The 39 Steps Hitchcock Meets Monty Python Spies, Murder, Comedy and Romance to Launch Stage's Mainstage Season

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PRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Monday, October 11, 2010 CONTACT: Patrick Finlon, Marketing Director 315-443-2636 or [email protected]

Adapted by Patrick Barlow From the novel by John Buchan From the movie of Alfred Hitchcock Directed by Peter Amster

ARCHBOLD THEATRE at SYRACUSE STAGE Running Dates: October 20 – November 7 Pay-What-You-Can Dress Rehearsal: Tuesday, October 19 at 7:30 p.m. Press Opening: Friday, October 22 at 8 p.m.

(Syracuse, NY)—Gunshots, murder, and dastardly plots; seductive spies, thrilling chases and serious flirtation; they’re all part of this rollicking comedy/mystery and two-time Tony Award-winning Broadway hit. Based on the 1935 classic film by Alfred Hitchcock, The 39 Steps follows Richard Hannay as he sets out for a night of music hall entertainment only to be ensnared in a dangerous attempt to smuggle top-secret information out of the country. Four actors and ingenious and inventive staging prove that anything movies can do, theatre can do more hilariously. Said The New York Times, “Absurdly enjoyable! This gleefully theatrical riff on Hitchcock’s film is fast and frothy, performed by a cast of four that seems like a cast of thousands.”

The 39 Steps will run October 20 through November 7 at Syracuse Stage, marking the start of Stage’s 2010-2011 mainstage season. Sponsors are M&T Bank and Pomco Group. Media sponsors are WAER and WCNY. Syracuse Stage season sponsors are The Post-Standard and

Time Warner Cable. Tickets for The 39 Steps range $16-$48, available at 315-443-3275 or www.SyracuseStage.org.

The 39 Steps premiered in London in 2006, won a 2007 Laurence Olivier Award in 2007 for Best New Comedy, and won two Tony Awards when it transferred to Broadway in 2008. Now playing off-Broadway at the New World Stages, the play features four actors performing 150 different roles. The 39 Steps at Syracuse Stage is a co-production with Cleveland Play House, where it received critical acclaim earlier this fall.

Returning to Syracuse Stage is Director Peter Amster, director of Stage’s This Wonderful Life and The Fantasticks, as well as actor Rob Johansen whose Syracuse Stage credits include Mortimer in The Fantasticks, Jim Casy in The Grapes of Wrath, and the Butler in The Unexpected Guest. Other cast members include Joe Foust with extensive Chicago credits (Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Goodman Theatre, Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, among others); Sarah Nealis who has performed at major regional theatres across the country; and Nick Sandy (as the protagonist Richard Hannay) with extensive Chicago credits including a Jeff Award and several Jeff Award nominations.

Said Director Peter Amster: “If you’re looking for a rollicking good time and laughing until your sides hurt, this is for you. It’s Hitchcock meets Monty Python. The actors are not only very accomplished actors, they are shameless clowns, everyone one of them.”

One hour before every public performance, an actor from the production will be available in Stage’s lobby for Prologue, an intimate pre-show conversation. Prologue is supported by the Grandma Brown Foundation.

LOCAL CONNECTION: HITCHCOCK IN SYRACUSE

This October, the Syracuse International Film Festival (SYRFILMFEST’10) and Syracuse Stage are proud to present Hitchcock in Syracuse, a series of events related to the work of the great filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock. Signature events will be SYRFILMFEST’10’s screening of The Lodger on Oct 15 featuring live music performed by jazz saxophone player Javon Jackson, and Syracuse Stage’s The 39 Steps running Oct 19 through Nov 7 featuring professional actors from across the country. To attend events at the Syracuse International Film Festival, visit http://www.syrfilmfest.com/. For more info on Hitchcock in Syracuse visit www.SyracuseStage.org.

