From April 26th through May 4th, UMBC's Department of Theatre presents North Shore Fish by Israel Horovitz. The production is directed by Vincent Lancisi, with set and costume design by Elena Zlotescu, lighting and sound design by Terry Cobb, and vocal and dialect coaching by Lynn Watson. Showtimes are April 26 & 27 and May 3 & 4 at 8 pm; April 28 and May 2 at 4 pm, and a preview on April 25 at 8 pm. The May 2 performance is free to the UMBC campus community.
Rich, raunchy, red blood flows through the veins of North Shore Fish, a painfully real and funny slice of life in a failing frozen fish processing plant in Gloucester, Massachusetts, where the characters fight to save the only jobs they know. In this Pulitzer Prize nominated play, the once prosperous North Shore Fish plant has been reduced to processing frozen blocks of fish for TV dinners. Managing the plant is a sexual predator who thinks his employees should cater to his desires in exchange for their jobs.
In 1987, Horovitz told Joe Brown at The Washington Post, "Some years ago I started a cycle of plays that really had as a purpose no more or less than just trying to get down what life was like in our time in our little spot on the planet Earth. And it used to be that the fisherman [in Gloucester] came up the shore, sold his fish, there was a processing plant, they cut the fish, froze it, packaged it and sold it. Now the fish business is run by guys in suits and ties in Boston and L.A. and Washington who broker these big blocks of fish, they never see them. Anyway, the fish people, who used to have this kind of heroic view of themselves, still do this kind of terrible work because it keeps them in the fish business."
The author's own adaptation was made into a feature film in 1996 starring Mercedes Ruehl, Peter Riegert, Tony Danza and Carroll Baker.
The prolific Israel Horovitz has written fifty plays over the course of his career. He is best known for The Indian Wants the Bronx, which introduced Al Pacino; Line, which introduced Richard Dreyfus; It's Called The Sugar Plum; Rats; and Morning. Horovitz is Artistic Director and Producer at The Gloucester Stage, and also Founder and Artistic Director of the New York Playwrights Lab. In addition to his work for the stage, Horovitz has written several screenplays, including The Deuce (The Gloucester Waterfront), Payofski's Discovery, The Pan, Astor Hair, The Quiet Room, The Strong Man, and Letters to Iris. Mr. Horovitz is a winner of 2 OBIE Awards, an Emmy, the Prix du Plaisir de Théâtre (Paris), Prix du Jury (Cannes Film Festival), the New York Drama Desk Award, the Los Angeles Critics Prize, an Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Eliott Norton Prize.
Guest director Vincent Lancisi is the artistic director of Everyman Theatre, which he founded in November of 1990 with the debut production of The Runner Stumbles. He has directed plays in Baltimore, Washington, D.C., and Boston for over fifteen years, including The Crucible, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Amadeus, Oleanna, and Buried Child. Mr. Lancisi has taught directing at Towson University and The Catholic University of America. He is a founding board member of the Baltimore Theatre Alliance, and has been a theatre panelist for the Maryland State Arts Council.
Tickets are $10 general admission, $8 for UMBC faculty and staff, and $5 for students and seniors. The preview is $3. Reservations, which are strongly recommended, can be made through the Theatre Box Office at x52476.
Please note that the performance originally scheduled for Sunday, April 5, has been canceled.
