43rd Season • 412th Production SEGERSTROM STAGE / OCTOBER 13 - NOVEMBER 19, 2006

David Emmes Martin Benson PRODUCING ARTISTIC DIRECTOR ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

presents RIDICULOUS FRAUD

by

Hugh Landwehr Joyce Kim Lee Peter Maradudin Stephen LeGrand SCENIC DESIGN COSTUME DESIGN LIGHTING DESIGN SOUND DESIGN

Martin Noyes John Glore David Leavenworth Randall K. Lum* FIGHT DIRECTOR DRAMATURG PRODUCTION MANAGER STAGE MANAGER

DIRECTED BY Sharon Ott

Linda and Tod White HONORARY PRODUCERS CORPORATE PRODUCER

Ridiculous Fraud was originally commissioned and produced by McCarter Theatre, Princeton, N.J. Emily Mann, Artistic Director/Jeffrey Woodward, Managing Director

Ridiculous Fraud • P1 THE CAST (in order of appearance) Lafcad Clay ...... Ian Fraser* Andrew Clay ...... Matt McGrath* Willow Clay ...... Betsy Brandt* Kap Clay ...... Matt Letscher* Uncle Baites ...... Randy Oglesby* Georgia ...... Eliza Pryor* Maude Chrystal ...... Nike Doukas* Ed Chrystal ...... Paul Vincent O’Connor*

THE PLAY TAKES PLACE OVER THE COURSE OF A YEAR

ACT I, SCENE ONE: SUMMER Clay family home in , the Garden District

ACT I, SCENE TWO: FALL Outside Uncle Baites’ farmhouse in the Louisiana backwoods

15-MINUTE INTERMISSION

ACT II, SCENE ONE: WINTER Kap’s cabin and backyard, deep in the woods

ACT II, SCENE TWO: SPRING New Orleans cemetery, the Clay family tomb

LENGTH Approximately 2 hours and 20 minutes, including intermission.

Media Partner Official Airline Media Partner

P2 SOUTH COAST REPERTORY • Ridiculous Fraud PRODUCTION STAFF Assistant Stage Manager ...... Nina K. Evans* Casting ...... Joanne DeNaut Dialect Coach ...... Cynthia Bassham Stage Management Intern ...... Jennifer Sherman Assistants to the Scenic Designer ...... Michelle Carello, Jian Jung, Bradley Schmidt Deck Crew ...... EJ Brown, Brian Coil, Emily Kettler, Courtney Sprague Costume Design Assistants ...... Valerie Bart, Vanessa N. King

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

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.

Ridiculous Fraud • SOUTH COAST REPERTORY P3 Southern Belles-Lettres BY JOHN GLORE

ike Eudora Welty before her, Beth Henley Flannery O’Connor, whom Henley counts among her has been known to chafe at hearing her work favorite writers, once suggested that “anything that described as “Southern Gothic” — a literary comes out of the South is going to be called label of convenience which, like any such grotesque by the northern reader, unless it is Llabel, over-simplifies and irons out individuali- grotesque, in which case it is going to be called real- ty. One can find at least as many differences as simi- istic.” larities between Henley’s work and that of Welty, William Faulkner, Flannery O’Connor, Tennessee On the same subject, Carson McCullers, in an essay Williams, Carson McCullers and Cormac McCarthy — called “The Russian Realists and Southern Literature,” other distinctive writers who drew a comparison have had the “Southern Gothic” between Southern descriptor applied to them. “The cult of the past in the South, as writers and those symbolized in its ruins, its preserved glories of 19th-century What these writers share, Russia, noting their though, is their Southern her- displayed in spring pilgrimages, its shared inclination itage, their tendency to set their monuments and graveyards, owes less to to achieve “a bold work in the South, and their use cultural climate and imagination than to and outwardly cal- of at least some of the general lous juxtaposition stylistic qualities that have ac- remembered history.” of the tragic with creted under the “gothic” um- - critic Elizabeth M. Kerr the humorous, the brella: eccentric characters; immense with the irony; strange plot turns; trivial, the sacred grotesque imagery; a sense of faded glory, of a with the bawdy, the whole soul of man with a mate- world in decay, often marked by the decadence that rialistic detail.” may accompany decay. But more than anything what snags Henley on the gothic hook, in common This would undoubtedly make sense to Henley who, with many of the aforementioned writers, is her abili- while acknowledging the roots of her dark humor in ty to discover rich veins of humor in an unhappy, her Southern upbringing, also points to the work of even horrific situation. the Russian playwright, Anton Chekhov, as a source