SPECIAL EVENTS

Prologues (New in 2010!) – 1 hour before each performance A free, 20-25 minute, intimate pre-show conversation with a member of the cast held prior to every performance of Fences. Starting time: one hour prior to curtain, except Wednesday matinees when patrons may enjoy the Wednesday @ 1 Lecture Series. Get more out of your Syracuse Stage experience. Prologue is supported by the Grandma Brown Foundation.

M&T Bank Pay-What-You-Can Series: Tuesday, October 19 at 7:30 p.m. to watch the final dress rehearsal. $9 suggested donation, tickets available at the door 1 hour prior to curtain.

LGBT Pride Series: Thursday, October 21, one hour before the 7:30 p.m. show. Food, music & friends.

LIVE in the Sutton Series: Friday, October 22, live music following the 8:00 p.m. curtain.

Actor Talkback Series: Sunday, October 24 following the 7:00 p.m. show.

Wednesday @ 1 Lecture Series: Wednesday, October 27 at 1 p.m.

Welch Allyn Signed Performance Series In Memory of Susan Thompson: Saturday, October 30 at 3:00 p.m.

Open Caption Series: Wednesday, October 27 at 2:00 p.m. and Sunday, November 7 at 2 p.m.

Happy Hour Series: Thursday, October 28, one hour before the 7:30 performance. Half-price bar drinks and complimentary snacks.

*Special event programs are additionally funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation/The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and administered by Theatre Communications Group, the National Organization for the American Theatre.

TICKETS

Adults: $25-$48 40 & Under: $25 18 & Under: $16 Students: $15

*Rush tickets available day of performance, by phone ($5 fee) or in person (no fee) *Discounts available for seniors, students, groups and subscribers

Online: www.SyracuseStage.org Call: 315-443-3275 In person: 820 East Genesee Street Groups (10 or more): 315-443-9844

CAST

Joe Foust (Clown 2) Regional credits include playing multiple roles in Around the World in 80 Days with the Cleveland Play House, playing Hamlet at Nevermore Theatre; six productions with Milwaukee Shakespeare; Kabuki Achilles, People’s Light and Theatre Company; The Winter’s Tale, Missouri Repertory Theatre; Romeo and Juliet, River Styx, London; and twelve seasons acting and directing with Peninsula Players. Chicago acting credits include What the Butler Saw and Endgame, Court Theatre; The Beard of Avon, Goodman Theatre; Mother Courage and Her Children, Steppenwolf Theatre Company; Kabuki Medea; Wisdom Bridge Arts Project; The Seagull and Major Barbara, Remy Bumppo Theatre Company; Accidental Death of an Anarchist, Next Theatre Company; Santaland Diaries and Spin, Theatre Wit; fourteen productions with Chicago Shakespeare Theatre; and three seasons with Oak Park Festival Theatre. Mr. Foust is a founding member of Defiant Theatre, where credits include directing and co-writing Action Movie: The Play and Ubu Raw.

Rob Johansen (Clown 1) returns to Syracuse Stage after having appeared as Mortimer in The Fantasticks, Jim Casy in The Grapes of Wrath, and the Butler in The Unexpected Guest. He has spent much of his professional career at Indiana Repertory Theatre, where favorite roles include Cratchit in A Christmas Carol, The Librarian in Underneath the Lintel, Feste in Twelfth Night, and the title role in Cyrano. Mr. Johansen is a founding member of Shadow

Ape Theatre Company, which has produced Rope, The Love Song of J. Robert Oppenheimer, Life is a Dream, Welcome to the Monkey House, and Transformations. In Chicago, Mr. Johansen has performed at the Court Theatre, Victory Gardens Theatre, and Shakespeare in the Park. An avid sportsman, he is passionate about theatre that is physically challenging and exciting to watch and has trained with various physical theatre companies with origins in Europe, America, and Japan.

