39th Season • 379th Production JULIANNE ARGYROS STAGE / MARCH 18 THROUGH APRIL 6, 2003
David Emmes Martin Benson PRODUCING ARTISTIC DIRECTOR ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
presents RELATIVELY SPEAKING
Scenic and Costume Design Lighting Design Production Manager Stage Manager NEPHELIE ANDONYADIS LONNIE ALCARAZ JEFF GIFFORD *JAMIE A. TUCKER
Directed by DAVID EMMES
Honorary Producers SUE AND RALPH STERN
Presented by special arrangement with Samuel French, Inc.
Relatively Speaking • SOUTH COAST REPERTORY P1 CAST OF CHARACTERS (In order of appearance)
Greg ...... *Douglas Weston Ginny ...... *Jennifer Dundas Philip ...... *Richard Doyle Sheila ...... *Linda Gehringer
SETTING Apartment in London and the English countryside.
LENGTH Approximately two hours and 10 minutes with one intermission.
PRODUCTION STAFF Casting Director ...... Joanne DeNaut Dramaturg ...... Linda Sullivan Baity Production Assistant ...... Christi Vadovic Dialect Consultant ...... Philip Thompson Costume Design Assistant ...... Julie Keen Stage Management Intern ...... Diane Lin Assistant Lighting Designer ...... Elisha Griego
Cellular phones, beepers and watch alarms should be turned off or set to non-audible mode during the performance. Please refrain from unwrapping candy or making other noises that may disturb surrounding patrons. The use of cameras and recorders in the theatre is prohibited. Smoking is not permitted anywhere in the theatre.
* Member of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.
Official Airline Media Partner
P2 SOUTH COAST REPERTORY • Relatively Speaking A Knight to Remember On April 11, 1999, a celebration took place at the Julie McKenzie, actor: Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough, England hon- A script arriving from Alan is manna from heaven. All oring Sir Alan Ayckbourn on the eve of his 60th birth- you have to do is learn the text faithfully, follow his day. “A Chorus of Approval” was held to honor a man punctuation meticulously, and lo and behold you gain with “possibly the most glittering writing career in 20th a reputation as an Ayckbourn actress—and if he’s di- Century theatre, a Broadway street named after him, a recting you sometimes win awards too. play of his reputedly being performed somewhere in the world every minute of the day, and the first knighthood Caricature of Ayckbourn by bestowed on a playwright in recent years.” Here is a Gerald Scarfe from sampling of the tributes offered to Ayckbourn on this the cover of the very special night by some of England’s top theatrical Stephen Joseph talents. Theatre’s souvenir program. Peter Hall, director: I won’t call you the English Chekhov because you are the English Ayckbourn. But please accept the league I am putting you in. If, in a hundred years, anyone wants to know what it was like to live in the second half of the 20th Century, I am quite sure they will turn to the plays of Alan Ayckbourn before they look at historians or sociologists. End-of-millenni- um-man is very accurately atomised in your plays.
Andrew Lloyd Webber, composer: I know no one in the theatre who has put his roots down and stuck to them to such an extent. I can’t think of anyone of your stature who has absolutely es- chewed all the show business trappings that success can bring. Alan, you are quite simply the most genuine theatrical animal I have ever met.
Harold Pinter, playwright: When I first heard that Alan Ayckbourn had given up acting and taken up writing I thought he had made a profound mistake. He was born to play Hamlet. But now that he’s written about 3,000 plays and reached the age of 60, I must conclude that he made the right decision. In fact, there’s no question about it. What he has given to the theatre is immeasurable. I take my hat off to him.
Michael Billington, critic: I am convinced that Alan’s plays will be cherished by posterity. He’s a genuine pioneer who plays with the possibilities of space, time and alternative action. Maybe one day there’ll be a Royal Ayckbourn Compa- ny. Or maybe there’ll be an Alan Ayckbourn theatre. You could, in short, have a future contest between the RAC and the AA.
