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45th Season • 435th Production JULIANNE ARGYROS STAGE / April 19 - May 10, 2009

David Emmes Martin Benson PRODUCING ARTISTIC DIRECTOR ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

presents the World Premiere of EMILIE La Marquise Du Châtelet Defends Her Life at the Petit Théâtre at Cirey Tonight

BY Lauren Gunderson

Cameron Anderson Nephelie Andonyadis Lonnie Rafael Alcaraz Vincent Olivieri Scenic Design Costume Design Lighting Design Original Music & Sound Design

Gabriela Estrada Kelly L. Miller Joshua Marchesi Jennifer Ellen Butler* MOVEMENT director DRAmaturg Production Manager Stage Manager

DIRECTED BY David Emmes

Bette & Wylie Aitken, HONORARY PRODUCERS

EMILIE—La Marquise Du Châtelet Defends Her Life at the Petit Théâtre at Cirey Tonight was commissioned by with a grant from the Elizabeth George Foundation and workshopped in the 2008 Pacific Playwrights Festival.

Emilie • So u t h Co a s t Re p e r t o r y CAST OF CHARACTERS (In order of appearance) Emilie ...... Natacha Roi* Voltaire ...... Don Reilly* soubrette ...... Rebecca Mozo* Madam ...... Susan Denaker* gentleman ...... Matthew Humphreys*

LENGTH Approximately two hours with one 15 minute intermission.

PRODUCTION STAFF Casting ...... Joanne DeNaut Production Assistant ...... Jennifer Sherman Assistant to the Dramaturg ...... Kimberly Colburn Assistant to the Costume Designer ...... Marci Alberti Assistant to the Lighting Designer ...... Benjamin Weill assistant to the Sound Designer ...... Joe Wilbur stage Management Intern ...... Carla Neuss Light Board Operator ...... Lois Bryan Audio Technician ...... Mitchell Kohen Wardrobe Supervisor ...... Heather Bassett Wig & Makeup Technician ...... Gieselle Blair Additional Costume Staff ...... Catherine Esera, Cecelia Parker McClelland

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The playwright would like to thank Dr. Judith Zinsser, whose scholarship and book Emilie Du Châtelet—Daring Genius of the Enlightenment (Penguin 2007) informed so much of the world of the play.

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. 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 in the United States.

Media Partner Media Partner

P2 So u t h Co a s t Re p e r t o r y • Emilie Towards Enlightenment: A BRIEF CHRONOLOGY

he Enlightenment was an intellectual movement in 18th century Europe which followed the Renaissance. While both periods were characterized by discovery and great changes in T culture, the Enlightenment had a more pronounced focus on logic, science, mathematics and their relationship to philosophy. The goal of the Enlightenment was to establish an authoritative ethics, aesthetics and knowledge based on an “enlightened” rationality supported by logic and scientific experimentation. The movement’s leaders viewed themselves as a courageous, elite body of intellectuals who were leading the world toward progress. This movement provided a framework for the American and French Revolutions, as well as the rise of capitalism and the birth of socialism. It coincided with the high baroque era in music and the neo-classical period in the arts.

1637 Descartes publishes Discourse on the Method, epitomizing rationalism with the quote “I think, therefore I am.” 1694 françois-Marie Arouet is born; he later adopts the name Voltaire. 1706 gabrielle-Émilie de Breteuil is born, later marrying to become Emilie Du Châtelet. 1713 War of Spanish Succession ends, halting France’s expansion in Europe. 1715 Louis XIV dies after having secured the primacy of French culture and thought in Europe. 1716 gottfried Leibniz dies. His views on kinetic energy challenged parts of newton’s laws of motion. 1718 the French found New Orleans. 1727 sir Isaac Newton dies at age 85. Newton’s Principia Mathematica (1687) laid the groundwork for classical mechanics and is considered to be the most influential book in the history of science. 1734 Voltaire’s Letters on the English is condemned. His experiences in England lead him to champion rational thought and make him a key figure in the Enlightenment. 1739 Mme Du Châtelet writes Foundations of Physics. 1742 handel’s Messiah first performed. 1747 Benjamin Franklin does experiments in electricity. 1751 Diderot publishes the first of the Encyclopedie, an attempt to eventually encompass all of human thought. It details the beliefs of the French philosophies and other key figures of the Enlightenment. 1758 Voltaire writes one of his best known works, Candide. 1762 rousseau’s Social Contract published. Mozart, age 6, begins touring. 1774 Louis XVI becomes king of France, with Marie Antoinette as his queen. 1778 Voltaire dies at age 84. 1789 the French Revolution begins.

