ROLANDO THEATRE August/September 2009 by becky mode starring david mcbean directed by sean murray and francis gercke 6663 EL CAJON BLVD. • SAN DIEGO • CA • 92115 619-337-1525 • WWW.CYGNETTHEATRE.COM Artistic Director Executive Director DIRECTOR’S NOTE Sean Murray Bill Schmidt I certainly spent a fair number of YEARS doing time in the restaurant industry. When I first read this play, I thought it was so dead-on, that I was Cygnet Theatre Company convinced that it was written specifically about the restaurant in New York presents City that I worked at, Stephanie’s, on the Upper East Side. We waited on our loyal regulars, including the Three-Lemon Lady, who required three lemons, NOT two, in her iced tea at luncheon, while her chauffeur waited in the car, discreetly parked just out of view of the front window. Or Mr. Dewars and his “son” who wanted his Dewars and rocks waiting for him on his table before he was seated. Or the celebs that I had the “pleasure” to wait on, Bernadette Peters, Jennifer Beals, Bobby Short, and a truly memorable time waiting on Elia Kazan and Robert Lewis drunkenly arguing over who was the better Blanche Dubois: Vivien Leigh or Jessica Tandy (I kid you not) while screaming that their ashtray wasn’t emptied promptly enough! It was truly a wild time in my life that was as funny while I was going through it as it is by becky mode upon remembering the dull brunches and late dinners. For those who have never been “backstage” at a restaurant, don’t be fooled. This is as close to what really goes on as it gets! This play gives us a chance to laugh at how serious it can be Starring to dine and dine right. I won’t tell if you recognize yourself somewhere in the play tonight. But David McBean*º I’ll make a note of it. - Sean Murray Directed by Sean Murray & Francis Gercke NAME DROPPING IN FULLY COMMITTED Look for these New York celebs in tonight’s Diane Sawyer started in TV Stage Manager Properties Designer Set Designer show! in Louisville, Kentucky, then Jessica Aguilar Bonnie L. Durbenº Sean Murray Tim Zagat is the cofounder became a press aide for and publisher of Zagat the White House during the Nixon administration. In Lighting Designer Sound Designer Survey, the best-selling the 1990s she worked for Eric Lotzeº George Yéº guides to restaurants, hotels, resort and spas in 45 cities ABC, co-hosting PrimeTime worldwide. Live and 20/20, earning a reputation for Fully Committed is performed without intermission. tough investigative reports and interviews with world leaders. In 1999 she was named Henry Kavis cofounded Kohlberg anchor for Good Morning America. Place Kravis Roberts & Co. in 1976. He A dilapidated, windowless office in the basement of a four-star, multiple- helped to invent the leveraged award-winning, ridiculously trendy Upper East Side Manhattan restaurant. buyout. Bernard Gersten has been Time the Executive Producer Early December. British born Naomi Campbell of Lincoln Center since its conquered the fashion reestablishment in 1985 and ºCygnet Theatre Resident Artist industry and achieved iconic has produced dozens of *Member of Actor’s Equity Association, the Union of Professional status around the world with works, including Anything Actors and Stage Managers in the United States. her incomparable physique Goes, Speed-the-Plow, The House of Blue FULLY COMMITTED is presented by special arrangement with Dramatist’s Play Services, Inc. and electrifying presence. Leaves, and Six Degrees of Separation. THE CAST THE TEAM DAVID MCBEAN*º (Sam, et al.) Cygnet Theatre: Harry Bailey and others in It’s A The Only Game in Town, A Hatful of Rain, The Playboy of the Western World, Three Sisters, Wonderful Life, Sam in Fully Committed (SD Critics Circle Award, Patte Award, Crimes of the Heart, True West, New Village Arts. Francis is an adjunct faculty member at both SD Playbill Award), Larry in Burn This, Miss Deep South in Pageant, and Brother Palomar College and University of San Diego and also conducts acting classes through Brightbee in The Book of Liz. Local credits include: Twist (Fagin), Psycho Beach Cygnet Theatre. He is a graduate of the Actors Studio Drama School. Party (Chicklet, SD Playbill Award), Bunbury (Bunbury), The Rocky Horror Show (Frank ‘n Furter), The Mystery of Irma Vepp (Lady Enid/Nicodemus/Alcazar), JESSICA R. AGUILAR (Stage Manager) For Cygnet: Hedwig and the Angry Inch (Replacement The Boys in the Band (Harry), Diversionary Theater; Shipwrecked (Player 2), Stage Manager). Elsewhere: Power on Earth (Tour), By the Waters of Babylon (PA), Geffen Charley’s Aunt (Lord Fancourt Babberly), Pageant (Miss Deep South, Patté Playhouse; Once On This Island (PA), Reprise Theater Company; The Devils, A Mouthful of Birds, Award) North Coast Repertory Theatre. Thanks to family, friends, and crew! Keeping Track, UCLA TFT; The Nutcracker, Abduction from the Seraglio, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Humble