by Doug Hoehn

A disabled veteran of the Iraq war meets a college athlete who given up on her life. After an explosive confrontation, they discover mutual strength and the beginning of love.

Ryan Schulze (Dirk) is proud to be making his third appearance at the Sixth At Penn theater. The role of Dirk Bogarde in Doug Hoehn's FOURTH STREET BRIDGE is the best of his young career. The character and the writing were a pleasure to embrace as he gets to display almost every emotion, as well as create multiple voices on stage and test his abilities as an actor and performer. Ryan's credits include the Foreign Priest and Satan in BROTHERS ALL (6th @ Penn), the Lieutenant in MY THREE ANGELS (Coronado Playhouse), participation in the "24 Hour Theater" project at Sixth At Penn, and various plays at the Faultline Theatre. He also just finished shooting a small part in the feature length film, GONK. When not pursuing the art of acting, Ryan spends his time and pays the bills as a whipping boy on a local morning radio show.

Katharine Tremblay (Tasha) was last seen at 6th@Penn as R.V. in Jane Martin’s Middle Aged White Guys. Other San Diego credits include Let’s Murder Marsha at PowPAC and Go Back for Murder at Lamplighter’s Theater. Katharine earned her BA in Theater at Vanderbilt University, while there she was a part of such shows as Comedy of Errors, Tony Kushner’s A Dybbuk, and the Tennessee premier of The Laramie Project. Katharine has also had the privilege of studying abroad at The British American Drama Academy. She would like to thank her wonderful friends, family, and boyfriend for their continued love and support.

A couple in their late seventies must cope with Alzheimer's Disease and their own guilt and recrimination over a mistake in the past... until their daughter uncovers a long-hidden secret.

Patrick Hubbard (Ed) appeared in 2006 AASD’s Festival of One Acts – Face of God & Cowboy Bo, “What’s Wrong With This Picture” at the Broadway Theatre (Vista), Amadeus at the Westgate Hotel, and Ten Little Indians at the Coronado Playhouse. This is his 2nd show at 6th @ Penn. He has appeared in over 20 productions including shows at the Old Globe and Le Petit Theatre de Vu Carre in New Orleans. His favorite saying is one once shared by Leonard Nimoy- Theatre is food for the soul. He thanks everyone who supports San Diego theatre. Without you we wouldn’t be here.

Joan Westmoreland (Ingrid) is making her second appearance at 6th @ Penn, having recently been seen as Clothilda Mannering in Middle-Aged White Guys. Joan’s San Diego theater credits span a period of more than twenty years, but her favorite (and most challenging) roles have been Edith in Charles Mee’s First Love, Helene Hanff in 84, Charing Cross Road, Fonsia in The Gin Game—and, of course—this one! She is honored to be a part of this wonderful show with its fine cast and crew, and can’t wait for the “curtain” to go up!

Barbara Cole (Veronica) This is Barbara's debut at 6th @ Penn.  She was most recently seen at the San Diego Actors Festival performing/work-shopping her original one woman show: The Rocking Chair Riddle, which was the "prequel" to her '04 solo festival piece, Surviving Chrysalis (Best of Fest). Other stage credits include Turtle Shopping (Jenny), Fritz Blitz; Mack & Mable (Lottie), Adams Ave. Theatre;�Conversation in the Kitchen (Deborah), 05 Actors Festival; and Hyper Focus (Mom), Playwrights Project. Barbara holds her BFA in Drama from SDSU. She dedicates tonight's performance to her grandfather, Melvin "King" Cole.  More at:  www.BarbaraColeActs.com

Doug Hoehn (Writer/Director) worked for eight years as Theatre Critic for the weekly newspaper Columbus Alive.  He is also the former Artistic Director of Bread and Circus Theatre Company in Columbus, Ohio.  He has worked as a producer (Luther, The Glass Menagerie), playwright (Little Brown Mice, This Being’s Lease), set designer (Night, Mother), and director (The Coal Camp Madonna, Bloody Poetry, Kiss of the Spider Woman.)  He bears the distinction of having once played one-seventh of a giant pig (do not ask which seventh) and of having nearly been electrocuted in badly-wired theatre lighting booths on two separate occasions in cities hundreds of miles apart, experiences which have made him a strong supporter of both PETA and OSHA.  He dedicates the production of these one-act plays to Cheryl.

Rena Lyon (Stage Manager) studied theater at Wright State University in a mid-western town called Dayton, Ohio. This is her second production in San Diego, the first being Einstein Come Through at North Coast Repertory Theater as Assistant Stage Manager. As many, she began as an actress, but discovered the magic of being a stage manager; it was one thing to be on-stage in front of the audience but a compltley different world to run the whole thing. She is thrilled to be working with Doug again, having previously worked with him on The Coal Camp Madonna as Stage Manager at Bread and Circus. Her first major production was working at the Galveston Island Outdoor Theater. It was there she found out, that the Stage Manager is also responsible for sweeping the 3” inches of mucky rainwater out of the rehearsal space! Ok maybe it isn’t always fun and exciting, much like the reality of any real love, but it is one of the most rewarding moments in life; to see the audience wait with baited breath as the house lights dim and the stage lights brighten…

DIRECTOR’S NOTES

These one act plays are love stories, but love without ambivalence is just routine sentimentality.  In “Fourth Street Bridge”, the life-weary Tasha sternly declares that she does not want sex or to be “saved.”  Oh, really?  While this star athlete is tired of being chalked up as another objective statistic, her sexual desire and her will to survive are re-inflamed when the right man recognizes her personal worth.  Dirk is even more of a study in ambivalence.  Eager to help a stranger, he is fast and merciless with a caustic witticism or a clever literary allusion when his own vulnerability is threatened. It takes the relatively unread but emotionally raw Tasha to see through Dirk’s self-assured façade and to reach out to the lonely man. 

In “Sea Change”, two people who have been together for over fifty years now face the desolation of Alzheimer’s Disease.  Ingrid wants to take care of Ed, but what exactly drives her?  Does she want to preserve the heavenly moments of a good marriage, or does she want to consistently re-invent a private hell by haranguing her husband about infidelities he can no longer remember, let alone atone for?  Their restless, cynical daughter Veronica can spot with devastating accuracy the false notes in Ingrid’s caretaking, but Veronica’s own life of broken marriages and job changes suggests a shaky platform for her judgment calls.  Love sustains this family, though sometimes just barely, and love will influence the overwhelming choice that Veronica must make.