P4 SOUTH COAST REPERTORY • Ridiculous Fraud and inspiration. In more than one New Orleans (the setting for interview she has described the Ridiculous Fraud), where a funer- seminal experience of attending a al may entail a jazz procession, production of Chekhov’s The and where balls and masquerades Cherry Orchard: “I was crying begin with Twelfth Night on Jan- and screaming; I was really eu- uary 6th and continue through a phoric because I understood how carnival season that culminates things could be simultaneously with Mardi Gras in February or tragic and comic and so alive and March. so real.” Ridiculous Fraud marks a return Henley’s Southern plays — and it to Southern centricity for Henley, should be noted that they fall and like its predecessors, it looks mostly at the beginning of her ca- to momentous occasions to frame reer — share something else with its drama. But as with several of Chekhov’s work. Chekhov begins The Three Sisters her early Southern plays, the special events in on the name day of one of its characters, and almost Ridiculous Fraud don’t quite make it to the stage: all of his plays turn on homecomings, leave-takings the wedding that is to launch the story gets derailed; and other special events. Similarly, and the funeral at Henley looks to special occasions as its conclusion springboards for the dramatic action in “Southern writers are stuck with the happens off stage, her Southern plays. Her first success, South, and it’s a very good thing to be prior to the final the Pulitzer-winning Crimes of the scene. Heart, takes place on the birthday of stuck with.” one of its three sisters. The Miss Fire- - Flannery O’Connor Henley doesn’t cracker Contest takes its title from the want us to focus event that gives rise to its story, as do on the occasions The Wake of Jamey Foster and The Debutante Ball themselves, but on the more quotidian transactions (which had its world premiere at South Coast Reper- that happen around such events, having perhaps re- tory in 1985). But in and around these supposedly membered Chekhov’s own observation that life- celebratory occasions, people’s lives are falling apart, changing moments may take place while a salt shak- hopes are fading, the desperate reach out for solace er is being passed across the dinner table — or, in — and the laughs keep coming. Henley’s case, while an unsuspecting man eats a canapé laced with a surprise ingredient. Henley’s interest in commemorations and festivities may again stem from her Southern roots. Does any- Pictured on opposite page from left, Eudora Welty, Carson McCullers and Anton Chekhov. one, after all, have a greater sense of occasion than a Above, clockwise from left, Cormac McCarthy, William Faulkner, and Flan- Southerner? — and perhaps above all the people of nery O’Connor.

Ridiculous Fraud •SOUTH COAST REPERTORY P5

Henley on Life and Theatre Growing into the Theatre

I was real shy when I was little. I was sick with asth- ma. Spent a lot of time getting shots and laying in bed. At night, Mama’d come into my room and ask me why I was crying. I’d tell her I was pretending to be Heidi. ! When I was a senior in high school, I was kind of bereft and [my mother] put me in an acting class. What I loved about the acting class was that you got to think all day long about a person that wasn’t you, and figure out why they were sad and what they wanted, what they dreamed. I just loved being divorced from my own wretchedness. ! I did have friends at that age [in high school], but what you fear is not having friends. You fear that part of you is not acceptable to be exposed and I think that’s a lot of what I look for in my characters. I wonder what their greatest fear is and what their Funny Sad greatest dream is and what the tension is between the two. Usually their fear is holding them back from I believe the humor may be about survival. Growing their dream, and their dream is giving them hope to up I didn’t feel entitled to be outraged and shame had fight against their fear. to be denied. Self-pity was definitely frowned upon. ! Perhaps because Southern culture at that time was When I was younger I kept thinking that I needed to dedicated to the glorification of lost causes. Also write an important play, that I needed to help people when I get earnest about something I’m usually just understand something and improve the world and seeing one piece of the pie and I miss what is true and enlighten people - except I didn’t know anything. unsettling. One of my mother’s favorite refrains was, This was the big problem. And then I read where “Let’s not take ourselves so seriously.” Ionesco said: “Oh, I just like to write about my own ! confusion.” I said, “Well, I can do that; I’m certainly I went to see an all-black production of The Cherry confused.” It was like this weight was lifted. I don’t Orchard starring and Gloria Foster… have to solve anything because there is nothing to It was like a satori when James Earl Jones as Lopakhin solve. It’s all a big mystery and if you can express came back in after buying the cherry orchard and said, the misery and the confusion truthfully, that might be “I bought it.” It was the greatest day of his life be- something worth looking at. cause he was no longer a serf, but also it was the ! worst day in his life because he had betrayed his dear- The reason I love the theatre… is because it always est friend. All through that speech he was zing, zing, felt like such a sanctuary to me from the real world. zing, back and forth between despair and joy, mad- It was such a magical world where everyone was ness and sanity, and regret and not caring. I was passionate about something; they felt so alive when screaming in the theatre; I thought I was going to be they were there…. It made you not think about evicted. I started crying and laughing and I couldn’t dying. stop. Then, after he leaves, Gloria Foster falls out of her chair and has to be carried off. It was just abso-

P6 SOUTH COAST REPERTORY • Ridiculous Fraud lutely a revelation about how alive life can be and ! how complicated and beautiful and horrible…. [On the 20th anniversary of the first production of ! :] [On her Mississippi upbringing:] Sometimes it feels like it’s been 50 years, and some- As much as I try to shake it, I can’t. It’s just there. A times it feels like it’s been two days. Time is the most kind of sensibility that’s dark and light at the same fascinating thing to me: It’s liquid and relative and time. A kind of Grand Guignol view of life. makes no sense whatsoever. I’m just happy to be alive, and happy that someone is still interested in Crimes of the Heart doing the play.