Sarah Nealis (Annabella Schmidt/Margaret/Pamela) recently appeared in the title role of The Cleveland Play House’s production of Emma. She played Juliet in Romeo and Juliet and Sybil Chase in Private Lives with California Shakespeare Theatre, where she also performed in An Ideal Husband, Pericles, King Lear, and The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby. Her work with regional and San Francisco Bay area theatres includes the premiere of How Shakespeare Won the West, Huntington Theatre Company; A Christmas Carol, Actors Theatre of Louisville; Iphigenia at Aulis, Long Day’s Journey Into Night, and Moonlight & Magnolias, San Jose Repertory Theatre; The Trojan Women, Aurora Theatre Company; How The Other Half Loves, Center REP; Othello and Twelfth Night, Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival; Four Adverbs, Word for Word Performing Arts Company; and as an understudy for Speed The Plow at American Conservatory Theater (ACT). Ms. Nealis holds a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre from University of California Berkeley.

Nick Sandys (Richard Hannay). Recent Chicago appearances include Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Jeff Award Nomination 2010), Old Times, The Real Thing (Jeff Nomination 2007), Tartuffe, Arcadia, and The Secret Rapture, Remy Bumppo Theatre Company; Twelfth Night (Jeff Nomination 2010), Much Ado About Nothing (Jeff Nomination 2008), First Folio Theatre; My Fair Lady, Light Opera Works; Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, Pride & Prejudice, Northlight Theatre; Oedipus Complex, Goodman Theatre; Around The World in 80 Days, Lookingglass Theatre Company; Othello, Romeo & Juliet, Chicago Shakespeare Theater; The Misanthrope (Jeff Nomination 2004), Next Theatre; and productions at Marriott Theatre, Writers' Theatre, Drury Lane Oakbrook, The Irish Repertory Theatre, and Madison Rep. Mr. Sandys is also a certified fight director with The Society of American Fight Directors, his choreography appearing at The Metropolitan Opera, Goodman Theatre, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Northlight Theatre, Shattered Globe Theatre (Jeff Award 2008), Victory Gardens Theatre, and at The Theatre School at DePaul University, where he has taught since 1995.

DIRECTION

Peter Amster (Director) returns to Syracuse Stage, where he directed This Wonderful Life and The Fantasticks. He has been nominated for Chicago’s Jeff Award for his direction of Once on This Island, The World Goes Round, and The Rothschild’s at Apple Tree Theatre, and Pride and Prejudice at Northlight Theatre. Other Chicago area theatres where he has worked include Steppenwolf Theatre Company, the Court Theatre, the Goodman Theatre, Live Bait, Pegasus, and Route 66. He has directed at many regional theatres, including The Cleveland Play House, Oregon Shakespeare Festival; Indiana Repertory Theatre; Asolo Repertory Theatre; Peninsula Players; American Players Theatre in Spring Green, Wisconsin; Milwaukee Rep; and the Weston Playhouse Theatre Company in Vermont. Mr. Amster has directed and choreographed operas for Lyric Opera of Chicago, Chicago Opera Theatre, Skylight Opera in Milwaukee, and Light Opera Works in Evanston, Illinois. He has taught theatre, opera, and performance studies at Northwestern University, California Institute of the Arts, Louisiana State University, DePaul University, and Roosevelt University.

DESIGNERS

Linda Buchanan (Scenic Designer) has designed hundreds of stage productions in her 35 year career, and has received the Merritt Award for Design and Collaboration; Jefferson Awards for Scene Design for House and Black Snow, Goodman Theatre; and I Hate Hamlet, Royal George; and a Helen Hayes Award for Dancing at Lughnasa, Arena Stage. Recent designs include Death and the King’s Horseman, Oregon Shakespeare Festival; Cyrano De Bergerac, Milwaukee Repertory Theater; and the premiere of Boleros for the Disenchanted, Yale Repertory and Goodman Theatre. Notable past projects include the American premiere of House and Garden, Goodman and Alley Theatre; the musical adaptation of Wings, Goodman Theatre and the New York Public Theatre; and the premiere of Marvin’s Room. Ms. Buchanan heads the Scene Design program at The Theatre School at DePaul University and is also associate dean for Curricular Development. Her work has been published in Interior Design, Contract, Exhibit Builder, American Theatre, TCI (Theatre Crafts International), and ED (Entertainment Design).

