In her one-woman show, Squeeze Box, playwright/actress Ann Randolph takes her audience on a wild ride through the world of a women’s homeless shelter and a runaway romance with an accordion player. She plays all of the characters through the twists and turns of her story, based on her own experiences working at a women’s shelter in California, and ends with a life-affirming epiphany.

After seeing the Los Angeles production, director/writer Mel Brooks and his late wife, actress Ann Bancroft, loved the piece so much that they signed on as producers and were determined to take the show to New York, which they did. Squeeze Box played the Acorn Theatre on Theater Row Off–Broadway. The plan was for a film version to be made with Miss Bancroft playing “Brandy,” a particularly vocal and opinionated homeless woman. Though that idea sadly evaporated with Bancroft’s death, Randolph is still working on the screenplay.

“Mel Brooks and Ann Bancroft were wonderful to me,” says Randolph. “They were directly available, called me with ideas and helped me shape the play. More than a producer, she was my collaborator; her death was a terrible loss.”

Still, Randolph forges ahead with the same indomitable spirit that inspired her to write the monologue in the first place.

“I love that the production here at the Alleyway is a co-production with Empire State College, because that means students are coming to see it—more than just the traditional theater subscribers. I like the idea that people who might eventually work in social services are seeing the play and that they are really pulled–in by what they see. Audiences have been so responsive and wonderful! They’re getting it!”

Squeeze Box continues at Alleyway Theatre through February 19.

To respond to this article, e-mail editorial@artvoice.com or write to: Artvoice, 810 Main St., Buffalo, NY 14202