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Issue No. 94 Summer 2014 MESSAGE FROM THE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR The Funniest Backstage Farce! JUN 12–29, 2014 Solvang Festival Theater There are few things in life more enjoyable than Solvang Festival Theater SUN MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT being of service to people JUN 12 13 14 PREVIEW PREVIEW OPENING through our work. To 8pm 8pm 8pm fully invest ourselves in a 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 8pm 8pm 8pm 8pm 8pm purpose whose outcome 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 is for the edification, 8pm 8pm 8pm 8pm 8pm 29 enlightenment, or simple enjoyment of 8pm others, is surely an investment which Show Advisory: A comedy appropriate for consistently delivers the most gratifying children 12 and older due to the more returns. What we celebrate during this adult storyline and sexual innuendo. golden anniversary season is more than Generously sponsored by the making of theatre, we celebrate a Dr. Esteban Fuertes & Alan Foster, Dene & Emily Hurlbert, fifty year relationship of service through By Michael Frayn Royce & Ann Foxworthy Lewellen art to the communities of the Central Coast and beyond. We celebrate being The dizziest, funniest, backstage Michael Frayn wrote the comedy in and Broadway. At press time, there your theatre company. The conversations farce ever written, Noises Off careens 1982 after watching – from the wings were no fewer than 36 productions of inspired and relationships supported by us through the roller coaster lives of – a performance of Chinamen, a farce Noises Off playing in the United States coming to the reflective surface of the a hapless troupe of provincial actors that he had written for Lynn Redgrave. this season. theatre is what the making of plays is as they go through the motions of Frayn said that the show was funnier As an unsuccessful film in 1992, really all about. a cringe-worthy comedy known from backstage than in the audience. directed by Peter Bogdanovich and Most of the things that we know – as Nothing On. In a Noises Off began as featuring Carol Burnett, Michael those which extend beyond our own brilliant turnabout of “The most dexterously a one-act called Exits Caine, Julie Hagerty, Marilu Henner, set of experiences – have come from door slamming miscues, realized comedy ever in 1977 and has been Christopher Reeve, John Ritter and storytelling. Those things we’re ignorant misdirections, and about putting on a expanded and rewritten a others, it was only mildly funny. comedy. A spectacularly about are attached to all the stories misunderstandings, number of times. It initially Despite a stellar cast, critics agreed funny, peerless back- in the world we have yet to be told. onstage romantic intrigues stage farce… a festival played to ecstatic reviews that the theatrical nature of Noises And that makes coming to the theatre are foiled by bunglers of delirium.” in London in 1982 and Off did not translate to the screen. so much more than a mere diversion. and burglars, while the –The New York Times premiered on Broadway After proclaiming Noises Off to be the Sure, it’s great to hear a story in which players backstage exhibit in 1983 winning the funniest play every written, critic Frank the known is celebrated, validated, their best follies and worst foibles Tony Award and Drama Desk Award Rich wrote that “the film is one of the spoofed and seasoned. It’s still greater spinning the play toward a hysterical for Best Play. In London it won both worst ever made.” to hear a story that builds in us the climax. The theater world turns with the Laurence Olivier Award and the Frayn is considered Britain’s capacity to discover, to encounter the side-splitting results to reveal mystery Evening Standard Award and played foremost translator of Chekov, he’s unknowns in life, and the occasional and mayhem as the cast and crew over 1000 performances. It continues published three popular novels, The requisite anxieties, within the safe pull out all the stops to keep track of to play world-wide and a Broadway Tin Men, The Russian Interpreter, and confines of an imaginary world. That newspapers and cactuses, former and revival is being planned for 2015 A Very Private Life. Other plays include capacity not only serves us well in the future lovers, missing cast mates, and starring Andrea Martin. It has already Alphabetical Order, Make or Break, understandings gained by encountering the odd sardine. had successful revival runs in London and Copenhagen. He also wrote the that story, it builds in us the capacity screenplays Clockwise starring John to be encounterers. We learn how to Cleese, First and Last starring Tom open the next door of discovery in our Wilkinson, and the TV series Making lives with a sense of safety because Faces. of the emotional flexibility, intellectual acuity, compassionate connectivity (Continued on page 3) that we gained by