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Home , David Mamet, Etcetera Theatre, Frasier (season 6), Lisa Loomer, Liv Ullmann, Sam Shepard

43nd Season • 417th Production JULIANNE ARGYROS STAGE / APRIL 22 - MAY 13, 2007

David Emmes Martin Benson PRODUCING ARTISTIC DIRECTOR ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

presents the world premiere of SYSTEM WONDERLAND

BY David Wiener

Myung Hee Cho Lap-Chi Chu Tom Cavnar Martin Noyes SCENIC AND COSTUME DESIGN LIGHTING DESIGN SOUND DESIGN FIGHT DIRECTOR

John Glore David Leavenworth Erin Nelson* DRAMATURG PRODUCTION MANAGER STAGE MANAGER

DIRECTED BY David Emmes

Larry and Dee Higby, HONORARY PRODUCERS

System Wonderland was commissioned and developed by .

System Wonderland • SOUTH COAST REPERTORY P1 CAST OF CHARACTERS (In order of appearance) Jerry ...... Robert Desiderio* Evelyn ...... Shannon Cochran* Aaron ...... John Sloan*

SETTING A house on the coast of county.

LENGTH Approximately two hours with one 15-minute intermission.

PRODUCTION STAFF Casting ...... Joanne DeNaut Production Assistant ...... Jennifer Ellen Butler Videographer ...... Victor Mouledoux Assistant Videographer ...... Chip Tompkins Stage Management Intern ...... Emily Krech Assistant Lighting Designer ...... Johnny Bradley

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Film and Video Department of Orange Coast College

Please refrain from unwrapping candy or making other noises that may disturb surrounding patrons. The use of cameras and recorders in the is prohibited. Smoking is not permitted anywhere in the theatre. Cellular phones, beepers and watch alarms should be turned off or set to non-audible mode during the performance.

* Member of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers.

Official Airline

P2 SOUTH COAST REPERTORY • System Wonderland In the Navel of a Fruitfly BY JOHN GLORE

eorge S. Kaufman and ’s irresistible. The disillusioned playwright’s motives — Merton of the Movies follows its wide-eyed, to gain a measure of revenge? to expose the sordid title character from small-town to truth behind the glamour and glitz? to turn lemons of Hollywood, where the movie-crazy Merton bitter experience into the lemonade of high comedy? aims to become a serious film-maker; but he — don’t always yield dramatic gold, however much soon discovers that the battle between art the result may soothe the writer’s bruised ego. and commerce all too often makes the people who But the best Hollywood plays turn out not to be make movies behave badly. Kaufman and Connelly about Hollywood, at bottom. Instead they use the wrote the play in 1922, before the advent of talkies, volatile, competitive, high-stakes dynamic of butG even at that early date, Tinseltown’s reputation for Hollywood to turn up the temperature on human tomfoolery made it a fertile field for comedy. stories that could and do happen in Kaufman worked that field again with in many other, more their classic, Once in a Lifetime (1930): a hapless New York playwright gets chewed up and spit out by the machinery of the studio system after

ordinary settings. Like any business where the potential to make billions is shadowed by the even greater potential to go down in run-ins with flames, Hollywood runs primarily on fear: decisions many of the familiar types — are usually based on a desire to avoid cataclysmic the megalomaniacal producer, the catty gossip failure. And fear is one of the principal fuels for both columnist, the self-important director — that have comedy and drama. So take a fraught situation — a become frequent targets in a legion of subsequent relationship or set of relationships seething with Hollywood plays both serious and satirical. tension — drop it into the Hollywood pressure-cooker A chat-room for theatre people yields a list of and the human stuff is more apt to boil over in two dozen titles with ease — from The Big Knife by interesting ways. to ’s to David We can also thank Hollywood for the fact that Mamet’s Speed-the-Plow — plays that find deliciously the people who have swum successfully in its shark- unsavory fodder in Hollywood, in its denizens and the infested waters often have amusing or interesting system by which movies are made and careers are things to say about their experience. Here’s a launched or destroyed. For any playwright who has sampling. had dealings with the Hollywood dream factory, the e— % —f temptation to throw poison-tipped darts at its venal, back-biting, soul-corroding ways seems almost You can take all the sincerity in Hollywood, place it in the navel of a fruit fly and still have room enough for three caraway seeds and a producer’s heart. Above, left to right, Fred Allen, William Faulkner, Greta — Fred Allen Garbo, , Cesar Romero, Ben Hecht and Lil- lian Gish. e— % —f

