Things to do in New

Spencer Tracy Lives Again in New Bern Play

TRACY, a one-man play about the life of Spencer Tracy will be produced by 3PW, Inc. Friday & Saturday evenings May 29 & 30 at 8 PM and Sunday May 31 at 2 PM in downtown New Bern’s Athens Theatre, 412 Pollock Street. Michael B. Druxman is the author of the play first presented in Los Angeles in 1984. Paul White will portray Mr. Tracy. Family Medical Supply and Home Inventory Specialists are sponsors of this production. The play opens in 1967 when Tracy was in poor health and struggling to complete what would be his last film, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner. Alone in his rented cottage, he reflects with great guilt on his days as a rough street kid in Milwaukee; his troubled marriage; his drinking problem; the birth of his deaf son; and his romances with Loretta Young and Katherine Hepburn. Los Angeles Daily News said of the play, “Michael B. Druxman’s piece is by no means the nasty expose that has come to be in fashion in so many recent Hollywood biographies. He shows Tracy reacting with human frailties…but it’s mostly an admiring look at the man.” Spencer Tracy has been called “the best film actor Hollywood has ever known”. His marvelous performances in classic movies like Captains Courageous, Boys Town, Adam’s Rib and Inherit the Wind endowed him with a tough, solid, humorous image – one that was at odds with his own personality. “Spencer Tracy has always been my favorite actor,” said Mr. White, “and I am now old enough to play him at the end of his career.” Patsy White will direct. Advance tickets are $15 and are available at the Athens Theatre, home of New Bern Civic Theatre, Monday through Friday from 10 AM till 4 PM. Tickets at the door will be $17. For further information see www.newberncivictheatre.org or call 252.633.0567.