before you go - La Jolla Playhouse

KNOW
BEFORE YOU GO
MAY 10 – JUNE 12, 2016
Production Sponsors
Brian & Silvija Devine
Dr. Howard & Barbara Milstein
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BEFORE YOU GO
KNOW
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We look forward to seeing you at La Jolla Playhouse at your upcoming
performance of Hollywood. Below is some additional information
about the production and the venue to enhance your theater-going
experience.
PARKING
Parking is free for all subscribers. For all others parking is $2 (subject
to change), Mon-Fri. Upon arrival to campus, please purchase your
parking permit from one of the automated pay stations located next
to the information kiosk. Simply park, note your space number, and
pay $2 at the pay station. Pay stations accept Visa, MasterCard,
American Express or cash ($1 and $5), and do not give change. You
will not need to return to your car. Parking is free on the weekends.
AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT EVENTS
The Playhouse offers unique opportunities for audience members
with these special performance series options:
Thirsty Thursdays: Every Thursday during the run of Hollywood,
join us before your performance for complimentary beer tastings
from Mike Hess Brewing. Presented by La Jolla Playhouse in
partnership with James’ Place.
- Every Thursday during Hollywood, starting at 7:00 pm
Sonic Saturdays: Every Saturday evening during the run of
Hollywood, enjoy lively “Django Reinhardt inspired gypsy jazz” by
Trio Gadjo before the show, outside the Weiss Theatre.
- Every Saturday evening during Hollywood, 6:45 pm – 7:45 pm
Talkback Tuesdays: Participate in a lively discussion with actors and
Playhouse staff members after the performance.
- Tuesday, May 24 following the 7:30 pm performance
- Tuesday, May 31 following the 7:30 pm performance
Insider Events: Join Playhouse staff for a special pre-performance
presentation that gives an insider’s view of the play.
- Wednesday, June 1 at 6:45 pm
- Saturday, June 11 at 1:15 pm
Discovery Sunday: Special guest speakers engage audience
members in a moderated discussion exploring the issues and themes
in the play.
- Sunday, June 5 following the 2:00 pm performance
Children under the age of 6 are not permitted in the
theatre during performances unless otherwise posted.
ACCESSIBILITY
A golf cart is available to assist patrons with accessibility issues to and from the parking lot. Please
notify Patron Services prior to your performance if you are in need of this service; additionally, you
may pull into the five minute parking in front of the theatre, and a friendly La Jolla Playhouse greeter
will assist you.
ACCESS PERFORMANCES
Open Captioned Performance: This performance has open captioning for patrons who are deaf
or hard of hearing.
- Sunday, May 29 at 2:00 pm
ACCESS (ASL Interpreted & Audio Described) Performance: This performance has American
Sign Language interpretation for patrons who are deaf or hard of hearing, and audio description
for patrons who are blind or have low vision.
- Saturday, June 4 at 2:00 pm
DINING
James’ Place is the Theatre District’s on-site restaurant.
Developed by renowned Sushi Master James Holder, the menu includes his signature sushi, as well as
delectable dishes created with Prime and Angus cuts of beef, locally and sustainably harvested seafood,
along with seasonal dishes. A lighter fare menu is also served at the newly-redesigned sushi/cocktail bar,
featuring craft beer and California wines. James’ Place is open daily.
For reservations, please call (858) 638-7778. For menu and hours, please visit jamesplacesd.com.