I never know how a play is going to end when I start Ridiculous Fraud writing. When I was writing Crimes of the Heart, I re- member being upset because I thought that one of the I knew I wanted to write a play about men. To see if characters was going to commit suicide. I was so re- I could do it. And when I got the commission I had lieved when it didn’t happen. just done a play with four women and I thought it ! would be fun to watch men in rehearsal for a change! [On her first major production, at Actors Theatre of ! Louisville:] I had eight notebooks of stuff but I didn’t have a very It was January and it was freezing... I remember stand- clear outline. I knew that the first scene was going to ing in the parking lot, and these people in fur coats be about a wedding that didn’t happen, and the next were getting out of their cars. And I thought, “Oh, my was going to take place out in the country, and the God, they paid money, they hired babysitters, and they next was going to be deep in the woods and the last came out to see this,” and I started crying. I was terri- was going to be in the cemetery. I didn’t know who fied that I was going to be arrested for fraud. was going to die or if somebody was going to die. ! But here’s an interesting thing: when I was being driv- When I saw Crimes of the Heart, I was really amazed en back to the airport after one of my trips to Prince- at how funny it was to people. I just think it’s the way ton, my driver told me about his your mind works. Coming from the South, people mother being in prison for a didn’t have much patience with you white collar crime. That kind embracing your own of opened things up for me— pain, groveling in it. imagining the reality of having ! a parent in prison. How dev- When you have a Pulitzer astating and disruptive and Prize for a play you get humiliating that would be. other jobs, and you sort of ! have to believe you’re a Just having a family, I think, writer, which up until that is different from not having point I wasn’t even sure I a family. It is so strange was. The hard part is that I how you can feel that the was kind of obnoxious and a connection with these little bit arrogant. And I think people is so primal and I was arrogant because I knew basic, although some- I didn’t know what people times you would not be thought I should know, and I with them if they felt like a phony. But I studied weren’t your family. a lot, went back to school, and I You are inextricably keep learning through writing. I bound to them, con- feel very lucky to have gotten to cerned for them and be a writer in my life. That’s the enraged by them or main thing. enraptured by them. Families are a pecu- liar sort of situation. Crimes of the Heart poster from the movie

Ridiculous Fraud •SOUTH COAST REPERTORY P7 “The City that Care Forgot” BY JOHN GLORE -

ew Orleans. Nowadays when anyone nival, for all its masks and, with disguises, its peculiar mir - mentions that city all we can think of is Car Hurricane Katrina and the devastation it rors New Orleanschies, itssociety pockets of strangetiality tra to Nvisited upon Louisiana’s gaudy jewel. But , its par social hierar Beth Henley wrote the first draft of Ridiculous Fraud many months before the great storm hit, and ditions, its wild diversity - Carol Flake, drama and spectacle. New Orleans:s BehindMost Exotic the Mask City of America’

conveys a sense of royalty to a family line and where, concomitantly, to fall from high society carries the worst kind of humiliation.

It’s a fate that seems to have befallen many a fami- ly over the last two cen- turies. After having changed hands during its early history, from French

after the hurricane had left disaster in its wake she inserted a new stage di- rection specifying that the play takes place five years prior to Katrina. She wants audiences for the play to have in mind the vital, thriving New Or- leans, the Big Easy, the home of Mardi Gras and muffaletta, jambalaya and jazz; that New Orleans whose hub is the Café du Monde (“the café of the world”), where tourists rub elbows with people from every stratum of city life, dunking their beignets in chicory- laced café au lait in the wee hours of the morning; the old-world New Or- leans where to be part of high society

P8 SOUTH COAST REPERTORY • Ridiculous Fraud by the French and Spanish, who frowned upon the wave of American commoners that descended upon the city after the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. But even as the city’s wealth subsided through the 20th century, its particular sense of aristocracy persisted, carried on by those families whom history and tradi- tion had anointed as the crème de la crème of the Crescent City.

Today the elite continue to join the other citizens and temporary citizens of New Orleans for Mardi Gras, which was first brought to the city by the Euro- pean upper class. On Fat Tuesday you can find the haut monde strutting its stuff at masquerade balls and tapping its own to serve as King and Queen of the Carnival. Through the rest of the year they dis- play their ascendancy more quietly. The vast Ameri- can middle-class may have long since taken over the city through sheer strength of numbers, but the mon- eyed families still guard their sense of the social order against the barbarians at the filigreed gates.

Pictured on the opposite page, the Café du Monde and a New Orleans Bourbon street build- ing. On this page, a typical New Orleans cemetery and a Mardi Gras poster.

to Spanish to French again and finally to U.S. con- trol, by 1840 New Orleans was easily the wealthiest city in the nation. But more recently, even before Katrina hit, it ranked as the thirteenth poorest among the country’s large cities.

New Orleans’ sense of high society was instilled during the 18th I went ther century cousins lived ether from the time I was a child. My to visit them or fore, and Mar we would go down ther school I would take a busdi or Gras, a train and for in highthee day. It was ver there a lot, and they glamorlast yearous. my I’ve mom vacationedwas alive we went ther e at Easter thing how ‘Ridiculous Fraud’. It’ bookends ‘Crimes of the Hear s such a bizar t,’ which was set five years afterre Hurricane Camille. T o me it’ s very poignant. - Beth Henley

Ridiculous Fraud •SOUTH COAST REPERTORY P9 BETSY BRANDT NIKE DOUKAS IAN FRASER Willow Clay Maude Chrystal Lafcad Clay