Relatively Speaking •SOUTH COAST REPERTORY P3 Writing in the Key of Farce Although Alan Ayckbourn wrote his first play in 1949 at farcical writer is precisely that it is so obviously technical. the tender age of 10, the professional career of Britain’s Farce presents not a view of the world as such, but a most performed living playwright began a decade later in view of the world as theatre. The playwright as pup- Scarborough, where almost all of his 62 plays have since peteer or the performer as acrobat is always in sight. premiered. Ayckbourn’s first big West End hit was Rela- This is farcical technique at its most fundamental and tively Speaking, which opened at the Duke of York’s The- most general: to take the most distressing, most painful, atre in March 1967 and ran for more than a year. and most immediate of realities and to transform them Thereafter he became known as the “Molière of the mid- into mere tumbling tricks. If the impression left by pure dle-classes” for his adroit use of farce to expose the darker aspects of English domesticity. In his essay, “Ayckbourn and the Tra- dition of Farce,” which is excerpted below, Stuart E. Baker situates Ayck- bourn’s plays within the rich legacy of traditional farces that have over time come to be regarded as comic masterpieces.
lan Ayckbourn is essentially a writer Aof serious farces. Many playwrights have used farce, but few have made such extensive use of the range farce pro- “Like most great farceurs, Ayckbourn is most at home using the pitiless objectivity of farce vides. The fundamental to dissect the horror, banality, and numbing pains of everyday living.” This is true of both ‘Relatively Speaking’ and ‘How the Other Half Loves’ (shown above from the 1996-97 technique of farce is the Season, clockwise from top, Ron Boussom, Robert Curtis-Brown, Paxton Whitehead and welding of the familiar Kandis Chappell). with fantasy, a transfor- mation of the real into the unreal. Farce has its limits, as not all aspects of reality farce is one of lighthearted effervescence it is because lend themselves equally to such treatment, but Ayck- then the alchemy is complete: the nasty, sordid, distaste- bourn seems intent on exploring and even extending the ful material which is the fuel for all successful farce has range of the farcical. been utterly consumed in the comic flame and nothing is Relatively Speaking represents Ayckbourn’s most left but its lingering warmth. So to gain a reputation for conventional use of orthodox farce technique, but even seriousness it is necessary for a truly gifted farceur only here one can see those elements which make him a par- to suspend the tricks for a moment, to pull back the ticularly important playwright. Ayckbourn is best ad- mask a bit and let the reality appear in its naked ugli- mired by audiences for his brilliantly clever technique ness. He need not pull it all the way back—he would and is most esteemed by critics for his keen character not want to drive the patrons from their seats—but he re- portrayals and insights into human relationships. When veals just enough to administer a sobering shock of we think of farce we think of the former, but the latter is recognition. just as much a part of the tradition of farce, and both are important tools of the serious farceur. The reason the (In Alan Ayckbourn: A Casebook. Bernard F. Dukore, ed. technique of farce is especially important to a seriously New York & London: Garland, 1991.)
