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GEFFEN PLAYHOUSE PRESENTS

BRYAN DAVIDSON’S AWARD-WINNING

WAR MUSIC

Davidson’s Glorious Depiction of the Triumph of the Human Spirit is Translated Through the Distinct Direction of Jessica Kubzansky

Ovation Award Winner for World Premiere Play

January 13 - February 22

LOS ANGELES, CA – December 18, 2003 –Geffen Playhouse Producing Director Gilbert Cates proudly presents the next play of the 2003-2004 season: Bryan Davidson’s multi-award winning drama, War Music. Helmed by notable director Jessica Kubzansky, War Music is based on dramatic events in the lives of three composers during the first and second World Wars. Honored by the Los Angeles Times as a top ten "Notable Show" in 2002, War Music is a play in three movements that interweaves life, music, death and humor as a means to illustrate the powerful connection between art and the context in which it is created. War Music features Nancy Bell, Kevin Crowley, Tina Holmes, Jeremy Maxwell, John Prosky, Victor Raider-Wexler and Christopher Shaw. Performances begin January 13 and run through February 22, with an official press opening on January 21, 2004.

War Music had its world premiere in a short run at the 99-seat Los Angeles Theatre Center (LATC) in 2002, where it was hailed by the L.A. Weekly as “timely, heart-breaking and wistfully humanistic.” Originally produced by Echo Theater Company, War Music received numerous accolades and awards, including the Ovation Award for World Premiere Play, Ensemble Performance, and Lighting Design. Davidson’s play was also a finalist for the 2003 PEN USA Literary Award for Drama.

"At the core of this beautifully written play is the idea that the environment in which art is created becomes an intricate part of the art itself. This ideology also applies to the creative process we are so passionate about here at Geffen Playhouse," said Cates. "After having the great opportunity to see War Music during its short run at the LATC last season, we knew in our hearts that we would be able to provide this masterful story with a fruitful environment in which it could flourish."

A graduate of UCLA’s distinguished playwriting program, Bryan Davidson is only the third local playwright, preceded by Neil Simon and David Rambo, to have a play produced at the Geffen Playhouse. In addition to his participation with various artistic and educational committees throughout the world, Davidson is Program Director for Playwrights in the Schools, an arts residency program that teaches playwriting to at-risk youth. Davidson is the recipient of the City of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department Artist in Residence grant.

Continued Cates, "We are also thrilled to be able to share our stage with Davidson because it illustrates the very solid connection between Geffen Playhouse and UCLA, for students and graduates."

Assigned the challenge of maintaining one cohesive locale through the creation of three distinct environments, the War Music creative team includes Susan Gratch (Set Design), Elizabeth Palmer (Costume Design), Michael Gilliam (Lighting Design), John Zalewski (Sound Design), Amy Levinson Millán (Dramaturg) and Lisa J. Snodgrass (Production Stage Manager).

WAR MUSIC BIOGRAPHIES

BRYAN DAVIDSON (Playwright) is a Los Angeles-based playwright and educator. His play War Music premiered in 2002 at Los Angeles Theatre Center, where it was produced by Echo Theater Company and Playwrights’ Arena. Davidson’s other recent productions include Banned and Burned in America (a commission from the Greenway Court Theatre about censorship in the United States) and Reflecting Back (a commission for young audiences from Cornerstone Theater Company, to accompany the touring American Originals exhibit from the National Archives). Davidson’s work has also been produced by Moving Arts, Virginia Avenue Project, Shakespeare Festival /LA's Will Power to Youth program and the MET Theatre. Davidson co-wrote Kusah Hakwaan (1998, dir. Sean Morris), an award-winning film about Tlingit Indian storytelling which screened at New York's Independent Feature Film Market and other film festivals in the US and Europe. With fellow playwright Tom Jacobson, Davidson is Co-Literary Manager of the Theatre at Boston Court, a new venue for theater in Pasadena. He works with the Edge of the World Theater Festival as co-director of the Los Angeles History Project. As an arts educator, Davidson is Program Director for Playwrights in the Schools, an arts residency program that teaches playwriting to at-risk youth, and a recent recipient of a City of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department Artist in Residence grant.

