FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For more information,
contact:
Jenni Benzaquen, Press
Director
Geffen Playhouse
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jenni@geffenplayhouse.com
GEFFEN PLAYHOUSE INAUGURATES
$17 MILLION RENOVATED
THEATER
WITH 10TH ANNIVERSARY
SEASON
GEFFEN’S FESTIVAL OF AMERICAN ORIGINALS CONTINUES WITH THE
2005-2006 SEASON FEATURING THE WEST COAST PREMIERE OF HEATHER RAFFO’S NINE
PARTS OF DESIRE, TENNESSEE WILLIAMS’ CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF STARRING
JOHN GOODMAN, THE LOS ANGELES PREMIERE OF DAVID MAMET’S BOSTON MARRIAGE, ARTHUR
MILLER’S ALL MY SONS, AND A NEW PLAY TO BE ANNOUNCED
THE GEFFEN’S NEW ADDITION, THE AUDREY SKIRBALL-KENIS THEATER AT
THE GEFFEN PLAYHOUSE OPENS WITH THE WORLD PREMIERE PRODUCTION OF MY BUDDY
BILL, WRITTEN
AND PERFORMED BY EMMY AWARD-WINNER RICK CLEVELAND
LOS ANGELES, CA - March 31, 2005 - Geffen
Playhouse Producing Director Gilbert Cates proudly announces the Geffen’s 10th
anniversary season, inaugurating the theater’s $17 million renovation,
including a brand new 120-seat Audrey Skirball-Kenis Theater at the Geffen
Playhouse. The 2005-2006 season, which begins on September 14, 2005 and
concludes July 23, 2006, marks the second year in the Geffen’s decade-long
Festival of American Originals, a celebration of American theater, offering
works that examine and define the American experience. Geffen Playhouse’s
2005-2006 season will begin with the West Coast Premiere of NINE PARTS OF
DESIRE, written and performed by Heather Raffo, to be presented at the
Brentwood Theatre. The second play of the season, Tennessee Williams’ CAT
ON A HOT TIN ROOF, will star John Goodman, and inaugurates the
newly renovated Geffen Playhouse mainstage. Filling out the 2005-2006 season at
the Geffen Playhouse will be Arthur Miller’s ALL MY SONS to be
directed by Geffen Artistic Director Randall Arney, and the Los Angeles
Premiere of David Mamet’s BOSTON MARRIAGE to be
directed by Mamet. Performance dates for ALL MY SONS and BOSTON
MARRIAGE are still being determined and will be announced at a later date.
A new play will also be announced at a later date for the fifth production of
the season.
Cates also announces the world premiere of MY BUDDY BILL, written and
performed by Emmy Award-winner Rick Cleveland, which will unveil the Geffen
Playhouse’s new Audrey Skirball-Kenis Theater. “This beautiful new addition will also
serve as a flexible rehearsal space and as a laboratory for developing new
works by emerging artists. We
consider it an ‘actor’s theater’ where we can stage intimate readings and
wonderfully eclectic programming for our audiences,” said Cates. The opening
date of MY BUDDY BILL will be
announced at a later time.
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Geffen Playhouse Announces 10th Anniversary Season
Page 2
“This momentous time in Geffen Playhouse history is exemplified by the rich works and gifted artists involved in our 10th anniversary Season,” Cates continued. “We’re delighted to be working with the tremendously talented John Goodman, Heather Raffo, and Rick Cleveland, all making their Geffen Playhouse debuts, and we welcome David Mamet back to our theater. Our 2005-2006 season presents Los Angeles theatergoers with another wonderfully diverse year of classics and contemporary works.”
GEFFEN PLAYHOUSE 10TH ANNIVERSARY SEASON
West
Coast Premiere of NINE PARTS OF DESIRE
Written
and performed by Heather Raffo
Directed
by Joanna Settle
September
6—October 16, 2005
Opening Night September 14, 2005
The Geffen Playhouse’s 10th anniversary season
begins with Heather Raffo’s riveting NINE PARTS OF DESIRE, which opened in October
2004 at New York’s Manhattan Ensemble Theater to critical raves, including the New
Yorker’s
description of the one-woman show as “an example of how art can remake the
world.” The play, which will
feature the original acclaimed New York actor/director team of Heather Raffo
and Joanna Settle, provides a glimpse into what it means to be a woman in the
age-old war zone that is Iraq. The New York Times hailed NINE PARTS
OF DESIRE
as
“powerful,” “impassioned,” and “memorable,” adding that Raffo “inhabits her
characters with such compelling vibrancy that they do not entirely disappear
when she moves from one to the next.”
