A Noise Within Announces TOBACCO ROAD Reading, 1/8

A Noise Within (ANW), the acclaimed classical repertory theatre company, offers a free, one-night-only reading of Jack Kirkland's powerful drama TOBACCO ROAD on Tuesday, January 8, 2013, 7 pm, in its new state-of-the-art Pasadena theatre. Directed by Apollo Dukakis and featuring A Noise Within resident artists, this Depression-Era Broadway blockbuster, which exposes the South's social and racial injustices with biting satirical humor, portrays an ignorant, dysfunctional and hardscrabble family of Georgia sharecroppers whose spirits are as depleted as the soil in which they toil. Family patriarch Jeeter Lester and his clan are caught up in the excesses of evangelism and the dark side of lust as they strive just to survive the devastation of poverty. Tobacco Road, based on the novel by Erskine Caldwell, holds the record as the second longest running non-musical in Broadway history.

The reading, for which reservations are recommended, is designed to compliment ANW's production of Frank Galati's adaptation of John Steinbeck's masterpiece Grapes of Wrath, which plays in repertory from February 23 to May 11, 2013 (previews begin February 16.

The cast features ANW Resident Artists Mitchell Edmonds (Jeeter Lester), Deborah Strang (Ada, his wife), Rafael Goldstein (Dude, his son), Alison Elliott (Ellie May, his daughter), Elizabeth Claire Lambert (Pearl, his daughter), Stephen Rockwell (Lov), Jill Hill (Sister Bessie Rice), Joel Swetow (Captain Tim), William Hunt (George Payne), James Ferrero (Henry Peabody) and Marnie Crossen (Grandma Lester).

A Noise Within, led by Producing Artistic Directors Geoff Elliott and Julia Rodriguez-Elliott, is the only year-round classical repertory company in Southern California and one of only a handful in the entire country dedicated solely to producing classical dramatic literature in the repertory tradition of rotating productions with a resident company of professional artists. It has been lauded by critics as a "premiere classical theatre company," and an "outstanding ensemble" whose "vibrantly theatrical" "brilliant productions" are "freshly imagined," "exceptional," "invigorating," "riveting," "brilliantly atmospheric," "inspired," and "masterfully crafted." Founded 21 years ago, ANW quickly established itself as one of the region's key theatre companies, attracting fiercely loyal audiences and consistently high praise from the media for its productions and as a key force in arts education. The company has presented more than 140 plays from the classics of world literature, each season producing works from authors ranging from Shakespeare and Molière to Ibsen, O'Neill and Shaw to Miller and Williams. A Noise Within completed its milestone 2011-12 Season and 20th Anniversary in its permanent new home, a 33,000 square-foot, state-of-the-art venue in Pasadena, in May 2012.

Media sponsors for A Noise Within's 2012-13 Season are Pasadena Star-News and KPCC 89.3 FM.

A NOISE WITHIN is located on the corner of Foothill Boulevard and Sierra Madre Villa Avenue at 3352 East Foothill Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91107. For information and reservations, call (626) 356-3127 or visit www.ANoiseWithin.org.