FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, PLEASE

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Jenni Benzaquen

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Geffen Playhouse

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jenni@geffenplayhouse.com

JUST IN TIME FOR THE HOLIDAYS…

GEFFEN PLAYHOUSE PROUDLY PRESENTS

THE LOS ANGELES PREMIERE OF

SUGAR PLUM FAIRY

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DAVID SCHWEIZER DIRECTS SANDRA TSING LOH’S THOROUGHLY ORIGINAL HOLIDAY TREAT

November 11 – December 21

LOS ANGELES, CA – October 29, 2003 – Gilbert Cates, Geffen Playhouse’s Producing Director, proudly announces the next highly anticipated production of Geffen Playhouse’s 2003-2004 season, Sandra Tsing Loh’s Sugar Plum Fairy. Written and performed by Sandra Tsing Loh and helmed by notable Los Angeles director and Obie Award winner David Schweizer, Sugar Plum Fairy premieres at Geffen Playhouse November 11 through December 21, 2003 with an official press opening on Wednesday, November 19.

Just in time for the holiday season, Sugar Plum Fairy is the hilarious, coming-of-age story about a 12 year-old girl who dreams of starring on stage in her dance school’s production of The Nutcracker. Despite her eagerness to achieve this goal, she is clumsy and overweight, and worse, unaware of these limitations. Sugar Plum Fairy is appropriate for adults as well as children (ages 12 and up).

“We are so pleased to present this incredibly imaginative story just in time for the joy and wonderment of our own holiday season,” said Cates. “Sugar Plum Fairy is a hilarious, fantastic and offbeat play and we can’t wait to share this lovely little story with theatergoers of all ages.”

Sugar Plum Fairy had its world premiere at the Seattle Repertory Theatre in December 2002 where the Seattle Times said “Loh demonstrates the cruel, competitive hierarchy of The Nutcracker with an amusing chart that flies out from the wings.” The Seattle Post-Intelligencer said about Loh, “she whips anguish into a froth, which she then shapes into cartoon capers.”

David Schweizer returns to the Geffen having directed Philip Littell's adaptation of Feydeau's He Hunts at the Geffen Playhouse in the Spring of 2002. He has directed many notable productions in Los Angeles, including The Waiting Room and Demonology at the Mark Taper Forum and Berlin Circle at the Evidence Room. Schweizer has also created multi-disciplinary theater work through his own Modern Artists' Company including their award-winning Plato’s Symposium, which also played at the ICA in London.

Sandra Tsing Loh has performed in two solo off-Broadway shows: Aliens in America and Bad Sex With Bud Kemp. She has written four books including, A Year in Van Nuys and If You Lived Here You’d be Home by Now, the latter named by the Los Angeles Times as one of the 100 best books of 1998. Well-known in Los Angeles for her hilarious KCRW radio show, “The Loh Life,” Loh has found a multitude of outlets to express her semi-autobiographical commentaries on the twists and turns of life in Los Angeles.

The Sugar Plum Fairy creative team includes David Zinn (Scenic and Costume Design), Geoff Korf (Lighting Design), Stephen Le Grand (Sound Design), and Conwell S. Worthington III (Production Stage Manager).

Geffen Playhouse is headed by Producing Director Gilbert Cates, Artistic Director Randall Arney and Managing Director Stephen Eich.

Sugar Plum Fairy Biographies

SANDRA TSING LOH (Writer/Performer) has performed in two solo off-Broadway shows: Aliens in America and Bad Sex With Bud Kemp. Both premiered at Second Stage Theatre and had various held-over runs at the Tiffany Theatre in Los Angeles, Seattle Repertory Theatre and San Jose Repertory Theatre. To date, Aliens in America has been performed over 200 times. Her latest show I Worry had its world premiere in Washington DC, at the AFI Theatre at the Kennedy Center in March of this year, in co-production with the Woolly Mammoth Theatre Co. I Worry has subsequently received successful productions at Santa Fe Stages and Actors Theatre of Louisville. Loh’s books include: A Year in Van Nuys; If You Lived Here You’d be Home by Now (named by the Los Angeles Times as one of the 100 best books of 1998); Depth Takes a Holiday; and Aliens in America. She has won a 1995 Pushcart Prize in Fiction for her short story My Father’s Chinese Wives, which was also included in the 1999 Norton Anthology of Short Fiction. On public radio, Loh has been a regular contributor to both NPR’s Morning Edition and Ira Glass’ This American Life; currently her commentaries are heard weekly on KCRW FM (Los Angeles) on The Loh Life, and every third Wednesday on The Loh Down on PRI’s Marketplace.

