Jewish Theatre of the South Presents Hank Kimmel's Shorts, A World Premiere Comedy

Jewish Theatre of the South (JTS) premieres “Hank Kimmel's Shorts,” a hilarious collection of Woody Allen-esque short plays by Atlanta playwright Hank Kimmel, April 28 – May 20, 2007. (Preview performances: April 25-27.) Directed by JTS Artistic Director Mira Hirsch, “Hank Kimmel's Shorts” is a comic cornucopia of our daily fears and eternal hopes, played out on the all-American landscapes of shopping malls, soccer fields, international airports and the local neighborhood pharmacy.

Andrew Benator stars as an “everyman” character who bears an auspicious resemblance to the playwright himself. Benator is the thread who carries “Hank Kimmel's Shorts” from setting to setting with a series of self-deprecating monologues doused in heavy doses of social anxiety. An Atlanta native, Benator recently returned to his home city after a establishing his professional acting career in New York. A standout as Ira Zimmer in the JTS production of Donald Margulies' “Brooklyn Boy,” last fall, Benator may be familiar to television audiences as “Bigboy,” from a series of recent CitiBank commercials.

JTS favorites Megan Hayes (Affluenza!, Chopped Liver in Paradise) and Marcie Millard (Funny Girl) join JTS newcomers Enoch King, Jeffrey Zwartjes, and twelve-year-old Benjamin Appley-Epstein in the comic acting ensemble, playing a plethora of roles, including busybody neighbors, disgruntled lawyers, and even an enthusiastic mall Santa and his elves.

“Hank's work has a unique sensibility that is at once familiar and surprising,” says Mira Hirsch, Jewish Theatre of the South's Artistic Director, who has helped dramaturge Kimmel's work into this world premiere compilation. JTS has workshopped several of Kimmel's short plays through the theater's ‘A Jewish Theatrical Buffet' bi-annual playreading series.

Says Hirsch, “At some point during a post-show discussion during the “Buffet” last season, I remarked to Hank and the audience that ‘maybe it was time to stage a whole evening of Hank's work.” Hirsch adds, “I then said to Hank – ‘I even have a title ready to go – Hank Kimmel's Shorts!' We had produced staged readings of at least eight of his short plays over the past several years. I thought – why not put it all together? The audience enjoyed his work tremendously. And when Andrew (Benator) read Hank's monologues, I knew that I had found the perfect voice to bring Hank's work to theatrical life.”

Kimmel, who divides his time between careers as an attorney, tennis pro and playwright, also serves as Chairman of the Board for Atlanta's Working Title Playwrights and as an active volunteer with Georgia Lawyers for the Arts. He has penned sixty-two plays (to date), with forty-four of them having been publicly presented in some sort of theatrical format. “Hank Kimmel's Shorts” marks his full-length fully-staged theatrical debut.

“Hank Kimmel's Shorts,” will feature original music by Atlanta composer Kendall Simpson (Suzi Award winner, 2006), set design by Travis George (Born Guilty/Peter And The Wolf (and Me), The Ride Down Mount Morgan, Affluenza!, JTS), lighting design by Chris Crawford (Born Guilty/Peter And The Wolf (And Me), Brooklyn Boy, JTS), and costumes by Linda Patterson (Born Guilty/Peter And The Wolf (And Me), Brooklyn Boy, Chopped Live In Paradise, JTS).

Single ticket prices for “Hank Kimmel's Shorts” are $18 - $35, with discounts for students, seniors, groups and MJCCA members.

All Jewish Theatre of the South performances take place in the Morris & Rae Frank Theatre, located at the MJCCA, 5342 Tilly Mill Road, Dunwoody. All performances run Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday nights at 8pm; Sundays at 3pm. Each Opening Night Saturday is preceded by three reduced-price previews: Wednesdays at 8pm; Thursdays at 8pm and a Friday “Coffee Series” performance, which for this production, will run at 2:30 pm.

For additional information, please contact: Lora Sommer, Public Relations Coordinator at 770.395.2603, lora.sommer@atlantajcc.org; or Mira Hirsch, Artistic Director at 770.395.2613, mira.hirsch@atlantajcc.org. For ticket information and purchase, call the JTS Box Office at 770.395.2654; e-mail at jts@atlantajcc.org; or buy tickets on-line at www.jplay.org.