Smithereen Productions would like to announce its first full-scale production,
SPIKE HEELS
A play set to premiere at The Underground Collaborative in April 2013! 

February 12^th, 2012 – Spike Heels is a two act play about Andrew, struggling writer and college professor, who takes in working-class Georgie as his “student” of the proper ways of modern middle-class society while simultaneously falling in love with her. Andrew’s friend Edward, a hot-shot lawyer who took Georgie on as a secretary as a favor to Andrew, falls for her as well but in a more…aggressively sexual way, ensnaring himself and Georgie in an incident of harassment and power play in the workplace. This untraditional love triangle makes room for a fourth with the entrance of Lydia, Edward’s ex and Andrew’s fiancée, and thus Georgie’s…foe…or maybe her ally? Lines are blurred in this intense dark comedy full of fast-paced dialogue rife with “stinging one liners” (N.Y. Daily News) and “tart wit” (Time). In the playwright’s words, this is a retelling of “the Pygmalion story with contemporary, comic and sinister spin,” exploring the complicated confusion of modern-day relationships and challenging the American sexual status-quo.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Spike Heels is written by Theresa Rebeck, an accomplished playwright, television writer, screenwriter, and producer, whose works have been produced all over the United States and abroad. Her play Dead Accounts is currently running on Broadway featuring the talents of Katie Holmes, Norbert Leo Butz, and Judy Greer to name a few, and garnering high accolades from all critical corners. Her play Seminar, for which she was a Pulitzer Prize finalist, has featured both the talents of Jeff Goldblum and Alan Rickman as lead. Locally, her play Mauritius was produced by Milwaukee Chamber Theatre as part of its 2010-2011 season. Her television credits include writing for L.A. Law, Third Watch, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, and NYPD Blue, as well as notoriety as creator and executive producer of NBC’s musical drama Smash. While her

accomplishments span a multitude of creative genres and mediums, as she says in her Introduction to the Complete Plays 1989-1998 by Theresa Rebeck, “…There are many ways to categorize me, and my work. But for myself, I would most like to be considered a playwright.”

PERFORMANCES
April 18, 19, 20

22*, 25*, 26, 27

All performances 7:30pm @ The Underground Collaborative

* a Pay What You Can performance.

COMMENTARY

“Stinging one liners.” N.Y. Daily News.
“Places a superior wryly pleasing …fashionable feminist spin on sexual shenanigans. Neatly written with smart funny lines.” - N.Y. Post.

“Full of tart wit, feminist insight and quirky detours of plot.” Time.

CHARACTERS

GEORGIE- Born on the “wrong” side of the tracks, she is the only one from her family to move to the city and acquire a job with which to support herself and separate herself from her roots. She is finding quickly that maybe the American Dream is not all it’s cut out to be, and sometimes being polite still only has as much pull as being seductive. Sassy and witty, hot-tempered and on a short fuse, she is also sincerely trying to

educate herself and become a more well-read, well-rounded person, at the risk of becoming a successful member of white-collar society, and working for and dealing with the “guys in suits.”

ANDREW- Sensitive, sweet, cautious, a thinker. Professor of political philosophy, a reader, a heartfelt elitist of sorts. He loves and respects women and sees them (he likes to believe) as the people they are, not the objects they are so often told they are. A misguided altruist at heart, and engaged to be married to Lydia, he struggles with his desire of sensual, hot-tempered Georgie.

EDWARD- Hot-shot criminal defense lawyer. Self-important, reactionary, and overtly aware of his own intelligence and success, but ultimately still human. Deeply flawed, but human. Enjoys provoking others for the sake of reaction, and argues—aggressively— until he wins like any good lawyer should.

LYDIA- Andrew’s fiancee, and thus The Scorned Woman to Georgie’s “other woman.” While we hear nothing but insults about her appearance and her character throughout Act I, Act II reveals a betrayed woman with a hardened exterior, but who underneath it all is kind-hearted and discovers the alliance with fellow women to outweigh the sexual alliance with men.

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For more information on this production please call or email Mary Baird at the above listed contact.

www.SmithereenProductions.com