Photos: (top) Frontispiece of Voltaire’s Elements of the Philosophy of Newton (1738), featuring Du Châtelet shining the light of Newton’s divine reason onto Voltaire, (middle) The Château de Cirey, (bottom) Frontispiece for Diderot’s Encyclopedie 1751 .

Emilie • So u t h Co a s t Re p e r t o r y Artist Biographies

tival; The Blue Room at Hangar Theatre; and Outrage at Su s a n De n a k e r * Madam The Wilma Theater. Film and television credits include the upcoming thriller Obsessed, The Good Shepherd, is making her SCR debut. Re- Chapter 27, Altamont Now, “Supernatural,” “Numb3rs,” gional theatre credits include “Journeyman,” “Medium” and “Burn Notice.” Mr. Hum- Miss Lucy in Sweet Bird of Youth phreys earned his MFA from the Yale School of Drama. and Mrs. Soames in Our Town at , Lola in Come Re b e c c a Mo z o * Back Little Sheba at Nevada Con- Soubrette servatory Theatre, Her Ladyship in The Dresser, Flora, Alexandra and others in No Way to Treat a Lady, Sheila appeared at SCR previously in The in Relatively Speaking and Donna Lucia in Charley’s Heiress and Doubt, a parable. Aunt at North Coast Repertory Theatre, Frau Schmidt Other theatre credits include Edu- in The Sound of Music at Sacramento Music Circus, and cating Rita and Trying (Ovation Angie in Breaking Legs at Westport Country Playhouse. Award nomination for Best Ac- Denaker has performed on London’s West End in Holi- tress) at The Colony Theatre; The day at The Old Vic Theatre, Accidental Death of an Cherry Orchard opposite Annette Bening and Alfred Anarchist at Wyndhams Theatre, Budgie at Cambridge Molina at ; and Pera Palas, Clas- Theatre, Blockheads at The Mermaid Theatre and sicfests’ A Month in the Country and The Dresser at The Country Life at Lyric Hammersmith. British regional Antaeus Company. She also appeared in the Hollywood theatre includes Frankie in Frankie and Johnny in the Food Chain production of I Capture the Castle (Ova- Clair de Lune, Anne in A Little Night Music, Marta in tion Award nomination for Best Actress) and Ghosts at the national tour of Company and a summer season A Noise Within. Film and television credits include Ze- directed by Alan Ayckbourn at his theatre in Scarbor- rophilia, Headless Horseman, The Water Hole, “Cold ough. Film and television credits include American Case” and “Medium.” She earned her BFA from Rutgers Friends with Alfred Molina, Shining Through, Morons University and studied at The Globe in London. Proud from Outer Space, The Woman He Loved with Tom member of AEA and The Antaeus Company. Wilkinson, Royce, Passport to Murder, Two Voices, “As Time Goes By” with Dame Judi Dench, “Me and My Do n Re i l l y * Girl,” “Just a Gigolo,” “Saints and Sinners,” “Cover Me” Voltaire and “Pensacola.” appeared at SCR in Terra Nova and Amy’s View. At the Mark Mat t h e w Hu m p h r e y s * Gentleman Taper Forum, he played Joseph Surface in The School for Scandal is making his SCR debut. Theatre and was featured in The Moliere credits include the Broadway pro- Comedies. Broadway credits in- duction of The Vertical Hour and clude The Heiress and Arcadia. Off-Broadway, Reilly the Off-Broadway productions of has been seen in Misalliance, Hamlet, Much Ado About You’ve Never Done Anything Un- Nothing, The Virgin Molly, Fortinbras, Candida and forgivable, Say You Love Satan Macbeth. He won the Boston Theatre Critics Best and School for Scandal. Regional theatre credits in- Actor Award for his portrayal of Jack Tanner/Don Juan clude It Pays to Advertise, Heaven and Iphigenia at in Man and Superman at the American Repertory The- Aulis at ; King Lear and A Mid- atre, where he also played Petruchio in Andre Serban’s summer Night’s Dream at Cincinnati Shakespeare Fes- staging of The Taming of the Shrew. Other regional