JESSICA KUBZANSKY (Director) is an award-winning director working around the U.S. Kubzansky was recently named Co-Artistic Director of the Theatre at Boston Court, a new venue for theater in Pasadena. Kubzansky’s recent work include the critically acclaimed Kate Crackernuts by Sheila Callaghan at 24th Street Theatre; the multi-Ovation-nominated Toys in the Attic at The Colony; David Gow's Bea’s Niece at MetroStage in D.C.; Measure for Measure at A Noise Within; the multi-Ovation-nominated world premiere of Bryan Davidson’s War Music at LATC; Amy’s View with Carol Lawrence and Susan Egan at International City Theatre; the award-winning musical Moscow at Chekhov Now Festival (New York City, Los Angeles, and Edinburgh); the world premiere of Carol Wolf's The Thousandth Night with Ron Campbell (U.S., London, Edinburgh, Israel, and more); Pirates of Penzance at the Publick Theatre in Boston; Tony Kushner’s The Illusion at the American Stage Company in Florida; Twelfth Night at the Grand Canyon Shakespeare Festival in Arizona; and Macbeth at Greyfriars Kirkyard in Edinburgh. In Southern California, Kubzansky has directed works at The Mark Taper Forum New Works Festival (Diana Son, Paula Weston Solano, Julia Cho); Moon for the Misbegotten at Laguna Playhouse; Dancing at Lughnasa (McCoy/Rigby/La Mirada); Lulu at the Pacific Resident Theatre; Servant to Two Masters at ICT; Vaclav Havel's The Memorandum at the Odyssey Theatre; The House of Blue Leaves at West Coast Ensemble; Heartbreak House at the Colony Theatre; Schnitzler's Anatol (Buffalo Nights); Mariveaux's The Triumph of Love (Ivy Substation); and many others. Kubzansky and her productions have received numerous awards.

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NANCY BELL originated her roles in the world premiere of War Music last year. In New York, Bell worked at the New York Theatre Workshop, Ensemble Studio Theatre, and in last season’s Polish Joke at Manhattan Theatre Club. Regional theater credits include work at McCarter Theatre, Berkeley Rep., ACT, Old Globe Theatre, Dallas Theatre Center, Studio Arena Theatre, Baltimore Center Stage, Berkshire Theatre Festival, Cincinnati Playhouse, St. Louis Rep, and several productions at South Coast Rep, including The Philanderer, for which she received an L.A. Drama Critics Circle award nomination. Bell has also appeared on Law and Order: S.V.U.; Century City; Chicago Hope; Star Trek Voyager; Mad About You; Newsradio; Payne; Cover Me; The Journey of Alan Strange; Guiding Light and in the films American Tragedy and Thirst. A proud member of the Echo Theater Company, Bell has also appeared in that company’s productions of A Devil Inside and Wildlife.

KEVIN CROWLEY spent time as an actor, writer and director in Chicago before moving to Los Angeles in 1995. In Chicago he performed at The Second City, Steppenwolf, Northlight and Victory Gardens theaters. In Los Angeles his stage credits include Moose Mating; Devil Inside; and American Buffalo. Television credits include Daddio; The Boys Are Back; Can’t Hurry Love; The Jeff Foxworthy Show; Grace Under Fire; The Drew Carey Show; Murphy Brown; Dragnet; and Push, Nevada. Crowley has also appeared in Hoffa; Major League; Major League II; The Package; The Fugitive; and Suicide Kings. As a dramatist, Crowley has written several plays, including Disgruntled Employees, which received the Charles MacArthur Fellow at the National Playwrights Conference in 1997. He is also the author of a one-man show called Earth on a Platter; Hitchhikers May Be Inmates; The Monkey’s Paw; and The Riverside.

TINA HOLMES is from New York City and is a graduate of Brown University. She made her film debut as Maggie in 1998's Edge of Seventeen. Holmes has also appeared in the following movies: The Prince of Central Park; 30 Days; The Photographer; Brooklyn Babylon; Seven and a Match; Storytelling; In God's Hands; and Fixed. On television, Holmes has appeared on Third Watch; ER; The Division; Strong Medicine; Judging Amy; Dragnet; and NYPD Blue. In December 2002, she portrayed Ann Crawford in Steven Spielberg’s miniseries Taken. Holmes’ Los Angeles theater credits include the premiere production of War Music at LATC in 2002, and Uncle Vanya at the Lillian Theater in 2003.

