Can ‘Mr. Fix It’ mend a broken heart?
Media Release
For Immediate Release – January 18, 2010
Can ‘Mr. Fix It’ mend a broken heart?
Lunchbox kicks off 35th year with world premiere romantic comedy
Calgary, AB – Lunchbox Theatre begins 2010 by celebrating its 35th year with the world premiere of the romantic comedy Mr. Fix It by Calgary’s own Caroline Russell-King, running February 1 to 27.
In Mr. Fix It, Mel, the owner of a chain of appliance shops, opens his door one day to be greeted by his ex-wife. Her unexpected announcement leads him to re-examine their past life together. Can Mel fix old wounds and 25 years of marital ups and downs as easily as a 1970’s Kenmore toaster?
Mr. Fix It is written by Calgarian Caroline Russell-King, who for three years oversaw Lunchbox Theatre’s Petro-Canada Stage One Festival as Literary Manager. “I wrote Mr. Fix It as homage to Neil Simon,” says Russell-King of her latest work. “When I started out, I worked in dinner theatre as a script assistant. I worked on 70 shows over nine years. Over the 3-week rehearsal period and 8-week runs and subsequent tours I studied comedies. I absorbed the words like a dry sponge, I analyzed them, and I ate them for breakfast. Ten of those plays were Neil Simon’s. I think he’s brilliant. Neil Simon will always be my first real playwriting teacher.”
“Thirty-five years is a long time. Especially when you consider how many of the once plentiful noon-hour theatre companies around the world have not survived,” notes Pamela Halstead, Lunchbox Theatre Artistic Director. “I am very pleased we can celebrate this anniversary by premiering Caroline Russell-King’s Mr. Fix It. Not only is she a local playwright, but she has been a valuable contributor to the Lunchbox team.”
Mr. Fix It features Brian Jensen and Barbara Gates Wilson. Helping Mel fix his love live are director Kevin McKendrick, assistant director Kathryn Waters, and designers Shauna Breslawski, Amy Paterson, Andrea Shanks-Sunderland and Alec McCauley. Mr. Fix It runs February 1 to 27, Monday to Saturday at 12:10pm with ‘Happy Hour’ performances Friday at 6:10pm.
The world’s longest running lunchtime theatre, Lunchbox Theatre is a professional company that caters to downtown office workers over the noon-hour by producing six plays per year as well as the Petro-Canada Stage One Festival and the BD&P Emerging Director Program. Lunchbox Theatre recently relocated to a new theatre at the base of the Calgary Tower.
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For more information, to request an interview, or to visit a rehearsal:
Marketing and Communications
Lunchbox Theatre
403 265 4292 x 229
dj.kelly@lunchboxtheatre.com