P4 So u t h Co a s t Re p e r t o r y • Emilie credits include: Heartbreak House at Chicago’s Good- Entrepreneurship. Her work has received national praise man Theatre, Romeo & Juliet and Love’s Labours Lost and awards including the Berrilla Kerr Award for Ameri- at The Great Lakes Theater Festival, The Philanthropist can Theatre, Young Playwright’s Award, Eric Bentley New at Long Wharf Theatre Company, All’s Well That Ends Play Award, Essential Theatre Prize, Virtual Theatre Prizes Well at Hartford Stage Company and Fortinbras at La and many others. She has been produced Off-Broadway Jolla Playhouse. (Parts They Call Deep), Off-Off Broadway (Sus Manos) and regionally (including The Van Gogh Café, Leap, Back- ground and A Short History of Nearly Everything). She Na t a c h a Ro i * Emilie has been commissioned by the Alliance Theatre’s Col- lision Project, Actors Express Theatre, City University of returns to SCR where her cred- New York and Synchronicity Performance Group. Leap its include Vesuvius and The Real was published with Theatre Emory’s Playwriting Center, Thing. On Broadway she appeared and her first collection of plays, Deepen The Mystery: in Sixteen Wounded, Closer and Science and the South Onstage, was published with iUni- Wait Until Dark. Her Off-Broad- verse. She has developed plays with Actors Express, The way and regional theatre credits in- Magic Theatre, Kitchen Dog Theater, Horizon Theatre clude Fiction at Roundabout Theatre Company; Uncle Company, JAW/West, WORDBridge, Brave New Works and Vanya at McCarter Theatre Center and La Jolla Play- others. She has spoken nationally and internationally on house; Twelfth Night at Long Wharf Theatre; Othello at the intersection of science and theatre, and arts activism. The Public Theater; Passion Play at Minetta Lane The- www.LaurenGunderson.com atre; Closer at Berkeley Repertory Theatre; The Game of Love and Chance at Seattle Repertory Theatre; A Doll’s House and The Notebook of Trigorin at Cincin- Be t t e & Wy l i e Ai t k e n (Honorary Producers) are nati Playhouse in the Park; The House of Bernarda among South Coast Repertory’s most devoted and Alba and Changes of Heart at McCarter Theatre Center; generous supporters. Currently, Wylie is president Hamlet at Huntington Theatre Company; Six Charac- of the Board of Trustees, which he joined in 2000, ters in Search of an Author, King Stag and The Oresteia and Bette is the newly appointed Gala Ball chair at American Repertory Theatre; Three Birds Alighting for 2009. She also was chair for the 2006 Gala, “All on a Field at the Manhattan Theatre Club; and The Aboard the Orient Express.” Together, the Aitkens Merchant of Venice at Hartford Stage Company. Televi- have been First Nights subscribers, Gala underwrit- sion credits include “The Beast,” “Journey Man,” “ER,” ers, and Platinum Circle members since 1998. They “Bones,” “The Unit,” “Without a Trace,” “Hack,” “Ed,” are also major contributors to SCR’s Next Stage Cam- “Law & Order,” “Law & Order: SVU” and the PBS special paign and Legacy Campaign. Most recently, the Ait- “Benjamin Franklin.” kens made a leadership gift to support the Act Now for SCR Challenge. The Aitkens’ past Honorary Pro- Pl a y w r i g h t , Di r e c t o r a n d De s i g n e r s ducer support includes the world premiere of Nos- talgia, Richard Greenberg’s My Wandering Boy (as members of The Playwrights Circle), and last sea- La u r e n Gu n d e r s o n (Playwright) is a NYC (by way of At- lanta) playwright, screenwriter and short story author. She son’s Pacific Playwrights Festival, where Bette and is currently finishing her MFA in Dramatic Writing at NYU Wylie first saw the staged reading of Emilie. Tisch School of the Arts and is a Reynolds Fellow in Social

