Straw Flower Productions will present the world premiere of The Do’s and Don’ts of Time Travel by Nicholas Wardigo at the Playground at the Adrienne, 2030 Sansom St., Philadelphia, PA from October 3rd through October 19th.

What do you do with a script that whizzes from past to present and back again, reshaping complicated relationships with a tinge of sci-fi humor, embellished with cyber-goth characters? You hand it to John V. Bellomo. Well known in Philadelphia for his fight choreography, for which he’s been nominated twice for a Barrymore Award, John V. Bellomo is ready for his Philadelphia directorial debut with the most recent and theatrical play to date by local award winning playwright, Nicholas Wardigo. When her girlfriend Claire is diagnosed with cancer, Zoey’s past becomes her future. Hooked on time travel for decades Zoey wills herself to relive the two most painful years of her life. Against the backdrop of her friend Rachel’s thesis about time travel movies, Zoey weaves in and out of her own life meeting alternate versions of herself, all trying to capture a quintessential moment in time. The more she travels, the closer Zoey comes to questioning the motives behind her love and sacrifice and the next leap in time will be a jump in an unexpected direction. “Nick’s written a play that defies characterization. That’s why we chose it. It’s new, innovative and well-crafted,” says Co-Artistic Director, Jackie Ruggiero Jacobson, “This is the kind of play that demands meticulous attention to detail and a lot of passion to pull it off. We have that in John and in Nick, and we’re really excited about bringing them together.”

John V. Bellomo holds an M.F.A. in Directing from Temple University and is a graduate of The International School for the Comic Actor in Reggio Emilia, Italy. He recently returned from teaching stage combat in Calabria, Italy. Over the past two years, he’s traveled abroad directing William Shakespeare’s The Tempest and Twelfth Night for Teatro Delle Due in Italy. This past summer he was in Poland directing and performing in an original commedia dell arte piece Two Servants for a Master conceived by Teatro Ronda a troupe he co-founded with wife Samantha Bellomo along with artists from Italy, Switzerland and Poland.

Nicholas Wardigo has been the recipient of the Roger Cornish Award, as well as fellowships from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and the Pew Fellowships in the Arts. His Editorial Decisions has been produced by The Brick Playhouse, The Biggest Box of Crayons by Philadelphia Theatre Workshop. The Do’s and Don’ts of Time Travel with its cast of four young women stands in contrast to Wardigo’s most recently produced work The Biggest Box of Crayons written for a cast of all men. “I was very lucky to decide upon a woman for my main character, because she does meet herself, literally, several times,” says Wardigo. “The language of men is a language of silences and jokes and stupid arguments and the occasional fistfight, and I really wouldn’t expect anything different if we were to meet ourselves. Zoey allowed me to delve into the depths of her self-loathing and self-love. Zoey is two opponents, intimately aware of each other’s buttons and not afraid to use them with perfect cruelty. And Zoey is two friends, intimately aware of how to comfort each other with perfect gentleness.”

Kate Brennan and Jen Jaynes, will take on the challenge of playing different versions of Zoey. Claire will be portrayed by Sarah Milici, and Barrymore Award Winner, Amanda Schoonover, who was most recently seen in New City Stage Company’s The Woolgatherer, completes the cast as Rachel.

John V. Bellomo is a Philadelphia based Director/Fight Director/Actor. For the last two years he has traveled to Italy and directed William Shakespeare’s The Tempest and Twelfth Night for Teatro Delle Due. Other directing credits include A Lesson Before Dying, The Nina Variations, Oleanna and The Capitano Duped. He received an M.F.A. in Directing from Temple University and a B.F.A. in Acting from the University of the Arts. John has choreographed violence for many of Philadelphia’s theatre companies, including People’s Light and Theatre Co., Philadelphia Theatre Co., Theatre Exile, The Philadelphia Shakespeare Festival, Lantern Theatre, The Wilma Theatre, InterAct Theatre Co., Delaware Theatre Company, and The PA Shakespeare Festival, and is a two time Barrymore nominee for his fight choreography. He has taught Stage Combat at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London, Teatro in Polvere in Milan, The American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York and Temple University in Philadelphia. John is also a graduate of The International School for the Comic Actor in Reggio Emilia, Italy.

Nicholas Wardigo has enjoyed productions and/or staged readings with Theatre Exile, Flashpoint Theatre Company, Philadelphia Theatre Workshop, The Brick Playhouse, and InterAct Theatre Company. Awards include the Roger Cornish Award as well as fellowships from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and Pew Fellowships in the Arts. Nick’s other plays include Exit Corpse, Concrete Dinosaur, Chessboard Heroes, The Biggest Box of Crayons, and Editorial Decisions. Nick has been quoted in The Collaborative Playwright by Bruce Graham and Michele Volansky. A short script of his was published in Solving Your Script by Jeffrey Sweet. Nick Wardigo also served as judge for the 2006 Judy Less Award for Dramatic Writing for the University of Pennsylvania, and wrote the script for The 2006 Barrymore Awards for Excellence in Theatre.

Straw Flower Productions is committed to promoting, developing, and producing new and “underexposed” plays, evolving theater forms and artists. We seek to enrich the theatrical experience with the impassioned work of emerging artists, and by creating professional opportunities for those artists, increase the scope and appeal of theater, helping theater to evolve in such a way that invites creativity, exploration and change.

What:
The Do’s and Don’ts of Time Travel
by Nicholas Wardigo; directed by John V. Bellomo

When:
October 2 - 19, 2008

Where:
The Playground at the Adrienne
2030 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA

Tickets:
$20 at the door
$15 reserved
$3 off for students and seniors
215.551.3376
www.strawflower.org

Actors’ bios and press photos available at www.strawflower.org or by request.