Artist Biographies

*BETSY BRANDT (Willow Clay) ap- Shelf Life, Memphis Bound... and municating Doors. She has also peared at SCR previously in the Gagged and Confidence. Televi- appeared at Pasadena Playhouse, Pacific Playwrights Festival read- sion appearances include “CSI,” The Old Globe, Mark Taper ings of Truth and Beauty and “Close to Home,” “Medical Inves- Forum, Doolittle Theatre and Scab. Other theatre credits in- tigation,” “Navy NCIS,” “The Prac- Shakespeare Festival/LA. In the clude Much Ado about Nothing at tice,” “ER,” “,” Bay Area she performed at the the Arizona Theatre Company; “The Guardian,” “JAG,” “Judging American Conservatory Theater, Ctrl Alt Delete at San Jose Reper- Amy” and the made for television the California and VITA Shake- tory; Royal Family and The Little movie Back When We Were speare Festivals and Shakespeare Foxes at Intiman Theatre; The Grownups. Santa Cruz. Television and film Tempest and A Midsummer credits include “Without a Trace,” Night’s Dream at Tacoma Actors *NIKE DOUKAS (Maude Chrystal) “Criminal Minds,” “Blind Justice,” Guild; The Little Foxes at Portland most recently appeared at SCR in “ Legal,” “Malcolm in the Center Stage; Thirst and the read- Cyrano de Bergerac. Other SCR Middle,” “NYPD Blue,” “The ings of American Siddhartha and credits are Major Barbara, Much Guardian,” “Judging Amy,” “Diag- The Fabulous Invalid at American Ado about Nothing, Everett nosis Murder,” “Caroline in the Conservatory Theater; Taking Beekin, The Beard of Avon, The City,” Little Girls in Pretty Boxes, Sides at Jewish Ensemble Theatre Norman Conquests: Round and recurring roles on “Desperate where she was awarded Best Round the Garden, Pygmalion, Housewives” and “Almost Per- New Actress by the Al- How the Other Half Loves, Arms fect,” and in the feature film liance of Professional Theatres; and the Man, Blithe Spirit, Green Seven Girlfriends. Ms. Doukas at Bathhouse Icebergs, Loot and The Company has an MFA from the American Theatre; and Albertine in Five of Heaven. She appeared at A Conservatory Theater and is a Times at Illinois Repertory The- Contemporary Theatre in member of The Antaeus Compa- atre. Her film credits include in God of Vengeance and Com- ny.

P10 SOUTH COAST REPERTORY • Ridiculous Fraud MATT LETSCHER MATT MCGRATH PAUL VINCENT O’CONNOR Kap Clay Andrew Clay Ed Chrystal

*IAN FRASER (Lafcad Clay) is Broadway; Double Double at peared in The Black Rider (Center making his SCR debut. Theatre Williamstown Theatre Festival; Theatre Group, Ahmanson, Los credits include Man and Super- Rain Dance and The Tropical Angeles; Barbican, London; ACT, man at Kansas City Repertory; Pickle at The Purple Rose Theatre San Francisco; Sydney -- Help- Bunnicula and The Gingerbread Company; Love’s Labour’s Lost at mann Award nominee). On Man at Seattle Children’s Theatre; The Old Globe; Absolution at Broadway he appeared in Cabaret The Goat, or Who is Sylvia? at ACT Court Theatre; Julius Caesar and (Emcee) and A Streetcar Named Theatre; Owen Meany’s Christmas at the Idaho Shake- Desire and Off-Broadway in Hed- Pageant at Book-it Repertory; speare Festival; The Sisters at wig and the Angry Inch, A Fair Scapin, The Servant of Two Mas- Pasadena Playhouse; and The Country (Lincoln Center), Minutes ters and The Dying Gaul at Inti- Seagull at Fountain Theatre. Film from the Blue Route, What Didn’t man Theatre; Two Gentlemen of and television credits include the Happen, Nothing Sacred, The Verona at Wooden O Theatre; The upcoming untitled film, Dadshuttle, Escape from Happi- Time of Your Life at Theatre Madison, Straight-Jacket, Identity, ness, Fat Men in Skirts, The Old Schmeater; Bell, Book and Candle Gods and Generals, Super Sucker, Boy, Life During Wartime and at Village Theatre; David Copper- John John in the Sky, The Mask of Amulets Against the Dragon field at Book-It All Over; The Zorro, Lovelife, Gettysburg, “The Forces. Regional theatre credits in- Merry Wives of Windsor, Hamlet New Adventures of Old Christine,” clude Japes (Bay Street Theatre), and Shakespeare’s Top Ten at Seat- “Criminal Minds,” “Joey,” “Good Mother of Invention (Williamstown tle Shakespeare Company; Catch- Morning, Miami,” “Living in Cap- Theatre Festival), Loot 22 at Stepping Stone Productions; tivity,” “Almost Perfect,” “NYPD (Williamstown Theatre Festival and Bald Soprano at Stone Soup Blue,” “Ellen,” “The Larry Sanders and ), Distant Theatre. Show,” “” and the Fires (LA Weekly Award) and made for television movies King Snakebit. Film credits include *MATT LETSCHER (Kap Clay) is of Texas, When Billie Beat Bobby, Full Grown Men (Tribeca Film Fes- making his SCR stage debut, al- and The Beach Boys: An American tival ’06), The Notorious Bettie though he appeared at SCR previ- Family. His play, Sea of Fools, will Page, The Anniversary Party, The ously in the Pacific Playwrights have its world premiere at The Broken Hearts Club, Boys Don’t Festival (PPF) reading of Ridicu- Purple Rose Theatre in 2007. Cry, The Impostors, Story of a Bad lous Fraud, as well as the Boy, 1999, Colin Fitz, The Sub- NewSCRipts reading of Kate *MATT McGRATH (Andrew Clay) stance of Fire, Bob Roberts, The Robin’s Anon and the PPF reading appeared previously at SCR in the Dadshuttle and Desperate Hours. of Craig Lucas’ Singing Forest. NewSCRipts reading of House to On television he appeared in “Law Theatre credits include The Rivals Half and the production of Raised & Order: Criminal Intent,” “Frasi- and ’s Proposals on in Captivity. He most recently ap- er,” “Now and Again,” “

Ridiculous Fraud •SOUTH COAST REPERTORY P11 RANDY OGLESBY ELIZA PRYOR Uncle Baites Georgia

