SKYLIGHT THEATRE COMPANY GARY GROSSMAN - Producing Artistic Director TONY ABATEMARCO - Co-Artistic Director SANDRA GROSSMAN - Executive Director MICHAEL KEARNS - Artistic Associate Presents the World Premiere o f Written by ALLEN BARTON Directed by JOEL POLIS Starring LUKE COOK BO FOXWORTH* ROBERT L. HUGHES JAY HUGULEY DENNIS NOLLETTE* CARTER SCOTT EVERETTE WALLIN Producer GARY GROSSMAN Set and Lighting Designer JEFF MCLAUGHLIN Sound Designer PETER BAYNE Production Stage Manager GARRETT LONGLEY Publicist JUDITH BORNE Associate Producer RACHEL BERNEY NEEDLEMAN DISCONNECTION was developed through Skylight's INKubator program OPENING NIGHT JANUARY 24, 2015 @skylightthtr www.skylighttheatrecompany.com #disconnectionplay Beverly Hills Playhouse 254 S. Robertson Blvd. Beverly Hills, CA 90211 The professional union of * Denotes members of Actors Equity Association actors and stage managers in the United States WELCOME SKYLIGHT THEATRE COMPANY in the year 2015. Welcome, old friends and new patrons. What a year we’ve had! Success has come in many forms but none as satisfying as knowing that we’re fulfilling the new mission we embarked on just over four years ago - developing world premiere plays cut from the raw cloth of our town, our time. Now, when we look at the roster of unique and beautifully composed scripts we’ve green-lit for production in 2015, our hearts race in anticipation. The anticipation is so palpable because we know the treasure trove we’re sitting on. These brand new plays, each of which has been carefully crafted through multiple drafts and readings, include some of the best writing we’ve midwifed since hanging our shingle as Skylight Theatre Company. Writing that jumps off the page begging to be staged, to be acted, and to be paid attention to. We can’t help feeling you’ll be smitten, moved, shocked, enlightened, entertained, and that you’ll come away with racing hearts… And wagging tongues, too. Please do. Tell everybody. Skylight Theatre Company is shaking things up. We’re looking past the who, what, how and why we humans behave as we do because we want to comprehend what all this fuss is about –The fuss of living life in the 21st Century. Here now, for your enjoyment –and perhaps, for its small contribution to our evolution as a culture, for your edification—is the living record of social unrest that a handful of wonderful playwrights in a few dozen intimate theatres just like ours are helping us grapple with in this still new century of surprises. In case you’re new to this scene, intimate theatre in LA is f***ing amazing. We like to think so. We invite you to take us on. Go ahead. Sit back. Cell phones silenced. This is flesh and blood, baby. It’s places. GARY GROSSMAN - Producing Artistic Director TONY ABATEMARCO - Co-Artistic Director SANDRA GROSSMAN - Executive Director MICHAEL KEARNS - Artistic Associate THE CAsT THE CAST In order of appearance: Landon....................................... BO FOXWORTH* JAY HUGULEY* Michel........................................ DENNIS NOLLETTE Tess.......................................... CARTER SCOTT Nick.......................................... LUKE COOK Oldman...................................... ROBERT L. HUGHES Chairman.................................... EVERETTE WALLIN *alternate performances TIME: 1986 through 2014 SETTING: Los Angeles, Hemet, and Creston, California Piano music performed by ALLEN BARTON DISCONNECTION STAFF Garrett Longley - Stage Manager Christopher Hoffman - Technical Director Set Construction: Tim Drier, Jason Rohrer and Ryan Kline Graphic Design - Jeff Price Photographer - Ed Kreiger Videographer - Bailey Williams Social Media - Corryn Cummins BE YOUR OWN CRITIC… Here is your chance! You saw the show and now you have an opinion. Please share it with us! Visit us at any of these social media spots. skylighttheatrecompany.com FACEBOOK Skylight Theatre Company TWITTER @SkylightThtr #DisconnectionPlay WHO’S WHO LUKE COOK (Nick) Luke Cook began acting through high school then studied at the Actors Centre in Sydney. Currently starring in the webseries Soccer Moms as the flamboyant gay Soccer Dad, Cook starred in the Australian drama series COPS: LAC, in the viral video First Kiss with over 100 Million views, and along side Rupaul and Tori Spelling in Mystery Girls. Cook most recently starred in the Skylight Theatre's original production of The Sexual Life of Savages. Currently a member of The Beverly Hills Playhouse, he continues to improve his already very broad range and infectious energy. BO FOXWORTH (Landon*alternate performances ) Most recently seen in The Tavern at SOC and Amadeus at ETC. The Liar, The Crucible (Ova- tion Nom. Lead Actor), Macbeth, The Seagull and The Malcontent with Antaeus with which he is a company member. Bo has also worked at La Mirada, A Noise Within (2 Ovation Noms.), Laguna Playhouse, The Geffen, Disney Hall, LATW, Boston Court and The Hollywood Bowl. In NY and regionally: The Lucile Lortel, The Century Theater, HERE, The