PRESS RELEASE - June 5, 2008

CONTACT: Ellen Landau (919) 821-4579 x 221

Raleigh Little Theatre's current run of Radio Gals through June 22 will host a visit from playwright Mike Craver on Friday, June 20. The original Red Clay Rambler will invite questions from the evening's audience in a talk-back session following the performance.

The book, music and lyrics for Radio Gals were written by Mike Craver and Mark Hardwick. The two filled two of the roles in the play's 1993 premier at the Arkansas Repertory Theatre in Little Rock. Their partnership produced several musicals which combine old-time, foot-stomping traditional country music with gospel and blues: they co-wrote Oil City Symphony and arranged the music for Smoke on the Mountain, presented in 2001 by Raleigh Little Theatre. Radio Gals has been produced from Alabama to Ontario, Massachusetts to California, but has never been seen before in central North Carolina.

A North Carolina native, Craver graduated from the University of North Carolina and was a member of North Carolina's original Red Clay Ramblers for 12 years. After leaving the Ramblers, Mike moved to New York and got involved in theatre and partnered with Hardwick on several projects; he also co-authored Wilder, Lunch at the Piccadilly, and Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming. Craver's New York credits include Diamond Studs and Sam Shepard's A Lie of the Mind.

Play Synopsis

On a warm spring day in the late1920's, Hazel Hunt begins her daily broadcast of inspirational and popular old-time tunes from her parlor, joined by the "Hazelnuts," two matronly Swindle sisters Azilee and Mabel (Craver and Hardwick's original roles), their neighbor America and her cousin Rennabelle. Last to arrive for the morning broadcast, bearing cream cheese and olive sandwiches for the group is Gladys Fritts, a small town gal known as the show's resident Travel Hostess, Gourmand and Seer. The day's broadcast is interrupted by an inspector from the Commerce Department in Washington, who claims that workmen have been receiving the WGAL radio signal in a tunnel under the Hudson River outside New York City, and accuses Hazel of being a "gypsy of the ether!"

Radio Gal's four-week run continues on the theatre's Cantey V. Sutton Main Stage at 8:00 PM on Thursday, Friday and Saturday evening performances June 12, 13, 14, 19, 20, and 21; two final matinees at 3:00 PM are scheduled on Sundays June 15 and 22. For reservations or information call the Raleigh Little Theatre box office (919) 821-3111 noon to 5:00 weekdays or visit www.raleighlittletheatre.org to purchase tickets on line. Tickets are $18 for adults and $15 for seniors and students.

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