The Wall Street Journal said, “each character is wholly
believable…because Ms. Raffo inhabits each one so fully, both as actor and as
author, and because we never feel, not even for a moment, that she is making
them tell us what we – or she – want to hear.” The Geffen Playhouse
production of the West Coast Premiere of NINE PARTS OF DESIRE begins in previews at
the Brentwood Theatre on September 6, 2005 and runs through October 16, 2005,
with an official press opening on September 14.
Heather Raffo collected the stories of the many
Iraqi women included in NINE PARTS OF DESIRE through a series of
interviews and experiences. Her father is originally from Iraq, and her mother
is American. She has dedicated NINE
PARTS OF DESIRE
to the members of her family still living in Baghdad and to the Iraqi women she
interviewed. Raffo’s recent acting credits include the role of Sarah Woodruff
in the world premiere of The French Lieutenant’s Woman at the Fulton Opera
House, Over The River and Through the Woods Off-Broadway, and The
Acting Company’s productions of Macbeth (Lady Macbeth), The Merry Wives of
Windsor
(Mistress Page) and The Rivals.
She has appeared at The Old Globe Theatre in San Diego in Othello, directed by Jack
O’Brien, As You Like It directed by Stephen Wadsworth, Macbeth directed by Nicholas
Martin, and A Comedy of Errors, directed by John Rando.
Joanna Settle was recently in residency at the
NY Public Theater to develop Shakespeare’s Coriolanus with her company,
Division 13 (D13) Productions. She adapted and directed Ionesco’s final work
Journeys Among The Dead at HERE Arts Center and worked on the production of the
Beckett shorts Act Without Words I, Rockaby, Breath and That Time throughout Brooklyn’s
Old American Can Factory. Settle directed Penthesilea by Von Kleist, Cascando and Waiting for
Godot
by Beckett, and The Dumb Waiter by Pinter at Classic Stage Company, The
Trojan Women
at Juilliard, and D13’s workshop of The Genet Project, an original work based
on the early life and writings of Jean Genet. Settle is a member of the Lincoln Center Directors Lab and
is currently a third year resident artist at HERE Arts Center. In 2000-2002, she
received the NEA/TCG Career Development Grant for Directors.
NINE PARTS OF DESIRE was first performed in
August 2003 at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, then moved to the Bush Theatre
in London’s Off-West End where The Independent hailed it as one of the
five best plays in London. The
show was also performed as a reading at The Public Theater as part of its New
Work Now festival.
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Geffen Playhouse Announces 10th Anniversary Season
Page 3
CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF
Winner,
1955 Pulitzer Prize for Drama
Written
by Tennessee Williams
Starring
John Goodman
Directed by Geffen Producing Director Gilbert Cates
November 4—December 18, 2005
Opening Night November 16, 2005
Geffen Producing Director Gilbert
Cates directs CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF, the 1955 Pulitzer
Prize-winning play by great American playwright Tennessee Williams. The Geffen
Playhouse production of CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF will star Emmy-nominated
actor John Goodman as the fearsome patriarch Big Daddy. This powerful, highly
charged play tells the story of Big Daddy Pollitt, an affluent Southerner, and
his dysfunctional family, who have gathered at home for his birthday.
Unbeknownst to Big Daddy, the family is keeping secrets of the present and the
past that threaten to change the hierarchy of this old-fashioned, patriarchal
family forever. As in much of Williams’ work, resentments and demons bubble to
the surface, in this case creating a party Big Daddy will never forget. The
Geffen Playhouse production of CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF will inaugurate the
newly renovated Geffen Playhouse mainstage, opening in previews on November 4,
2005 and running through December 18, 2005, with an official press opening on
November 16, sponsored
by De Beers, the international diamond retailer.
“CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF is in my opinion one of the best plays ever written,”
said Cates. “This great American story dealing with honesty and mendacity is
evocative and powerful. I am looking forward to working with John Goodman, a
uniquely gifted actor, as he brings Big Daddy to life for LA audiences later
this year.”
Playwright, poet, and fiction writer, Tennessee
Williams left a powerful mark on American theater. He is perhaps best known for
his three most popular plays, The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire (for which he won his first Pulitzer Prize), and Cat
on a Hot Tin Roof (for which he won
his second Pulitzer Prize). At their best, his twenty-five full-length plays
combined lyrical intensity, haunting loneliness, and hypnotic violence. He is
widely considered the greatest Southern playwright and one of the greatest
playwrights in the history of American drama.