rehearsing it in the theatre. Our mature abilities at feeling, thinking, responding and relating that are exercised in the storytelling arena INSIDE THIS ISSUE... of the theatre, are part of what makes Summer Shows 1-3 having a professional theatre in our Alumni News 4 community such a good idea. It’s been a Guest Artists 5 good idea for fifty years – seeing art that is enjoyable, and so much more. 50th Anniversary Appeal 6-7 Holiday Show/Gala 8 Resident Artists 9 Solvang Festival Theater 10 MARK BOOHER Stay & Play 11 Artistic Director The Heavenly Musical Hit Written & Originally Directed & Beloved Family Musical World Premiere! A Tale of Intrigue Choreographed by Stuart Ross Musical Continuity Supervision & By José Cruz González By Naomi Iizuka Arrangements by James Raitt Music by Daniel Valdez Originally Produced by Gene Wolsk Generously sponsored by Generously sponsored by The Melsheimer Families Patricia M. Troxel Trust The Forever Plaid Fan Club Generously sponsored by Music by Richard Rodgers For director Michael Jenkinson, he Dr. Michael & Maryellen Simkins Book & Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II hopes audiences find this production to be Meet The Plaids: Based on the play “Green Grow the Lilacs” a fresh, new telling of the story. “It brings Intelligent, intricate and imaginative. The play poses so many questions about Francis (Frankie) is the leader of the by Lynn Riggs challenges of breathing fresh life into it, 36 Views examines the meaning of truth authenticity, which I think is great for Plaids. He knows what’s coming next and It’s 1840. America’s plans to conquer nominated television series produced by in art and in the heart. It’s the discovery our time.” Brainin said. Generously sponsored by Judy & Hardy Hearn, and I hope audiences walk away with a the west under the call of Manifest Destiny Discovery Kids for The Learning Channel. where everyone needs to be and makes Linda Stafford Burrows, Dr. Dennis Shepard, Santa new connection to the characters, and of an apparently ancient manuscript – a Playwright Iizuka told AsiaSource. sure they know it. He’s a real romantic Ynez Valley Loves Broadway helped provoke the largely unpopular Mr. González was a recipient of priceless Japanese pillow book – and org, “How you discern the truth is very maybe more sympathy for some of these Mexican American war from which a 2004 TCG/Pew National Theatre crooner though suffers from asthma which characters.” He added, “The thing I’m the attempts to validate its authenticity. tricky. I guess I would say that the real When doo-whop was king, big hairdos High-spirited rivalry between farmers there was rampant desertion. One small Residency grant and a 1997 NEA/ acts up when the choreography is a little really excited to explore is organic staging Darius Wheeler, an unscrupulous art thing exists, but it is elusive and hard to were in, and cars had enormous fins, and cowboys sets the stage for Curly group of deserters were to be made TCG Theatre Residency Program for too fast. for the numbers.” dealer in Asian antiquities, specializes pin down. And on some level, I think the harmonizing bands of the 50s were – handsome cowboy - and Laurey – an example. Tracked down and court Playwrights. In 1985 he was a NEA Jinx is shy, forgetful, and gets Rodgers and Hammerstein are credited in acquiring and pricing the exotic the play suggests that you need to all the rage. Tragically, on their way to lovely farm girl - and their bumpy ride to martialed, 30 were found guilty as Director Fellow. He teaches theatre at nosebleeds when he hits the high notes. with initiating “the golden age of musical things of life. Setsuko Hearn an Asian take a leap of faith in discerning the their first big gig at the Airport Hilton romance. It’s filled with such popular tunes traitors and were publically hanged in a California State University at Los Angeles. He’s terrified by most anything and is theatre” with a string of successful shows art historian with an uncanny knack for truth in both art and love.” 36 Views Marina Cocktail Lounge, as “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’”, “The circus-like display. These were the San He is a member of The Dramatists unsure what comes next that earned the pair 34 Tony Awards, 15 sensing a fake, longs for both stability is part cultural identity, creativity, art the Plaids were snuffed “Screamingly funny! Surrey with the Fringe On Top”,” Many a Patricios or Saint Patricks. This group of Guild of America and TYA/USA. He in the set. The only reason Academy Awards, and the Pulitzer Prize. and mystery and is captivated by the history, the relationship between art and out in a head-on crash Entirely enchanting, utterly New Day”, and “Oklahoma!” Irish immigrants – who fled the famine in is an Associate Artist with Cornerstone he got into the Plaids is Their biggest successes were Oklahoma!, sudden appearance of the pillow book.

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