DAVID SCHWEIZER (Director) has directed many notable productions in Los Angeles, including The Waiting Room and Demonology at the Mark Taper Forum; Peer Gynt, Broadway; and Salome at the Actors’ Gang; Demon Wine, The Illusion, The Joni Mitchell Project, and Kingfish at L.A.T.C.; and Berlin Circle at the Evidence Room. His opera and musical theater work includes Abduction from the Seraglio at Houston Grand Opera; LA Indian Queen, Elegy for Young Lovers, Powder Her Face and La Perichole at Long Beach Opera and the upcoming Mines of Sulpher at Glimmerglass. He has directed regionally at Arena Stage, Trinity Rep, Yale Rep, Hartford Stage, A.C T., Magic Theater, San Jose Rep, Seattle Rep, Woolly Mammoth, Williamstown Theater Festival, Children's Theater Company (Minneapolis) - collaborated with experimental theater companies/ Theatre X (History of Sexuality) Mabou Mines (It’s a Man’s World) and worked extensively abroad at national theaters in Sarajevo, Warsaw, Prague, London, Lisbon, Hamburg, and Toga Village-Japan. He has developed new work in LA and New York with Michael Sargent, John Steppling, Marlane Meyer, Lisa Loomer, Austin Pendleton, Charles Mee, Len Jenkin, Daniel Reitz, Marga Gomez, Ann Magnuson and many others. Schweizer has been working in collaboration with Sandra Tsing Loh for several shows including Aliens in America which played in Los Angeles and has toured extensively, Bad Sex With Bud Kemp and I Worry. His upcoming New York work will include Wintertime by Charles Mee at Second Stage this winter. Schweizer attended Yale Drama School and made his New York debut under the auspices of Joseph Papp at Lincoln Center with a notorious production of Troilus and Cressida nearly thirty years ago. Schweizer also teaches at Cal Arts.

Geffen Playhouse 2003-2004 Season

Subscriptions to the 2003-2004 season are currently on sale. Orders may be placed in person at the Geffen’s box office or by calling the box office at (310) 208-5454. The four-play subscription price range is $108-$184. Special student subscriptions are available for $56.

War Music (Jan. 13-Feb. 22)

The Geffen’s season continues with Los Angeles playwright Bryan Davidson’s War Music, directed by Jessica Kubzansky. War Music, based upon dramatic events in the lives of composers Frank Bridge, Anton Webern, and Olivier Messiaen, weaves together three musically-driven playlets. Each composer’s story is linked by warfare, madness, redemption, and, ultimately, the resilient spirit of the human condition. War Music was named one of the top ten notable plays of 2002 by the Los Angeles Times. War Music runs from January 13-February 22, 2004, with an official press opening on Wednesday, January 21.

The Underpants (Mar. 9-Apr. 18)

The fourth production of the Geffen’s season is The Underpants, comic genius Steve Martin’s hilarious adaptation of Carl Sternheim’s 1910 German farce Die Hose. The play introduces a newly married couple that must cope with the madness that results when the wife’s underwear falls down at a parade for the king. Into the fray come a nosy upstairs neighbor and a pair of suitors – a foppish poet and a whiny hypochondriac – who come to rent a room from the couple. The Underpants runs from March 9-April 18, 2004, with an official press opening on Wednesday, March 17.

The season closes with a new play, directed by Cates, to be announced at a later date. This play will be the first Geffen Playhouse production to be performed at Geffen’s new interim home, the 500-seat Brentwood Theatre, as Geffen Playhouse is fully renovated. Located just west of the Geffen on the grounds of the Department of Veterans Affairs in Brentwood, the Brentwood Theatre will also host the entire run of the Geffen Playhouse 2004/2005 season.

Geffen Playhouse is located at 10886 Le Conte Avenue in Westwood. Single ticket prices range from $28 to $46. The performance schedule is Tuesdays - 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. For ticket information, please call the Geffen Playhouse box office at (310) 208-5454. For group reservations, please call (661) 250-7424. Visit the Geffen Playhouse website at www.geffenplayhouse.com.

Geffen Playhouse is headed by Producing Director Gilbert Cates, Artistic Director Randall Arney and Managing Director Stephen Eich.

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