NC Stage 'Choose Your Own Ticket Price'

NORTH CAROLINA STAGE COMPANY REVEALS "CHOOSE YOUR OWN TICKET PRICE"FOR THREE COMEDIES OPENING MAY 26TH

Asheville, NC – North Carolina Stage Company is offering "choose your own ticket pricing" with price points from $15 to $30 for the remaining three plays in its 2008-2009 Season. These three contemporary comedies are running in repertory beginning May 26th: Like Mother, I Wrote This Play To Make You Love Me, and A Beautiful View. Now in its 7th season in downtown Asheville, NC Stage has been experimenting with its price structure in direct response to the current recession. The concept of "choose your own ticket pricing" is an expansion of the theatre's longstanding "Pay What You Can Night," in which patrons pay $6 minimum for a ticket.

With "choose your own ticket price," patrons can choose a ticket price within their means: tickets range from $15 - $30, with price points rising in three-dollar increments. The philosophy behind "choose your own ticket price" is that theatre should be available to everyone in the community, regardless of income. Anecdotal evidence from theatres around the country also suggests that overall ticket income actually increases when theatres allow patrons to choose their own price point.

NC Stage is closing its 2008-2009 season with three funny and poignant plays running in repertory. In theatre language, a repertory schedule means more than one play performing during the same time period – in this case, performing on alternating days of the week. For a full calendar of performance dates and times, visit www.ncstage.org.

Like Mother is the funny recounting of Shannon Polly's real-life wedding, as planned by her overachieving mom. Every bride will recognize the frustrations and joys of the occasion, and everyone with a mother will appreciate the insanity that can spring from unconditional love. Subtitled "One Bride's Musical Journey Through 6 Showers, 3 Receptions, and 1 Cheese Sculpture of the Empire State Building," Like Mother features original songs, plus some familiar show tunes with new lyrics – such as the classic "Don't Tell Mama" from Cabaret.

Anne Thibault wrote and stars in I Wrote This Play To Make You Love Me, a hilariously risque comedy about a struggling actress. Lysette is possibly pregnant by her married boyfriend, and stuck in rural Vermont rehearsing a production of Ibsen's A Doll's House. She struggles to put her life in perspective as she remembers (in vivid detail) the trail of one night stands she has left in her wake. I Wrote This Play contains strong language and descriptions of sexual situations. Only adults will be admitted. A Beautiful View by Daniel MacIvor is a bittersweet comedy about two women who become lifelong friends – and perhaps something more. When L and M first meet in a camping goods store, their tentative friendship seems doomed to fail before it even begins. Each woman has preconceived notions about the other, but rather than hurt their feelings, they agree to have a drink together. What follows is a relationship that is as complicated as it is heart-felt, spanning several decades, one marriage, and a two-woman ukulele band.

A Beautiful View stars Anne Thibault (simultaneously performing in I Wrote This Play…) and Karen Thompson. Thompson has a BFA in acting from DePaul University, but is better known as half of the ground-breaking musical duo Bitch and Animal, which has toured with Ani DiFranco, the Indigo Girls, and Michelle Shocked among others.

North Carolina Stage Company is Asheville's professional theatre, named WNC's Best Local Stage Company for three years in a row by readers of the Mountain Xpress. NC Stage performs in its 99-seat theatre in the heart of downtown Asheville.

Tickets and show times: Tickets are $15 - $30, and patrons may choose their own ticket price for every performance. Call (828) 239-0263 or visit www.ncstage.org for tickets. Like Mother and I Wrote This Play… run in repertory May 26 – June 13. Like Mother closes June 13, and is replaced by A Beautiful View, which will run with I Wrote This Play… June 17- July 19. Performance schedule varies by week. Show times are 7:30pm for evening shows, and 2:00pm for matinees. For the full rep schedule, visit www.ncstage.org.

Location: North Carolina Stage Company performs in a 99-seat theatre in downtown Asheville, entrance is at 15 Stage Lane, off of Walnut St. one block off Haywood St., next to the Rankin Ave. parking garage.

Sponsors: North Carolina Stage Company is grateful for the support of season sponsors The Colorful Palate, Greenlife Grocery, Imaging Technologies, Treadshots Photography, and the North Carolina Arts Council. Our ticket sponsor is The Chocolate Fetish, and concessions are provided by Izzy's Coffee Den and Sugar Momma's Cookies.