For Immediate Release: September 8, 2006
Media Contact: Chuck Reece, Bristol Riverside Theatre, 215.785.0100

In celebration of the opening of Bristol Riverside Theatre’s 20th Anniversary Season, the Board of Directors and Staff has planned a Grand Opening Celebration to be held on Opening night of the first production of the season Around the World in 80 Days, on Thursday, September 28, 2006. Patrons and VIP guests including Bristol Borough, Bucks County, State and Federal political figures will beckoned by searchlights and greeted on a red-carpet entry to the theatre, on Radcliffe Street in Historic Bristol Borough. In addition to BRT’s regular opening night festivities, a pre-show hors d’oeuvres and cocktail hour will be held in the Lobby and Atrium of the Theatre. Special presentations and recognitions will be made from stage prior to the performance, and an enhanced post-performance “meet-the-artists” reception will follow the show including a Champagne toast, hailing the nearly twenty year milestone. Limited tickets are available to the public at $37 each. A full list of VIP attendees is still being confirmed.

BRT continues the special events for Around the World in 80 Days with a special Theatre Luncheon beginning at the King George II Inn, also on Radcliffe Street, one block from the theatre, at noon on Saturday, September 30. Following the luncheon will be a performance of the play at 2:00PM at the Theatre. Tickets are available to the public at $45 per person by calling the BRT Box Office.

The second week of the production, BRT offers it’s increasingly popular “Friday Festival” event, beginning at 7:00PM in the BRT atrium with crudités and desserts followed by a pre-show informative discussion about the play, playwright Mark Brown, who adapted the production for the stage from Jules Verne’s more than-century old novel by the same name.

On Saturday, October 7, BRT teams up with the Riverboat Queen of Bucks County, an old-style riverboat design conveniently docked at the BRT wharf behind the theatre and First Service Bank on Radcliffe Street. For $59, patrons can sail “Around the Delaware in 80 Minutes” with complete dinner service, cash bar, and dessert to be topped off by another rousing performance of Around the World in 80 Days at 8:00PM. The cruise departs at 6:00PM.

BRT’s last special event of the run will be its “Wine Down Wednesday” performance on October 11. Wine and desserts are served in the lobby starting at 7:00PM prior to the 8:00 evening performance.

BRT is also proud to announce that its past offer of a “Pay What You Can” performance on the first Friday night of each production will now be held on the two Preview Performances, the first Tuesday and Wednesday of each show. Tickets are released on an as-available basis beginning at 7:30PM the day of the performance. As an added bonus, all ticket-holders at these performances are invited to stay for a post-show “talk-back” with the director, designers, and cast of the productions, to hear about the creative process, and share their opinions about the production.

Around the World in 80 Days premiered at the Utah Shakespearean Festival, in 2001. In the Philadelphia region, it was produced at the People’s Light and Theatre Company in 2004 and in the summer of 2005 at the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival in Center Valley, PA. Playwright Mark Brown has managed to craft a script for five actors who portray 39 characters from Jules Verne’s classic novel set in 1872. Phileas Fogg, the protagonist in the story, places a wager at his London social club that he—using the very modern modes of steam ship and train, and following a precise and exacting schedule—can traverse the globe in a mere eighty days. Things go awry, however, in this “high-spirited, fast-moving and flat-out hilarious” play when he must dodge Hindu priests seeking revenge for his rescue of an Indian Princess set for sacrificial death, Chinese Opium dealers, marauding Apache Warriors, and an ever vigilant Detective of Scotland Yard who has mistaken Fogg for the thief who robbed the Bank of England on the day of his departure. In a review of the 2004 production at the Orlando-UCF Shakespeare Festival, the Orlando Sentinel wrote, “Writer Mark Brown has taken Jules Verne's century-old comic novel and made it gallop across the stage. If this show doesn't make you laugh, you'll have to look hard for something that will.”

Tickets for all the above events are available by calling the BRT Box Office at 215-785-0100. More information is available on the theatre’s website, www.BRTstage.org. Around the World in 80 Days, a play by Mark Brown, based on a novel by Jules Verne runs September 26 through October 15, 2006. BRT thanks Verizon, Grand Sponsor of its 20th Anniversary Season.

For a more complete list of VIP invitees and attendees to the Grand Opening Celebration on September 28, please contact BRT after September 21. The list of VIPs invited to the festivities include all current local, state, and federal representatives, any opponents of theirs in the coming November elections, BRT and the Grundy Foundation’s Board of Directors, major funders of the theatre, and long-time supporters in the Bristol Borough business community.

Around the World in 80 Days
A Play by Mark Brown, based on a novel by Jules Verne
September 26 through October 15, 2006.
Directed by BRT Artistic Director Edward Keith Baker
Produced by BRT Founding Producing Director, Susan D. Atkinson.
Starring: Ezra Barnes, Kenneth Boys, Alana Gerlach, Tim Moyer and Evan Zes.
Scenic Design by A. Nelson Ruger IV
Costume Design by Millie Hiibel
Lighting Design by Bristol High School Graduate, Ryan O’Gara
Sound Design by Daniel A. Little
Production Manager: Rick Goetz
Production Stage Manager: Blair Walsleben

Tickets are $29-$37, depending on the day of performance. Available online or by calling the BRT Box Office at 215-785-0100.

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