Hope,” “New York Undercover,” “The West Wing,” “The Court,” ning at through “Winnetka Road,” Andersonville, “The X-Flies,” “NYPD Blue,” “ER,” its run at Intiman Theatre, The The Member of the Wedding and “Bette,” “Any Day Now,” “Family Kennedy Center and the Royal Cruel Doubt. Law,” “”; and support- Theatre on Broadway. His numer- ing roles in the made for televi- ous film and television appear- *PAUL VINCENT O’CONNOR (Ed sion movies A Perfect Husband: ances include The Island, Bring- Chrystal) is making his SCR debut. The Laci Peterson Story, A Few ing Down the House, Pearl Har- Theatre credits include The Sound Good Hearts and Inherit the Wind. bor, Liar Liar, and recent appear- of Music at the Hollywood Bowl; ances on “Cold Case,” “Without a Juno and the Paycock at the B *RANDY OGLESBY (Uncle Baites) Trace” and an upcoming episode Street Theatre; The Drawer Boy at has appeared at SCR as Carlton of “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.” Papermill Playhouse; Continental Gleason in Getting Frankie Mar- He played the Democratic Majority Divide at La Jolla Playhouse; The ried—and Afterwards, CC Show- Leader of The Senate on the series Skin of Our Teeth at California ers in The Diviners, Jerry in Be- “Mr. Sterling” and has a recurring Shakespeare Festival; The Weir at trayal, Jay in All the Way Home role on this season’s “Vanished.” Geffen Playhouse; Henry V at The and Nick in Sight Unseen. He Old Globe; Death Defying Acts at studied theatre at the University of *ELIZA PRYOR (Georgia) is return- Aurora Theatre Company; How I Virginia in Charlottesville and at ing after making her SCR debut as Learned to Drive at Berkeley the American Conservatory The- Lucy in the world premiere of Repertory Theatre; Gross Indecen- ater in San Francisco where he Noah Haidle’s Mr. Marmalade. cy at Theatre on the Square; and also spent six years in the acting She recently worked with David , The Darker company performing such roles as Mamet on his comedy Boston Face of Earth, , Twelfth Belyaev in A Month in the Coun- Marriage at Geffen Playhouse. Night, Much Ado about Nothing, try and Orin in Mourning Be- She also had a recurring role on You Can’t Take it With You, Mad comes Electra. He has performed the second season of HBO’s “Car- Forest, The Firebugs, Other Peo- at The Old Globe, The Denver nivale.” Her film Red Is the Color ple’s Money, Aristocrats, The Ice- Center for the Performing Arts, Of was the 2006 winner of The man Cometh and Enrico IV at the Westport Country Playhouse, Pa- Merchant-Ivory Award for Best Oregon Shakespeare Festival. perMill Playhouse, Pacific Conser- Feature Film at The Oxford Inter- Film credits include Rikers, Seabis- vatory of the Performing Arts and national Film Festival. Before cuit, Purpose, and Terminal Fear. eight shows at Mark Taper Forum, moving to LA, Ms. Pryor lived in Television credits include a recur- most recently Lewis and Clark New York City performing on ring role on “Felicity,” guest star- Reach the Euphrates. He was a stage as Violet in Tennessee ring roles on “Vanished,” “24,” cast member of The Kentucky Williams’ Small Craft Warnings “JAG,” “Cold Case,” “Kingpin,” Cycle from its workshop begin- with The Worth Street Theatre, as

