Performance dates: May 26-June 10, 2023
Dirt Dogs Theatre Co. concludes its 2022-23 “Season of Love” with Tracy Letts’ Pulitzer Prize-winning play August: Osage County. Known for its dark humor and heart-wrenching exploration of familial relationships, the play follows the Weston family as they navigate their complex and dysfunctional bonds. With a talented cast and crew, Dirt Dogs is excited to bring this powerful production to Houston audiences.
ABOUT THE PLAY
When the large Weston family unexpectedly reunites after patriarch Dad up and disappears, their Oklahoman family homestead explodes in a maelstrom of repressed truths and unsettling secrets. A vanished father, a pill-popping mother, and three sisters harboring shady little secrets become a mixture of brutal honesty and hurtful truth as old wounds reopen and new ones form. Winner of the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for best play that same year, August: Osage County examines how people function within dysfunction.
ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT
Tracy Letts is the author of the plays Killer Joe and Man from Nebraska named one of Time Magazine’s Top Ten Plays of 2003. He is an ensemble member of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company. His appearances there include Homebody/Kabul, The Dazzle, Glengarry Glen Ross, Three Days of Rain and Picasso at the Lapin Agile. Film appearances include Guinevere, U.S. Marshals and Chicago Cab.
Television appearances include The District, Profiler, The Drew Carey Show, Home Improvement and Seinfeld. Tracy made his directing debut at the Lookingglass Theatre Company with Glen Berger’s play Great Men of Science, Nos. 21 & 22.
ABOUT THE DIRECTOR
Ron Jones returns to the helm with Dirt Dogs Theatre Co. He previously directed White Guy on the Bus and Clybourne Park for which he was a finalist for best director in the 2022 Houston Theater Awards.
With more than 45 years in the industry, Jones has directed nearly 150 productions and acted in 100. He spent the bulk of his career teaching theatre for HISD and Lone Star College before retiring. Ron currently serves as Producing Artistic Director for On the Verge Theatre and is the former Artistic Director of New Heights Theatre and of Celebration Theatre. DDTCo. Artistic Director, Malinda L. Beckham says, “Ron has the innate ability to bring a cast together both on and off the stage. This makes for one heck of an ensemble that is constantly working together to bring the most honest representation of the play and the characters. His passion for all theatre and the work it takes to tell a story is unmatched.”
Beckham serves as the show’s costume and properties designer. The remaining creative team includes Mark Lewis (scenic design), Jim Elliott (lighting design), Isaí Leal (sound design), Trevor B. Cone (production manager), Barbara Alicea-Aponte (production stage manager) and Addison Antonoff (assistant stage manager), and Valerie Lerma Puente (stagehand).
DETAILS
CALENDAR LISTING
Theatre/Performing Arts
WHAT
August: Osage County
WHO
Written by Tracy Letts
Directed by Ron Jones (77092)
| Role | Actor | (ZIP) | Previous DDTCo. credits |
| Beverly Weston | John Raley | (77024) | The Graduate (Mr. Robinson) and Twilight: Los
Angeles, 1992 (Stanley K. Sheinbaum) |
| Violet Weston | Deborah Hope* | (77092) | Dirt Dogs debut |
| Barbara Fordham | Elizabeth Marshall | (77003) | Dirt Dogs debut |
| Ivy Weston | Melissa J. Marek | (77057) | The Revolutionists (Marie Antoinette), Twilight: Los
Angeles, 1992 (Judith Tur), Boston Marriage (Claire), The Exonerated (Sue/Ensemble), Life x 3 (Inez), Five x TENN: Something Unspoken (Grace) and The Boundary (Secretary) |
| Karen Weston
|
Katrina Ellsworth | (77035) | Life x 3 (Sonia), The Exonerated (Sandra Cook/
Ensemble) and The Eight: Reindeer Monologues (Vixen) |
| Bill Fordham | Jeff Featherston | (77429) | Glengarry Glen Ross (Richard Roma) and The Eight:
Reindeer Monologues (Dasher) |
| Jean Fordham | Elena Vazquez | (77546) | Dirt Dogs debut |
| Steve Heidebrecht | Bill Giffen | (77429) | The Dead Eye Boy (Billy) Glengarry Glen Ross (Dave
Moss), The Exonerated (Jesse) and Talk Radio (Dan) |
| Mattie Fae Aiken | Elizabeth Byrd Shipsey | (77081) | White Guy on the Bus (Roz) |
| Charlie Aiken | Brian Broome | (77025) | Dirt Dogs debut |
| Little Charles | Justin Morgan Brown | (77546) | Dirt Dogs debut |
| Johnna Monevata | Elissa Cuellar | (77098) | Dirt Dogs debut |
| Sheriff Deon Gilbeau | Brad Goertz | (77377) | Dirt Dogs debut |
* The Actor appears through the courtesy of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.
WHEN
May 26–June 10, 2023
PERFORMANCES
Opening night
Friday, May 26, 2023 (followed by a champagne reception)
Evenings
8pm | Fridays & Saturdays, May 26, 27 and June 2, 3, 9 & 10
7:30pm | Thursdays, June 1 & 8
7:30pm | Monday, May 29
Matinees
2pm | Sundays, May 28 & June 4
Talk back (with director and cast)
Thursdays, June 1 & 8 | after the performance
Approximate run time
2 hours, 45 minutes (two 10-minute intermissions)
WHERE
MATCH – Midtown Arts & Theater Center Houston
Matchbox 3, The John P. McGovern Foundation Theater, 3400 Main St., Houston, TX 77002
BOX OFFICE
713.521.4533 | https://matchouston.org/events/2023/august-osage-county
TICKETS
Single tickets, $30
Matinees and Industry Mondays are “Pay What You Can”