Tracy Dorman (Costume Designer) returns to Syracuse Stage where she most recently designed costumes for Little Women. Her numerous regional theatre and opera credits include Syracuse Stage, Indiana Repertory Theatre, Milwaukee Rep, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Missouri Rep, Virginia Opera, Kentucky Opera, Opera Omaha, Chicago Opera Theatre, Glimmerglass, and New York City Opera. From 2005 to 2008 she was an associate costume designer on the CBS daytime drama As the World Turns, for which she won a 2007 Emmy Award for Costume Design. She is a graduate of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts where she was an Ettinger award-recipient.

Michael Lincoln (Lighting Designer). Michael's career spans 30 years and encompasses well over 200 designs including the Broadway productions of Copenhagen, Skylight and More to Love; and off-Broadway productions of People Be Heard, Mr. Goldwyn, Down the Garden Paths, The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin, If Love Were All, Defying Gravity, Bunny Bunny, You Should Be So Lucky, and Desdemona. He has enjoyed long associations with Indiana Repertory Theatre, Cleveland Play House, Alley Theatre, The Studio Theatre DC, Bay Street Theatre, Los Angeles Ballet, and Santa Fe Opera. He was the associate lighting designer for the Broadway productions of Guys and Dolls (1992), Six Degrees of Separation, and City of Angels among many others. Mr. Lincoln won the Los Angeles Drama Critics’ Circle and Drama Logue Awards and now leads the Ohio University Production Design and Technology program. www.michaellincoln.net.

Victoria DeIorio (Original Music and Sound Design) designed the off-Broadway productions The Bluest Eye for Steppenwolf at The Duke Theatre, and Ophelia for the New York City Fringe Festival. As associate designer, her off-Broadway credits are Boy and Dedication or the Stuff of Dreams, Primary Stages; God of Hell, Actor’s Studio Theatre; Luminescence Dating, Ensemble Studio Theatre; and Live Girls, Urban Stages. She designed the national tour of Private Lives for L.A. Theatre Works. Regional theatre credits include The Goodman Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre, Victory Gardens Theatre, Cleveland Play House, Center Stage, Chautauqua Theatre Company, Indiana Repertory Theatre, Milwaukee Shakespeare, Writers’ Theatre, and many others in and around Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles. Nominated for ten Jeff Awards, she has received five, also having earned two After Dark Awards. She is head of Sound Design at The Theatre School at DePaul University.

CREATORS

John Buchan (Novelist) was born in Scotland in 1875 to Free Church of Scotland minister John Buchan and Helen née Masterson. He grew up on the Fife coast in a house

5 surrounded by industry but with opportunities to play in and explore woods and glens, particularly during summers spent with his maternal grandparents in the south of Scotland. Beginning to publish his writings while a young man studying at Glasgow University on a scholarship, over the course of his lifetime he wrote over 100 books, mainly biographies and other works of nonfiction; however, he is best known for his four espionage novels featuring protagonist Richard Hannay and popularly known as the Hannay quartet: The Thirty-nine Steps (1915), Greenmantle (1916), Mr. Standfast (1919), and The Three Hostages (1924). John Buchan’s distinguished career encompassed apprenticeships in law firms; a two-year appointment as private secretary to Lord Milner in South Africa; a partnership with publisher Arthur Nelson; a stint as war correspondent; director of information under Lord Beaverbrook; His Majesty’s high commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland; a member of Parliament on behalf of the Combined Scottish Universities; and, accepting the title of first Baron Tweedsmuir—baron being the lowest rung of the British hereditary peerage—he became Governor-General of Canada, a post he held until his sudden and untimely death in 1940. He died of a brain hemorrhage not long after signing Canada’s entry into World War II.

