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American Stage Sets New Attendance Record With Season’s Last Show
American Stage Theatre Company ended its most successful season on a high note as its final show of the 2005-06 season, the hit comedy/drama “Dinner With Friends,” became the highest attended mainstage production in the theatre’s nearly 30 years of existence.
Selling 4,329 tickets, “Dinner With Friends” unseated American Stage’s previous top attended production, “Anna In The Tropics,” which sold 4,272 tickets in the 2004-2005 season.
“It has been an incredible season at American Stage,” said Todd Olson, the theatre’s producing artistic director. “Not only is ‘Dinner With Friends’ our highest attended production ever, four other mainstage productions from the same season are also in our list of the top ten highest attended productions.”
The other productions from American Stage’s 2005-2006 season in the top ten all time attendance list are “The Big Bang” (#5), “Dial ‘M’ For Murder” (#6), “6 Dance Lessons In 6 Weeks” (#8) and “The Drawer Boy” (#10). Jacob Marley’s “Christmas Carol” (#11) just missed being in the top ten.
American Stage’s new season opened September 6 with the Tampa Bay area premiere of Richard Greenberg’s recent Broadway hit, “Three Days Of Rain.”
Running through October 1, “Three Days Of Rain” tells the story of three young adults — sister, brother, long-time friend — brought together for the reading of a will, during which they unwittingly replay their parents' tangled relationships. The themes of love, friendship, ambition and betrayal expand exponentially in Act Two, when the same actors play youthful versions of their parents — business partners with a history that no one could ever have known.
American Stage is a not-for-profit professional theatre founded in 1977. Its 142-seat capacity Mainstage theater is located at 211 Third St. S., St. Petersburg. This year it will celebrate the 22nd anniversary of its springtime American Stage in the Park on the waterfront. Call 727-823-PLAY (7529).
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