The Girls From Building B - A Mediterranean Chanukah

By Danielle Dresden

Directed by Sarah Whelan

Will it be latkes and lentils? Spaghetti sauce and sour cream? One thing's for sure, humor will definitely be on the menu when "The Girls From Building B" comes to Bunky's Cafe for A Mediterranean Chanukah.

A Mediterranean Chanukah is a uniquely Madison sort of dinner theater, combining the energies of TAPIT/new works Ensemble Theater and Bunky's Cafe. Teresa Pullara, who runs the east side eatery with her husband, Rachid Ouabel, enjoys offering her customers a side order of entertainment to compliment their Italian-Mediterranean cuisine. She brings in area belly dancers on a regular basis and has twice presented TAPIT's Garden Party, a comedy for gardeners both casual and crazed.

The Girls From Building B, one of TAPIT's most successful productions, has toured from Florida to Ohio and throughout Wisconsin, playing venues ranging from a 3,000-seat theater to Madison's Overture Center to a showmobile. To celebrate Chanukah this year, in the intimate setting of Bunky's Cafe, TAPIT will present selected scenes from this comedy about life as it is lived -- and commented on -- in a Miami Beach apartment complex.

Based on interviews in Madison and Florida, The Girls From Building B celebrates the spirit of the Greatest Generation. Through comic scenes, song and tap dance, we see how these older adults make a way of life for themselves, despite the challenges of advancing age, uncooperative children, tricky digestive tracts and the threat of their building going condo.

The performance will feature actor Nelson Zane Eisman, recent Wisconsin Green Party gubernatorial candidate, pianist and composer Jane Reynolds and TAPIT/new works' producing artistic directors, Donna Peckett and Danielle Dresden. Courses will alternate with comedy, music and tap dance as A Mediterranean Chanukah unfolds. Rumor has it that Dresden will even try to include a game of dreidel in the evening's entertainment.

Produced by TAPIT/new works Ensemble Theater at Bunky's Cafe, at 2827 Atwood Avenue, Madison, WI

Performances: December 17, 2006

Performance Times: 6 pm

Ticket Prices: Tickets for the performance and meal are $30.

Call 608-204-7004 for reservations or more information.