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Prospect Theater’s ‘Happy Days’ Plans Virtual Opening Sept. 18
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Happy Days, available for streaming as part of the Prospect Theater Project, offers only two characters: Winnie, a woman of about 50, and Willie, a man of about 60. Photo Contributed

The Prospect Theater Project boldly opens its 20th Anniversary Season with Samuel Beckett’s Happy Days.

Once again, stripping theater to its barest essentials, Happy Days offers only two characters: Winnie, a woman of about 50, and Willie, a man of about 60. The complex interplay between words and visual images finds the two caught up in repetition, the deadening impact of habit, the recurrence of trauma, and the recourse to familiar and reassuring words or phrases in the face of annihilation.

“Beckett often wrote about trauma and how we cope, or are unable to cope, with traumas,” said Prospect Theatre Project Artistic Director, Jack Souza. “After seven months of dealing with a pandemic, looking to Beckett to offer perspective on our response to our circumstances was an easy choice. It is easy for us to put ourselves in Winnie’s place. The landscape of the play is a psychological setting; set more in the mind than a geographical location.”

This is the first fully produced play Prospect Theater Project has presented digitally. Audience members will stream the show at their convenience, in the comfort of their own homes. With many theaters facing closure due to the ongoing pandemic, Prospect Theater Project views this time as an opportunity to find innovative ways to connect with their audience.

Directed by Nick Zagone, the cast includes CSU Stanislaus Assistant Professor of Acting and Directing, Carin J. Heidelbach as Winnie, and Prospect Theater Project’s Artistic Director, Jack Souza as Willie. Happy Days will be available for streaming from Sept. 18 through 28, 2020. Tickets for Happy Days will be $20. Visit prospecttheaterproject.org or call 209.549.9341 for more ticket information and reservations.

For over 20 years, Prospect Theater Project has promoted community growth by presenting insightful and innovative works of theater in a uniquely intimate performance space. For more information, visit prospecttheaterproject.org.