JEREMY MAXWELL grew up in Southern Oregon and Southern Denmark. He received a BA in Theater Arts from UCLA's School of Theater, Film, and Television and the University of Exeter, England. Maxwell has worked with the Echo Theater Company since 1998, during which time he performed in the Ovation Award winning World Premiere of War Music; Homegrown by Rick Cleveland (Directed by Paul McCrane); and The Echo One Acts: Series One (World Premiere play by Neena Beber). With the Echo, Maxwell has also workshopped Adam Rapp's Finer Noble Gases; Jessica Goldberg's Good Thing; and David Lindsey-Abaire's A Devil Inside. Other stage credits include Adam Rapp's Ghosts in the Cottonwoods (Directed by Chris Fields); Welcome Home (Edinburgh Festival Fringe); Macbeth (U.K.); and Marat/ Sade (U.K.). Jeremy has appeared on MTV's Undressed: Season One; The Andy Dick Show; Sabrina, the Teenage Witch; Felicity; and Linc's. Film credits include The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle; The Duke; The Hazing; and Winning London.

JOHN PROSKY originated the roles of Denby, Bell, and Akoka in the Echo/LATC production of War Music. Elsewhere on stage, he has performed in The Matchmaker at Arena Stage; Candida at The Guthrie; in Once Upon a Time…at Playwright’s Horizon; Sahara (new works festival) at The Mark Taper Forum; with The Getty and the Actor’s Gang Theatre in The Akhmatova Project; and with the Pasadena Playhouse and the Lortel in Camping With Henry and Tom. On television, Prosky has had recurring roles or guest starred on programs such as The Practice; The West Wing; Frasier; Chicago Hope; The Bernie Mac Show; Judging Amy; Star Trek DS9 and Voyager; Oliver Beene; Just Shoot Me; JAG; Becker; NYPD Blue; Stargate SG1; Touched by an Angel; and several movies of the week. He has also appeared in over thirty films such as The Battle of Shaker Heights; The Hulk; Artificial Intelligence; Bowfinger; The Nutty Professor; and the upcoming Hidalgo.

VICTOR RAIDER-WEXLER was born and raised in Toledo, Ohio before moving to New York City to begin his stage performance career. Having appeared in more than 250 plays, Raider-Wexler’s Broadway credits include August Wilson’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and Gypsy and his many off-Broadway credits include The Passion of Dracula and The Boys Next Door. In Los Angeles, Raider-Wexler’s has performed in Six Degrees of Separation at The Doolittle, Street of the Sun at The Mark Taper Forum, in addition to several Echo Theater Productions. His recurring roles on TV series include Everybody Loves Raymond, The King of Queens, Oliver Beane, and Seinfeld. Large screen credits include Die Mommy Die, Minority Report and Dr. Doolittle 2. He won the Best Actor Award at the Brussels Independent Film Festival for his portrayal of the title role in John. His wife is in Med School. She and Sarah Luisa (9) and Whitney (7) light up his life.

CHRISTOPHER SHAW originated his role in War Music at the Echo Theater Company in association with Playwrights Arena. Shaw’s theater credits include Marvin’s Room at the Minetta Lane in NYC, Seattle Rep., and the Kennedy Center; Walking the Dead at Circle Rep. in NYC; Painted Rain and Psychoneurotic Phantasies at Playwrights Horizons; Romeo and Juliet at the Public Theatre; Present Laughter at Center Stage in Baltimore; The Innocent’s Crusade by Keith Redin at the Long Wharf; and numerous plays with the Eugene O’Neill Theatre Conference during the Lloyd Richards era, including Herculina by Kira Obelensky. Film and television credits include the CBS pilot Shaughnessy; Dog Fight with River Phoenix and Lily Taylor; and Bella Mafia with Vanessa Redgrave, Nastassja Kinski, and James Marsden.

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 Underpants (Mar. 9-Apr. 18, 2004)

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’s fifth play, which will run June 15 through July 25, will 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 the 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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