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Press Release: LA Premiere "TALKING WITH ANGELS -The true story of Gitta Mallasz" on Jan. 31st at The Complex (Ruby) Theatre
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Leigh McLeod Fortier or Sandra Kuker (323) 960-7779 Email:
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TALKING WITH ANGELS Begins January 31, 2008
The true story of Gitta Mallasz * L.A. premiere of this riveting true story * "A tour de force" SF Weekly Opens January 31st through February 10th, 2008 (Los Angeles, CA) (January, 2008)... TALKING WITH ANGELS, the tour-de-force praised by the San Francisco Weekly, San Francisco Chronicle and more, is set to make its L.A. premiere at the Ruby Theatre at the Complex beginning January 31. About The Show TALKING WITH ANGELS is based on the diaries of Gitta Mallasz and her three Jewish friends. For 17 months at the end of WWII they experienced a series of remarkable visitations by beings that described themselves as angels. Woven into their account of life under Nazi occupation are the psychologically provocative conversations they experienced, which are as relevant today as they were 60 years ago. San Francisco Bay Guardian theater critic has likened it to Tony Kushner¹s Angels in America saying that ³Shelley Mitchell¹s performance is passionately mystical yet remarkably lucid...in a WWII setting that brings to mind the war-making currently under way, the angels¹ message applies less to history than to right now!² Irish Theatre Magazine says that ³Mitchell¹s consummate skill as a performer illuminates this thoughtful combination of human bravery and the divine.² Gitta Mallasz was born in Austria in 1907 and arrived at age 15 in Budapest, where she gained fame as an Olympic swimmer. In 1960 she immigrated to Paris where, after 30 years of silence in Communist Hungary, the story of this extraordinary metaphysical encounter was finally published. It immediately became a best seller in France. The original Hungarian document has been translated into numerous languages, touching hundreds of thousands of readers. Banned in Hungary until 1991, TALKING WITH ANGELS was recently published in its native language under the title Az Angyal Valaszol. Now, through this tour de force performance, Shelley Mitchell brings these remarkable dialogues to life. Background Largely unfamiliar to non-European readers, TALKING WITH ANGELS tells the true story of Mallasz's attempt to save her three Jewish friends and over 100 women and children from deportation by sheltering them in a ³war factory² (of the sort seen in the film Schindler's List) under the protection of the Catholic Church. As commander in charge of this factory, she was successful in saving almost all of the workers. Mitchell first adapted the work for the 2000 San Francisco Fringe Theater Festival winning ³Best of the Fringe² she then created a full-length version that was performed at San Francisco's Magic Theater in 2001. About Shelley Mitchell Nominated as Best Solo Performer by the Bay Area Theater Critics Circle in 1999 for her performance of Nobel Prize winner Dario Fo's Orgasmo Adulto Escapes from the Zoo. She trained in New York City with Lee Strasberg and is a graduate of Circle in the Square Theatre School. In the early 1980s she moved to Venice, Italy where she lived for over a decade. She returned to the USA in 1992. In addition to performing TALKING WITH ANGELS she is a 24/7 single mom and the artistic director of The Actors Center of San Francisco. Since it opened as a one-woman show in July of 2001, TALKING WITH ANGELS has been performed over 200 times at various theaters on both the East and West Coast, at the Carl Jung Institutes of San Francisco and Chicago, and at the 2004 Joseph Campbell Centennial in Atlanta. About Robin Fontaine Robin Fontaine started her training in New York at Fordham University's Directing Program under OBIE award-winner Lawrence Sacharow, and then under Anne Bogart at the Saratoga International Theatre Institute. She went on to live in LA where she led an ongoing experimental movement workshop, and assistant directed the world premiere of Richard Greenberg's Three Days of Rain at South Coast Repertory Theatre. In Sacramento, she produced and directed Deus ex Quanta, a darkly comic exploration of quantum physics as it relates to homicide investigation. She then toured Europe as a performer with English Eurythmy Theatre. Robin Fontaine currently lives in the Bay Area where she is producing and directing her original film work with her partner Eric Peltier at their production company www.tinbox2.com. She has been working with Shelley Mitchell and the production of TALKING WITH ANGELS since its inception. Praise from the Press ³This riveting piece speaks of life, death and faith through a talented actor who deftly brings alive a remarkable figure.² - sfgate.com ³The portrait of Mallasz is a tour de force.² - SF Weekly ³Mitchell gives a virtuoso performance of a remarkable story.² - SF Bay Guardian ³...honest simplicity and openness...neither overly reverential nor didactic; in fact, this is a gripping theatrical experience that will keep you on the edge of your seat throughout...² - The Marin Independent Journal ³...mystical true-life tale...² - San Francisco Chronicle ³The play is truly riveting...a performance with rich vocabulary of movement, speech and gesture.² - Jewish Week ³Shelley Mitchell, a sublime actress -- radiant, beautiful, soulful -- performed a tour de force adaptation of an important human document.² - New York Theatre Wire TALKING WITH ANGELS runs January 31 through February 10, 2008. Performances are at Ruby Theatre at the Complex, 6476 Santa Monica Blvd. in Hollywood, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 PM, Sundays at 2 PM. Tickets are $25 Thursday Saturday, $20 Sunday, with $15 rush tickets available 30 minutes before curtain. Running time is 120 minutes with intermission and wheelchair access available. Valet and street parking. For reservations, call (323) 960-5774 or RESERVE ONLINE: www.plays411.com/angels. Get more information and discounts online at: www.plays411.com/angels
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