The Eastern Presents PUFFS OR: SEVEN INCREASINGLY EVENTFUL YEARS AT A CERTAIN SCHOOL OF MAGIC AND MAGIC

The Eastern kicks off its inaugural season with the San Diego premiere of Puffs or: Seven Increasingly Eventful Years at a Certain School of Magic and Magic opening Friday, June 14th and playing Thursday through Sunday until Sunday, July 21st with additional weekday performances Tuesday, July 16th and Wednesday, July 17th at PowPAC theatre in Poway.

For seven years a certain boy wizard attended a school of female magic and male magic and conquered evil over insurmountable odds. The Puffs were also there. Puffs follows three unlikely friends and their house of loyal, well-meaning, socially awkward classmates who share an affinity for badgers and a talent for herbology. Set in a magical universe during seven eventful years-that may seem familiar to some-the Puffs become far more than secondary characters in someone else's grand story. Puffs is a fast-paced comedy with an ensemble cast that takes a whimsical look at what life looks like for the people never destined to save the world.

Puffs opened at People's Improv Theatre in New York in 2015 and is now enjoying a record-breaking run off-Broadway at New World Stages, as well as running in Melbourne, Australia where it has become the longest-running play of the last century. Now The Eastern is bringing these magical misfits, who are just trying to make it through a magic school that is very dangerous for children, to San Diego for the first time. While Puffs is chock-full of homages to a familiar magical world, it's also a standalone story with as much heart as hilarity that examines what it means to be a perennial underdog in a world of braves, smarts, and...rich, blond jerks.

The Eastern's Managing Artistic Director, Justin Allen Slagle directs its inaugural show. Mr. Slagle is an award-winning actor and director. Most recently, he directed Guys and Dolls at Coronado Playhouse. Select local credits include: As a director: Guys and Dolls (CPH); God of Carnage (OnStage Playhouse); Disney's Beauty and the Beast (TCCS); You're A Good Man Charlie Brown (TCCS, Broadway Players); Little Women (RVCS) and The Music Man (CYT). As an actor: Justin Hicks in The Fox on the Fairway; Denny in The Violet Hour; and Paul in the award winning To Gillian on her 37th Birthday.

The cast features well-known actors from the worlds of community and professional theatre as well as newcomers to San Diego stages. Kevin Patrick Lohmann, Kevin Phan, and Sterling Amara play the trio of unlikely friends: Wayne, Oliver, and Megan. The cast is rounded out with an ensemble playing the rest of the Puffs, various other well-known wizards, and all the professors, heroes, and villains.

Tickets are $25 General Admission and are available online at www.theeasternsd.com.