John Goodman may be most familiar to
television and movie audiences for his Emmy-nominated role as a different kind
of patriarch, the affable Dan Conner on the Roseanne sitcom, but Goodman got
his first break starring on Broadway in Loose Ends. An accomplished stage
performer, Goodman created the role of the brutish Pap in the 1985 Broadway
smash, Big River. His film credits include The Big
Easy, King
Ralph, The
Flintstones, The
Babe,
and Blues Brothers 2000.
Gilbert Cates, a recipient of the James A.
Dolittle Award for Leadership in Los Angeles Theatre, recently directed the
Geffen’s world premiere adaptation of Paint Your Wagon. The Geffen Playhouse
production of Collected Stories, also directed by Cates, received the 1999
Ovation Award for Best Play. Cates served two terms as President of the
Directors Guild of America from 1983 to 1987. In 1989, he received the Guild’s Robert B. Aldrich Award for
extraordinary service, and in 1991 he received the
DGA’s Honorary Life Membership.
CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF was first produced in New York in 1955 under the direction of
Elia Kazan. The play was a tremendous commercial success on Broadway,
where it ran for 694 performances.
ALL MY SONS
Winner,
New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award
Written
by Arthur Miller
Directed
by Geffen Artistic Director Randall Arney
Production dates to be determined
The Geffen’s 2005-2006 season continues with
American playwright Arthur Miller’s classic ALL MY SONS. Directed by Geffen
Artistic
Director Randall Arney, ALL MY SONS is a compelling story of love, guilt and
the corrupting power of greed. The play examines the morality of a man who
places his personal responsibility to his family above his professional
responsibility. Performance dates for the Geffen Playhouse production of ALL
MY SONS are
still being determined and will be announced at a later date.
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Geffen Playhouse Announces 10th Anniversary Season
Page 4
“We
are so excited to be able to present this wonderfully warm and meaningful play
by Arthur Miller as the Geffen continues its examination of the American
experience,” said Arney. “All My Sons is as its core a study of denial, guilt and
social responsibility, taking place on the home front during a time of war,
making the play particularly resonant at this time in our own American
experience. There’s also a great love story and a wonderful sense of nostalgia
centered in the volatile caldron of family. The play is an incredible ensemble
piece and presents the Geffen with a tremendous opportunity for a dynamic group
of actors.”
Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Arthur Miller is one of
the most frequently produced playwrights in America. From his first
theatrical success with ALL MY SONS in 1947 to Broken
Glass
in 1994, his plays continue to energize the stage, explore the shadowy realm of
human motivations, and probe the conflicts at the bottom of the American dream.
During his supremely influential career, Miller combined social awareness with
deep insights into his characters’ personal weaknesses.
ALL MY SONS, which premiered in 1947 and
ran for 328 performances, is widely known as Miller’s first stage success. The
play established Miller as a dramatist of much promise and won him the Drama
Critics’ Circle Award for the best American play of the season. He later won
the Pulitzer Prize for drama and his second Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Death
of a Salesman,
which opened on Broadway in 1949.
Randall Arney, who last directed the Geffen’s
smash hit production of Take Me Out last year, also directed the Geffen
productions of I
Just Stopped By To See The Man, God’s Man in
Texas and The Weir. He is an ensemble member and former artistic director of
Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre (1987-1995), where he directed numerous plays
including The Beauty Queen of Leenane, Death and the Maiden and Curse
of the Starving Class. Arney also directed the world premiere of Picasso at the
Lapin Agile at Steppenwolf, as well as the subsequent Los Angeles,
off-Broadway, San Francisco, Washington, D.C. and Tokyo productions.
Los
Angeles Premiere of BOSTON MARRIAGE
Written
and directed by David Mamet
Production dates to be determined
Pulitzer
Prize-winning playwright David Mamet directs his own play, BOSTON
MARRIAGE at
the Geffen Playhouse. Described as a startling
modern, wickedly sharp and wildly witty drawing room comedy, BOSTON
MARRIAGE is
the story of two fashionable upper-class women who
are involved in a “Boston marriage,” a term used to describe a romantic bond
between two unmarried, financially independent women. The New York Post described BOSTON MARRIAGE as “deliciously wicked...one of the funniest American comedies in years.” Ben
Brantley of The New York Times said, “Move aside boys, with your gutter talk
and con games and slovenly ways. It’s girls’ night out in Mametville…these
ladies are refined…And believe it or not, they talk as pretty as anyone out of
Oscar Wilde.” Performance dates for the Geffen Playhouse production of BOSTON
MARRIAGE are
still being determined and will be announced at a later date.
