The Shadow Box by Michael Cristofer

The Studio@620 is proud to present "The Shadow Box" by Michael Cristofer, in benefit for the Suncoast AIDS Theatre Project. Directed by Garry Bruel, the company includes Larry Alexander, Chris Crawford, Stephanie Gularte, Brian Shea, Becca McCoy, Nick Hoop, Susan Mills, Maggie Mularz, and Roxanne Fay. "You get tired of keeping it all inside, but it's like nobody wants to hear about it.” In this compelling Pulitzer and Tony award winning drama, three terminal cancer patients dwell in separate cottages in a California hospice. The Shadow Box paved the way for theatre to give voice to many struggles faced, sometimes silently, by the people around us and provides a new openness when discussing death and illness from not only cancer but also AIDS. The three families in "The Shadow Box" are attended and visited by family and close friends: Agnes and her mother Felicity, estranged further by the latter's dementia; Brian and Beverly, whose marital complications are exacerbated by Brian's new lover, Mark; and Joe and Maggie, unready for the strain of Joe's impending death and its effect on their young son. "The Shadow Box" has given a platform for discussion of other struggles that have come to join with it- The Normal Heart, Angels In America and As Is, illuminating the decimating effects of AIDS and the political movements that were born in response to it- Marvin’s Room, Wit, and Three Tall Women, plays that, thanks in part to the bravery of The Shadow Box, offer a new, more aggressive openness in dealing with death and illness. Tickets $15/$10 students and seniors