New Jersey Stage

Saturday, September 24, 2011

Cape May Stage Presents Nancy Hasty in "Florida Girls"

(Cape May, NJ) -– In the tradition of Lily Tomlin and Whoopi Goldberg, Cape May Stage, South Jersey's premier Equity theatre, is delighted to welcome playwright and actress Nancy Hasty to the Robert Shackleton Playhouse in her one-woman play, Florida Girls.  Join her as part of Cape May Stage's Second Stage Broadway Series as she single-handedly creates 15 unique and hilarious true-to life characters on Monday, October 3 at 8pm.

Florida Girls is a fascinating, funny play that takes place in Crestview, FL, circa 1965 and focuses on the upheaval in a middle class family where two daughters compete in a high school beauty pageant.  Hasty performs each distinctly drawn character, at times simultaneously, demonstrating an energy and originality rarely seen on, off, or off off Broadway. "Unique in its own right, Florida Girls merits a place alongside Steel Magnolias and Garrison Keillor's Prairie Home Companion," says the Pennsacola News Journal.

Hasty's plays have been produced in New York, internationally, regionally, and on tour.  Her play, The Director, starring John Shea, ran off-Broadway for over six months to critical and popular acclaim, and won "Recommended Play" status from The New York Times.  Florida Girls toured several states after it's off-Broadway run and she continues to perform it around the country.  Her most recent play, Lawnchairs, was produced this season at Scranton's Electric Theatre Company.    In Pennsylvania, she has been playwright-in-residence and taught both acting and writing at area colleges and schools.  Currently, she is directing her fifth production within the Lackawanna County Prison, where she works in partnership with visual artist, Elizabeth Parry-Faist.

As an actress, Nancy has starred off-Broadway in her own plays, most notably Florida Girls and Bobbi Boland.  Other NY productions include her one-woman show, Yankee Women (The Triad), Lady Macbeth in Shakespeare's Macbeth (William Redfield Theater), Mary in The Botticelli Game (American Renaissance Theater).

Nancy is the 2009 First Place winner for the Jerry Kaufman Playwriting Award in New York; a top finalist at the Eugene O'Neill Playwrights Festival, first place winner in the James Dickey Poetry Competition, and this year‘s "Artist of the Year" in Northeastern Pennsylvania.  Hasty's work has been published by Smith & Krauss and Broadway Play Publishing.

Part of Cape May Stage's Second Stage Broadway Series, Nancy Hasty will appear Monday, October 3rd at 8pm at the Robert Shackleton Playhouse at the corner of Bank and Lafayette Streets in downtown Cape May.  Tickets are $20. Call (609) 884-1341 for reservations and information or visit the theatre's website, www.capemaystage.com.

Cape May Stage's Second Stage Series is presented through the gracious support of Chris and Dave Clemans.

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