P4 SOUTH COAST REPERTORY • Relatively Speaking RICHARD DOYLE JENNIFER DUNDAS LINDA GEHRINGER Philip Ginny Sheila
Artist Biographies
*RICHARD DOYLE (Philip) is an SCR will remember him as Woody’s New York Shakespeare Festival. Re- Founding Artist. He appeared earlier snooty father-in-law Walter Gaines. gional credits include Measure for this season in Proof, Major Barbara Other film and television credits in- Measure and A Midsummer Night’s and A Christmas Carol; last season in clude Air Force One, “NYPD Blue,” Dream at the Ahmanson; The Man The School for Wives and The Home- “Sisters,” movies of the week, “The Who Had All the Luck, Misha’s Party coming; and the previous season in Practice” and guest star appearances and Arms and the Man at The Beard of Avon, Much Ado about on “The Pretender” and “The Lot.” Williamstown Theatre Festival; The Nothing, A Delicate Balance and A He is a voice-over actor in anima- Seagull, The Good Times are Killing Christmas Carol. Additional appear- tion, CD ROMS, television and radio Me, Come Back Little Sheba at the ances include the world premieres of commercials and documentaries, in- Trinity Repertory; and Searching for On the Jump (Robby Award), But cluding the Emmy-winning series Certainty at the Mineral Theatre Not for Me, BAFO, The Interrogation The Living Edens, Impressions of Cal- Company, of which she is a found- of Nathan Hale, She Stoops to Folly, ifornia and the recent documentary ing member. Other regional theatres Wit, Hospitality Suite and Highest reenactment The Bismark. include Mark Taper Forum, Seattle Standard of Living. Other credits in- Repertory, Yale Repertory, American clude Of Mice and Men, Ah, Wilder- *JENNIFER DUNDAS (Ginny) is mak- Repertory Theatre, Bay St. Theatre, ness!, What the Butler Saw, Pyg- ing her SCR debut. On Broadway New Jersey Shakespeare Festival and malion, Six Degrees of Separation, she appeared in The Little Foxes, Ar- the McCarter Theatre. Films include Arms and the Man, The Cherry Or- cadia, Ah, Wilderness! and Changing Lanes, Swimming, The chard, Waiting for Godot, Our Grownups. Her Off-Broadway ap- First Wives’ Club, Lorenzo’s Oil, Ra- Country’s Good and Intimate Ex- pearances include Further Than the dioland Murders, Legal Eagles, Mrs. changes, for which he earned a Los Furthest Thing at Manhattan Theatre Soffel, Heaven Help Us, The Beniker Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award Club, Shopping and Fucking at New Gang and The Hotel New Hampshire. nomination. He won LADCC York Theatre Workshop, Good as Television credits include “Queens Awards for his roles in Sally New (Obie Award for Outstanding Supreme,” “Law and Order: SVU,” Nemeth’s Holy Days and as Reverend Performance) at Manhattan Class “Law and Order: Criminal Intent,” Hale in The Crucible. “Cheers” fans Company and A Winter’s Tale at “The Education of Max Bickford,”
Relatively Speaking•SOUTH COAST REPERTORY P5 York Stage and Film and spent Whitestones (La Mama Etc.) and seven seasons as a company mem- Whitewater (The Performing ber at the Dallas Theatre Center. Garage), Torvald in Nora (La Jolla Roles include Blanche in A Streetcar Playhouse), the title roles in Hamlet Named Desire, Regina in The Little (Merrimack Rep.) and in Peter Pan Foxes, Wanda in The Waiting Room, (The Barter Theatre), Mrs. Warren’s Merteuil in Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Profession (Yale Repertory), Don Bette in The Marriage of Bette and Juan (Center Stage) and Rough Boo, Olga in The Three Sisters, Crossing (McCarter Theater Center). Catherine in The Heiress, Film and television includes Six Days Edward/Betty in Cloud 9 and Ann Seven Nights, Fools Rush In, “The Stanton in All the King’s Men. She West Wing,” “Sex and the City,” holds an MFA from the University of “Two Guys and a Girl,” “The Hugh- Minnesota and has received numer- lies,” “Liberty!” and the indie films ous critical awards. Her television Guardian, Quicksand, 7 Songs and roles include four seasons as The Rule of Three. He has recorded DOUGLAS WESTON Fontana on “Evening Shade” and several Plays for Radio for LA The- Greg