Robert Returns
Friday June 2 & Saturday June 3
Doors open at 7:00 | Show starts at 7:30
Story Parlor | 227 Haywood Road
Tickets $15 | Parking
Tickets and details available below. For questions, contact The Sublime Theater and Press.
In 2009, writer/performer John Crutchfield and producer/director Steven Samuels helped launch an Asheville theater company dedicated to original plays with Crutchfield’s The Songs of Robert, about a romantic high-schooler who leaves his hometown in Southern Appalachia to become an artist. The show sold out multiple houses and won an Outstanding Performance Award at The New York International Fringe Festival. Now, Crutchfield and Samuels’ Sublime Theater returns with Robert Returns, A Journey with Songs, which finds Robert in middle age, a successful singer-songwriter who returns to his hometown in the wake of the passing of his friend and mentor, Ol' Preacher. Robert encounters long-lost friends, a town changed beyond recognition, and a startling set of circumstances that force him to take stock of his life and the road ahead. No knowledge of the original production required to enjoy this funny, trenchant, music-filled show, in which the remarkable Crutchfield portrays more than a dozen characters, including Robert's guardian angel. Successful performances at the BeBe Theatre last September and at The Cathedral of All Souls this past March have prompted us to offer Asheville audiences two more chances to see this remarkable show, and we’re very excited to offer them at Story Parlor.
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About John Crutchfield
John Crutchfield (Playwright/Performer) has worked for more than 20 years in professional theater in the U.S. and Germany. His plays include The Songs of Robert, Ruth, The Labyrinth, Solstice, Twelve Treatises on Memory, Landscape with Missing Person, The Strange and Tragical Adventures of Pinocchio, Ivory, Come Thick Night, The Jacob Higginbotham Show, Malverse, TRNZ, and My Crazy My Love, as well as numerous shorter works. With Steven Samuels, with whom he’s collaborated for more than a decade, he co-founded The Sublime Theater & Press in 2018. At present, he also teaches German at nearby UNCA and works freelance as a translator.
About Steven Samuels
Steven Samuels (Producer/Director), who has a bad habit of co-founding theater companies, managed and occasionally acted with New York’s Ridiculous Theatrical Company, was senior editor of TCG Books and American Theatre magazine, and served as artistic associate at Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. Founding artistic director of Asheville’s Magnetic Theatre, he oversaw 53 world premieres in the course of eight years, directing more than two dozen himself and writing, among others, When Jekyll Met Hyde, Love Among the Frankensteins, The Merchant of Asheville, The Improbables, and American Arcade. In addition to acting in some of his own plays, he appeared as Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman and Dr. Sorn in Stupid Fucking Bird. For Montford Park Players, he played Orgon in Tartuffe, which he also directed, and Shylock in The Merchant of Venice. For The Sublime, he directed TRNZ, Rules and How To Break Them, and My Crazy My Love, in which he also appeared, and played Krapp in “Krapp’s Last Tape.” Robert Returns is the eighth John Crutchfield play he’s had the privilege of directing.