P12 SOUTH COAST REPERTORY • Ridiculous Fraud Christina in Christina at Soho ry Theatre where she oversaw the Repertory Theatre and as Agethe initiation and completion of a $15 TOD AND LINDA WHITE in Nothing at Richard Foreman’s million endowment campaign, and (Honorary Producers). Two Ontological Theatre. Film credits developed important relationships years on the SCR Board, two include 13 Conversations About with playwrights Nilo Cruz, Lisa years as SCR Honorary Pro- One Thing, as well as festival Loomer and Amy Freed. She has ducer. Tod White and his award winners City of Thieves, directed at theaters throughout the wife Linda are both generous Weeki Wachee Girls and Mad country including Mark Taper and adventurous. They chose About Harry. Her guest starring Forum, South Coast Repertory, La to underwrite Beth Henley’s roles on television include “CSI,” Jolla Playhouse, Huntington The- Ridiculous Fraud, a new play “Gilmore Girls,” “Numb3rs,” atre Company, Arena Stage, that has not yet been seen on “Angel,” “Third Watch,” “The Job,” Kansas City Repertory, Alliance the West Coast, following last “Madigan Men” and “Sex and the Theatre Company and Playwright’s season’s underwriting of Joe City.” She studied in New York, Horizons, The Public Theater, and Penhall’s Dumb Show, which Montreal and Paris. Manhattan Theatre Club in New had not been seen anywhere York. She has also directed sever- in America. Besides being in PLAYWRIGHT, al operas at Seattle Opera, San their seventh season as sub- DIRECTOR & DESIGNERS Diego Opera and Opera Colorado. scribers to First Nights on She has received many awards for both stages and members of BETH HENLEY (Playwright) was her directing and producing in- the Platinum Circle of donors, awarded the Pulitzer Prize in cluding Bay Area Theatre Critics the Whites prove their interest Drama and the New York Drama Circle Awards for The Tooth of in new work by attending Critics Circle Award for Best Amer- Crime and Heartbreak House at NewSCRipts readings during ican Play for Crimes of the Heart. Berkeley Repertory; Drama Logue the season. Smith and Kraus published a two awards for Twelfth Night, Lady volume collection of 12 of her from the Sea, Ballad of Yachiyo, US BANK (Corporate Pro- plays including The Miss Fire- and Lulu; the Elliot Norton Award ducer) joined SCR’s Corporate cracker Contest, The Wake of for Best Production (Boston) for Circle during the 2004-05 Sea- Jamey Foster, The Debutante Ball, The Woman Warrior; and an Obie son and the following year The Lucky Spot, Abundance, Sig- Award with Theatre X for A Fierce became a first-time Honorary nature, Control Freaks and Impos- Longing. She is thrilled to return Producer by helping under- sible Marriage. Ms. Henley wrote to South Coast Repertory which write the final play of the the screenplay for the film version was a co-producer of The Ballad Theatre for Young Audiences of Crimes of the Heart, for which of Yachiyo and where she started series, The Stinky Cheese Man. she was nominated for an Acade- her West Coast career with a pro- U.S. Bank is the sixth largest my Award. She also wrote the duction of The Seagull. financial services holding screenplays for The Miss Fire- company in the United States cracker Contest, Nobody’s Fool, HUGH LANDWEHR (Scenic and through its foundation Trying Times and True Stories. Design) has designed scenery provided more than $19 mil- Ms. Henley is the Presidential Pro- throughout the United States. His lion in grants to nonprofit or- fessor of Theatre Arts at LMU/LA. work on Broadway has included ganizations in 2005. productions of Frozen, Bus Stop, SHARON OTT (Director) has been All My Sons and A View from the a leading director in the American Bridge. Off-Broadway, he has de- Theatre in Houston, Guthrie The- theatre for the past 21 years. She signed Last Easter, Scattergood, ater, Seattle Repertory Theatre and became Artistic Director of Berke- Filumena, The Baby Dance, The ACT Theatre in Seattle and many ley Repertory Theatre in 1984, and Entertainer and , among others. During summers he has in her 13-year tenure she devel- others. He has had long and pro- designed at Williamstown Theatre oped the company’s reputation for ductive relationships with many Festival and Westport Country innovative programming that re- regional theatres including Center Playhouse. He is presently a sulted in a Tony® Award in 1997, Stage in Baltimore, Long Wharf member of the faculty of NYU’s the final year of her leadership. Theatre in New Haven, Buffalo’s Tisch School of the Arts and has At that point, she became the Studio Arena, The Shakespeare taught at the University of Wiscon- Artistic Director of Seattle Reperto- Theatre in , D.C., Alley sin, Madison, The North Carolina

Ridiculous Fraud • SOUTH COAST REPERTORY P13

School of the Arts, and Williams College. He is proud to have twice been the re- cipient of NEA grants as an Associate What’s New in the Theatre Shop Artist, to have won the Murphy Award in Design (administered by Long Wharf Beth Henley, Vol. 1: stylistic elements in all twelve of Theatre), and to be the 2003 winner of Collected Plays 1980-1989 Henley’s widely-produced plays. the Award for Outstanding (Smith & Kraus, 2000) Set Design. He was educated at Yale Eating New Orleans: From College. he first of a two-volume com- French Quarter Creole pilation of Beth Henley’s col- Dining to the Perfect Poboy T (Costume Design) is lected plays reveals a consistent- by Pableaux Johnson JOYCE KIM LEE ly excellent body of work from a (Countryman Press, 2005) pleased to be returning to SCR where she distinctive voice of the American last designed the world premiere of theatre — a modern Southern his guide to the city’s leg- Richard Greenberg’s A Naked Girl on the Gothic with a bit of wild come- Tendary eateries and distinctive Appian Way. Her other designs at SCR dy, some theatrical poetry, a food culture includes more than include The Clean House, Anna in the pinch of pessimism and lots of 100 restaurants where authentic Tropics, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, warm geniality thrown in for Louisiana cuisine lives and Hold Please, Art, The Summer Moon, Sid- good measure. In addition to breathes — from the French ney Bechet Killed a Man and Entertain- Quarter’s white-linen Creole in- her most famous work, the ing Mr. Sloane. Other selected credits in- stitutions such as Antoine’s to Pulitzer Prize-winning Crimes of clude Sonia Flew at Laguna Playhouse; the Heart, contents include Am I the funky, family-owned joints Room Service, The Two Gentlemen of Blue?, The Wake of Jamey Foster, frequented by locals. Equal The Miss Firecracker Contest, The parts travel book and food Verona and The Comedy of Errors at Ore- Lucky Spot, and The Debutante guide, author Pableaux Johnson gon Shakespeare Festival; The Country Ball (World Premiere 1985 on provides plenty of tips for hun- and Wonderland directed by Lisa Peter- SCR’s Mainstage). These plays gry travelers, guiding them to son at La Jolla Playhouse; Ten Unknowns reveal the gallery of memorable both the culinary hot spots and with Stacy Keach and The House of Southern women that has kept the lesser-known neighbor- Bernarda Alba with and Henley’s work alive on stages hoods. Sandra Oh (LA Ovation Nomination) at across the country for two Mark Taper Forum; and Under the Blue decades. Cemeteries of New Sky directed by Gil Cates at Geffen Play- Orleans: A Journey Through house. She has also designed costumes the Cities of the Dead The Plays of Beth Henley: for the Opera, Berkeley A Critical Study by Jan Arrigo, Photography by by Gene A. Plunka Laura A. McElroy Repertory Theatre, East West Players, In- (McFarland & Co., 2005) (Voyageur Press, 2005) diana Repertory Theatre, Chicago’s Court Theatre, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festi- n the first critical study of Hen- photographic tour of the val, Arena Stage, Berkshire Theatre Festi- Iley’s complete plays, the author Acity’s most captivating grave- val Children’s Theatre, Latino Theatre dispels common stereotypes that yards, such as St. Louis #1, Company and Singapore Repertory The- attempt to pigeonhole her work Greenwood, St. Roch, Lafayette, atre. Recent film design includes Say as regional drama and/or socio- bayou and plantation country Uncle starring Peter Paige and Kathy Na- logical treatise. The book main- cemeteries, this book is loaded jimy. Ms. Lee is a recipient of an with intriguing facts and histori- tains that Henley’s plays must be NEA/TCG Grant for Designers. understood as universal state- cal tidbits, such as a list of ments about the angst of mod- “Who’s Buried Where.” Numer- ern civilization and suggests re- ous sidebars and captions dis- PETER MARADUDIN (Lighting Design) is assessment of her characters in cuss the origins of All Saints’ pleased to return to SCR, where he has light of Freud’s proposition that Day, architectural styles, burial designed over 30 productions including cultural restrictions create neu- processes, cemetery preserva- The Real Thing, The Studio, A Naked Girl rotic individuals. The introduc- tion, history, jazz funerals, and on the Appian Way, Princess Marjorie, tion provides a brief account of voodoo. If you think that there Safe in Hell, The Piano Lesson, Hurrah at the playwright’s childhood and is nothing left to be said about Last, Great Day in the Morning and Pre- career, followed by an insightful New Orleans’ famous “cities of lude to a Kiss. On Broadway he de- examination of thematic and the dead,” better think again! signed the lighting for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and the Pulitzer Prize-winning

