THE LAGUNA PLAYHOUSE IS PROUD TO ANNOUNCE ITS 2006/2007 SEASON
For its 86th continuous year in operation - the Playhouse will feature Two World Premiere Commissioned Plays, Two West Coast Premieres, One Southern California Premiere, One Orange County Premiere and the American Premiere of Israel’s Best Play of 2003!
February 6, 2006 - LAGUNA BEACH, CALIFORNIA – The Laguna Playhouse is pleased to announce that it has selected its 2006 -2007 Mainstage season of seven plays beginning July 11, 2006 — its 86th year of continuous operation. In making the announcement, Laguna Playhouse Executive Director Richard Stein commented, “The new season continues to reflect the commitment to eclectic programming that has become our hallmark, offering many new works while also providing a wide variety of plays that illuminate the human experience in dramatic, humorous or tuneful ways. There’s truly something for everyone.”
The Playhouse begins its season with the hilarious SHEAR MADNESS, an interactive whodunit that is one of America’s all time favorite comedies and finally is making its long overdue Orange County debut. It will be followed by the West Coast Premiere of SONIA FLEW, an inspiring drama by one of the most talented emerging voices in American theatre, Melinda Lopez. Then, just in time for the holidays, the Playhouse will throw A MARVELOUS PARTY - The Nöel Coward Celebration, the West Coast premiere of a new revue featuring the words and music of that most sophisticated of theatrical artists. The new year of 2007 will begin with the first of two World Premieres commissioned by the Playhouse, THE VERDI GIRLS, by Ireland’s foremost writer of stage comedies, Bernard Farrell–the fifth of his plays produced by the Playhouse. This will be followed by the Southern California Premiere of THE ICE-BREAKER by acclaimed playwright David Rambo (God’s Man in Texas). Then the Playhouse is honored to present the American Premiere of Israel’s Best Play of 2003, Shmuel Hasfari’s THE MASTER OF THE HOUSE. This extraordinary season concludes with another World Premiere commissioned by the Playhouse, THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS by Richard Dresser (Rounding Third), which will be the fourth Dresser play produced by this theatre.
The Playhouse will also present the return of its limited-run Christmas holiday special: SISTER’S CHRISTMAS CATECHISM. And LATE NITE CATECHISM 2 will continue to run most Sunday and Monday nights as an additional special offering.
The Laguna Playhouse 2006/2007 SEASON:
July 11 – September 3, 2006 (Official Press Opening July 15 at 7:30pm)
ORANGE COUNTY PREMIERE!
Shear Madness
A HILARIOUS WHODUNIT!
By Paul Pörtner
The comedy where every night a murder is committed…and the audience gets to solve the crime. Seen by more than 6 million people, Shear Madness is America’s favorite comedy and is acknowledged by the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest-running non-musical play in American theatre history. Set in a hairstyling salon that is the scene of a wacky murder, two undercover cops and an outrageous cast of characters put on a different mystery every night, filled with up-to-the-minute spontaneous humor.
“Warning to those suffering from vertigo: Do not ride Shear Madness. The largely improvisational comedy, runs at a frenzied pace, thrusting the audience through an enervating and hilarious trip.” – The Washington Post
SHEAR MADNESS - Bruce Jordan and Marilyn Abrams met while working together on a summer stock production in 1976 in Lake George, New York. Later that year, Jordan came across a 1963 play entitled Scherenschnitt by German writer and psychologist Paul Pörtner. The playwright had written the script to use as a study of how people perceive or misperceive reality. The brief play was set in a unisex hair salon and revolved around the off-stage murder of a concert pianist. Subjects were asked to solve the murder based on their individual perceptions of the events and the six stereotypical characters surrounding the murder. Jordan approached Abrams with the play and suggested that they stage it together in 1978 in Lake George, and the rough script evolved through an improvisational process that invited audience response. After more than two years honing the comedy, Jordan and Abrams moved their show to Boston. They scheduled a brief run at the historic Charles Playhouse in Boston’s Theatre District to begin January 29, 1980, where it continues to run to this day. The play has also run more than 7,000 performances in Washington, D.C., where it is currently playing at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
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September 12 – October 15, 2006 (Official Press Opening September 16 at 7:30pm)
WEST COAST PREMIERE!