Alfred Hitchcock (Filmmaker) was born in London in 1899 to greengrocer William Hitchcock and Emma Jane Hitchcock, formerly Whelan. At the age of 16, Alfred Hitchcock ended his studies at St. Ignatius College to study engineering and navigation at the University of London. He later became an estimator at Henley Telegraph Company, soon thereafter making the switch to working for Henley’s advertising department. Hitchcock was able to make use of his interest in cinema and his aptitude as a visual artist beginning at about the age of 21 when a job as a title designer for silent films opened at Islington Studios. After designing titles for several years, he made his directorial debut with The Pleasure Garden at Ufa studios in Germany. His 1926 breakthrough film was The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog. A major critical and commercial success, The Lodger was the first of his many thrillers. Later in 1926 he married his assistant director Alma Reville. A scriptwriter and editor, she was his closest collaborator. Hitchcock became a very well-known director in Britain and to an extent in the United States before he and his family moved to the States in 1939 at the invitation of producer David O. Selznick so that Hitchcock could direct an adaptation of Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca. Hitchcock went on to become one of the world’s most famous directors. Nicknamed “the master of suspense,” his trademark, psychologically harrowing style involved the framing of shots so as to approximate the human gaze, manipulating his audience into a feeling of unwitting voyeurism. His most celebrated films to this day include Rear Window, Vertigo, North by North by Northwest, and Psycho. Hitchcock maintained dual citizenship in Britain and the United States. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth in 1980, not long before he died of renal failure.

Patrick Barlow (Playwright) is an English actor, comedian, and playwright. His comedic alter ego Desmond Olivier Dingle is the founder, artistic director, and chief executive of the legendary two-man National Theatre of Brent, which has performed in British theatre, television, and radio. Their comic epics include Zulu, The Charles and Diana Story, Messiah, and The Wonder of Sex. They have won two Sony Gold Awards, a Premier Ondas Award for Best European Comedy, and the New York Festival Gold Award for Best Comedy. Other screenwriting includes Adrian Mole, Christopher Columbus, Queen of the East, Van Gogh (Prix Futura, Berlin Film Festival), Revolution!! (Best Comedy, Jerusalem Film Festival), and the BAFTA -winning Young Visitors, starring Jim Broadbent. Publications include “Shakespeare: The Truth!” and “The Complete History of the Whole World.” Screen/theatre acting credits include Wind in the Willows, Absolutely Fabulous, Clatterford, Shakespeare in Love, Notting Hill, The Diary of Bridget Jones, and Nanny McPhee. The 39 Steps won Mr. Barlow an Olivier Award for Best New Comedy.

Simon Corble (Originating Artist) is a writer, theatre director, and performer. He is currently writing a newly commissioned play with music—SWARD! – The Story of a Meadow, which will tour England in 2011. His company, Found Theatre, creates and develops new work, performing at venues across the North of England. Previously he founded Midsommer, which staged site-specific performances in atmospheric places, including The Tempest on the tidal island of Hilbre, as well as his own adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s The Woodlanders, in a forest. His The Hound of the Baskervilles has played many moors and spooky houses. Mr. Corble met Nobby Dimon while devising a piece for Harrogate Theatre in 1995, and, being a life-long Buchan and Hitchcock fan, immediately offered his services as writer and co-deviser to the team creating the original 39 Steps. This toured small theatres with North Country Theatre, before continuing on its remarkable road to world-wide success.

Nobby Dimon (Originating Artist) is artistic director of North Country Theatre in Richmond Yorkshire, England. He has worked for more than 25 years for various theatres and companies, including Harrogate Theatre, Cleveland Theatre Company (in England), Durham Theatre Company, and Snap Theatre; primarily directing, devising and adapting, and occasionally acting. His many plays include hilarious adaptations of Conan Doyle’s The Lost World, Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey, a Science Fiction spoof 2001 Space Idiocy, and also Home on the Range a play about Yorkshire Dales women on the Oregon Trail. His version of The 39 Steps with four actors, a set of step ladders, and a puppet dog was sent on tour and produced successfully for ten years before being reworked by Patrick Barlow for London’s West End.