P14 SOUTH COAST REPERTORY • Ridiculous Fraud The Kentucky Cycle, and Off- (he also played the Husband) and and related subjects at Pomona Broadway Hurrah at Last, Ballad The Further Adventures of Hedda College and UCLA and has con- of Yachiyo and Bouncers. Mr. Gabler. Other recent work in- tributed articles to such publica- Maradudin has designed over 300 cludes , As You Like It tions as Theater and American regional theatre productions for and Pygmalion at Shakespeare Theatre. He received his MFA de- such companies as The Kennedy Santa Cruz; I’m not Rappaport at gree in dramaturgy from the Yale Center, Guthrie Theater, American Little Fish Theatre Company; Big School of Drama. Conservatory Theater, Berkeley Love, Cabaret, Hot ‘N’ Throbbing, Repertory Theatre, Mark Taper A Christmas Story and Never in *RANDALL K. LUM (Stage Forum, La Jolla Playhouse, Seattle My Lifetime at The Chance The- Manager) began his 17th season Repertory Theatre, The Old Globe, ater; and The Grapes of Wrath at with Nothing Sacred. This sum- Huntington Theatre Company, Ac- Shakespeare Festival. mer he stage managed his good tors Theatre of Louisville, Steppen- Mr. Noyes received his BFA from friend Amy Freed’s play Restora- wolf and Oregon Shakespeare Southern Oregon University and tion Comedy for California Shake- Festival. He is a Founding Princi- his MFA from the University of Al- speare Theater in Northern Cali- pal of First Circle, a lighting de- abama, both in Theatre with the fornia. Last season he stage man- sign consultancy for architecture emphasis in Acting. He is also a aged Blue Door, Man From Ne- and themed environments, and is member of the Society of Ameri- braska, Born Yesterday and The the author of the plays Eugene can Fight Directors. Further Adventures of Hedda Onegin, The Woman in White and Gabler. Two seasons ago he The Blackamoor of Peter the Great. JOHN GLORE (Dramaturg) began worked on Brooklyn Boy, Habeas his new job as Associate Artistic Corpus, Vesuvius, Princess Mar- STEPHEN LeGRAND (Sound De- Director of SCR in 2005, after five jorie and made his Argyros Stage sign) has designed music and years as the resident dramaturg Managing debut with On the sound for theatres throughout the for the Mark Taper Forum, where Mountain. During his long asso- country including Roundabout projects included Luis Alfaro’s ciation as SCR’s resident stage Theatre Company, The Public Electricidad, Culture Clash’s manager, he has worked on more Theater, Manhattan Theatre Club, Chavez Ravine, Lisa Loomer’s Liv- than two dozen world premieres Huntington Theatre Company, ing Out and Jessica Goldberg’s and has been associated with over Seattle Repertory Theatre, Alliance Sex Parasite. Prior to his time at 80 productions. In 1997, Mr. Lum Theatre Company, Berkeley the Taper, he was literary manag- stage managed the AIDS Benefit Repertory Theatre, Mark Taper er for 16 years at SCR, where he Help is on the Way III at the Palace Forum and La Jolla Playhouse. He served as dramaturg on dozens of of Fine Arts in San Francisco. served as resident sound designer productions, workshops and read- Other stage management credits at the American Conservatory The- ings. From 1981-84 he was liter- include the American Conservato- ater in San Francisco for 11 years ary manager at Washington D.C.’s ry Theater in San Francisco, The before relocating to Seattle to ex- Arena Stage, and he has also Old Globe in San Diego, Berkeley plore the sonic nuances of espres- served as a dramaturg for Midwest Repertory Theatre, San Jose Civic so steamers and whale spouts. PlayLabs in Minneapolis. His own Light Opera, VITA Shakespeare Recent credits include Restoration plays have been produced at SCR, Festival, Pacific Conservatory of Comedy, Heartbreak House, The Actors Theatre of Louisville, the Performing Arts, Long Beach Three Sisters, The Mystery of Irma Berkeley Repertory Theatre and Ballet, San Francisco Convention Vep and Ma Rainey’s Black other theatres across the country Bureau and Kawasaki Motorcy- Bottom. Some favorite shows in- and internationally. In 1997-98 he cles. He would like everyone to clude Lulu, Golden Child, Hecuba, teamed with Culture Clash to take a moment to remember all Twilight Los Angeles, The Ballad of write a new adaptation of Aristo- those who have lost the battle and Yachiyo, Anna in the Tropics and phanes’ The Birds, which was co- all those still suffering and fighting A Skull in Connemara. produced by SCR and Berkeley the AIDS epidemic. Repertory Theatre. His adaptation *MARTIN NOYES (Fight Director) of The Stinky Cheese Man, by Jon *NINA K. EVANS (Assistant Stage returns to SCR where he most re- Scieszka and Lane Smith, was Manager) is returning to SCR for cently fight directed Nothing Sa- seen on the Argyros Stage in June, her fourth season. She served as cred, Bach at Leipzig, the Ameri- as part of SCR’s 2005-06 TYA sea- the Assistant Stage Manager on can premiere of Hitchcock Blonde son. He has taught playwriting The Studio, Bunnicula and The

