"The Sugar Bean Sisters"

"THE SUGAR BEAN SISTERS":

OVER 100 PRODUCTIONS AND COUNTING!

CLICK HERE TO VISIT PENOBSCOT THEATRE COMPANY

To view "The Sugar Bean Sisters" slideshow presentation please click youtube logo below:

(Artwork by Andy Markley, Art 101 Design & Digital Imaging - Studio Theatre, Sacramento, CA)

"And just wait until you see the ending - it has to be one of the craziest, unexpected,

exhilaratingly satisfying endings ever staged. With special effects that leave you

hyperventilating with disbelief while you are choking with laughter, it had the

whole audience cheering with delight.'The Sugar Bean Sisters' is one story

that will take you out of this world!"

-Gainesville Sun

Hailed during its initial off-Broadway run as a true Southern Gothic comedy "full of sparkling hot one-liners", THE SUGAR BEAN SISTERS is an offbeat story of romance, murder and alien abduction.

Stuck in a Florida swamp near Disney World, the Nettles sisters are determined to escape spinsterhood by hopping the next spaceship out of town, and they're not going to let the arrival of a snake charmer, a handsome Mormon Bishop and a mysterious bird woman stand in their way.

This is the night they will make contact!

See the show "New York Newsday" called the "most impressive debut of a new American playwright".

CLICK HERE TO READ 22 PAGE EXCERPT FROM THE PLAY

(Christine Peete as "The Reptile Woman", Florida Rep)

"The Sugar Bean Sisters"

"Hilarious!"
- The Los Angeles Times

"Authentic Southern Gothic comedy... You will enjoy recalling its deliciously lunatic lines!"
- New York Newsday

"Endearing... An exuberantly wacky comedy...Weird and wonderful!"
- The Gainesville Sun

"Deliciously offbeat... Sisterhood as an extreme sport... It's just plum impossible to resist the flights of whimsy!"
- The San Jose Mercury News

"A wildly funny script... Recommended!"
- LA Weekly

"Imaginative and fascinating!"
- Scripps Howard

"Sanders has a colorfully twisted imagination, a sharp-tongued way with one-liners and uniquely vulnerable characters who have no desire to live ordinary lives."
- The San Francisco Bay Times

"Stunning... an absolute, hilarious winner!"
- The Florida Islander

"Magical!"
- The Naples Daily News

"Fascinating and funny...marvelous and stunning... a subtle metaphor for our latter days.... "The Sugar Bean Sisters" brings up swells of emotion all over the chart!"
- Metro Weekly (Silicon Valley)

"Richly absurd... surprisingly touching... Our best recommendation!"
- Out & About Magazine

"A wacky alternative to the usual holiday fare!"
- San Jose Magazine

"'The Sugar Bean Sisters' provides an oasis from the real world, keeping us laughing and entertained in the face of grim realities... a page from the 'Weekly World News' brought to life... just plain fun!"
- Backstage

"We recommend "The Sugar Bean Sisters"!
- The Wave Magazine

"(The Sugar Bean Sisters) is a unique, genre-less show packed with laughs and a little bit of everything but the kitchen sink... chock-full of guffaws, giggles and outright hysterical laughter. By plays's end, each of the three key characters achieves the karmic consequences of their actions, and the audience is left to ponder the deeper meaning of the play. Is there a deeper meaning? Of course not, but who cares?!"
-City Pulse

"There's a whole lot of wacky in Nathan Sanders' light comic charmer!"
- The Sacramento Bee

"Nathan Sanders' Southern gothic fantasy is a potent, odd mix of Tobacco Road's shabby
poetics and Ma and Pa Kettle's whimsy, with a dollop of supermarket tabloid Weekly World News thrown in. The sisters' dreams don't evaporate under harsh reality, they metastasize!"
- Houston Press

"(an) unpretentious laugher... the theatrical equivalent of comfort food!"
- Capital Public Radio (KXJZ - Sacramento)

"Brilliant dialogue... a hilarious comedy... don't miss the opportunity to laugh out loud!"
- The Oroville Mercury Register

"Uproarious... a wonderful sight and sound experience!"
-Russian River Monthly

"Playwright Sanders has a real gift of writing in the vernacular, capturing the colorful, often very humorous phrases of his characters!"
- Aisle Say (San Francisco)

"Delightfully screwy!"
- Billings Gazette

"A fresh little alligator soufflé... a swampy good time!"
-"Dallas Morning News"