Sonia Flew
By Melinda Lopez
Sonia has a loving husband, two wonderful children and a successful career, but suddenly her world is turned on its head, forcing her to come to terms with her past. Forty years earlier, Sonia’s parents, fearful of the new Castro regime, sent their young daughter away from Cuba to the United States. Does she now have the courage to be the kind of woman her mother was? Set in Minneapolis and Havana, Sonia Flew is a beautiful and uplifting family saga by a talented and important new voice in the American theatre.
“Sonia Flew represents an extraordinary achievement by an emerging playwright.” - Boston Herald
MELINDA LOPEZ – (Playwright) was a playwriting fellow at The Huntington Theatre in Boston, 2003-2005, where Sonia Flew was developed and premiered in 2004. Ms Lopez was the first recipient of the Charlotte Woolard Award, given by the Kennedy Center to a "promising new voice in American Theatre" and a 2003 recipient of a Massachusetts Cultural Council grant in playwriting. Her plays include Sonia Flew (Best New Play, Independent Reviewers of New England, Elliot Norton Award— Outstanding New Play,) God Smells Like A Roast Pig (Women on Top Festival, Elliot Norton Award— Outstanding Solo Performance,) Midnight Sandwich/Medianoche, (Coconut Grove Playhouse), The Order of Things (CentaStage Performance Group, Kennedy Center Fund for New Plays), How Do You Spell Hope? (Underground Railway Theatre,) and Scenes From A Bordello, (Boston Playwrights Theatre) in addition to commissions for the Boston Museum of Science, and numerous entries in the Boston Theatre Marathon. Ms. Lopez is also an actress, and teaches theatre and performance at Wellesley College.
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November 14 – December 17, 2006 (Official Press Opening November 18, 2006)
WEST COAST PREMIERE!
A Marvelous Party
The Nöel Coward Celebration
Words and music by Nöel Coward
Devised by David Ira Goldstein, Carl Danielsen, Mark Anders, and Patricia Wilcox
Directed by David Ira Goldstein
Choreographed by Patricia Wilcox
You’re invited to a marvelous party! Nöel Coward was the master of wit and class, the very picture of elegance and the life of every party he ever attended. In this exhilarating evening of song, dance and scenes of sparkling repartee, Coward’s extraordinary life provides the springboard for three virtuosic performers as they revel in the brilliance of his words and music. Coward’s work truly stands the test of time.
“Coward’s best music carefully chosen and superbly performed with genuine sophistication and artistry.” – Chicago Tribune
NÖEL COWARD was an astounding polymath - dramatist, actor, writer, composer, lyricist, painter and wit - and was defined by his Englishness as much as he defined it. Born in 1899, Coward was on stage by the age of six, and writing his first drama ten years later. A visit to New York in 1921 infused him with the pace of Broadway shows, and he injected its speed into staid British drama and music to create a high-octane rush for the jazz-mad, dance-crazy 1920s. Coward’s songs ranged from the sentimental "A Room With A View" and "I’ll See You Again" to the satirical "Mad Dogs and Englishmen" and "Don’t Put Your Daughter On the Stage, Mrs. Worthington". His between-the-wars celebrity reached a peak in 1930 with Private Lives, by which time he had become the highest earning author in the western world. With the onset of World War II he redefined the spirit of the country in films such as “This Happy Breed”(1944), “In Which We Serve” (1942), “Blithe Spirit” (1945) and, perhaps most memorably, “Brief Encounter” (1945). His "Hay Fever" was the first work by a living author to be produced at the National Theatre. He was knighted in 1970, and died in his beloved Jamaica in 1973.