guest appearances on “The West atreworks on KCRW and he is the Wing,” “The Practice,” “Ally McBeal,” Artistic Director of The Greenlight “Providence,” “Touched by An Group for whom he produced A “Cosby,” “Judging Amy,” “Ben Angel,” “The Larry Sanders Show” Servant of Two Masters at Bergamot Franklin” (PBS) and three television and “Law and Order, Criminal In- Station. miniseries, Anastasia, Three tent.” This year she was seen on Sovereigns for Sarah and Little Glo- “Girls Club” and “Boomtown,” and PLAYWRIGHT, DIRECTOR ria... Happy at Last. will recur on “The Division.” She & DESIGNERS also appeared in the film As Good as *LINDA GEHRINGER (Sheila) ap- It Gets. ALAN AYCKBOURN (Playwright) peared at SCR in The Carpetbagger’s was born in London in 1939 and Children, Getting Frankie Married— *DOUGLAS WESTON (Greg) is de- spent most of his childhood in Sus- and Afterwards, Hold Please, A Deli- lighted to return to SCR. He played sex. The Theatre in the Round in cate Balance, All My Sons, Arcadia, Teddy Luton in The Circle last sea- Scarborough, where Ayckbourn has Good As New and as Helen Gahagan son and Will Shakespeare in the been Artistic Director since 1971, is Douglas in But Not for Me. Appear- world premiere of The Beard of named after his mentor, Stephen ances at other Southern California Avon the previous season and was Joseph, who first encouraged him to theatres include Be Aggressive and The Philanderer in 1999, for which write. His first West End hit, Rela- Light Up the Sky at the La Jolla Play- he received the Los Angeles Drama tively Speaking, opened in 1967 at house, The Poison Tree at the Mark Critics Circle Award. He was also the Duke of York’s Theatre. Other Taper Forum and Strange Snow at nominated by the LADCC for his successes include Man of the Mo- the Laguna Playhouse. Ms. performance as Septimus in Arcadia ment, A Chorus of Disapproval, Gehringer has worked at Washing- at the Mark Taper Forum. Other Woman in Mind, Intimate Ex- ton’s Arena Stage, Boston’s Hunting- theatre credits include Blood Broth- changes, How the Other Half Loves, ton Theatre, The Guthrie Theater, ers on Broadway, The Sleeping Hippo and The Norman Conquests, all of the Berkshire Theatre Festival, New and Working Title Off-Broadway, which have been produced at SCR
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P6 SOUTH COAST REPERTORY • Relatively Speaking and, Absurd Person Singular, Bed- George Bernard Shaw’s The Philan- NEPHELIE ANDONYADIS (Scenic/ room Farce, Just Between Ourselves, derer. He directed the world pre- Costume Design) is delighted to re- A Small Family Business, Communi- mieres of Amy Freed’s The Beard of turn to SCR, where she has designed cating Doors, Things We Do for Love Avon and Freedomland, Thomas costumes for The Dazzle and Dimly and most recently House and Gar- Babe’s Great Day in the Morning, Perceived Threats to the System, den, a “double” play performed si- Keith Reddin’s Rum and Coke and scenery for The Summer Moon and multaneously in two auditoria. His But Not for Me and Neal Bell’s Cold costumes the first two seasons of the latest play Snake in the Grass, is cur- Sweat; the American premiere of Pacific Playwrights Festival. Other rently on tour in Britain. He is also Terry Johnson’s Unsuitable for designs in Southern California in- an enthusiastic writer of plays for Adults; the West Coast premieres of clude the set for Sid Arthur with children, amongst them the award C.P. Taylor’s Good and Harry Kon- Cornerstone Theater Company and winning Mr. A’s Amazing Maze doleon’s Christmas on Mars; and the the community of Watts as well as Plays and Invisible Friends. His Southland premiere of Top Girls (at several seasons of Center Theatre work has been translated into 35 SCR and the Westwood Playhouse). Group’s New Works Festival. Re- languages and performed on virtual- Other productions include the West gionally, she has designed scenery ly every continent of the globe. Ay- Coast premieres of Three Viewings and/or costumes for many theatres ckbourn has been the Cameron by Jeffrey Hatcher, The Secret Rap- including