Bang! Productions presents Warren Leight's Pulitzer Prize Nominated and Tony Award Winning play SIDE MAN at the Diversionary Theatre.

Bang! Productions is very excited to announce that SIDE MAN performances started on September 24, 2009.

Set in 1953 and traveling to 1985, this poignant memory play unfolds through the eyes of Clifford, the only son of Gene, a jazz trumpet player, and Terry, an alcoholic mother.

Bang! Productions will make its temporary home at the Diversionary Theatre in University Heights for the run of the play.

Director, Scott Striegel says, “We chose the piece because this play reminds us how our culture can be fickle with regard to whom we hold up as heroes and how quickly we discard them. It is a truly American story about jazz and the people who played it and lived it.”

To read more about SIDE MAN, go to ON STAGE

“Bang! Productions independent presentation captures the mood so well, with a bevy of compelling ensemble performances… It’s a well-told story, and a fine, intense evening of both music and drama.”
– Pat Launer,
– Center Stage, KSDS

BEST BET!!
"...This is such a powerful drama, such a moving portrait and remembrance, that it should be seen and savored."
– San Diego
– News Network

"The essence of jazz is improvisation, where musicians riff on a core melody and take it wherever the muse strikes them... These twists keep "SIDE MAN" interesting in its mostly solid local premiere with Bang! Productions at Diversionary Theatre in University Heights."
– Pam Kragen,
– North County Times

"SIDE MAN's a risk for a brand-new company as well. The memory play spans decades as fast as Brown scales octaves. Newly formed Bang! Productions, however, has made an impressive debut. Director Scott Striegel replicates jazz musicians’ total gone devotion — like a secular religion."
– Jeff Smith,
– San Diego Reader

BEST BET!!
"Every adult child of alcoholics should see this. Every adult still dealing with an emotionally remote father should see this. Every jazz lover should see this. Every lover of excellence should see this fine, first effort by Bang! productions."
– Charlene Baldridge,
– Curtain Calls

"SIDE MAN is partly a memory play, partly a domestic drama, and partly a melancholy look back at an era in jazz history that is now long gone. It is at its best as a piece of theater when jazz is in the forefront, and Bang!'s production shares this strength."
– Bill Eadie,
– sandiego.com

OFFICIAL ARTS PARTNER
OF SIDE MAN