"And just wait until you see the ending - it has to be one of the craziest, unexpected, exhilaratingly satisfying endings ever staged. With special effects that leave you hyperventilating with disbelief while you are choking with laughter, it had the whole audience cheering with delight. The Sugar Bean Sisters is one story that will take you out of this world!"
- Gainesville Sun

"'The Sugar Bean Sisters' is a lively show full of Southern sass and memorable one-liners. A wacky and funny combination!"
-WhatToDoInMountDora.com

"The show is bursting with oddities so original and surprisingly cohesive that no funny bone could possible remain untouched - regardless of how old one's funny bone might be!" -Lansing's Lowdown Entertainment Guide

"If Southern Gothic is your cup of Jack Daniel's, you're more than likely to go for The Sugar Bean Sisters!" - Orlando Sentinel

"An entertaining, phantasmagorical tale... The Sugar Bean Sisters is one sweet success!"
- Vero Beach Press Journal

CLICK HERE FOR CURRENT & UPCOMING PRODUCTIONS

( Karen Garrett as Willie Mae & Daniel Osofsky as The Bishop Crumley in "The Sugar Bean Sisters")

Theatre Review: "The Sugar Bean Sisters" from the "Florida Times-Union" (October 22, 2010)

Review by Lee McDonald

Run; don't walk to get tickets to see "The Sugar Bean Sisters". This dark comedy about three sisters, who are bound by a brooding social and cultural heritage, sometimes too reflective of legacies left in southern families, is hilarious and poignant. It is ridiculous and borders on the absurd but if you are remotely in touch with the dysfunctional relationships which may occasionally plague families, suddenly you realize the dialogue is all too familiar. The play is written by Nathan Sanders and premiered in New York off Broadway more than a decade ago and has since been performed in over seventy-five regional theatres. Sanders, a native of Central Florida, set the cast in the middle of a swamp house built by the hands of the sisters' father. The sugar cane he tended seems to have a mind of its own and grows continuously though no one now tends the field. Obviously in this play, you can "raise the cane back up when it's in defeat". The sisters lost their mother while they were young, but her chair is vacant like much of the unfulfilled longing in sisters own lives. The genre of a Southern Gothic tale plays up the supernatural in relationship to the natural world; reality is cloaked in mystery, motives are ambivalent, and good and evil are often confused. The mystery of certain duality is present as a prophetic voice says, "Sometimes, you can't tell an angel from a devil."

Because the play is performed in "Black Box", the audience has a considerably intimate relationship with the actors. ABET Art Director, Celia Frank, has oriented the audience in the cane field. Your immediate impression will be the sense of smell - the sweet smell of sugar cane. For me it was nostalgic. Prepare for the sisters to take you on a strange ride which reflects unrealized dreams and missed opportunities, the tender reality of love in the midst of pain, and more than a degree of imperfection. There is a submerged frustration, anger, and even violence that are often a part of the southern family legacies which we often prefer not to examine. To be sure this is a serious play, but one that is hilariously funny and reminds you that many connections to family will push most of us to laugh to avoid the tears.

The line reflecting the real tension in the sister's relationship rings clear. "It isn't that I hated you, I just couldn't ever leave you." -- Much like the past that can not be divorced from its effects on the present and its influence on future aspirations. As one sister says, they are clearly, "up a creek in a chicken wire boat."

Under the direction of Caryl Butterly the ABET's, small, well rehearsed cast will delight and entertain you. When you leave, you may suddenly realize they left you with something to ponder. Absurdity sometimes invites a dialogue with reality, and this playwright clearly does just that.

The show opens October 22 to a sold out house. Additional performances are October 23, 29, 30, 31 and November 4, 5, and 6. To reserve your seat, call 249-7177.

Click here to read the Florida Times-Union Review on-line

CLICK HERE TO READ AN EXCERPT FROM THE PLAY

(Emmy Award-winning actress Marcia Wallace in "The Sugar Bean Sisters" at Black Hills Playhouse, SD)

CLICK HERE TO ORDER ACTING EDITION OF "THE SUGAR BEAN SISTERS" FROM DRAMATIC PUBLISHING COMPANY

(Elizabeth Murff as "Faye" in "The Sugar Bean Sisters" at Ice House Theatre, Mt. Dora, FL)

PRODUCTION HISTORY

The Sugar Bean Sisters was originally produced by the WPA
Theatre, New York City, 1995, with the following artistic team:

Faye Clementine Nettles.........................................Margo Martindale
Willie Mae Nettles.................................................................Beth Dixon
Miss Videllia Sparks........................................................Annie Golden
The Bishop Crumley..................................................David Lee Smith
The Reptile Woman.........................................Sheila Harper Linnette

Artistic Director.....................................................................Kyle Renick
By special arrangement with........................Annette Niemtzow and
Harlene Freezer

Directed by...................................................................... Evan Yionoulis

The Sugar Bean Sisters was subsequently produced by the
Hippodrome State Theatre, Gainesville, Fla., in the spring of
1995, under the direction of Mary Hausch, artistic director.
This production featured an alternate ending not seen in the
original WPA production.