Pearl Theater, The Shakespeare Theater, Vienna’s English Theater in Vienne, Austria, The Long Wharf, Baltimore Center Stage, Playmakers Rep, The Old Globe, Portland Stage, Yale Rep, and many others. He has numerous film and television cred- its most recently appearing in Castle. He is a graduate of UCLA and received his Masters at The Yale School of Drama. ROBERT L. HUGHES (Oldman) Hughes grew up in Southern California. He trained locally, in New England and New York. After a successful career as a performer, teacher, and entrepreneur in Hollywood, he moved, explored the Chesapeake Bay, and was a "walk-on" to the high-tech revolution. Hughes excelled in this new world by marketing the human WHO’S WHO story around advancing technology. Now he is back. "Hey, what's thirty years or so? I'm glad to be back and doing what I love." JAY HUGULEY (Landon*alternate performances ) This is Jay’s fourth production with The Skylight Theatre, previously appearing as Henry in Tom Stoppard’s The Real Thing, Howie in David Lindsay-Abaire’s Rabbit Hole and Clive in Peter Leftcourt’s La Ronde de Lunch. Other L.A. the- atre includes Best/Worst, Three and An Evening on the Brink all at The Electric Lodge. Film includes 12 Years a Slave, When the Game Stands Tall, Ride, Hijacked, Abattoir, Sunny in the Dark. Television includes True Detective, Red Band Society, Treme, Nashville, CSI:Cyber, Ravenswood, Star- Crossed, Army Wives, Brothers & Sisters, Alias, What About Brian, Cold Case, Summerland. DENNIS NOLLETTE (Michel) Stage: Co-founder of the Georgetown Gilbert & Sullivan Society. Favorite roles there; Major General Stanley (Pirates of Penzance), the Lord Chancellor (Iolanthe). Other favorite roles: Dr. Morris Ritz (The Grass Harp) and Marryin' Sam (Li’l Abner). As producer: Pinafore!, Buddies, Altar Boyz, and Gaveston (all at the Celebration Theatre). Film: Think Like A Man, Nobody’s Child (also writer/director). Former studio attorney and longtime student at the Beverly Hills Play- house. Special thanks to Allen and Joel. (DennisNollette.com.) CARTER SCOTT (Tara) Carter Scott is enjoying her first professional theatre experience. You probably haven’t seen her in anything, but maybe you will later this month when she’s on an episode of State of Af- fairs. She’s proud of this production, let her know how you felt about it afterwards. She’d like to know. No fake compliments though, she likes the truth. Thank you for coming, enjoy. WHO’S WHO EVERETTE WALLIN (Chairman) Everette Wallin was born on the banks of the Mississippi River in Memphis, TN. Performing in tent shows and naked bear wrestling by the age of five, Everette was quickly seen as an entertainment prodigy. His parents, seeing this potential early on, sold young Everette into slavery to the great theater impresario, Lampton LaFaye, soon after his seventh birthday. Everette has appeared in such hit television shows as HBO's Deadwood, Bones, NCIS, and The Newsroom. Photo by: Ed Kreiger Above: Carter Scott and Everette Wallin WHO’S WHO PRODUCTION TEAM ALLEN BARTON (Playwright) Allen Barton's 2013 play, YEARS TO THE DAY, received huge response from the Los Angeles critics, who hailed his writing as comparable to George Bernard Shaw, David Mamet, Edward Albee, and Brett Easton Ellis. YEARS TO THE DAY was named one of LA's ten best plays for 2013, and nominated as well for LA Drama Critics Circle Awards for Writing and Acting. It has gone on to be performed in Paris, New York, Kansas City, and the 2014 Edinburgh Theatre Festival, where it received 4- and 5-star reviews. His 2010 play ENGAGEMENT premiered here in 2010, and saw a San Francisco run in 2014. Directing work includes SPEED- THE-PLOW, OLEANNA, THE HEIDI CHRONICLES, THE REAL THING, RABBIT HOLE, THE LAST FIVE YEARS, BURN THIS. Allen is also a classical pianist, and was made a Steinway Artist in 2010. He is currently owner and principal teacher at the Beverly Hills Playhouse, where he also authors the "Study & Pursuit of Acting" blog. Email: abarton@bhplayhouse. JOEL POLIS (Director) This is Joel Polis' fourth collaboration with the STC and second with playwright Allen Barton. He directed Kathy Graf's award winning, Hermetically Sealed, Lynn Manning's Sympathy for the Devil (Skylab 2012), and most recently, Barton's Years to the Day (LADCC, LA Weekly nominations), which appeared in a successful run at the Edin- burgh Festival last summer. Other credits: Jerry Lambert's Straight Time (Circus Theatricals at the Odyssey Theater) and Joe Bay's Last Fling (workshop production - Circus Theatricals at the Hayworth Theater). www.JoelPolis.com GARY GROSSMAN (Producer) Gary Grossman started his career in New York owning two theaters and a theatrical lighting company by the age of 23. Gary worked at the Public Theatre, Café La Mama, and WHO’S WHO Sheraton Square Playhouse before traveling West in the 70's to join up with the emerging theatre moment in Los Angeles. He has produced over 300 stage plays, including more than 50 world premieres.