the Guthrie Lab in Min- Mackintosh Professor of Contempo- ture by David Hare and New Eng- neapolis, Court Theatre, Chicago rary Theatre at Oxford University land by Richard Nelson; and Arca- Children’s Theatre, Great Lakes The- and is a fellow of the RSA. He holds dia by Tom Stoppard, Six Degrees of atre Festival, The Acting Company, honorary degrees from the Universi- Separation by John Guare, The Im- Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble, ties of Keele, Hull, Leeds, Bradford, portance of Being Earnest by Oscar Shakespeare Santa Cruz, Idaho York and the Open University and is Wilde, Ayckbourn’s Woman in Mind Shakespeare Festival, Berkshire The- an Honorary Fellow of Bretton Hall and You Never Can Tell by George atre Festival and Yale Repertory The- and Cardiff University of Wales. Bernard Shaw, which he restaged for atre. Ms. Andonyadis teaches design Other accolades include a Writer's the 1990 Singapore Festival of Arts. in the theatre department at the Uni- Guild of Great Britain Lifetime His producing responsibilities in- versity of Redlands. She is a gradu- Achievement Award and a Sunday volve the overall coordination of ate of the Yale School of Drama and Times Award for Literary Achieve- SCR’s programs and projects. He Cornell University and the recipient ment. Ayckbourn was appointed a has served as a consultant to the Or- of an NEA/TCG design fellowship. CBE in 1987 and in 1997 was knight- ange County Performing Arts Center ed for his services to theatre. and as a theatre panelist and onsite LONNIE ALCARAZ (Lighting Design) evaluator for the National Endow- is an Asst. Professor at the University DAVID EMMES (Director/Producing ment for the Arts. He has served on of California, Irvine and a profes- Artistic Director) is co-founder and the board of the California Theatre sional Lighting Designer. He has de- Producing Artistic Director of SCR, Council, the Executive Committee of signed at various regional theatre one of the largest professional resi- the League of Resident Theatres, and houses, such as Berkeley Repertory, dent theatres in California. He has as a panelist for the California Arts Sierra Repertory, The Arena Stage in received numerous awards for pro- Council. After attending Orange DC, and the Utah Shakespeare Festi- ductions he has directed during Coast College, he received his BA val. In addition to his eight seasons SCR’s 39-year history, including a and MA from California State Univer- with La Posada Mágica, shows at 1999 Los Angeles Drama Critics Cir- sity, San Francisco, and his PhD in SCR include Play Strindberg, Dimly cle Award for the direction of theatre and film from USC. Perceived Threats to the System,
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Relatively Speaking•SOUTH COAST REPERTORY P7 Sidney Bechet Killed a Man (for tions of BAFO and Three Days of times for the two Shaw produc- which he received a Drama-Logue Rain. Mr. Tucker has worked at tions, John Millington Synge’s Play- Award), BAFO, Later Life and Three the Long Beach Civic Light Opera boy of the Western World, Arthur Viewings. He designed Culture on No, No, Nanette, Can Can, A Miller’s The Crucible, Sally Clash’s The Birds at both SCR and Chorus Line, The King and I and Nemeth’s Holy Days and Wit. He Berkeley Repertory, along with Man of La Mancha. If you can’t also directed the film version of their national touring show, Radio find him in the theatre, he is likely Holy Days using the original SCR Mambo, which has been seen in to be on the diamond. cast. Along with David Emmes, he Los Angeles, San Diego, San Fran- accepted SCR’s 1988 Tony Award cisco, Arizona, New York, Seattle MARTIN BENSON (Artistic Director) for Outstanding Resident Profes- and Washington DC. Further de- shares co-founder credit and artistic sional Theatre and won the 1995 sign experience includes the Utah leadership of SCR with his col- Theatre LA Ovation Award for Life- Shakespearean Festival’s 2002 sum- league David Emmes. As one of time Achievement. Mr. Benson re- mer season of shows, Man of La SCR’s chief directors, Mr. Benson ceived