The Old Globe today announced the cast and creative team for the World Premiere of Jonathan Caren’s hard-hitting drama, The Recommendation. Directed by Jonathan Munby, The Recommendation will run Jan. 21 – Feb. 26, 2012 in the Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre, part of the Globe’s Conrad Prebys Theatre Center. Preview performances run Jan. 21 – Jan. 25. Opening night is Thursday, Jan. 26 at 8:00 p.m. Tickets can be purchased online at www.TheOldGlobe.org, by phone at (619) 23-GLOBE or by visiting the Box Office at 1363 Old Globe Way in Balboa Park.
The Recommendation is a bold and candid look at modern friendship from an exciting new theatrical voice. Aaron is smart, charming and over-privileged. Iskinder, his new college roommate, comes from a middle-class immigrant family and is under-connected. Soon the best of friends, Aaron takes Iskinder under his wing, sharing his world of favors and fortune. But the safe haven of college only lasts so long. After a chance encounter with an accused felon sets off a chain of events that puts Aaron’s life at risk, the two men are forced to rethink the meaning of friendship.
The cast of The Recommendation features Jimonn Cole (Dwight Barnes), Brandon Gill (Iskinder Iudoku) and Evan Todd (Aaron Feldman).
The creative team includes Alexander Dodge (Scenic Design), Linda Cho (Costume Design), Erick Sundquist (Associate Costume Design), Philip S. Rosenberg (Lighting Design), Lindsay Jones (Original Music and Sound Design) and Diana Moser (Stage Manager).
Playwright Jonathan Caren is a recent graduate of the Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwrights Program at The Juilliard School. His plays have been featured at Manhattan Theatre Club (Ernst C. Stiefel 7@7 Reading Series), The Ensemble Studio Theatre (Octoberfest), Ars Nova (OUT LOUD, ANT Fest) as well as the Lark Play Development Center, The Flea Theater, Berkshire Playwrights Lab, Elephant Theatre Company and The Old Vic in London. Friends in Transient Places, directed by Evan Cabnet, premiered during The Juilliard School’s 2010 Playwrights Festival, and his original drama Catch the Fish, directed by Kristin Hanggi, won Most Outstanding Play in the 2007 New York International Fringe Festival. He is a 2011-12 Dramatist Guild Fellow, the 2011 New York Stage and Film Founder's Award recipient, a participant in the 2011 TS Eliot US/UK Exchange, a member of Partial Comfort Productions, a prime member of Ensemble Studio Theatre, a 2010/11 LeComte du Nouy Prize winner, a Kennedy Center finalist and winner of the Theater Publicus Prize for Dramatic Literature.
Jonathan Munby (Director) recently directed Company (Crucible Theatre), A Number (The Fugard Theatre, Cape Town), ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore (West Yorkshire Playhouse), The Winter’s Tale (Guthrie Theater), White Devil (Menier Chocolate Factory), The Prince of Homburg and Life is a Dream (Donmar Warehouse), The Dog in the Manger (The Shakespeare Theatre Company, 2010 Helen Hayes Award nomination for Outstanding Director), 24-Hour Plays (The Old Vic), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare’s Globe), Henry V and Mirandolina (Royal Exchange Theatre), The Canterbury Tales (Royal Shakespeare Company: Stratford, West End and International Tour, including The Kennedy Center), Madness In Valencia (RSC: The Other Place), A Number, The Comedy of Errors and Bird Calls (Crucible Theatre), Nakamitsu (Gate Theatre), Noises Off (Arena Stage), Journeys Among the Dead (Young Vic), Bed Show (Bristol Old Vic), The Anniversary (Garrick Theatre), John Bull’s Other Island (Lyric Theatre, Belfast), Tartuffe (also National Tour), The Gentleman from Olmedo, The Venetian Twins, The Triumph of Love and Dancing at Lughnasa (Watermill Theatre), Troilus and Cressida, Love for Love, Festen and The Way of the World (Guildhall School of Music & Drama) and Numb (C venues, Edinburgh Festival Fringe). His recent opera credits include Carmen (Opera Holland Park), Don Giovanni (English Touring Opera) and Sweetness and Badness (Welsh National Opera). He will also direct the forthcoming production of Romeo and Juliet (Akasaka Act Theater, Tokyo).