DAVID IRA GOLDSTEIN (Director) has been Artistic Director of Arizona Theatre Company since 1992, a period that has seen unprecedented growth in artistic programming, educational programs and state-wide support. Before coming to Arizona, Mr. Goldstein was associate artistic director of ACT Theatre in Seattle. He has been a guest director at theatres all across the country including Kansas City Repertory Theatre, Berkeley Rep, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Alaska Rep, The Empty Space Theatre, Mixed Blood, Seattle Rep, The Children’s Theatre Company of Minneapolis, Quicksilver Stage, Illusion Theatre, Portland Rep and Tacoma Actors Guild. Mr. Goldstein holds an MFA from the University of Minnesota.
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January 2 – February 4, 2007 (Official Press Opening January 6, 2007)
WORLD PREMIERE COMMISSIONED BY The Laguna Playhouse!
The Verdi Girls
By Bernard Farrell
Directed by Andrew Barnicle
Opera aficionados from around the world reunite in Milan, Italy for their annual Verdi Weekend, marked by a command performance at La Scala Opera House, thought-provoking lectures and the highlight of the visit—the fiercely competitive Verdi Quiz. But some participants have more on their agenda as they turn the event into an opera rivaling those by their idol. This is Playhouse-favorite Bernard Farrell’s first play set outside of Ireland.
“Farrell is a very funny writer…Farrell’s wit is a scalpel…” — The Sacramento Bee
BERNARD FARRELL (Playwright) was born in Sandycove, Co Dublin. His plays include I Do Not Like Thee, Dr. Fell (The Abbey Theatre, 1979); Legs Eleven (Moving Theatre, 1979); Canaries (Abbey Theatre, 1980); All In Favour Said No! (Abbey Theatre, 1981; South Coast Repertory, 1982); Petty Sessions (Abbey Theatre, 1983); Don Juan (adapted from Moliere, Abbey Theatre, 1984); When Moses Met Marconi (TEAM Theatre, 1984); All The Way Back (Abbey Theatre, 1985); 1-2-3 O’Leary (Gate Theatre 1985); Because Just Because (TEAM, 1986); Say Cheese! (Abbey Theatre, 1987); Forty-Four Sycamore (Red Kettle, 1992); The Last Apache Reunion (Abbey Theatre, 1993); Happy Birthday, Dear Alice (Red Kettle, 1994, 1995); Stella by Starlight (Gate Theatre, 1996); Lovers At Versailles (Abbey Theatre, 2002); Many Happy Returns (Gate Theatre, 2004). His television drama includes “Lotty Coyle Loves Buddy Holly” (RTÉ, 1984); with Graham Reid, “Foreign Bodies” (BBC, 1985-1988); “Glenroe” (drama series, RTÉ); “Radio Waves” (RTÉ/BBC 1995). His radio drama includes “Gliding With Mrs Gleeson” (BBC and RTÉ); “The Scholarship Trio” (RTÉ); “The Final Whistle” (RTÉ); “When Mr. Kelly Met Mozart” (RTÉ); “The Day Grandpa Disappeared” (RTÉ); “The Year of Jimmy Somers” (RTÉ entry for 1987 Prix Italia); “The Final Whistle” (RTÉ entry for 1992 Prix Italia). His work has been translated into several languages and has been produced in the USA, Canada, UK, Belgium, Holland, Finland, Sweden, Spain, Germany, and Australia. He was the Anglo Irish Bankcorp sponsored Writer in Association, Abbey Theatre for 1996/1997, and among his awards are The Rooney Prize for Irish Literature. He is a member of Aosdána, and lives in Wicklow. The Laguna Playhouse has produced five American premieres of Bernard Farrell’s plays: Kevin’s Bed (2000); Stella by Starlight (2001) and Lovers at Versailles (2003) and Many Happy Returns (2005).
COMMISSIONED THROUGH A GIFT TO The Laguna Playhouse BY SUZANNE & JAMES MELLOR.
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February 13 – March 18, 2007 (Official Press Opening February 17, 2007)
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA PREMIERE!
