Six of renowned American author Raymond Carver’s strikingly realistic short stories will be brought to life on stage during “An Evening of Raymond Carver Stories,” presented by Field’s End Saturday, Aug. 16 at Bainbridge Performing Arts.
This special, one-night-only event is a benefit for Field’s End and the Young Writer’s Program and is being produced in partnership with the Northwest Actors Lab. It will be directed by Dinah Manoff and features special guest Tess Gallagher.
Gallagher, the author of eight volumes of critically praised poetry, is Carver’s widow and also spearheaded the publication of his “Beginners” in the Library of America’s complete collection of his stories.
Raymond Carver, often called “America’s Chekhov,” was born in Clatskanie, Oregon in 1938, and would ultimately rise from a traumatic, poverty-stricken childhood and the depths of a notorious drinking problem to become one of the most influential American authors of the century.
Doors open for the special performance at BPA at 6 p.m.; tickets are $25.
Dessert, coffee and a no-host bar will be offered during the intermission.
This is the first such dramatic reading performance based on the work of one author that the Northwest Actors Lab has done, Manoff said.
Even so, she added, the choice of using the works of Carver was a simple one.
“I came to Raymond Carver long before I moved to the Northwest,” she explained. “It was only a bonus to me that he was from this region, and so much of his material was based here. I came to Carver when I was in my 20s, and I just fell in love with his work.”
From the viewpoint of an actor, Manoff said, the six stories chosen for this production — including the famous “Cathedral” story — are perfect in that they have a great deal of dialogue and action.
“I also think that I responded to him because his characters are so fleshed out,” Manoff said of the author. “And, as an actor, I could really wrap myself around those characters. They were so clear, and when I started teaching acting the very first class I taught, I taught a class based on Raymond Carver characters.”
