Catwoman does O’Neill, Leadership void for TheatreFIRST, `White Boy’ extends again

November 18, 10:29 AMSF Theater ExaminerChad Jones

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MEOW! San Francisco native Lee Meriwether, best
known for playing Catwomanin the 1966 movie version
of"Batman," comes home to play Mary Tyrone in
Eugene O'Neill's "Long Day's Journey Into Night."

Lee Meriwether has had a long, distinguished career that stretches from her beauty queen days as Miss San Francisco, Miss California and eventually Miss America in the mid-‘50s to her stint alongside Buddy Ebsen on TV’s “Barnaby Jones” in the ‘70s.

But Meriwether will probably always be best known for playing Catwoman in the 1966 movie version of “Batman.”

A graduate of the Community College of San Francisco, Meriwether is back on her old stomping grounds in one of American drama’s toughest roles: drug-addicted matriarch Mary Tyrone in Eugene O’Neill’s “Long Day’s Journey Into Night.”

The production, directed by Susan Jackson, a board member of the Danville-based Eugene O’Neill Foundation, continues at 8 p.m. Nov. 20-22 and 2 p.m. Nov. 23 at the Diego Rivera Theatre, 50 Phelan Ave., San Francisco. Tickets are $15 general, $10 for students. Call 415-452-5185.

THEATREFIRST SEEKS LEADER

No one ever said running a small theater company was easy.

Last summer, TheatreFIRST founding artistic director Clive Chafer handed leadership of the company over to Dylan Russell and Allison Studdiford as artistic director and producing director respectively.

Last month, this passing of the baton was celebrated at a gala event at Oakland's Chapel of the Chimes.
The story does not end there.

A press release sent out today stated that on Nov. 6, Russell and Studdiford resigned their positions. The release did not cite any reasons but did add that the TheatreFIRST Board of Directors "accepted their resignations with regret and wished them well in their future artistic endeavors."

 This leaves TheatreFIRST without a leader or a director for its spring production of Harold Pinter's “Old Times,” so now the company is searching for both.

Inquiries about the position of artistic director should be sent to Christine Dover, Board President, at christinedover@aol.com; inquiries about the position of director for the spring production should be sent to Clive Chafer at clive@theatrefirst.com.

`ANGRY BLACK WHITE BOY’ KEEPS GOING

Intersection for the Arts and Campo Santo are literally turning dozens of people away each night because the waiting list for their hit “Angry Black White Boy” is so long. It seems everyone wants a piece of Dan Wolf’s dynamic, engrossing stage adaptation of the book by Adam Mansbach.

To help accommodate the clamoring crowds, this world-premiere production has been extended through Nov. 30. Tickets are $15-$25 on a sliding scale. Intersection for the Arts is at 446 Valencia St., San Francisco. Call 800-838-3006 or visit www.brownpapertickets.com  or www.theintersection.org.