System Wonderland •SOUTH COAST REPERTORY P3 Hollywood is a place where a man can get stabbed in It’s said in Hollywood that you should always forgive the back while climbing a ladder. your enemies — because you never know when — William Faulkner you’ll have to work with them. e— % —f — e— % —f If only those who dream about Hollywood knew how difficult it all is. Hollywood is loneliness beside the swimming pool. — — Liv Ullmann e— % —f e— % —f You know, when I first went into the movies Lionel If my books had been any worse, I should not have Barrymore played my grandfather. Later he played been invited to Hollywood, and if they had been any my father and finally he played my husband. If he better, I should not have come. had lived I’m sure I would have played —Raymond Chandler his mother. That’s the e— % —f way it is in Hollywood is like life, you face it with the sum total of your equipment. —

Hollywood. The men get younger and the women get older. — e— % —f The honors Hollywood has for the writer are as Hollywood is the backdrop of my family, and I dubious as tissue-paper cuff links. know that the movie business is incredibly cruel as — Ben Hecht you get older. e— % —f — Jamie Lee Curtis e— % —f We Americans have always considered Hollywood, at best, a sinkhole of depraved venality. And, of I’m yet another resource-consuming kid in an course, it is. overpopulated planet, raised to an alarming extent — David Mamet by Hollywood and Madison Avenue, poised with my e— % —f cynical and alienated peers to take over the world when you’re old and weak. Well, you know what they say in Hollywood — the — Bill Watterson (Calvin and Hobbes) most important thing is being sincere, even if you have to fake it. e— % —f — Cesar Romero e— % —f Scriptwriting is the toughest part of the whole racket, the least understood and the least noticed. In Hollywood — in Hollywood, you’re as good as — your last picture. e— % —f — Erich von Stroheim Millions are to be grabbed out here and your only Left to right, Erich von Stroheim, Lana Turner, Liv Ullman, competition is idiots. Don’t let this get around. Raymond Chandler, Joan Crawford, Frank Capra and Jamie Lee Curtis — Herman Mankiewicz to Ben Hecht

P4 SOUTH COAST REPERTORY • System Wonderland

SHANNON COCHRAN ROBERT DESIDERIO JOHN SLOAN Evelyn Jerry Aaron

Artist Biographies

*SHANNON COCHRAN (Evelyn) Sweet Charity, My Fair Lady and *ROBERT DESIDERO (Jerry) is mak- previously appeared at SCR in the Baby (Joseph Jefferson Award ing his SCR debut. He has ap- Pacific Playwrights Festival reading nominations for all three) at Mar- peared in Down the Road and The of System Wonderland. Theatre riott Theatre, Lincolnshire; Three Disputation at Tiffany Theatre, credits include Private Lives at Ways at Victory Gardens Love Letters at Coronet Theatre, Long Wharf Theatre; Bug at the Theater; The Nerd at the Royal Room Service at Pasadena Play- for which George Theatre; and The Elephant house, Herself as Lust at Play- she received an Obie and a The- Man at Playhouse on the Square. wrights Horizons, Chisholm Trail atre World Award; 93 Acres of Film credits include The Substance at Theatre Club and Barley at the Taper New Works of Things Hoped For, Star Trek: The Indian Wants the Bronx at the Festival; Space at Mark Taper Nemesis, The Ring and The Babe. Charles Playhouse, as well as nu- Forum; Morning Star, The Man Television appearances include a merous productions at Boston Who Came to Dinner, Picasso at recurring role on “Star Trek: Deep Shakespeare Company and the the Lapin Agile, Inspecting Carol, Space Nine”; guest starring roles New Jersey Shakespeare Festival. Your Home in the West and Step- on “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Strong Film and television credits include ping Out at Steppenwolf Theatre Medicine,” “The Office,” “Without The Princess and the Cabbie, Oh Company; Bug at the Gate The- a Trace,” “Law & Order: SVU,” God! You Devil, Gross Anatomy, atre, ; Henry IV, What the “,” “Gilmore Girls,” “The Sopranos,” “The Jeff Foxwor- Butler Saw and Happy End “Touched by an Angel,” “Grosse thy Show,” “Murder, She Wrote,” (Joseph Jefferson Award nomina- Pointe,” “ER” and “NYPD Blue”; “,” “Knots Landing,” “Heart tion) at the Court Theatre; and the television movies Witness of the City,” “Ryan’s Hope” and Riverview, Twelfth Night, A Flea in Protection, Prowler, This Just In, “One Life to Live.” Desiderio also Her Ear and Pal Joey (Joseph Jef- The Haunting of Seacliff Inn, wrote the screenplay for the fea- ferson Award) at The Goodman Treasure Island, Moment of Rage, ture film Save Me, which was part Theatre; Other People’s Money at The Old Forest and Measure for of the 2007 Sundance Film Festi- Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park; Measure. val.

