(FOA) — The Friends of the Arts, Saipan’s Community Theatre, will be presenting “An Evening with David Ives” with four one-act plays for your enjoyment. The productions will be presented at 7 p.m., Saturday Nov. 2 and at 3 p.m., Sunday, Nov. 3 in the Marianas High School Theatre, located in the MHS main cafeteria. No entrance fee will be charged but donations will be appreciated.
David Ives is a playwright, screenwriter, and novelist. He was born in Chicago in 1950 and educated at Northwestern University and the Yale School of Drama. He began writing plays in the 1970s and achieved his breakthrough success in the 1990s with an evening of one-act plays called “All in the Timing” which ran Off-Broadway for over 600 performances. He has written many full-length plays, including the Broadway production “Venus in Fur.” He has adapted French 17th- and 18th-century classical comedies, as well as 33 musicals for New York City’s “Encores!” series. Ives has also written short fiction and humor pieces and has taught playwriting and screenwriting at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and at Columbia University.
The Friends of the Arts production coordinator Harold Easton said he has always liked David Ives because he felt that Ives makes one think. His plays are like a puzzle — just what is he getting at? And when you think you have figured it out, you discover a different direction for your mind to travel. “I am so glad he has written a lot of these one act plays, he provides us with so many puzzles to choose from,” Easton said.
The four one-act plays being presented are a typical fun ride. Some are funny, some not so. But all have the Ives characteristics of excellent use of language to lead you down one rabbit hole after another. They challenge you to see what you think he is trying to say.
The cast for this “Evening with David Ives” production is drawn from both the FOA Youth Theatre and the community. There are students from Kagman High School, Saipan Southern High School, Saipan International School, and Marianas High School. Behind the scenes, the production is supporting students competing in scenic design and marketing. The non-students include a faculty member at MHS and a performing artist at one of our international hotels.
The Friends of the Arts Community Theatre welcomes all members of the community on stage as performers, and behind the scenes as directors, designers, and technicians. Come see our productions and/or help us put them on stage.
The Friends of the Arts has had a busy couple of years and looks forward to this year’s season. Between supporting the Island’s International Thespian Society’s student productions, generating a Youth Theatre, some of whose members are in these Ives plays, and bringing renowned classical pianist Roman Rudnytsky to Saipan, The Friends of the Arts and Saipan’s Community Theater have been kept quite busy.
Please join us this weekend and enjoy our presentations.