Boy, West Side Story, Anything Goes, A Doll’s House, Rumors, North Bay Area Theater. Jes received her B.A. in Theater Arts from University of California, Los Angeles. THE TEAM BONNIE L. DURBEN° (Properties Designer) Cygnet Theatre (Resident Artist): Noises Off, Bed BECKY MODE (Playwright) developed Fully Committed with Mark Setlock. Fully Committed & Sofa, Mauritius, The History Boys, A Christmas Carol, It’s A Wonderful Life, Dying City, The premiered at New York’s Vineyard Theatre in 1999, was an immediate success, and transferred Receptionist, A Little Night Music, Fences, Communicating Doors, Bug, My Fair Lady. San to the Cherry Lane Theatre for an extended run. Becky, a former actress, waitress and coat Diego Theatre: A String of Pearls, A Christmas Carol, Dracula, Big Bang, North Coast Repertory check girl, is now a writer with credits at HBO (A Little Curious), Disney (Out of the Box, PB & J Theatre; West Side Story, Little Shop of Horrors, Me and My Girl, Moonlight Productions; Blithe Otter), Nickelodeon (Little Bill), and ABC (Born in Brooklyn). She was a staff writer on Cosby at Spirit, Electra, As You Like It, Assassins, Mira Costa College. Film: Ready? OK! and The Street CBS and co-wrote a remake of Cactus Flower for Columbia Pictures. Sweeper. Member of the SDSA and Recipient of the John Guth Patté for Backstage Brilliance. SEAN MURRAY (Director) For Cygnet: Noises Off, Bed and Sofa ‘09, The History Boys, Love Song, ERIC LOTZE° (Lighting Designer) Cygnet Theatre (Resident Artist): Noises Off, Bed and Sofa, A Christmas Carol, A Little Night Music (SD Critic’s Award, Best Director), The Receptionist, The Mauritius, The History Boys, It’s A Wonderful Life, Dying City, The Receptionist, Fences, The Invention of Love, Bed and Sofa ‘04 (SD Critic’s Award, Best Director, Best Musical Revival), Las Turn of the Screw, St. Nicholas, Communicating Doors, Arcadia, Desire Under the Elms, The Meninas, Escanaba in da Moonlight (SD Critic’s Circle, Set Design), The Book of Liz, Pageant, Matchmaker, Yellowman, Bug, Copenhagen, Fully Committed, My Fair Lady, Biedermann and Bug, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, St. Nicholas, The Matchmaker, Desire Under the Elms, the Firebugs, The Little Foxes (SD Critics Circle Award), Curse of the Starving Class, The Invention Santaland Diaries, Biedermann and the Firebugs, Fully Committed, Arcadia, Cat on a Hot Tin of Love, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Pageant, Burn This, The Book of Liz, Escanaba in da Moonlight, Roof, It’s a Wonderful Life, The Little Foxes, My Fair Lady. Elsewhere: The Elephant Man (Patté, and Las Meninas. Elsewhere: The Good Body, San Diego Repertory Theatre; The Listener, Direction), Man of La Mancha, The Importance of Being Earnest, Travesties, North Coast Rhubarb, Wet, Moxie Theatre; Les Miserables, Beauty and the Beast, Route 66, Moonlight; Rep; Never the Sinner, Love! Valour! Compassion!, Diversionary. Acting Credits: A Little Night Ragtime, Aida, Urinetown, Sweeney Todd, Starlight; Riptide, Shamu’s House of Douse, Terrors Music, My Fair Lady, Man of La Mancha, The Rocky Horror Show, The Elephant Man, Richard of the Deep, SeaWorld. III, Travesties. Sean holds a B.F.A. from the professional actors training program at the North Carolina School of the Arts. In 2000, Sean was named one of San Diego Magazine’s “50 People GEORGE YE° (Sound Designer) Cygnet Theatre (Resident Artist): A Christmas Carol, A Number, to Watch” and in 2005 he was named Producer of the Year by the San Diego Critic’s Circle. Fences, Arcadia, Yellowman, It’s a Wonderful Life, Bug, Escanaba in Da Moonlight, Fully Committed. Elsewhere: Sir Patient Fancy, Old Globe MFA; Restless Spirits, The Goat, Proof, FRANCIS GERCKEº (Director) For Cygnet: Love Song (Beane), Dying City (Director), A Number Nuevo California, San Diego Rep; A Life in the Theatre, Travesties, Relatively Speaking, NCRT; (Bernard 1, Bernard 2, Michael Black), Desire Under the Elms (Eben), The Curse of the M. Butterfly, The Killing of Sister George, Falsettos, Love! Valour! Compassion!, The Mystery of Starving Class (Director), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Brick). San Diego Theatre: Quoth the Raven, Irma Vepp, Diversionary. Video and Other Credits: Find You in the Forest, Oedipus at Colonus, Sledgehammer; Carnival of Desire, Humphrey, Nevada, Fritz Theatre; A Life in the Theatre, Search and Destroy, The Crucible, Sam I Am, Woman from the Other Side of the World, Over North Coast Repertory Theatre; The Merchant of Venice, Proof, San Diego Repertory Theatre; the Asian Airwaves, Side Kick, Silent Sacrifices. UR UPPORTERS UR UPPORTERS OWe are grateful to the Sfollowing individuals and organizations whose generosity makes it possible for Cygnet Theatre to remain O S Jean Stein & Helen Long In Memory of Marcia Schmidt a vital part of the San Diego Arts Community.