In addition to BOSTON MARRIAGE, David Mamet is the
author of the plays The Old Neighborhood, Oleanna, Glengarry Glen Ross (1984 Pulitzer Prize
and New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award), American Buffalo, A Life In The
Theater, Speed The Plow, Edmond Lakeboat, The Water Engine, The Woods, Sexual
Perversity In Chicago, Reunion, and The Cryptogram (1995 Obie Award). His translations and adaptations
include Red River
by Pierre Laville, and Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard, The Three Sisters, and Uncle Vanya. His films include The Postman Always
Rings Twice,
The Verdict,
The Untouchables,
House Of Games
(writer/director), Oleanna (writer/director), and Hoffa. Mamet is also the author of Warm and
Cold, a
book for children with drawings by Donald Sultan; Writing In Restaurants, Some Freaks and Make Believe
Town,
three volumes of essays; The Hero Pony, a book of poems; Three Children’s
Plays, On
Directing Film,
The Cabin,
True And False,
and the novel The Village.
BOSTON
MARRIAGE
had its world premiere in 1999 at American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge,
Massachusetts, where it was directed by David Mamet and starred his wife,
Rebecca Pidgeon, as Claire and Felicity Huffman as Anna. In 2000, BOSTON
MARRIAGE
was produced at the Donmar Warehouse and then at the New Ambassadors, both in
London, England. In 2002, BOSTON MARRIAGE was staged at the Public
Theater in New York.
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Geffen Playhouse Announces 10th Anniversary Season
Page 5
PLAY 5: A NEW PLAY TO BE ANNOUNCED
Production
dates to be determined
The 10th anniversary season closes with a new
play to be announced at a later date.
World Premiere of MY BUDDY BILL
Written and performed by Rick Cleveland
Production
dates to be determined
The new Audrey Skirball-Kenis Theater at the
Geffen Playhouse will open for the first time with the world premiere
production of MY BUDDY BILL, written and performed by Emmy Award-winning
writer and executive producer Rick Cleveland. In MY BUDDY BILL, Cleveland
spills the dirt on his fantastic friendship with Bill Clinton, in which he
bounces from touring the White House to playing catch with the First Dog and
flying in the President’s jet to Amsterdam. The opening date of this comedy about
Cleveland’s unlikely friendship with former President Clinton will be announced
at a later time.
Rick Cleveland is a writer and executive producer
on the HBO series Six Feet Under. He won an Emmy Award, a Humanitas Award
and a Writer’s Guild Award for his work on The West Wing for which he was also a
writer and co-producer. He earned his M.F.A. from the Playwrights Workshop
at the University of Iowa. His film credits include Jerry & Tom and Runaway Jury. Cleveland is
a founding member of Chicago’s American Theater
Company a commentator for NPR’s “All Things Considered.”
MY BUDDY BILL will be work-shopped at
the Berkshire Theatre Festival this summer.
TICKETS AND OTHER INFORMATION
The
Geffen Playhouse is located at 10886 Le Conte Avenue in Westwood. The performance schedule is Tuesdays
through Thursdays at 7:30 p.m.; Fridays at 8:00 p.m.; Saturdays at 4:00 p.m.
and 8:30 p.m.; and Sundays at 2:00 and 7:00 p.m.
Subscriptions to the 2005-2006 season may be
purchased online at www.geffenplayhouse.com,
at the Geffen’s box office located at the Brentwood Theatre, or by calling the
box office at (310) 208-5454.
GEFFEN PLAYHOUSE RENOVATION AND EXPANSION
Audiences returning to the historic Geffen
Playhouse can expect to find an atmosphere that is gracious and familiar, yet
altered.
“The walls and the proscenium are the same,”
notes Cates of the mainstage renovation, “but everything else has changed. We’re giving new life to the building,
while maintaining the integrity and character of the original
architecture. The main theater,
which was originally never constructed to stage world-class productions, has
now been fully adapted into a functional, flexible and comfortable facility. We believe our patrons will not only be
surprised and delighted, but they'll also feel right at home.”
The Geffen Playhouse renovation has been
meticulously crafted to serve the needs of a world-class theater company and
audience. Highlights inside the
main theater are new, plush, wider seats with elegant fabric and rich wood
accents; improved acoustics and sight lines; a silent heating and cooling
system; a new elevated section of the orchestra with stadium seating and
excellent views; and an elevator-accessible extended mezzanine with premier
front row seating and two prestigious boxes. Stairs into the building have been eliminated for better
access to the theater, and patrons will appreciate the new Ginny Mancini Ladies
Lounge (three times the size of the former restroom area) and the men’s
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Geffen Playhouse Announces 10th Anniversary Season
Page 6
restroom now twice the size, as well as an
improved Marcia Israel-Curley Founders Room with private restrooms. Technical improvements include a
completely updated electrical system that eliminates limitations in lighting
shows; the creation of left and right wings to accommodate full size sets and
fast, seamless scene changes; a full set of special dressing rooms and a proper
Green Room; the creation of wardrobe and tailor space to provide for professional
costuming; and expanded office space capable of supporting the theater’s
growth.