System Wonderland •SOUTH COAST REPERTORY P5 *JOHN SLOAN (Aaron) made his Repertory. He is a graduate of Shaw, which he restaged for the SCR debut as Jamie in The Retreat Duke University where he won Singapore Festival of Arts. He has from Moscow and was last seen on the Reynolds Price Award for served as a theatre panelist and stage in The Antaeus Company’s Drama. He is also a graduate of onsite evaluator for the National production of Mother Courage Columbia University’s MFA Play- Endowment for the Arts, on the and her Children. His New York writing Program. He has received Executive Committee of the theatre credits include As You Like the Cherry Lane Fellowship, The League of Resident , and It at the 78th Street Theatre Lab, Rossetti Fellowship, The Lark The- as a panelist for the California Arts Twelfth Night at La MaMa E.T.C., atre Fellowship and commissions Council. After attending Orange Miss Lulu Bett at The Mint Theatre from , Coast College, he received his BA Company, Maybe Baby, It’s You at South Coast Repertory, SoHo and MA from State SoHo Playhouse, Anne Frank and Repertory Theatre and Seattle’s A University, and his PhD in theatre Me at the American Jewish Theatre Contemporary Theatre. His plays and film from USC. and Let’s Play Two at Incite Pro- are published by Dramatists Play ductions. Mr. Sloan’s regional the- Service and Smith & Kraus. Mr. MYUNG HEE CHO (Scenic/Cos- atre credits include Love’s Labour’s Wiener is a professor of playwrit- tume Design) has designed for Lost, Spinning into Butter, A Skull ing at Marymount Manhattan Col- theatre, opera and dance. She is in Connemara and Amy’s View at lege. He lives with his wife in happy to be back at SCR after just Denver Center Theatre Company; and is currently at designing The Piano Teacher and Holiday Memories at Alabama work on a new play. previously designing Nostalgia Shakespeare Festival; The Last and Entertaining Mr. Sloane. Her Night of Ballyhoo at Intiman The- DAVID EMMES (Director/Produc- designs have been seen at Mark atre; and The Fantasticks at the ing Artistic Director) is co-founder Taper Forum/ The- Alma Theatre. His television cred- of SCR. He has received numer- atre, McCarter Theatre, La Jolla its include leading roles in FOX’s ous awards for productions he has Playhouse, A.C.T./SF, Kennedy “Happy Hour” and “The Triangle” directed during his SCR career, in- Center, Laguna Playhouse, Berke- for The Sci Fi Channel; recurring cluding a Los Angeles Drama Crit- ley Repertory Theatre, Pasadena roles on ABC’s “Commander in ics Circle Award for the direction Playhouse, East West Players, Chief” and CBS’ “Judging Amy;” of George Bernard Shaw’s The Opera Theater, Long and guest starring roles on Philanderer. He directed the Wharf Theatre, Intiman Theatre, “Gilmore Girls,” “American world premieres of Amy Freed’s /NYSF, Union Dreams,” “JAG” and “Tru Calling.” Safe in Hell, The Beard of Avon Square Theatre, Manhattan Class His feature film credits include and Freedomland, Thomas Babe’s Company, , The OH in OHio and Returning Great Day in the Morning, Keith Music Theatre Group, 2econd Mickey Stern. Reddin’s Rum and Coke and But Stage Theatre, New York Stage & Not for Me and Neal Bell’s Cold Film, New Work- PLAYWRIGHT, Sweat; the American premieres of shop, Ma-Yi Theater Company, DIRECTOR & DESIGNERS Terry Johnson’s Unsuitable for , Center- Adults and Joe Penhall’s Dumb Stage, The Children’s Theatre DAVID WIENER (Playwright) was Show; the West Coast premieres of Company, Disney Creative Enter- born and raised in Irvine, Califor- C.P. Taylor’s Good and Harry Kon- tainments and Nai-Ni Chen Dance nia. His plays include Guts, La doleon’s Christmas on Mars; and Company. She has designed the Arana, Love Song (of the Apoca- the Southland premiere of Top North American tours of Wit and lypse), Blood Orange, in vitro, Girls (at SCR and the Westwood Lackawanna Blues. She was the Huera, Cassiopeia and Baltimore Playhouse). Other productions in- recipient of the 1995 Princess Star. His work has appeared in clude the West Coast premieres of Grace Award, and is a lecturer at the United States and the United Three Viewings by Jeffrey Hatcher, Cal State Fullerton. Ms. Cho is a Kingdom at theatres including The Secret Rapture by David Hare graduate of Cooper Union and , Blue Heron and New England by Richard Nel- Yale School of Drama. Arts Center, Etcetera Theatre (UK), son; and Arcadia by Tom Stop- HB Studios, Atlantic Theater Com- pard, The Importance of Being LAP-CHI CHU (Lighting Design) pany, (UK), The Earnest by Oscar Wilde, Ayck- has designed lighting for theatre, New Group, A Contemporary The- bourn’s Woman in Mind and You opera and dance throughout the atre, Hudson Stage and SoHo Never Can Tell by George Bernard country. Recent regional designs

