theatre in the State of Michigan,the Detroit Repertory Theatre’s mission is guided by the belief that the sense of community is stronger than the forces that splinter and that efforts to preserve unity deserve the same attention and support as the justly cultivated efforts to retain diversity. The implicit goal in all the theatre’s efforts is to produce quality professional theatre while fighting, by example, the disturbing level of racism that exists.
It is located in the geographical heart of the city at
13103 Woodrow Wilson, Detroit, MI 48238
(313) 868-1347
Parking is free, lighted, enclosed and attended.
(Pictured R to left top, clockwise: Charlie Newhart, Kelly Komlen, Trudy Mason, Harold Uriah Hogan)
