'Painting Churches' Coming to Empire Stage

(Press Release) FORT LAUDERDALE, FL: Pigs Do Fly Productions will present Painting Churches, Tina Howe's moving and hilarious portrait of a family of artists falling apart and coming together at Empire Stage in Fort Lauderdale from April 11th through May 4th. Painting Churches was a finalist for the 1984 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
 
Gardner Church (a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet), and his wife, Fanny (a flamboyant aesthete) are aging Bostonian bluebloods in the process of moving out of their Beacon Hill home into their summer cottage on Cape Cod due to the shambles their lives have become. They have invited their daughter, Mags, who is on the verge of artistic celebrity as a portrait painter, to come and help them with the move.  

---

“When Tina Howe's Painting Churches first premiered, it invited audiences into the intimate, poignant, and often humorously complex world of family dynamics,” says the play’s director, Deborah Kondelik. “Set against the backdrop of a New England home, the play explores the shifting tides of relationships between parents and their adult children, all while subtly examining the process of memory, change, and the inevitable passage of time.

“In Painting Churches Howe captures the bittersweetness of life - how we struggle with the past while simultaneously grappling with the responsibility of the present,” she continues. “The play gives us moments of levity amidst its emotional depths - finding laughter in the confusion, in the mismatched recollections, and in the sometimes outrageous behaviors of its characters. Howe reminds us that even in the face of loss or impending change, there is room for wit and tenderness.”
Kondelik has cast Carbonell Award-winner Laura Turnbull as Fanny, William Mahone as Gardner, and Ana Marie Calise as Mags.

“We are now entering our ninth year of operations,” says Pigs Do Fly Productions’ Founder and Executive Producer Ellen Wacher. “I am so proud of what we have accomplished during these past nine years; we are continuing to grow and to explore the many facets of life over 50.  I love the fact that unlike in the past, the actor - and the character over ‘a certain age’ is no longer considered ‘old’.  We are totally involved in life – we love, we lose, we work, we play, and we enjoy life.”
 
The Stage Manager for Painting Churches is Joseph Long. Dean Landhuis is the show’s Scenic Designer, David Hart will do the Sound Design, and Preston Bircher will create the Lighting Design and serve as Technical Director. Director Kondelik will serve as both production’s the Costume Coordinator and Property Designer, and MNM Theatre Company will build the sets.  Jessica Kaschube is the Company Manager, and Donna Pacheco de Castro will handle the Box Office.
 
Tickets for Painting Churches are $45 and are available online at www.pigsdoflyproductions.com  or by calling 954-678-1496.  Performances are on Fridays at 8 pm and Saturdays and Sundays at 5 pm. All performances will take place at Empire Stage, 1140 N. Flagler Drive, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33304.
​