The Audrey Skirball-Kenis Theater at the Geffen
Playhouse, designed by renowned architect Ron Frink,
is a small and intimate space for innovative presentations, but its
stage has the exact dimensions of the main stage, allowing new shows to be
rehearsed and blocked while other productions are in progress. The theater
is named after Audrey Skirball-Kenis, who during the course of her life was a
major arts supporter. In the years
before her death, Skirball Kenis was a board member and major contributor to
the Geffen Playhouse.
Ron Frink, of Ronald Frink
Architects, Inc., designed WorldPort Los Angeles in San Pedro, the Warner Bros.
Digital Studio and Online Studio Branch in Burbank, Los Angeles’ Arco Plaza,
and American Honda Motor Company Headquarters in Torrance, among other
projects.
The Geffen Playhouse broke ground for the
renovation on June 10, 2004.
THE GEFFEN
PLAYHOUSE
Celebrated for its eclectic mix of classic
plays, provocative new works, musicals, and contemporary plays, the Geffen
Playhouse continues to present a body of work that has garnered national
recognition. During its first nine
seasons, the Geffen has produced eight world premieres and four Tony, four
Pulitzer and seven Obie award-winning shows, growing into a vital performing
arts institution with more than 130,000 annual attendees. Among the artists associated with the
Geffen have been Marcel Marceau, Uta Hagen, David Hyde Pierce, Frank Langella,
Steve Martin, Beau Bridges, Laurie Metcalf, John Mahoney, Jason Alexander,
Peter Falk, Debbie Allen, Annette Bening, Donald Margulies, Neil Simon, Linda
Lavin, Nancy Travis and countless others.
The Geffen Playhouse also performs as an
important educational resource and is committed to involving students and
community members in the Los Angeles area in theater experiences that
challenge, inform and enrich their lives.
More than 20,000 students and community members are reached every season
through school-based and community events offering live theater to people who
would otherwise not be able to attend.
The programs are designed to deepen the understanding of the
participant’s world through theater by stimulating the imagination and
creativity by actively participating in theater arts.
Launched in 1994 as the Westwood Playhouse, the
Geffen Playhouse was named in 1995 when entertainment mogul and philanthropist
David Geffen first donated $5 million, one of the largest philanthropic
donations ever made to an already-constructed theater. In 2002, Geffen and The David Geffen
Foundation made another $5 million lead gift for the capital campaign.
The Geffen Playhouse is headed by Producing
Director Gilbert Cates, Artistic Director Randall Arney and Managing Director
Stephen Eich.
# # #
GEFFEN PLAYHOUSE 2005-2006 SEASON: 5 PLAY SEASON ON THE MAIN
STAGE
|
Play
1 September
6—October 16, 2005 Opening
Night September 14, 2005 |
NINE
PARTS OF DESIRE
(West Coast Premiere) Written and
performed by Heather Raffo Directed by
Joanna Settle |
|
Play
2 November
4—December 18, 2005 Opening
Night November 16, 2005 |
CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF
Winner, 1955
Pulitzer Prize for Drama Written by
Tennessee Williams Starring John Goodman Directed
by Geffen Producing Director Gilbert Cates |
|
Play 3 January
24—March 5, 2006 Opening
Night February 1, 2006 |
TBD |
|
Play 4 April
11—May 21, 2006 Opening Night April 19, 2006 |
TBD
|
|
Play 5 June 13-July 23, 2006 Opening Night June 21, 2006 |
TBD
|
PLAY SLOTS TO BE
DETERMINED FOR THE FOLLOWING PRODUCTIONS:
ALL MY
SONS
Winner, New York Drama Critics’
Circle Award
Written by
Arthur Miller
Directed by
Geffen Artistic Director Randall Arney
BOSTON
MARRIAGE (Los
Angeles Premiere)
Written and
directed by David Mamet
A new play to be
announced
AUDREY SKIRBALL-KENIS THEATER AT THE GEFFEN PLAYHOUSE
PRODUCTION
DATES TO BE DETERMINED
World
Premiere of MY BUDDY BILL
Written
and performed by Emmy Award-winner Rick Cleveland