The Santa Monica Playhouse Benefit Series presents..
Look what fell out de mango tree
A STAGED READING
Based on her true-life story, Ehrhardt’s play is about, the importance of forgiveness and the power of vulnerability. You can’t give yourself to someone when you are not intact, when pieces of you are missing. In Look What Fell Out de Mango Tree, Debra uncovers a big secret that unlocks her ability to forgive and transforms her relationship with men. Seeking truth and understanding can’t heal you or undo the hurt. But it can unshackle your next steps, and free up the denouement of your own life. Because running away from something is not being free.
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At the tender age of seven, Kingston, Jamaica native, DEBRA EHRHARDT started telling stories in a Mango tree to entertain herself and her friends. As she grew up, she dreamed of coming to America to study theatre. After graduating drama school in New York, she was advised by Producers and agents to lose her strong Jamaican accent as that would limit work for her. Easier said than done. Instead, she decided to write and perform her own stories based on her colorful life in Jamaica and has performed all over the world. Previous solo productions include Mango, Mango which received two NAACP Awards and Invisible Chairs, produced by David Strasberg at the Marilyn Monroe Theatre in West Hollywood and later optioned as a situation comedy by Fox and Cock Tales: Shame on Me! which garnered rave reviews. Her play, JAMAICA FAREWELL was optioned and produced by Rita Wilson (Tom Hanks wife) and Oscar-winner, Garry Marshall at the Falcon theatre and is currently optioned for film by Oscar winning Producer, Jeremy Thomas in London.
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CHRISTOPHER GROSSETT has been a proud member of Actor’s Equity, Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) for the past 27 years. He is an actor and producer, known for his work on the films Last Life, Something About a Business, Speed of Life, Enigmata and Monday Super Fantastic. Grossett has fond memories of several stage performances all over the country. At New York’s Lincoln Center he performed in A Wrinkle in Time. He was in the award winning A Raisin in the Sun at Syracuse Stage. At the Nevada Conservatory Theater he performed in a production of Lynn Nottages, Intimate Apparel and at the LA Hudson Theatre, a production of Shrinks. Christopher studied at the Julliard School.
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Composer, singer, songwriter, actor and MANGO TREE director PAUL WILLIAMS is known for writing and co-writing iconic songs such as Three Dog Night's "An Old Fashioned Love Song" and "Out in the Country,” Helen Reddy's "You and Me Against the World,” Biff Rose's "Fill Your Heart,” and the Carpenters' "We've Only Just Begun" and "Rainy Days and Mondays.”
Williams is also known for writing the score and lyrics for Bugsy Malone and his musical contributions to other films, including the Oscar-nominated song "Rainbow Connection" from The Muppet Movie, and the lyrics to the #1 chart-topping song "Evergreen,” the love theme from the Barbra Streisand film A Star Is Born, for which he won a Grammy for Song of the Year and an Academy Award for Best Original Song. |
LOOK WHAT FELL OUT DE MANGO TREE
Saturday, June 10 at 5:00 pm
Tickets: $20
includes wine and dessert reception and post-show Q&A with the artists
includes wine and dessert reception and post-show Q&A with the artists
Proceeds support the Santa Monica Playhouse Benefit Campaign
The Santa Monica Playhouse Benefit Series is an innovative program that presents extremely limited engagements of new and developing works by emerging and renowned local, national and international artists. Selected artists receive technical and artistic support, rehearsal space and the opportunity to present a fully-mounted production, with proceeds supporting the Playhouse Annual Fund, International Cultural Exchange and Diversity-in-Education programs, Artistic Mentoring, Jewish Heritage Series and Senior OutReach. Santa Monica Playhouse programs are supported in part by generous grants from the City of Santa Monica and the Santa Monica Arts Commission, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture, and by Playhouse PALS.
Santa Monica Playhouse Reserves the Right to Cancel or Reschedule Performances Without Prior Notice.