The Ice-Breaker
By David Rambo
A young PhD student on the verge of a momentous discovery seeks an ally in a disgraced genius. Cold science gives way to warm emotion, leading them to reveal the passions and demons that drive their quests. David Rambo has received national attention for his play God’s Man in Texas and for his work as a writer for the hit television series Crime Scene Investigation (CSI).
DAVID RAMBO (Playwright) His plays include God’s Man in Texas, Maid of Athens (part of Back Story, an anthology play developed from a story by Joan Ackerman), and Rhinebeck. He has adapted numerous screenplays for the stage including All About Eve, Sunset Boulevard, and Adam’s Rib. Most recently, commissioned by the Geffen Playhouse, David wrote the new book for the highly successful revival of Paint Your Wagon. He is currently working on The Lady with All the Answers, a one-woman play based on the life and letters of Ann Landers, which opened at the Old Globe in San Diego last summer. God’s Man in Texas premiered at the 23rd Humana Festival at the Actors Theatre of Louisville and went onto be performed at the Old Globe, Geffen Playhouse, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, The Alliance Theatre, Northlight Theatre, Hippodrome Theatre, The Florida Stage, Tennessee Rep, Arkansas Rep, Mill Mountain Playhouse, and the Warehouse Theatre. He is on the writing staff of the hit CBS show CSI:Crime Scene Investigation. David occasionally contributes arts essays and criticism for The Los Angeles Times and is a member of the Dramatists Guild, ASCAP, and Writers Guild of America West. The Ice-Breaker will receive its World Premiere at the Magic Theatre in San Francisco, February 18-March 19, 2006.
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March 27 – April 29, 2007 (Official Press Opening March 31, 2007 at 7:30pm)
AMERICAN PREMIERE OF ISRAEL’S BEST PLAY OF 2003
The Master of the House
By Shmuel Hasfari
Directed by Richard Stein
Nava wants to completely remodel the house. Joel doesn’t want to change a thing about it. Down deep, their motivation is really the same, and until they finally come to terms with that, there can be no resolution. Filled with humor and pathos, this play uses a familiar marital battleground as a springboard to explore life’s complexities in contemporary Israel.
SHMUEL HASFARI (Playwright) was born in 1954 in Tel Aviv, Israel, to a religious family. He began to study theater at Tel Aviv University, but he left the university along with a group of students who in 1981 performed at the Alternative Theater Festival in Acre. The next year they received first prize. Hasfari is considered one of Israel’s leading playwrights. His works are controversial, due to the harsh image of Israeli society reflected in his plays. He is also an acclaimed screenwriter and film director. The Master of the House premiered at The Cameri Theatre, Tel Aviv’s municipal theatre company and one of the largest producers in Israel. It continues to run in The Cameri Theatre repertory, where it has now played more than 600 performances.
RICHARD STEIN (Director) has been executive director of The Laguna Playhouse since March, 1990. His Playhouse directing credits include: the upcoming West Coast Premiere of Bryony Lavery’s Last Easter, the West Coast Premiere of Mitch Albom’s Tuesdays With Morrie, the American Premiere of Michael Weller’s What the Night is For, Pulitzer Prize-finalist Jon Marans’ Old Wicked Songs and the world premiere of Marans’ Jumping for Joy, the West Coast premiere of Neil LaBute’s The Shape of Things, Arthur Miller’s The Price, the Southern California premiere of Richard Dresser’s Gun-Shy, the Los Angeles area premiere of Giles Havergal’s adaptation of Graham Greene’s Travels With My Aunt, the 1996 Laguna Playhouse production of Jeremy Brooks & Adrian Mitchel’s adaptation of Dylan Thomas’s A Child’s Christmas in Wales and the World Premiere of David Drummond’s The Labors of Hercules. At the University of Hartford’s Lincoln Theatre, he directed professional productions of Isaac Bashevis Singer & Eve Friedman’s Teibele and Her Demon and Edward Albee’s Seascape. The latter was named one of the top ten productions that year by Variety
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May 29 – July 1, 2007 (Official Press Opening June 2, 2007 at 7:30pm)
WORLD PREMIERE COMMISSIONED BY The Laguna Playhouse! The Pursuit of Happiness
By Richard Dresser
Directed by Andrew Barnicle
Annie’s whole future happiness depends on her daughter going to college in the fall, and she’ll stop at nothing to make sure that happens. Neil’s obsession with work is gradually being overtaken by his fascination with a new and dangerous hobby. Jodi doesn’t believe that attending college made either of her parents happy, and detests the burden of their living vicariously through her. Sounds like another twisted comedy by Playhouse-favorite Richard Dresser, the author of Rounding Third, Wonderful World and Gun-Shy.
