La Jolla Playhouse announced today five of six productions in its 2010/11 subscription season, including the world premiere of Annie Weisman's Surf Report, running June/July in the Mandell Weiss Forum; William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, directed by Playhouse Artistic Director Christopher Ashley and featuring an on-stage orchestra playing the music of Mendelssohn, running July/Aug in the Sheila and Hughes Potiker Theatre; the world-premiere musical comedy A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder, book by Robert L. Freedman, music by Steven Lutvak, lyrics by Robert L. Freedman and Steven Lutvak, starring Tony Award-winner Jefferson Mays, running Sept/Oct in the Mandell Weiss Theatre; a new adaptation of Dostoevsky's Notes from Underground, adapted by RoBert Woodruff and Bill Camp, directed by RoBert Woodruff, running late Sept/Oct in the Sheila and Hughes Potiker Theatre; and Lynn Nottage's Pulitzer Prize-winning play Ruined, running Nov/Dec in the Mandell Weiss Theatre. The final production of the 2010/11 season - a musical - will be announced shortly.
"It is a true pleasure this season to assemble not only some of the nation's most esteemed artists, but renowned Playhouse alumni as well," said Ashley. "Jefferson Mays, RoBert Woodruff, Annie Weisman and others have all played an integral part in the institution's history and development, and we are delighted to welcome them back to our stages for this series of intoxicating new productions."
Subscriptions to La Jolla Playhouse's 2010/11 season are available by calling (858) 550-1010 or by visiting lajollaplayhouse.org. Subscriptions are available in six-play, four-play and three-play packages, ranging from $135 to $312.
Leading off the season will be Surf Report (June/July, Mandell Weiss Forum) by San Diego-bred playwright Annie Weisman, author of The Playhouse's 2001 world premiere Be Aggressive. She now returns with another world premiere comic drama that centers on Judith, who spends her days serving as assistant and caretaker for her demanding venture capitalist boss in a coastal southern California town. Her husband Hal spends his nights trying not to pick a fight with Judith; and her daughter Bethany, a struggling artist in New York, spends every waking moment trying to stay as far away from home as possible. But when Bethany returns to California for a family emergency, The Shadows of the past and the specter of an uncertain future threatens the very core of this turbulent threesome. This funny and poignant play examines the sacrifices we make - or avoid - for our families.
Next up will be William Shakespeare's classic A Midsummer Night's Dream (July/August, Sheila and Hughes Potiker Theatre). Playhouse Artistic Director Christopher Ashley re-imagines this timeless celebration of love and dreams in an innovative and gravity-defying production. In a Victorian court of rules and constraints, Hermia faces the threat of an arranged marriage. When she and her forbidden lover escape into the forest, her jilted fiancé follows in hot pursuit. But the woods and its mischievous fairies have their own surprises, and the lovers soon find themselves in a world turned upside-down - literally. The piece will be interwoven with music from Mendelssohn's A Midsummer Night's Dream score, performed live by an on-stage orchestra.
The Playhouse will also present the world-premiere musical comedy A Gentlemen's Guide to Love and Murder (September/October, Mandell Weiss Theatre), book by Robert L. Freedman, music by Steven Lutvak, lyrics by Robert L. Freedman and Steven Lutvak, directed by Darko Tresnjak (The Laramie Project Epilogue). This delightful new piece will star Tony Award winner and UC San Diego graduate Jefferson Mays playing a multitude of roles. Mays has appeared in numerous Playhouse productions and won the Tony Award for his performance in Doug Wright's Pulitzer Prize-winning play I Am My Own Wife, which originated at The Playhouse as the Theatre's first Page To Stage production. A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder is a deliciously witty romp through manners, mores and murder in Edwardian England. In a tale with strikingly contemporary resonance, a young man of little means discovers he's eighth in line for a great fortune and a title. Driven by revenge and torn between two beautiful women, he discovers just how low he is willing to go on his climb to the top.
