PRESS RELEASE
June 30th, 2014
JOYCE DEWITT TO JOIN MICKY DOLENZ IN COMEDY IS HARD! WORLD PREMIERE SEPTEMBER 24th at THE IVORYTON PLAYHOUSE
New York/Ivoryton –Joyce DeWitt has just been confirmed to play opposite Micky Dolenz in Mike Reiss’ new play Comedy Is Hard!, premiering Wednesday, September 24, at The Ivoryton Playhouse in Ivoryton, Connecticut.
Ms. DeWitt is most widely known to audiences for her starring role as “Janet Wood” in the ABC Television hit series Three’s Company but she has an extensive theatrical background, working both as actress and director in a stage career which spans over fifty years.
In those fifty years, Ms. DeWitt has starred in theatrical productions of every genre including Moliere’s Tartuffe, Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Euripides’ Medea as well as the popular comedies Sam Bobrick’s Remember Me, Neil Simons’s Star Spangled Girl, as well as the hilarious British farce Noises Off among many others.
Her long list of starring roles in musicals includes South Pacific, Damn Yankees, Sweet Charity, Oklahoma, Married Alive, Leader of the Pack, They’re Playing Our Song, Hats, All Shook Up, revivals of Cole Porter’s Reno Sweeney in Anything Goes, Mama Rose in Gypsy, and the mythical Olympus on My Mind for which she completed the cast recording – her first Broadway Album.
Reiss’ play is set in a home for retired actors and the play takes an affectionate look at the relationship and rivalry between a retired stand-up comedian and a classical actress.
Reiss, who is writer and producer for the long running TV show, The Simpsons, also created the animated series The Critic; the webtoon Queer Duck and worked on the screenplays for Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs; Horton Hears a Who!; The Simpsons: The Movies; and, My Life In Ruins. Ivoryton audiences turned out in droves in the June 2013 for his hilarious play, I’m Connecticut, which was a huge popular and critical success.
Comedy is Hard!opens at the Ivoryton Playhouse on September 24 and runs through October 12, 2014. Directed by Playhouse Artistic Director, Jacqueline Hubbard, the rest of the cast is not yet announced.
Performance times are Wednesday and Sunday matinees at 2pm. Evening performances are Wednesday and Thursday at 7:30pm, Friday and Saturday at 8pm. Tickets are $42 for adults, $37 for seniors, $20 for students and $15 for children and are available by calling the Playhouse box office at 860-767-7318 or by visiting our website at www.ivorytonplayhouse.org (Group rates are available by calling the box office for information.) The Playhouse is located at 103 Main Street in Ivoryton
Members of the press are welcome at any performance. Please call ahead for tickets.
Generously sponsored by Hamilton Connections and Middle Oak.
With less than a week until opening night, crew of All Shook Up is working hard at getting the sets build and painted. Getting the look and feel of a small town in America’s mid-west involves quite a lot of paint. Featured here is one of the Ivoryton Playhouse interns, Gaylen Ferstand, painting on wood texture to an interior wall. This process gives the illusion of wood grain without there actually being any.
Next, a lighter shade is applied. Before it dries, a wood grained stencil is run along the paint in a single stroke. This creates the effect. The painter has to be sure to use even strokes with the stencil, otherwise the grain will look blotched. This process has to be repeated until the whole desired area is covered.
Once it’s dry, the wall will have a neat texture to it. Depending on your color choices it can be more natural, or as mentioned before, really funky.
The Ivoryton Players director is Joyce Beauvais. Joyce, after settling in CT, currently runs this program in Old Saybrook and also starting in East Lyme. Ms Beauvais brings with her a lifetime in the theater performing her first professional role at age seven. She lived in NYC for over 25 years as an actress in stage, TV and film, also a Broadway and Off-Broadway producer and 5 years as owner and operator of Chez Beauvais, Restaurant and Cabaret. Chez Beauvais was a boite on Tenth Ave., NYC offering fine cuisine and the best of New York City jazz. She partnered with uber agent Jack Rollins and Jane Rollins. After moving to FL she continued to perform as an actress but also developed this program that today will be the Ivoryton Players. “The mix of people and experience”, Joyce finds, “turns into the magic one only finds in theater”. Joyce promises this will be one of the times of your life!
Ivoryton: Time to dust off your blue suede shoes: The Ivoryton Playhouse is preparing for its latest summer musical, 
Tickets for our 2023 season are now on sale!