his BA in Theatre from Cali- Mancha, Harvey and Hay Fever, has directed nearly one third of the fornia State University, San Francis- and he will be designing for their plays produced here in the last 39 co. summer and fall 2003 seasons. He years. He has distinguished himself recently completed work on Uni- in the staging of contemporary PAULA TOMEI (Managing Director) versal Studios, Japan where he de- work, most notably Paul Osborn’s is responsible for the overall ad- signed the live shows Terminator 2 Morning’s at Seven, the critically ac- ministration of the day-to-day oper- in 3D, and Monster Makeup, the at- claimed California premiere of ations of SCR. A member of the tractions Jurassic Park the Ride and William Nicholson’s Shadowlands, staff since 1979, she has served in a Snoopy Studios, along with exterior Athol Fugard’s Playland, Brian number of administrative capacities architectural facades throughout the Friel’s Dancing at Lughnasa, David including Subscriptions Manager, park. He is a member of the Unit- Mamet’s Oleanna, Harold Pinter’s Business Manager and General ed Scenic Artist/IATSE - Local 829. The Homecoming, the West Coast Manager. She currently serves as premiere of Peter Hedges’ Good As President of Theatre Communica- *JAMIE A. TUCKER (Stage Manager) New and David Hare’s Skylight. He tions Group (TCG), the national completed his Masters of Fine Arts has won accolades for his direction service organization for theatre in Dance, specializing in Stage of five major works by George where she also served a two-year Management, at UCI in 1994. This Bernard Shaw, including the Los term as Treasurer, and has served year he has had the pleasure of Angeles Drama Critics Circle as the Vice President of the League stage managing the world premiere (LADCC) Award winners Misal- of Resident Theatres (LORT). In of Richard Greenberg’s The Violet liance and Heartbreak House. addition, she has been a member Hour and the west coast premiere Among the numerous world pre- of the LORT Negotiating Committee of Horton Foote’s The Carpetbag- mieres he has directed are Jon Bas- for industry-wide union agreements ger’s Children. He worked as SCR’s tian’s Noah Johnson Had a and represents SCR at national con- stage manager for the Second Stage Whore..., Tom Strelich’s BAFO, and ferences of TCG and LORT; is a productions of The Dazzle, True Margaret Edson’s Pulitzer Prize-win- theatre panelist and site visitor for West, Play Strindberg, the world ning Wit, which he also directed at the National Endowment for the premiere of But Not for Me and the Seattle Repertory Theatre and the Arts and the California Arts Council Pacific Playwrights Festival produc- Alley Theatre in Houston. He has (CAC); served on the Advisory tion of Landlocked. He also was directed American classics includ- Committee for the Arts Administra- stage manager of La Posada Mági- ing Ah, Wilderness!, A Streetcar tion Certificate Program at UC ca for two seasons and SCR’s Festi- Named Desire, A Delicate Balance Irvine; and has been a guest lectur- val Latino ’97 production of Rick and All My Sons. Mr. Benson has er in the graduate school of busi- Najera’s Latinologues. He has been honored with the Drama- ness at Stanford. She graduated worked as assistant stage manager Logue Award for his direction of 21 from UC Irvine with a degree in on the Mainstage productions of productions and received LADCC Economics and pursued an addi- New England, Our Town and Arca- Distinguished Achievement in Di- tional course of study in theatre dia, and the Second Stage produc- recting awards an unparalleled six and dance.
The Actors and Stage Managers em- The Scenic, Costume, Lighting and The Director is a member of the So- ployed in this production are mem- Sound Designers in LORT theatres ciety of Stage Directors and Chore- bers of Actors’ Equity Association, the are represented by United Scenic ographers, Inc., an independent na- Union of Professional Actors and Artists Local USA-829, IATSE. tional labor union. Stage Managers in the United States.
P8 SOUTH COAST REPERTORY • Relatively Speaking