The Beauty Queen of Leenane
By Martin McDonagh
Directed by Paul J. Potenza
Mar. 13 – Apr. 7, 2024
Shimberg Playhouse, Straz Center for the Performing Arts
Weekly Planet Best of the Bay
- Best Costume Designer – Katrina Stevenson
- 2003 Top Ten Production
Tampa Tribune
- Best of 2003
Set in a small town in the mountains of Connemara, County Galway, The Beauty Queen of Leenane tells the darkly comic tale of Maureen Folan, a woman who feels like anything but a beauty queen.
After a lifetime spent caring for her bullying tyrant of a mother, 40-year-old Maureen feels that she has been robbed of any chance of romance or a life of her own. However, Maureen is far from a self-pitying spinster. Every bit as ruthless as her mother, Maureen gets a wicked thrill out of serving her mother lumpy food. As the play develops, the audience discovers that’s the least of the ill-deeds.
When true love finally does come along for Maureen, the two women lock horns until scores are settled. With plot twists and story conundrums, The Beauty Queen of Leenane will have audiences laughing aloud one moment and covering their mouths in stunned silence the next.
About The Playwright
After writing a number of plays in a very short period of time, McDonagh has since become a successful screenwriter, winning awards and enjoying box office success with films like Six Shooter, In Bruges, and most recentlySeven Psychopaths. His most recently play, A Behanding in Spokane, starred Sam Rockwell and Christopher Walken on Broadway.
McDonagh has an astonishingly long list of awards for The Beauty Queen of Leenane. They include: The 1997 Evening Standard Award and the London Critics’ Circle Award for most promising playwright; New York’s Drama Desk, Drama League, Lucille Lortel and Outer Critics’ Circle Awards for best play of 1998; Time magazine’s number one Best of Theater Award. The New York production itself garnered four Tony Awards, and director Garry Hynes made Tony history as the first woman to receive the award for Best Director of a Play.
Production History
Jobsite first produced The Beauty Queen of Leenane, directed by Paul J. Potenza, Mar. 27 – Apr. 13, 2003, when it earned Creative Loafing awards for Best Costume Designer – Katrina Stevenson, a 2003 Top 10 Production and a Tampa Tribune Best of 2003.
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Paul Potenza on Acting
Paul J. Potenza has been a Jobsite favorite for years. A deeply-valued Artistic Associate and former board chair, “Paulie” has turned in a number of
Cast & Crew
- Paul J. Potenza – Director
Cast
- David M. Jenkins – Pato
- Katrina Stevenson – Maureen
- Roxanne Fay – Mag
2003 Cast & Crew
- Paul J. Potenza – Director
Cast
- Ned Averill-Snell – Pato
- David M. Jenkins – Ray
- Colleen McDonnell* – Maureen
- Diana Rogers* – Mag
* Member of Actors’ Equity Association
Crew
- Dickie Corley – Light Designer
- Brian M. Smallheer – Scenic Designer
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