Notes from Underground (September/October, Sheila and Hughes Potiker Theatre) is a haunting, compelling play based on Fyodor Dostoevsky's (Crime and Punishment, The Brothers Karamazov) landmark 1864 novella. Nearly 150 years later, Dostoevsky's "Underground Man" is brought to the stage in an astonishing adaptation by acclaimed director RoBert Woodruff, frequent Playhouse artist during the ‘80s and ‘90s and leading avant-garde director, and Obie Award-winning actor Bill Camp, who gives a tour-de-force performance as the Underground Man. Having resigned his position as a civil servant to live in isolation, the Man holes up in a squalid office cluttered with discarded equipment and wet snow, ready to take vengeance on a corrupt world. Obsessively reliving old wounds and spurning any chance at affection, the Man begins a descent into madness that is at times heartbreakingly funny, at times disquieting, but always honest, searing and unforgettable. The New York Times called Camp's portrayal a "remarkable, terrifying performance" in a production hailed by The Boston Globe as a "brilliantly original and theatrical work of art." Contains nudity, violence and strong language.
The Playhouse will also present the phenomenal hit off-Broadway play Ruined (November/December, Mandell Weiss Theatre) by celebrated playwright Lynn Nottage (Intimate Apparel, Fabulation). As a civil war rages in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mama Nadi runs a canteen where any soldier can put down his weapon, have a beer and spend an evening in the company of beautiful women - for a price. But the good-time atmosphere of this cozy brothel cannot hide the battles waged on the women who work there. They have been torn from their families, brutalized at the hands of violent men and bartered as a commodity by the shrewd Mama Nadi, but despite the atrocities inflicted on them, their courage, humor and hope survive.
Winner of the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Ruined was extended multiple times off-Broadway and has earned numerous awards, including the Obie Award for Best New American Play and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play. Variety wrote that Nottage "has crafted a work that speaks eloquently of the monstrous acts bred by war, and of the courage and compromises required to survive them," while The Chicago Tribune raved, "Sincere, passionate, courageous and acutely argued, Ruined is a remarkable theatrical accomplishment."
Corporate supporters of La Jolla Playhouse's season include Qualcomm Incorporated; Cooley Godward Kronish LLP; Morrison & Foerster; Procopio, Cory, Hargreaves & Savitch LLP; California Bank & Trust; US Bank; Bank of America; and Sempra Energy.
The nationally acclaimed, Tony Award-winning La Jolla Playhouse is known for its tradition of creating the most exciting and adventurous new work in regional theatre. The Playhouse was founded in 1947 by Gregory Peck, Dorothy McGuire and Mel Ferrer, and is considered one of the most well-respected not-for-profit theatres in the country. Numerous Playhouse productions have moved to Broadway, including Big River, The Who's Tommy, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, A Walk in the Woods, Dracula, Billy Crystal's 700 Sundays, the Pulitzer Prize-winning I Am My Own Wife, Jersey Boys, Thoroughly Modern Millie, The Farnsworth Invention, 33 Variations and Memphis. Located on the UC San Diego campus, La Jolla Playhouse is made up of three primary performance spaces: the Mandell Weiss Theatre, the Mandell Weiss Forum Theatre, and the Joan and Irwin Jacobs Center for La Jolla Playhouse, a state-of-the-Art Theatre complex which features the Sheila and Hughes Potiker Theatre.
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BIOGRAPHIES
Christopher Ashley (Director, A Midsummer Night's Dream) has served as La Jolla Playhouse's Artistic Director since October, 2007. During his tenure, he has helmed the world premiere of Claudia Shear's Restoration and the acclaimed musicals Xanadu and Memphis (which opened to critical acclaim on Broadway in October, 2009). He also spearheaded The Playhouse's Resident Theatre program and was instrumental in developing The Edge series. Prior to joining The Playhouse, Ashley directed the Broadway productions of Xanadu, All Shook Up and The Rocky Horror Show (Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle Award nominations). Off-Broadway credits: Blown Sideways Through Life, Jeffrey (Lucille Lortel and Obie Awards), Regrets Only, The Night Hank Williams Died, Fires in the Mirror (Lucille Lortel Award), among others. Regional: Sweeney Todd and Merrily We Roll Along (Kennedy Center Sondheim Celebration), They All Laughed and Lucky in the Rain (Goodspeed Musicals) and Without Walls (Mark Taper Forum). He also directed the feature film Jeffrey and the American Playhouse production of Blown Sideways Through Life for PBS. Mr. Ashley is the recipient of the Princess Grace Award, the Drama League Director Fellowship and an NEA/TCG Director Fellowship.
