Friday, June 03, 2016

Cul de Sac play premieres tonight in Arlington




Cul de Sac

Play by Amy Thompson
Adapted from the Comic Strip, Cul de Sac by Richard Thompson


Four-year-old Alice Otterloop and her older brother, Petey, learn about friendship and the importance of being yourself in this world premiere play adaptation of Richard Thompson's nationally syndicated Cul De Sac comic strip. When Alice decides to help Petey become more exciting she risks sending Petey further into his shell. With the help other their parents, teachers, and new and old friends the Otterloop children just might be able to learn something from each other. We recommend this production for ages 4 and older.

Performance Dates and Times:
Friday, June 3, 2016 at 7:30pm
Saturday, June 4, 2016 at 11am and 3pm
Sunday, June 5, 2016 at 3pm
Friday, June 10, 2016 at 7:30pm
Saturday, June 11, 2016 at 11am and 3pm
Sunday, June 12, 2016 at 3pm

About the comic strip and artist: "He never wanted to be anything other than a cartoonist," says playwright Amy Thompson in describing her husband Richard Thompson. Richard, a long-time Arlington resident, had created thousands of illustrations and cartoons for dozens of magazines and newspapers before Cul de Sac debuted in The Washington Post Magazine in 2007. Thompson drew on incidents from his own childhood ("there's a lot of him in Petey, the withdrawn artist" says Amy), and the lives of his family, including two daughters, Emma and Charlotte. Everything from Charlotte's unbounded exuberance, to Emma's discovery that a manhole cover made a great stage, to the reluctant introduction of a guinea pig in their home was fodder for Thompson's re-imagined suburban Washington. Thompson's Cul de Sac drew the attention of comic fans worldwide including some very famous fans.


"[The comic strip] is one of those rare visions that shows how surprising the ordinary world really is. Richard Thompson's wonderfully peculiar Otterloop family is closely observed with deep sympathy and rings absolutely true, I'm a huge fan." – Calvin and Hobbes creator Bill Watterson stated Watterson

"If Cul de Sac isn't French for 'wonderfully loopily sincerely life-affirmingly stupendously hilarious' then there is something wrong with the French language." -Children's book author Mo Willems (Knuffle Bunny, Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!, Elephant & Piggie series)

"Cul de Sac is the funniest strip to appear in decades. Inside Out. It's full of great characters, well-observed truths that most of us have forgotten about, and is so beautifully and funnily drawn that it is an absolute joy to look at even if you can't read. (Of course, if you can't read, then you'd better stop right now.)" -Pixar director and Oscar-winner Pete Docter (Films include Inside Out, Monsters, Inc. and Up.)

Click here for full press release.

Location:
All performances are held at Thomas Jefferson Community Theatre (125 S. Old Glebe Rd., Arlington, VA 22204)


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