THE CLEVELAND PLAY HOUSE (CO-PRODUCER)

Founded in 1915, The Cleveland Play House is America’s first professional regional theatre. More than twelve-million people have attended over 1,300 productions at The Play House – including more than 130 American and/or world premieres. Today, under the leadership of Artistic Director Michael Bloom and Managing Director Kevin Moore, The Cleveland Play House is an artist-driven theatre that serves the Greater Cleveland community by holding true to its mission: To produce plays of the highest professional standards that inspire, stimulate, and entertain our diverse audiences, to conduct training and educational programs that enhance the quality of life for those we serve and help to insure the future of theatre.

SYRACUSE STAGE

Syracuse Stage is Central New York’s premier professional theatre. Founded in 1974, Stage has produced more than 220 plays in 36 seasons including a number of world, American, and East Coast premieres. Each season 90,000 patrons enjoy an adventurous mix of new plays and bold interpretations of classics and musicals featuring the finest theatre artists. In addition, Stage maintains a vital educational outreach program that annually serves over 30,000 students from 24 counties. A solid core of subscribers and supporters helps keep Syracuse Stage a vibrant artistic presence in Central New York. Additional support comes from the government, foundations, corporations and Syracuse University. Syracuse Stage is a constituent of the Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for the American theatre, and a member of the Syracuse Chamber of Commerce, the Arts and Cultural Leadership Alliance (ACLA), the University Hill Corporation and the East Genesee Regent Association. Syracuse Stage is a member of The League of Resident Theatres (LORT), the largest professional theatre association in the country.

Fact Sheet

The 39 Steps Hitchcock Meets Monty Python Spies, Murder, Comedy and Romance to Launch Stage's Mainstage Season

Adapted by Patrick Barlow From the novel by John Buchan From the movie of Alfred Hitchcock Directed by Peter Amster

ARCHBOLD THEATRE at SYRACUSE STAGE Running Dates: October 20 – November 7 Pay-What-You-Can Dress Rehearsal: Tuesday, October 19 at 7:30 p.m. Press Opening: Friday, October 22 at 8 p.m.

SYRACUSE STAGE SEASON SPONSORS: The Post-Standard Time Warner Cable

SHOW SPONSORS: M&T Bank Pomco Group

MEDIA SPONSORS: WAER WCNY

CAST: Joe Foust (Clown 2) Rob Johansen (Clown 1) Sarah Nealis (Annabella Schmidt/Margaret/Pamela) Nick Sandys (Richard Hannay)

DESIGNERS/ARTISIC: Linda Buchanan (Scenic Designer) Tracy Dorman (Costume Designer) Michael Lincoln (Lighting Designer) Victoria DeIorio (Original Music and Sound Design)

PRODUCTION STAGE MANAGER Stuart Plymesser

The names in bold are actors and stage managers who are members of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.

TICKETS:

Adults: $25-$48 40 & Under: $25

18 & Under: $16 Students: $15

*Rush tickets available day of performance, by phone ($5 fee) or in person (no fee) *Discounts available for seniors, students, groups and subscribers

Online: www.SyracuseStage.org Call: 315-443-3275 In person: 820 East Genesee Street Groups (10 or more): 315-443-9844

SHOW CALENDAR: October/November

SUN MON TUES WED THURS FRI SAT

19 20 21 22 23

7:30 7:30 P 7:30 P 8:00 O 3:00 PWYC 8:00

24 25 26 27 28 29 30

2:00 7:30 2:00 7:30 8:00 3:00 S W, OC 7:00 D 8:00 7:30

31 1 2 3 4 5 6

2:00 7:30 7:30 7:30 8:00 3:00

8:00

2:00 OC

PWYC=Pay What You Can Night (Final Dress Rehearsal) P=Preview O=Press Opening, LIVE in the Sutton Series D=Actor Talkback Series S=Signed Performance Series W=Wednesday @ 1 Lecture Series OC = Open Captioning

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Syracuse Stage I Producing Artistic Director: Timothy Bond I Managing Director: Jeffrey Woodward 820 E. Genesee St. I Main: 315-443-4008 I Box Office: 315-443-3275 I www.syracusestage.org