The published version of the script, available from Dramatic
Publishing Company, includes changes made by the author
during rehearsals for a 10th anniversary production of The
Sugar Bean Sisters at Florida Repertory Theatre in Ft. Myers,
Fla. The production was directed by Bari Newport and opened
on May 27, 2005.

(SaDonna White is slapped by Jane Zussman in "The Sugar Bean Sisters" at Riverwalk Theatre, MI)

PREVIOUS & UPCOMING PRODUCTIONS

WPA Theatre - Off-Broadway (New York, New York) - 1995

Hippodrome State Theatre (Gainesville, Florida) - 1995
Vero Beach Theatre Guild (Vero Beach, Florida) - 1996
Los Angeles Theatre Center (Los Angeles, California) - 1999
The Pineapple Playhouse (Fort Pierce, Florida) - 2001
Bay Street Players - State Theatre (Eustis, Florida) - 2002
Company of Angels (Los Angeles, California) - 2003
Ocala Civic Theatre (Ocala, Florida) - 2004
Naropa University (Boulder, Colorado) - 2004
Florida Repertory Theatre (Fort Myers, Florida) - 2005
Greenbrier Valley Theatre (Lewisburg, West Virginia) - 2005
San Jose Stage Company (San Jose, California) - 2005
Little Theatre of New Smyrna Beach (New Smyrna Beach, Florida) - 2006
Studio Theatre (Sacramento, California) - 2006
Phoenix Theatre (Indianapolis, Indiana) - 2006
Barter Theatre - The State Theatre of Virginia (Abigdon, Virginia) - 2006
Gainesville Community Playhouse/Vam York Theater (Gainesville, Florida)-2006
Theatre Workshop of Owensboro (Owensboro, Kentucky) - 2006
The Billings Studio Theatre (Billings, Montana) - 2006
The WaterTower Theatre (Addison, Texas) - 2007
Douglas Anderson School of the Arts (Jacksonville, Florida) - 2007
Pegasus Theater Company (Monte Rio, California) - 2007
Big Sandy School (Simla, Colorado) - 2007
U.H.H.G.C.C. Community Club (Gerton, North Carolina) - 2007
Edgewood Jr/Sr High School (Merritt Island, Florida) - 2007
Depot Theatre (Westport, New York) - 2007
VLA Theatre (Killeen, Texas) - 2007
West T. Hill Community Theatre (Danville, Kentucky) - 2007
Birdcage Theatre (Oroville, California) - 2007
Theatre Winter Haven (Winter Haven, Florida) - 2008
The Company OnStage (Houston, Texas) - 2008
L'arc en Ciel Theatre (St. John, Indiana) - 2008
Mesquite Community Theatre (Mesquite, Texas) - 2008
Maud High School (Maud, Oklahoma) - 2008
North Street Playhouse (Onancock, Virginia) - 2008
Act 2! (Blytheville, Arkansas) - 2008
Ashe County Little Theatre (West Jefferson, North Carolina) - 2008
Theatre Suburbia (Houston, Texas) - 2008
Our Town Players (South Haven, Michigan) - 2008
Riverwalk Theatre (Lansing, Michigan) - 2008
Mount Dora Theatre Company (Mount Dora, Florida) - 2008
Sierra Madre Playhouse (Sierra Madre, California) - 2008
Walnut Street Theatre (Bolivar, Missouri) - 2008
Market House Theatre (Paducah, Kentucky) - 2008

Theatre MSU/Mainstage (Mississippi State, Mississippi) - 2008

Hollywood High School (Hollywood, California) - 2009
Barn Theatre (Stuart, Florida) - 2009
Naples Players (Naples, Florida) - 2009

