For Immediate Release
April 9, 2007

MANASSAS – Vpstart Crow Productions will continue its 2007 season by presenting one of Swedish playwright August Strindberg’s most fascinating works, The Ghost Sonata, May 4-20 at The Cramer Center, located at 9008 Center St. in Old Town Manassas, VA.

Helmed by Artistic Director Christine D. Lange, the production will run Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m., with a pay-what-you-can preview on Thursday, May 3, at 8 p.m. There will also be a talkback with the audience immediately following the matinee on Sunday, May 6.

Written in 1907 and also known as Spöksonaten, The Ghost Sonata is about a young, naïve student, who idealizes the lives of the inhabitants of a stylish apartment building in Stockholm. He makes the acquaintance of the mysterious Jakob Hummel, who helps him to find his way into the apartment, only to find that it is a nest of betrayal, sickness and emotional vampirism. The world, the student learns, is hell and human beings must suffer to achieve salvation.

Ms. Lange most recently directed Vpstart Crow’s critically-acclaimed production of Anne of the Thousand Days. Previous Vpstart credits include A Christmas Carol (co-director), The Taming of the Shrew (Bianca) and Romeo and Juliet (Benvolio/Apothecary). Regional credits include: The American Century Theatre – MacBird! (stage manager) and It Had To Be You (stage manager); Elden Street Players – No Reply (director), The Love Talker (director, NVTA One-Act Festival Judges Discretionary Award), Beirut (co-director), The Trestle at Pope Lick Creek (director), The Shadow Box (stage manager), The Threepenny Opera (Lucy Brown) and Something Different (Christine); and George Mason University Players – Twelve Dreams (director), Dream Girl (director) and Choices: A One-Woman Show (writer/actor/director). Ms. Lange earned a BA in Theatre from GMU.

Set in a gothic version of early 20th Century Sweden, The Ghost Sonata will feature Vpstart Crow veterans Zach Arnold (The Student), Ted Ballard (Jakob Hummel), Brett Bartosavage (Baron Skanskorg), Brian Ross Huse (Bengtsson), Marcus Lawrence (The Colonel), Will MacLeod (Johansson), Paul Rubenstein (Johansson understudy), and Jay Tilley (The Superintendent).

The Ghost Sonata also includes the following talented actors, who are making their Vpstart debuts: Lauren Billingsley (The Lady in Black/The Housemaid), Carolyn Cameron (The Fiancée), Christy Frye (The Superintendent’s Wife), Geeta Pereira (The Young Lady), Stephanie Powlen (The Milkmaid), and Gail Seavey (The Mummy).

Meanwhile, Ms. Lange’s production team, working diligently behind the scenes to bring this classic to life, includes Melissa Jo York-Tilley (production manager/costume designer/hair and makeup designer), Liz Stock (stage manager), Bob Lange (master carpenter), Brian Allard (lighting design), Erika Wahle (crafts/props designer), Jenny and Kristen Green (house managers), Jay Tilley (publicity), Jennifer Reitz (poster designer), and Tim Betts and Dave Harback (press photos).

Tickets are $20 for adults and $15 for students, seniors, military personnel, and City of Manassas and Prince William County employees. For ticket reservations, please visit www.boxofficetickets.com/vpstartcrow or contact BoxOfficeTickets.com at (800) 494-TIXS. For group sales, please contact Vpstart Crow at boxoffice@vpstartcrow.com or (800) 660-8580. For more information, please e-mail Vpstart Crow at info@vpstartcrow.com, call (800) 660-8580 or visit www.vpstartcrow.com.

ABOUT VPSTART CROW PRODUCTIONS, INC.
Founded in 1994, Vpstart Crow Productions, Inc. (pronounced “upstart”) is a non-Equity and non-profit professional theatre company dedicated to performing the works of William Shakespeare and other theatre classics. Vpstart Crow’s mission is to produce live theatre as a vital, accessible and exciting part of community life. Employing a resident company of local professional actors and artists of the highest caliber, Vpstart Crow is dedicated to breaking down the barriers between audience and actors in a performance style that is thought-provoking and altogether vpstartling.

The term “vpstart crow” comes from one of Shakespeare’s rival English playwrights, Robert Greene. In his 1592 pamphlet, Groats-Worth Of Wit Bought With A Million Of Repentance, Greene criticizes Shakespeare: “… for there is an vpstart crow, beautified with our feathers, that with his tigers hart wrapt in a players hyde, supposes he is as well able to bombast out a blanke verse as the best of you; and being an absolute Johannes factotum (“Johnny-do-it-all” or “Jack-of-all-trades”), is in his owne conceit the onely ‘Shake-scene’ in a countrey.” In fact, Vpstart Crow spells its name with a “v” rather than a “u” in reference to the way the English language was written in Shakespeare’s day.

Press contacts:
Christine D. Lange
Artistic Director
Vpstart Crow Productions, Inc.
(800) 660-8580
artistic@vpstartcrow.com

Sara Joy Lebowitz
Managing Director
Vpstart Crow Productions, Inc.
(800) 660-8580
managing@vpstartcrow.com

Jay Tilley
Public Relations Consultant
Vpstart Crow Productions, Inc.
(571) 216-7419
sagart16@yahoo.com