Emilie • So u t h Co a s t Re p e r t o r y Da v i d Emm e s (Director/Producing Artistic Director) is tola (Glimmerglass Opera), A Little Night Music (Central co-founder of SCR. In May 2008, he and Martin Benson City Opera) and Heddatron (Center Theatre Group). received the Margo Jones Award for their lifetime com- www.cameronanderson.net mitment to theatre excellence and to fostering the art and craft of American playwriting. In addition, he has received Ne p h e l i e An d o n y a d i s (Costume Design) is always de- numerous awards for productions he has directed during lighted to return to SCR, where she has designed cos- his SCR career, including a Los Angeles Drama Critics Cir- tumes for The Importance of Being Earnest, Man From cle Award for the direction of George Bernard Shaw’s The Nebraska, Vesuvius, Safe in Hell, The Dazzle and Dimly Philanderer. He directed the world premieres of Amy Perceived Threats to the System; sets and costumes for Freed’s Safe in Hell, The Beard of Avon and Freedom- Relatively Speaking and The Stinky Cheese Man and land, Thomas Babe’s Great Day in the Morning, Keith other Fairly Stupid Tales; and sets for The Summer Moon Reddin’s Rum and Coke and But Not for Me and Neal and The BFG (Big Friendly Giant). Recent projects Bell’s Cold Sweat; the American premieres of Terry John- include scenic design for Los Illegals with Cornerstone son’s Unsuitable for Adults and Joe Penhall’s Dumb Theater Company and costume design for Breakfast, Show; the West Coast premieres of C.P. Taylor’s Good and Lunch and Dinner at Oregon Shakespeare Festival. She Harry Kondoleon’s Christmas on Mars; and the South- is an Associate Artist with Cornerstone Theater Com- land premiere of Top Girls (at SCR and the Westwood pany where she has been happy to collaborate with a Playhouse). Other productions include the West Coast wide range of California’s diverse communities. Her premieres of Three Viewings by Jeffrey Hatcher, The Se- designs have been seen regionally at theatres including cret Rapture by David Hare and New England by Richard Center Theatre Group, Portland Center Stage, Guthrie Nelson; and Arcadia by Tom Stoppard, The Importance Lab, Court Theatre, Chicago Children’s Theatre, Great of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde, Ayckbourn’s Woman in Lakes Theater Festival, The Acting Company, Blooms- Mind and You Never Can Tell by George Bernard Shaw, burg Theatre Ensemble, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, Idaho which he restaged for the Singapore Festival of Arts. He Shakespeare Festival, Berkshire Theatre Festival and has served as a theatre panelist and onsite evaluator for Yale Repertory Theatre. Ms. Andonyadis is the Chair of the National Endowment for the Arts, on the Executive the Theatre Arts Department at the University of Red- Committee of the League of Resident