P6 SOUTH COAST REPERTORY • System Wonderland include Mark Taper Forum, Ore- the Moon, as well as the workshop gon Shakespeare Festival, Arena production of Leitmotif at the 2006 LARRY AND DEE HIGBY Stage, Hartford Stage, San Jose Pacific Playwrights Festival. His (Honorary Producers). Last Repertory, , other design credits include After season, SCR Board President Portland Center Stage, Pittsburgh Juliet at The Coterie Theatre; Larry Higby and his wife Dee Public Theater, Indiana Repertory, Bright Ideas at ; became first-time Honorary Syracuse Stage, Intiman Theatre, and numerous productions for the Producers by underwriting Portland Stage Company, Shake- University of Missouri-Kansas Born Yesterday. This season speare&Co., Evidence Room and City’s Department of Theatre. Mr. they’re back to help bring a Ordway Music Theatre. His New Cavnar holds an MFA in Theatre York design credits include New Sound Design from UMKC, and a world premiere to the stage York Theatre Workshop, Dance BA in Theatre from Western Michi- by underwriting System Won- Theater Workshop, PS 122, The gan University. derland. The Higbys’ sup- Kitchen, Danspace Project and port began in 1992 when Juilliard Opera. He is the lighting/ *MARTIN NOYES (Fight Director) they joined the SCR family as video designer for Chamecki/Lern- returns to SCR where he most re- members of the Platinum Cir- er Dance Company (Costumes by cently fight directed Pig Farm, cle of donors. Dee was God, Visible Content, Hidden Ridiculous Fraud, Nothing Sacred, elected to the Board of Forms, 1 Mutantes Seras and Por Bach at Leipzig, the American pre- Trustees and served two Favor, Não Me Deixe), performed miere of Hitchcock Blonde (he years as President. She also in the United States and Brazil. also played the Husband) and The chaired the 30th Season Gala He has created many designs over Further Adventures of Hedda Ball and she and Larry to- the last decade as the resident Gabler. Other recent work in- gether chaired the 40th Sea- lighting designer for Lincoln Cen- cludes King Lear, As You Like It son Gala. Larry joined the ter’s Juilliard Drama. He has re- and Pygmalion at Shakespeare Board in 2001 and is current- ceived multiple Bay Area Theatre Santa Cruz; I’m not Rappaport at ly the President. Prior to Critics Circle Awards for best light- Little Fish Theatre Company; Big that he served two years as ing. Mr. Chu is on the lighting de- Love, Cabaret, Hot ‘N’ Throbbing, sign faculty at California Institute A Christmas Story and Never in My Vice President, Develop- of the Arts. Lifetime at The Chance Theater; ment. Dee and Larry hold and The Grapes of Wrath at Alaba- the distinction of being the first and only couple to both TOM CAVNAR (Sound Design) is ma Shakespeare Festival. Mr. in his second season as staff Noyes received his BFA from serve as President of the Audio Technician and is designing Southern Oregon University and Board during their tenure. his seventh production at SCR. his MFA from the University of Al- Finally, the Higbys were This season, he created the sound abama, both in Theatre with the among those who helped design for Bach at Leipzig, Pig emphasis in Acting. He is also a make the Folino Theatre Farm, The Prince and the Pauper member of the Society of Ameri- Center a reality with their and most recently The Piano can Fight Directors. generous contribution to The Teacher. He also designed sound Next Stage Campaign. for the Summer Players’ produc- JOHN GLORE (Dramaturg) has tion of East of the Sun and West of been SCR’s Associate Artistic Di-