“Richard Dresser can toss off the quips and escalate ordinary situations to comic proportion…” — The Boston Phoenix
RICHARD DRESSER (Playwright) plays are widely produced regionally, and in New York, and Europe. Rounding Third appeared in New York off-Broadway John Houseman Theatre after regional productions in Chicago, Laguna Beach and the Old Globe in San Diego. Other plays include Below the Belt and Gun-Shy, both of which started in the Humana Festival at Actors Theatre of Louisville before moving off-Broadway. Dresser has written the stage plays Wonderful World, Something in the Air, The Downside, Alone at the Beach and Better Days. His one acts include Road to Ruin, Splitsville, and At Home and Bed and Breakfast (both of which appeared in the Ensemble Studio Theatre Marathon). Recent short plays include What Are You Afraid Of?, staged in the front seat of a car, which premiered in the 1999 Humana Festival and has been running in Germany for several years, and Greetings From the Home Office which premiered at Capital Repertory Theater in Albany and has no actors. Dresser has twice attended the O’Neill National Playwrights Conference and is a former member of New Dramatists. He wrote the screenplay for the film of Below the Belt, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. In addition to his work in the theater, he is active in film and television. He is a graduate of Brown University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
ANDREW BARNICLE (Director) arrived as artistic director of The Laguna Playhouse in July of 1991. Since then he has directed over thirty productions for the Playhouse, including: the upcoming West Coast Premiere of The Sleeper by Catherine Butterfield, The Underpants, Bright Ideas,Tabletop, The Constant Wife, Lovers at Versailles, Rounding Third, Stella by Starlight, Wonderful World, American Buffalo, the recent World Premiere of Sherwood Kiraly’s Who’s Hot, Who’s Not, the U.S. premiere of Kevin’s Bed, Communicating Doors, Picasso at the Lapin Agile, The Woman in Black, Sylvia, Laughter On The 23rd Floor, Don’t Dress for Dinner, Rumors, Othello, his world premiere adaptation of his wife Sara’s translation of Goldoni’s The Liar, the Southern California premiere of Inspecting Carol, the world premiere of John Twomey’s Teacher’s Lounge, and Joe Orton’s What The Butler Saw. Andrew previously served as the Head of Theater at United States International University in San Diego, where he directed acclaimed productions of West Side Story and The Venetian Twins at the Theater At Old Town. He also served as Associate Artistic Director at North Coast Repertory Theater, where his numerous directing credits include the San Diego premiere of Torch Song Trilogy. Andrew directed Gunmetal Blues at the Colony Theatre in Burbank and the female version of Neil Simon’s The Odd Couple at Michigan’s LORT Meadow Brook Theatre. He has appeared in a myriad of television and film roles, and played major roles at the San Diego Rep, Alaska Rep, Alabama Shakespeare Festival and Michigan’s Meadow Brook and Hilberry Theatres. He has also appeared in several Off-Broadway productions including three at SoHo Rep and True West at the Cherry Lane Theater. Andrew appeared at the Playhouse as the Actor / Guardsman in Enter the Guardsman and also as gumshoe Sam Galahad in Gunmetal Blues, and he can also be heard on the cast recording. Playhouse audiences have also seen him as David in To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday, Austin in True West, and David in Strange Snow.
COMMISSIONED THROUGH A GIFT TO The Laguna Playhouse BY SUZANNE & JAMES MELLOR
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AND, BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND…SISTER’S CHRISTMAS CATECHISM
The Mystery of the Magi’s Gold Sold out weeks before it opened here in 2005!