Ridiculous Fraud •SOUTH COAST REPERTORY P15 Adventures of Pør Quinly. In ad- Endowment for the Arts, on the using the original SCR cast. Along dition, she was the Production As- Executive Committee of the with Emmes, he accepted SCR’s sistant on Dumb Show, Vesuvius, League of Resident Theatres, and 1988 Tony Award for Outstanding On the Mountain and The Retreat as a panelist for the California Resident Professional Theatre and from Moscow. Ms. Evans also Arts Council. After attending Or- won the 1995 Theatre LA Ovation served as Company Manager and ange Coast College, he received Award for Lifetime Achievement. Audience Services Director for the his BA and MA from San Francis- Mr. Benson received his BA in Colorado Shakespeare Festival. co State University, and his PhD Theatre from San Francisco State She has a BFA in Technical The- in theatre and film from USC. University. atre from the University of Col- orado at Boulder. MARTIN BENSON (Artistic Direc- PAULA TOMEI (Managing Direc- tor), co-founder of SCR with his tor) is responsible for the overall DAVID EMMES (Producing Artistic colleague David Emmes, has di- administration of South Coast Director) is co-founder of SCR. rected nearly one third of the Repertory and has been Managing He has received numerous awards plays produced here. He has dis- Director since 1994. A member of for productions he has directed tinguished himself in the staging the SCR staff since 1979, she has during his SCR career, including a of contemporary work, including served in a number of administra- Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle William Nicholson’s The Retreat tive capacities including Subscrip- Award for the direction of George from Moscow, the world premiere tions Manager, Business Manager Bernard Shaw’s The Philanderer. of ’s Getting Frankie and General Manager. She served He directed the world premieres Married — and Afterwards and on the board of Theatre Commu- of Amy Freed’s Safe in Hell, The the critically acclaimed California nications Group (TCG), the ser- Beard of Avon and Freedomland, premiere of Nicholson’s Shadow- vice organization for theatre, from Thomas Babe’s Great Day in the lands. He has won accolades for 1998-2006 and was its President Morning, Keith Reddin’s Rum his direction of five major works for four years. She has also and Coke and But Not for Me and by , includ- served as Treasurer of TCG, Vice Neal Bell’s Cold Sweat; the Ameri- ing the Los Angeles Drama Critics President of the League of Resi- can premieres of Terry Johnson’s Circle (LADCC) Award-winners dent Theatres (LORT) and has Unsuitable for Adults and Joe Pen- Major Barbara, Misalliance and been a member of the LORT Ne- hall’s Dumb Show; the West Coast Heartbreak House. Among his gotiating Committee for industry- premieres of C.P. Taylor’s Good numerous world premieres is Mar- wide union agreements. In addi- and Harry Kondoleon’s Christmas garet Edson’s Pulitzer Prize-win- tion, she represents SCR at nation- on Mars; and the Southland pre- ning Wit, which he also directed al conferences of TCG and LORT; miere of Top Girls (at SCR and the at Seattle Repertory Theatre and is a theatre panelist for the Na- Westwood Playhouse). Other the Alley Theatre in Houston. He tional Endowment for the Arts productions include the West has directed American classics in- and the California Arts Council Coast premieres of Three View- cluding Ah, Wilderness!, A Street- (CAC), and site visitor for the ings by Jeffrey Hatcher, The Secret car Named Desire, A Delicate Bal- CAC; served on the Advisory Rapture by and New ance and A View from the Bridge. Committee for the Arts Adminis- England by Richard Nelson; and Mr. Benson has received the tration Certificate Program at the Arcadia by , The LADCC Distinguished Achieve- University of California, Irvine; Importance of Being Earnest by ment in Directing awards an un- and has been a guest lecturer in Oscar Wilde, Ayckbourn’s paralleled seven times for the the graduate school of business at and You Never three Shaw productions, John Stanford and the University of Can Tell by George Bernard Millington Synge’s Playboy of the California, Irvine. She graduated Shaw, which he restaged for the Western World, ’s The from the University of California, Singapore Festival of Arts. He has Crucible, Sally Nemeth’s Holy Irvine with a degree in Economics served as a theatre panelist and Days and Wit. He also directed and pursued an additional course onsite evaluator for the National the film version of Holy Days of study in theatre 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.

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