We also recommend the following nearby restaurants:
Adobe El Restaurante
(breakfast and lunch) and
Mustangs & Burros
(dinner and weekend lunch)
at Estancia La Jolla Hotel & Spa
9700 N. Torrey Pines Road
La Jolla, CA 92037
estancialajolla.com
Café la Rue and
The Med
at La Valencia Hotel
1132 Prospect Street
La Jolla, CA 92037
lavalencia.com
Cusp Restaurant and
Hiatus Poolside Lounge
at Hotel La Jolla
7955 La Jolla Shores Drive
La Jolla, CA 92037
cusprestaurant.com
Dolce Pane e Vino
16081 San Dieguito Road
Rancho Santa Fe, CA 92067
dolcepaneevino.com
Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse
& Wine Bar
8970 University Center Lane
San Diego, CA 92122
flemingssteakhouse.com
Giuseppe Restaurants
& Fine Catering
700 Prospect Street
San Diego, CA 92037
giuseppecatering.com
Pamplemousse Grille
514 Via de la Valle, Suite 100
Solana Beach, CA 92075
pgrille.com
Rock Bottom
Restaurant & Brewery
Playhouse Patrons Get 20% Off
8980 Villa La Jolla Drive
La Jolla, CA 92037
rockbottom.com
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A MESSAGE FROM THE
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
MISSION STATEMENT:
La Jolla Playhouse advances
theatre as an art form and as a
vital social, moral and political
platform by providing unfettered
creative opportunities for the
leading artists of today and
tomorrow. With our youthful
spirit and eclectic, artist-driven
approach, we will continue to
cultivate a local and national
following with an insatiable
appetite for audacious and
diverse work. In the future,
San Diego’s La Jolla Playhouse
will be considered singularly
indispensable to the worldwide
theatre landscape, as we become
a permanent safe harbor for the
unsafe and surprising. The day
will come when it will be essential
to enter the La Jolla Playhouse
village in order to get a glimpse
of what is about to happen in
American theatre.
Movies have power. Nothing is more
central to our national character than
our fascination with moving pictures,
celebrity culture and the bubble of
Hollywood. From the first moment
heroes, heroines, cops, villains and
cowboys appeared on film, America
has had an insatiable appetite for
everything to do with movie stars.
In his new play Hollywood, playwright
Joe DiPietro uncovers a riveting true
© Howard Lipin/U-T San Diego/ZUMA Wire
story ripped from the headlines of the
silent film era. The 1922 murder of
popular director William Desmond Taylor scandalized the nation and exposed
Hollywood’s darker underbelly. At the same time, post-World War I America
was at a cultural crossroads stemming from two opposing currents in America –
one religious and ultra-conservative; the other pleasure-seeking and libertarian.
A collision was inevitable, and the Taylor scandal was the flashpoint.
There is great fun in a whodunit story, and Hollywood has an abundance of
suspects. But Joe is interested in a larger canvas and uses the Taylor murder
and scandal to ask questions that reverberate for the past and present: Why
do Hollywood and its movie stars fascinate us? What do they mean to us? Do
they allow us to reinvent ourselves? How do we inhabit the space between
dreams and reality, illusion and delusion? Are the stories a true reflection of
our moral compass?
I’ve worked with Joe on both plays and musicals, including Memphis and
Chasing the Song at the Playhouse. I admire how much he cares about
creating an engaging and fulfilling experience for the audience. He has the
unique ability to look at his work through the lens of an audience member
and shape his stories with an emotional engine that drives his characters and
storylines. During the rehearsal process of Hollywood, his probing questions
deepened the arc of each character and added layers of intensity that raised
the stakes of their journey through the play.
Working on Hollywood, the design team and I were afforded the opportunity
to take a deep dive into the history of silent film. We looked at the technology
of early 20th century moving picture cameras and saw how light and speed
shaped the images on the screen. We explored how the use of intertitles
moved the storytelling forward, and learned that live music accompanied each
film showing, all of which we’ve incorporated into our production. In crafting
the show’s design, our greatest challenge was to have theatre meet film, and
to develop a vocabulary that serves both.
La Jolla Playhouse has its own longstanding connection with Hollywood.
From its founding days with Gregory Peck, Dorothy McGuire and Mel Ferrer,
the crème de la crème of Hollywood elite came to our shores to make
theatre. With our world premiere of Hollywood, the Hollywood dream
machine is once again center stage at the Playhouse.
La Jolla Playhouse has received
La Jolla Playhouse has received the
the highest rating from Charity
highest rating from Charity Navigator,
Navigator, the nation’s premier
the nation’s premier charity evaluator.
charity evaluator.
