In this hallmark play by one of the twentieth century’s greatest playwrights, Happy Days exposes the eternal and sometimes hopeless optimism that most of us learn to summon in the face of our most vexing burdens.

Winnie, the protagonist, is literally stuck in the mud.  She is buried waist down for the entire duration of the play in a mound of earth with her husband Willie, scuffling helplessly around.  No explanation is given for why she is in this unusual predicament, and nor, apparently, is one required.  For 90 minutes, we are entranced by Winnie’s unending prattle, her strident optimism, in the midst of this most absurd of all life’s situations, and we are forced to laugh and cry with her endearing wisdom and foolishness.

Samuel Beckett won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1969.  He is widely credited as having altered the course of theater with his bleak and minimalist settings infused with hope and optimism with plays like Waiting for Godot, and The End Game.   Happy Days was first performed in New York City in 1961.

Winnie: Patty Gallagher Ms. Gallagher is Associate Professor of Theatre Arts at University of California Santa Cruz where she directs courses in physical theatre, mask, Balinese dance, and clown traditions. She is Director in Residence for the Clown Conservatory, San Francisco School of Circus Arts. She holds a doctorate in Theatre from University of Wisconsin–Madison. She has performed clown and buffoon with Teatro Cronopio and studied in Laboratorio Grupo Malayerba. She has worked with the New Pickle Circus, Fool Time Circus, Folger Shakespeare Theatre, Ripe Time, San Francisco Circus and the Weird Sisters Ensemble.
 
Willie: Joe McGrath Mr.McGrath is a graduate of the Juilliard School of Drama, where he studied with Michael Kahn and Michael Langham. A member of Actors’ Equity Association, he has toured with John Houseman’s Acting Company, appearing in Pericles, Tartuffe, Twelfth Night, and The Country Wife. At the Utah Shakespearean Festival, Joe appeared as Horatio in Hamlet, Glendower in Henry IV, Part I, and Borachio in Much Ado About Nothing.
 
This is a production of the Rogue Theater based in Tucson, Arizona, USA and is directed by Cynthia Meier of the Rogue.