November 19, 20, 27; December 3, 4, 11, 18, 20, 23, 2006.
LATE NITE CATECHISM 2
Most Sunday & Monday evenings throughout the season
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For tickets or subscription information, please call The Laguna Playhouse, 606 Laguna Canyon Rd. in Laguna Beach at 949-497-2787 or visit www.lagunaplayhouse.com.
For additional press information or to set up interviews, please contact David Elzer/ DEMAND PR at 818-508-1754 or at ElzerD@aol.com.
The Laguna Playhouse was founded in 1920, when a group of Laguna Beach citizens met in a living room to establish a local theatre. Initially offering readings and performances in private homes and storefronts, its first fully-mounted production on record was Suppressed Desires, a satire on Freudian psychological theories written by Susan Glaspel, a member (with Eugene O’Neill) of the famed Provincetown Playhouse in New York and Massachusetts. In 1924, at a cost of $5,000, The Playhouse, on Ocean Avenue in downtown Laguna Beach, was built. During the Great Depression, the theatre was sold to the City of Laguna Beach and leased back by the group, and during World War II, the Playhouse entertained the soldiers in this facility, which also housed USO dances and other activities.
In 1965, Harry (Harrison) Ford appeared in The Laguna Playhouse production of Stephen Vincent Benet’s John Brown’s Body, was "discovered" and became one of America’s most celebrated screen actors. Other distinguished "alumni" of The Laguna Playhouse include Toni Tennille, Marlo Thomas, and Barbara Eden.
In 1969, the Moulton Theatre opened on Laguna Canyon Road, built through private funds on City-owned land, and the old Playhouse was razed. A historic marker is located on the site where the old theatre stood. With the rapid growth of Orange County, The Laguna Playhouse grew in audience and stature, producing work of increasing quality with primarily amateur actors.
In 1985, the Playhouse remodeled its Moulton Theatre, adding a balcony and office space, as the first phase in what was hoped would lead eventually to the creation of a second theatre space. In 1987, the Playhouse won a national amateur theatre competition for its production of the musical Quilters, which went on to win second prize in that year’s international competition in Ireland.
In 1990, Richard Stein assumed the leadership of the Playhouse as executive director, joined in 1991 by Andrew Barnicle as artistic director, and the Playhouse began a period of rapid expansion on an ambitious course to transform the theatre to full professional status.
The Playhouse formalized an agreement with Actors’ Equity Association, then became a member of the League of Resident Theatres (LORT), a prestigious body of the nation’s largest non-profit professional theatres. The Playhouse is also a constituent of the Theatre Communications Group, the national organization of American professional theatre. Attendance and critical acclaim grew during this period, as well as the Playhouse budget, which now stands at over $6 million.
The Laguna Playhouse is widely noted for its Youth Theater, Education and Outreach programs. In 1989, its Youth Theater was recognized as "Outstanding Children’s Theatre" by the American Alliance for Theatre and Education. The theater’s Equity school tour, THEATEREACH has offered four productions on tour and visits more than 150 schools, performing for more than 28,000 children annually.
Plans for a second theatre, dormant for nearly a decade, were revived with the acquisition of a building in South Laguna, on Pacific Coast Highway, in 1994. This second theatre was envisioned as a way to house the burgeoning Laguna Playhouse Youth Theatre and to complement offerings at the Moulton Theatre with a series of adventuresome and new works. In 1998, a superior site located next door to the Moulton Theatre, was identified. The South Laguna site was sold and an agreement signed to acquire 580 Broadway. In November, 2005, Suzanne & James R. Mellor pledged $5 million to The Laguna Playhouse, and a Capital Campaign is now being planned for expansion of the theatre’s facilities.
Today more than 100,000 theatregoers yearly attend performances at The Laguna Playhouse. Its continued growth, expansion, artistic excellence, audience popularity and critical acclaim have helped make it one of Southern California’s most important nonprofit theatre companies.