P4 PERFORMANCES MAGAZINE
P4 CHRISTOPHER
ASHLEY
LA JOLLA PLAYHOUSE PRESENTS
Michael S. Rosenberg
Managing Director
Christopher Ashley
Artistic Director
BY
JOE DiPIETRO
DIRECTED BY
CHRISTOPHER ASHLEY
FEATURING
MATTHEW AMENDT*, WAYNE BARKER, JACOB BRUCE*, SCOTT DRUMMOND*, SHAUN T. EVANS*,
HARRIET HARRIS*, PATRICK KERR*, KATHERINE KO ‡, JEFF MARLOW*, MARTIN MECCOURI ‡,
TALENE MONAHON*, KATE ROCKWELL*, LEE SELLARS*, CAROLINE SIEWERT ‡, TERRANCE WHITE ‡
SCENIC DESIGNER
COSTUME DESIGNER
LIGHTING DESIGNER
SOUND DESIGNER
PROJECTION DESIGNER
COMPOSER
FIGHT DIRECTOR
WIG DESIGNER
VOICE AND SPEECH COACH
DRAMATURG
CASTING
LOCAL CASTING
STAGE MANAGER
ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER
PRODUCTION MANAGER
WILSON CHIN
PAUL TAZEWELL
HOWELL BINKLEY
CHRIS LUESSMANN
TARA KNIGHT
WAYNE BARKER
STEVE RANKIN
CHARLES G. LaPOINTE
EVA BARNES
SHIRLEY FISHMAN
TELSEY + COMPANY; WILLIAM CANTLER, C.S.A; KAREN CASL, C.S.A.
TERESA SAPIEN
ARTURO E. PORAZZI*
JENNIFER KOZUMPLIK*
AUDREY HOO
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THE CAST
(in order of appearance)
Will Hays...................................................................................................................Patrick Kerr
Mabel Normand................................................................................................... Kate Rockwell
Mary Miles Minter........................................................................................... Talene Monahon
William Desmond Taylor..................................................................................Scott Drummond
Piano Player......................................................................................................... Wayne Barker
Charlotte Shelby....................................................................................................Harriet Harris
James Kirkwood and others...................................................................................Jacob Bruce
Charles Eyton............................................................................................................. Lee Sellars
Dorothy Palmer and others.............................................................................. Caroline Siewert
Henry Peavey and others.................................................................................... Shaun T. Evans
Faith Maclean, First Dancer and others����������������������������������������������������������������Katherine Ko
D.A. Woolwine......................................................................................................... Jeff Marlow
Jimmy Dale.....................................................................................................Matthew Amendt
Officer Jerry and others..................................................................................... Terrance White
Alfonso and others...........................................................................................Martin Meccouri
Setting: Hollywood, 1922.
Hollywood is performed with a 15-minute intermission.
ADDITIONAL STAFF
Assistant Director....................................................Meg DeBoard
Associate Lighting Designer.................................. Amanda Zieve
Associate Wig & Hair Designer........................................Liz Printz
Assistant Scenic Designer........................................Charlie Jicha
Assistant Costume Designer...............Desiree Hatfield-Buckley
Assistant Lighting Designer..............................Sherrice Mojgani
Assistant Projections/Programmer.................. Anthony Jannuzzi
Dance Consultant...................................................Javier Velasco
Production Assistant.............................................. Marie Jahelka
Stage Management Assistant..................................... Chiquita Lu ‡
Second Assistant Lighting Designer......................... Chao-Yu Tsai ‡
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
4Wall Entertainment • Goodspeed Costume Collection & Rental
Western Costume Company • Warner Brothers Studios
WorldStage Event Services
* Members of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage
Managers in the United States. The theatre operates under an agreement between the
League of Resident Theatres and Actors’ Equity Association.
This theatre operates under an agreement between the League of Resident Theatres
and the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, an independent national labor union.
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This theatre operates under an agreement between the League of Resident Theatres
and United Scenic Artists, Local USA-829 of the IATSE.
La Jolla Playhouse is a member of the League of Resident Theatres (LORT) and a
constituent of Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national service organization
for the nonprofit professional theatre.
‡ UC San Diego M.F.A. Candidates in residence at La Jolla Playhouse.
THE COMPANY
MATTHEW AMENDT, Jimmy Dale
La Jolla Playhouse: Debut. Off-Broadway: 'Tis Pity She's
a Whore (Red Bull, Lortel Nomination for Best Revival);
Tamburlaine, Much Ado About Nothing (Theatre for a
New Audience); Henry in Henry V (The Acting Company,
New Victory Theater, Guthrie); The Subject Was Roses, The
Misanthrope (Pearl Theatre). Regional: 12 productions at the Guthrie,
including world premiere of The Great Gatsby as Nick Carraway, Peer
Gynt with Mark Rylance, and Henry V. Prince Hal in Henry IV (Shakespeare
Theatre Co.), Syracuse Stage, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Hudson Valley
Shakespeare, Arden Theatre, Westport Country Playhouse, Chautauqua
and others. Mr. Amendt is an Ivey Award winner for writing/performing
in The Comedian’s Tragedy; Emery Battis Award for Acting from the
Shakespeare Theatre Co. Education: B.F.A. Guthrie/U of Minnesota.