Wasatch Theatre Company (Salt Lake City, Utah) - 2009

Clemson Little Theatre (Clemson, South Carolina) - 2009

Hamilton-Gibson Productions (Wellsboro, Pennsylvania) - 2009

Canyon Moon Theatre Company (Sedona, Arizona) - 2009

Black Hills Playhouse (Rapid City, South Dakota) - 2009

Centerville I.S.D. (Centerville, Texas) - 2009

Fayette School District R-III (Fayette, Missouri) - 2009

Snider High School (Fort Wayne, Indiana) - 2009

Tehachapi Community Theatre (Tehachapi, California) - 2009

The Delray Beach Playhouse (Delray Beach, Florida) - 2009

Royal Oak Players (Marion, Virginia) - 2009

West High School (Knoxville, Tennessee) - 2009

Belvidere High School (Belvidere, Illinois) - 2009

Winner Community Playhouse (Winner, South Dakota) - 2009

Evansville Civic Theatre (Evansville, Indiana) - 2010
Atlantic Beach Experimental Theatre (Atlantic Beach, Florida) - 2010

Madison High School (Rexburg, Idaho) - 2010

Miller Jordan Middle School (Harlingen, Texas) - 2010

Rector High School (Rector, Arkansas) - 2010

Atlantic Beach Experimental Theatre (Atlantic Beach, Florida) - 2010

Harlingen Performing Arts Center (Harlingen, Texas) - 2010

Breakthrough Theatre of Winter Park (Winter Park, Florida) - 2010

M.T. Pockets Theatre (Morgantown, West Virginia) - 2010

Raven Performing Arts Theatre (Healdsburg, California) - 2010

Andrew Jackson High School (Kershaw, South Carolina) - 2010

Marian University Theatre (Indianapolis, Indiana) -2010

John Glenn High School (Bay City, Michigan) - 2010

Garland Civic Theatre (Garland, Texas) - 2011

Waterloo Community Playhouse (Waterloo, Iowa) - 2011

Elmira Theatre Company (Elmira, Ontario CANADA) - 2011

Midland Center For The Arts (Midland, Michigan) - 2011

Ferndale Repertory Theatre (Ferndale, California) - 2011

Little Fish Theatre (San Pedro, California) - 2011

Wetumpka Depot Players (Wetumpka, Alabama) - 2011

Socorro S.I.D. (El Paso, Texas) - 2011

Community Playhouse of Lancaster (Lancaster, South Carolina) - 2011

Community Players of Pawtucket (Pawtucket, Rhode Island) - 2012

Red River Community Theatre (Bonham, Texas) - 2011

Woodstock High School (Woodstock, Illinois) - 2011

The Sault Theatre Workshop (Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario CANADA) - 2012

The Players (Indianapolis, Indiana) - 2012

Old Opera House Theatre Company (Charles Town, West Virginia) - 2012

Vernon College (Vernon, Texas) - 2012

Grandstreet Theatre (Helena, Montana) - 2012

Beavercreek Community Theatre (Beavercreek, Ohio) - 2012

Penobscot Theatre (Bangon, Maine) -2013

Tyrone Community Players (Tyrone, Pennsylvania) - 2013

Phoenix Theatre (Edmonds, Washington) - 2012

The Renaissance Center (Dickson, Tennessee ) -2013

PowPAC (Poway, California) - 2013

Episcopal Church of the Epipha (Leeds, Alabama) -2013

Kanawha Players (Charleston, West Virginia) - 2013

("The Sugar Bean Sisters" at Gainesville Playhouse, Gainesville, FL)

(WaterTower Theatre production of "The Sugar Bean Sisters")

Performance rights to "The Sugar Bean Sisters" are controlled exclusively by Dramatic Publishing Company, Inc.

Contact:

Dramatic Publishing Company
Post Office Box 129
Woodstock, IL 60098-0129

Phone: 1-800-448-7469
Fax: 1-800-334-5302

EMAIL

All other inquiries should be addressed to the author's representative:

Mr. Jerome Henry Rudes
Mistral Artist Management
c/o LVT, 609 Greenwich Street, Suite 4B
New York, New York 10014

Tel: (212) 343-1910
Fax: (212) 965-1338
Cell: (917) 848-0419

EMAIL

(Royalty arrangements and licenses must be secured in advance of presentation. "The Sugar Bean Sisters" is fully protected under the copyright laws

of the United States of America, the British Commonwealth, including Canada, and all other countries of the Copyright Union.)

("The Sugar Bean Sisters" at Gainesville Playhouse, Gainesville, FL)

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