Theatres, and as a lands. She is a graduate the Yale School of Drama and panelist for the California Arts Council. After attending Cornell University School of Architecture, and the recipi- Orange Coast College, he received his BA and MA from ent of an NEA/TCG design fellowship. San Francisco State University, and his PhD in theatre and film from USC. Lo n n i e Ra f a e l Al c a r a z (Lighting Design) is an Associ- ate Professor at UC Irvine and a professional lighting de- Ca m e r o n An d e r s o n (Scenic Design) has designed for signer. He has designed at various regional theatres, such theatre, opera and dance. Recent credits include The as Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Sierra Repertory Theatre, Language of Trees (Roundabout Underground); A Femi- , Laguna Playhouse, Alabama Shakespeare nine Ending (Playwrights Horizons); Fault Lines (Naked Festival, Great River Shakespeare Festival, the Utah Angels Theater Company) directed by David Schwimmer; Shakespearean Festival and Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Massacre (The LAByrinth Theater Co., Public Theater); In addition to his fourteen seasons with La Posada Mági- Underground (David Dorfman Dance at BAM); Hedda- ca, productions at SCR include Goldfish, An Italian Straw tron (Les Freres Corbusier); Dixie’s Tupperware Party Hat: A Vaudeville, Culture Clash in AmeriCCa, Doubt, a (Ars Nova); Elvis People (New World Stages); Dead City, parable, My Wandering Boy, The Prince and the Pau- Anna Bella Eema and Belly (New Georges); Measure per, Blue Door, Man from Nebraska, Bunnicula, The for Measure (Garson Theatre Company); and Much Ado Hoboken Chicken Emergency, Play Strindberg, Dimly About Nothing and Martha Mitchell Speaks (Shakespeare Perceived Threats to the System, Sidney Bechet Killed and Company). Opera designs include The Barber of a Man (for which he received a Drama-Logue Award), Seville (The Opera Theatre of St. Louis), West Side Story BAFO, Later Life and Three Viewings. He designed Cul- (Central City Opera), Maria Padilla (The Minnesota ture Clash’s The Birds at both SCR and Berkeley Reperto- Opera), Don Giovanni (Wolf Trap Opera), Cosi fan Tutte ry Theatre, along with their national touring show, Radio (Seattle Opera), The Village Singer and Lord Byron’s Mambo. Recent design experience includes Of Mice and Love Letter (The Manhattan School of Music), Gypsy Men at Pasadena Playhouse; Dead Man’s Cell Phone at Songs (Gotham Chamber Opera/The Morgan Library), Oregon Shakespeare Festival; Richard Montoya’s Water & The Consul (Opera Boston), La Bohème (The San Fran- Power at San Diego Repertory Theatre; The Merchant of cisco Opera Center) and Susannah and Romeo et Juliette Venice and Taming of the Shrew at the Great River Shake- (Festival Opera). Upcoming projects include Ceneren- speare Festival; and A Holtville Night’s Dream, Warriors