System Wonderland •SOUTH COAST REPERTORY P7 rector since 2005 and served as Man, The Adventures of Pør Quin- the film version of Holy Days dramaturg on the theatre’s produc- ly, Bunnicula, The Little Prince, using the original SCR cast. Along tions of Tanya Barfield’s Blue The Hoboken Chicken Emergency, with Emmes, he accepted SCR’s Door, Terry Johnson’s Hitchcock The Wind in the Willows, Sideways 1988 Tony® Award for Outstand- Blonde and ’s Ridicu- Stories from Wayside School and ing Resident Professional Theatre lous Fraud, among others. As The Emperor’s New Clothes. Previ- and won the 1995 Theatre LA SCR’s literary manager from 1985 ous credits include La Jolla Play- Ovation Award for Lifetime to 2000 he provided dramaturgical house, The Old Globe, Idaho Achievement. Mr. Benson re- support for dozens of productions, Shakespeare Festival, National ceived his BA in Theatre from San workshops and readings. From Playwrights Conference and The- Francisco State University. 2000 to 2005 he was resident dra- atre IV. maturg for the Mark Taper Forum PAULA TOMEI (Managing in Los Angeles, where projects in- MARTIN BENSON (Artistic Direc- Director) is responsible for the cluded Luis Alfaro’s Electricidad, tor), co-founder of SCR with his overall administration of South Culture Clash’s Chavez Ravine, colleague David Emmes, has di- Coast Repertory and has been ’s Living Out and Jessi- rected nearly one third of the Managing Director since 1994. A ca Goldberg’s Sex Parasite. His plays produced here. He has dis- member of the SCR staff since ongoing collaboration with Cul- tinguished himself in the staging 1979, she has served in a number ture Clash also includes a new of contemporary work, including of administrative capacities includ- adaptation of Aristophanes’ The William Nicholson’s The Retreat ing Subscriptions Manager, Busi- Birds (co-produced by SCR and from Moscow, the world premiere ness Manager and General Manag- Berkeley Repertory Theatre) and of ’s Getting Frankie er. She served on the board of Water & Power at the Taper. From Married — and Afterwards and Theatre Communications Group 1981-84 he was literary manager at the critically acclaimed California (TCG), the service organization for Washington, D.C.’s , premiere of Nicholson’s Shadow- theatre, from 1998-2006 and was and he has also worked as a dra- lands. He has won accolades for its President for four years. She maturg for The Old Globe and his direction of five major works has also served as Treasurer of Midwest PlayLabs. His own plays by George Bernard Shaw, includ- TCG, Vice President of the League have been produced at SCR, Ac- ing the Los Angeles Drama Critics of Resident Theatres (LORT) and tors Theatre of Louisville, Berkeley Circle (LADCC) Award-winners has been a member of the LORT Repertory Theatre and other the- Major Barbara, Misalliance and Negotiating Committee for indus- atres across the country. He has Heartbreak House. Among his nu- try-wide union agreements. In ad- taught playwriting and related merous world premieres is Mar- dition, she represents SCR at na- subjects at Pomona College and garet Edson’s Pulitzer Prize-win- tional conferences of TCG and UCLA and has contributed articles ning Wit, which he also directed LORT; is a theatre panelist for the to such publications as Theater at Seattle Repertory Theatre and National Endowment for the Arts and American Theatre. He re- the Alley Theatre in Houston. He and the California Arts Council ceived his MFA degree in dra- has directed American classics in- (CAC), and site visitor for the CAC; maturgy from the Yale School of cluding Ah, Wilderness!, A Street- served on the Advisory Committee Drama. car Named Desire, A Delicate Bal- for the Arts Administration Certifi- ance and A View from the Bridge. cate Program at the University of *ERIN NELSON (Stage Manager) is Mr. Benson has received the California, Irvine; and has been a delighted to be part of this excit- LADCC Distinguished Achieve- guest lecturer in the graduate ing new work. Other SCR credits ment in Directing awards an un- school of business at Stanford and include A Christmas Carol, Life is paralleled seven times for the the University of California, Irvine. a Dream, Bach at Leipzig, The three Shaw productions, John She graduated from the University Studio, The Caucasian Chalk Cir- Millington Synge’s Playboy of the of California, Irvine with a degree cle, A View from the Bridge and Western World, ’s The in Economics and pursued an ad- Theatre for Young Audiences pro- Crucible, Sally Nemeth’s Holy ditional course of study in theatre ductions of The Stinky Cheese Days and Wit. He also directed and dance.

The Actors and Stage Managers em- The Scenic, Costume, Lighting and The Director is a member of the Soci- ployed in this production are members Sound Designers in LORT theatres ety of Stage Directors and Choreogra- of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union are represented by United Scenic phers, Inc., an independent national of Professional Actors and Stage Man- Artists Local USA-829, IATSE. labor union. agers in the United States.

P8 SOUTH COAST REPERTORY • System Wonderland