Well, at least there should be plenty of good seats …
Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams, the well-known, upscale home furnishings "boutique" in Buckhead, will take on a new role for few nights next month.
Literally.
On May 19, the award-winning Serenbe Playhouse will venture from its lush farmland setting in south Fulton county and start a three-show run of "Buyer & Cellar" inside the store on bustling Peachtree Street. The comedic play, the first in a brand-new Serenbe series called "Intimate Indoors," is fiction rooted in somewhat unbelievable fact.
What’s real: Mega-star Barbra Streisand has such a passion for design and collecting that she’s created a private shopping mall featuring her stuff in the basement of her Malibu estate.
What’s been made-up by “Buyer & Cellar” playwright Jonathan Tolins: An unemployed actor named Alex is hired to work in the mall and develops a strange and wonderful relationship with its one-and-only “customer,” La Streisand.
The play was an instant smash when in premiered in 2013 at an Off Broadway theater where the spare set left the mall mostly to audience members’s imagination. Serenbe so far isn’t saying much about how the store will fit into the production, though the actor who’ll portray Alex thinks it can’t help playing a major role:
“Bringing this story to a site specific location like a furniture store in Atlanta is so exciting,” said Nick Cearley, who’s played the role in various productions around the country. “The world of the play is so fantastical, I can only imagine the physical surroundings of the store will serve to enhance the hilarious story in ways never brought to the piece before.”
It's another case of Sernebe Playhouse thinking outside the box. Or, inside it, in this case.
The six-year-old professional theater located in the sustainable live-work-play Serenbe community is committed to producing site-specific performances and programs that “connect art, nature and community.” Translation: They do innovative shows outdoors, whether it’s a production of “The Secret Garden” performed in the English Garden at Serenbe or “Oklahoma,” performed in in a pasture with a hay barn and Curly entering on a horse.
Coming indoors for a couple of shows is just a natural extension of its focus, says founder Brian Clowdus.
“Staying true to our mission of being site specific, we are bringing The Playhouse into the city,” said Clowdus , who’s also Serenbe Playhouse’s Artistic/Executive Director. “Titles that would never make sense outside but still flourish in an intimate indoor setting is what this new series it all about.”
Indeed, the second production in the Intimate Indoors series, "ART," is a Tony Award winning play about the colliding worlds of friendship and art. It will be performed in September — where else? — inside the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center.
"Buyer & Cellar" will be performed at 8 p.m. May 19 - 21. For information or to purchse tickets ($20 - $25) go to www.serenbeplayhouse.com.