P6 So u t h Co a s t Re p e r t o r y • Emilie Don’t Cry, LETHE, I Ask You, Farewell to Manzanar 2001, Estrada was selected as finalist in the Leos Chore- and Waking Up in Lost Hills with Cornerstone Theater ography Competitive Event at the X Jazz Dance World Company, where he is an associate artist. He was also a Congress. In 2006 she founded “DCG” (Dance Collage designer for Universal Studios, Japan, where he designed Dance Group), and received a grant to tour the state of the live shows Terminator 2 in 3D and Monster Makeup, Sonora with “Contrastes” which included ballet, con- the attractions Jurassic Park the Ride and Snoopy Studios, temporary jazz and Flamenco. From 2004 to 2008 she along with exterior architectural facades throughout the taught Flamenco at the RAD Summer Schools at Cal park. He is a member of the United Scenic Artist/IATSE - State, Long Beach and in 2008 she began teaching Musi- Local 829. cal Theatre. In 2007 Estrada received a scholarship to study her MFA in Dance at UC Irvine, where she is con- Vi n c e n t Olivieri (Sound Design) returns after design- ducting her research thesis on The Three Cornered Hat ing this season’s Noises Off and The Heiress, and scoring ballet, collaborating teaching technique classes and cho- Sarah Treem’s A Feminine Ending last season. Off- reographing for MFA productions. She has been selected Broadway design credits include The Water’s Edge, to participate in the “UCI V Dance Film Festival” with the Omnium-Gatherum, The God Botherers and Fatal At- work Winds Reflections which she choreographed, filmed traction: A Greek Tragedy. New York and regional the- and edited herself. atre credits include CENTERSTAGE (Baltimore), Bar- rington Stage Company, Gorilla Theatre Productions, Ke l l y L. Mi l l e r (Dramaturg) is the literary manager of The Juilliard School, Syracuse Stage, Ensemble Theatre SCR and the co-director of the Pacific Playwrights Festival. of Cincinnati (CEA Award), Virginia Stage Company and Regionally, she’s worked at Actors Theatre of Louisville, Berkshire Theatre Festival. Mr. Olivieri has created de- Williamstown Theatre Festival, and as the Literary Man- signs for world premiere productions by Roberto Agu- ager of Long Wharf Theatre and Playscripts, Inc. In 2008, irre-Sacasa, Kirsten Greenidge, Charles L. Mee, Adam she co-founded Creative Destruction, a New York-based Rapp, Theresa Rebeck and August Wilson. For three theatrical collective dedicated to commissioning and years, Mr. Olivieri was the Resident Sound Designer at producing politically immediate, culturally diverse the- Actors Theatre of Louisville and the Humana Festival atre. Favorite dramaturgy includes: Obama Drama: A of New American Plays. He is a graduate of the Yale Political Theatrical Spectacular! (Creative Destruction): School of Drama and serves on the faculty at UC Irvine. Big Love, War of the Worlds, Hair and Creditors (Actors www.soundandstage.net/sound. Theatre of Louisville); Arms and the Man, Hearts and Wintertime (Long Wharf Theatre). Miller has worked as Ga b r i e l a Es t r a d a (Movement Director) was born in a freelance writer and script reader for the Public Theater, Los Angeles and graduated from UC Irvine with a BA Huntington Theatre Company, New Dramatists, NEA/ in Dance. In 1996 she founded Dance Collage School Arena Stage, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Berkeley Rep- of Dance where she taught ballet, jazz, tap, flamenco, ertory Theatre and the Kennedy Center Fund for New Mexican folk and Latin American dance. With Dance American Plays. She is a member of the Literary Manag- Collage she produced The Best of Broadway, the first ers and Dramaturgs of America. Flamenco Festival of Sonora and Al-Andaluz, Anthol- ogy of Spanish dance. In 1999 Estrada received a travel Je n n i f e r El l e n Bu t l e r * (Stage Manager) has been with grant to do research about Spanish dance in Spain and SCR for six seasons and 23 productions. She is thrilled to was invited to become part of the faculty at the dance be working on PPF again this season. Other theatre cred- department at the University of Sonora, where she taught its include Laguna Playhouse, Utah Shakespearean Festi- ballet, kinesiology and movement analysis until 2007. In val, California Shakespeare Theatre, TheatreWorks, Per-

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Emilie • So u t h Co a s t Re p e r t o r y severance Theatre, Spoleto Festival USA and Shakespeare Resident Theatres (LORT) and has been a member of the Santa Cruz. She has also stage managed operas for Long LORT Negotiating Committee for industry-wide union Beach Opera and Pacific Repertory Opera. Ms. Butler has agreements. In addition, she represents SCR at national a BA in Theatre Arts from the UC Santa Cruz. conferences of TCG and LORT; is a theatre panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the Cali- Ma r t i n Be n s o n (Artistic Director), co-founder of SCR, fornia Arts Council, and site visitor for the NEA; served on has directed over one quarter of the plays produced here. the Advisory Committee for the Arts Administration Cer- In May 2008, he and David Emmes received the Margo tificate Program at UC Irvine; and has been a guest lec- Jones Award for their lifetime commitment to theatre turer in the graduate school of business at Stanford and excellence and to fostering the art and craft of American UC Irvine She is on the board of Arts Orange County, the playwriting. He has distinguished himself in the staging county-wide arts council, and recently joined the board of contemporary work, including William Nicholson’s of the Nicholas Endowment. Ms. Tomei graduated from The Retreat from Moscow, the world premiere of Hor- UC Irvine with a degree in Economics and pursued an ad- ton Foote’s Getting Frankie Married— and Afterwards ditional course of study in theatre and dance. and the critically acclaimed California premiere of Nich- olson’s Shadowlands. He has won accolades for his So u t h Co a s t Re p e r t o r y , founded in 1964 and continu- direction of five major works by George Bernard Shaw, ing today under the leadership of Artistic Directors David including the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle (LADCC) Emmes and Martin Benson, is widely regarded as one of Award-winners Major Barbara, Misalliance and Heart- America’s foremost producers of new plays. In its three- break House. Among his numerous world premieres is stage Folino Theatre Center in Costa Mesa, California, ’s Pulitzer Prize-winning , which he SCR produces a five-play season on its Segerstrom Stage, also directed at Seattle Repertory Theatre and the Alley a four-play season on its Argyros Stage, plus two annual Theatre in Houston. He has directed American classics holiday productions. SCR also offers a three-play Theatre including Ah, Wilderness!, A Streetcar Named Desire, A for Young Audiences series, and year-round programs Delicate Balance and A View from the Bridge. Benson in education and outreach. SCR’s extensive new play has received the LADCC Distinguished Achievement in development program consists of commissions, residen- Directing awards an unparalleled seven times for the cies, readings, and workshops, from which up to five three Shaw productions, John Millington Synge’s Playboy world premieres are produced each season. Among the of the Western World, ’s , Sally plays commissioned and introduced at SCR are Donald Nemeth’s Holy Days and Wit. He also directed the film Margulies’ Sight Unseen, Collected Stories and Brooklyn version of Holy Days using the original SCR cast. Along Boy; Richard Greenberg’s Three Days of Rain, Everett with Emmes, he accepted SCR’s 1988 Tony Award for Beekin, Hurrah at Last and The Violet Hour; David Outstanding Resident Professional Theatre and won the Henry Hwang’s Golden Child; Jose Rivera’s References 1995 Theatre LA Ovation Award for Lifetime Achievement. to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot; Lynn Nottage’s Intimate Benson received his BA in Theatre from San Francisco Apparel; ’ Prelude to a Kiss; Amy Freed’s State University. The Beard of Avon and Freedomland; Margaret Edson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Wit and David Lindsay-Abaire’s Pa u l a To m e i (Managing Director) is responsible for the Pulitzer Prize-winning Rabbit Hole. Most of these plays overall administration of South Coast Repertory and has were developed through its Pacific Playwrights Festi- been Managing Director since 1994. A member of the val, an annual workshop and reading showcase for up SCR staff since 1979, she has served in a number of ad- to eight new plays, attended by artistic directors and ministrative capacities including Subscriptions Manager, literary staff members from across the country. Over Business Manager and General Manager. She served on forty percent of the plays SCR has produced have been the board of Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the world, American or West Coast premieres. In 1988, SCR national service organization for theatre, from 1998-2006, received the Regional Theatre Tony Award for Distin- and was its President for four years. She has also served guished Achievement, particularly in the area of new as Treasurer of TCG, Vice President of the League of play development.

The Actors and Stage Managers The Scenic, Costume, Lighting and TheThe Director Director is isa member a member of the of Society of employed in this production are Sound Designers in LORT theatres Stagethe Society Directors of and Stage Choreographers, Directors Inc., members of Actors’ Equity Association, are represented by United Scenic and Choreographers, Inc., an ssdc an independent national labor union. the Union of Professional Actors and Artists Local USA-829, IATSE. independent national labor union. Stage Managers in the United States.

The Choreographer is a member of the Society P8 So u t h Co a s t Re p e r t o r y • Emilie of Stage Directors and Choreographers, Inc., ssdc an independent national labor union.

The Director-Choreographer is a member of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers, ssdc Inc., an independent national labor union.

The Director and Choreographer are members of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers, ssdc Inc., an independent national labor union.