JACOB BRUCE, James Kirkwood and others
La Jolla Playhouse: Debut. San Diego: Honky (San Diego
REPertory Theatre); The Underpants (North Coast Rep);
Yellowface, 26 Miles, Milvotchkee Visconsin (Mo’olelo). Los
Angeles: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (McMurphy),
The Valliant, The Eight: Reindeer Monologues (Knightbridge
Theatre); Before the Revolution (PST Arts Festival); Fearless Follies
(Theatre Unlimited). Chicago: All in the Timing (Circle Theatre); As You
Like It (Orlando); The Crucible, Playing with Fire (Borealis Theater). Film:
The Rig, Night of the Dog, Donut Run, Prairie Fever. TV: OnStage in
America: Honky, Key & Peele, The Young and the Restless (recurring),
Las Vegas, Standoff, ER, Crossing Jordan (recurring), American Dreams,
Roswell (recurring). Mr. Bruce graduated from the University of Illinois
Theatre Department and is currently adjunct faculty at the University of
San Diego - Theatre Arts.
SCOTT DRUMMOND, William Desmond Taylor
is thrilled to be back at La Jolla Playhouse, where he was
previously seen in Mother Courage and where he received
his M.F.A. Broadway: Machinal (Roundabout). Off-Broadway:
A Perfect Future (Cherry Lane), Hamlet (TFANA). Other
New York: Labyrinth, The New Group, New York Theatre
Workshop, The Play Company. Regional: Buyer and Cellar (Seattle
Repertory Theatre); Bedroom Farce (Westport Country Playhouse);
Other Desert Cities, Well (Arena Stage); One Slight Hitch, Twelve Angry
Men (George Street Playhouse); Pride and Prejudice (South Coast Rep);
Absurd Person Singular (Two River Theatre); Williamstown Theatre
Festival; Barrington Stage Company; Eugene O’Neill Theater Center (6
seasons). Film: Sisters with Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, Not Fade Away.
TV: Divorce (HBO, upcoming), Unforgettable (CBS), Boardwalk Empire
(HBO), Black Jack (pilot, Comedy Central), All My Children. Training:
M.F.A., UC San Diego/La Jolla Playhouse; B.F.A., SMU.
SHAUN T. EVANS, Henry Peavey and others
La Jolla Playhouse: originated the role of "Mr. Lopez” in
the 2007 POP Tour, Honey Bo and the Goldmine. Regional:
“Jim” in Big River (Western Stage, Willows Theatre,
Moonlight Stage Productions). San Diego: "Walter Lee”
in A Raisin in the Sun (ion Theatre); Joseph (Moonlight
Stage Productions); Aida, The Roar of the Greasepaint – The Smell
of the Crowd (Starlight); "Master Harold" and the boys (Living Light
Productions); Festival of Christmas, Cyrano de Bergerac (Lamb’s Players);
Ragtime, Little Shop of Horrors, Les Misérables, RENT (California Youth
Conservatory Theatre, Mr. Evans’ own production company). Mr. Evans
is an avid pilot and lives in San Diego with his wife, Berna, and children,
Shaun Jr., Dahani and Natalie.
HARRIET HARRIS, Charlotte Shelby
La Jolla Playhouse: Unusual Acts of Devotion, Cry-Baby,
Thoroughly Modern Millie. Broadway: It Shoulda Been You,
Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella, Present Laughter,
Cry-Baby: The Musical, Old Acquaintance, Thoroughly
Modern Millie (2002 Tony and Drama Desk Awards for
Featured Actress in a Musical), The Man Who Came to Dinner. OffBroadway: Standing on Ceremony, Yeast Nation, Jeffrey (Drama Desk
nomination), Bella, Belle of Byelorussia (Drama Desk nomination). San
Francisco Opera: Show Boat. Film: Love Is Strange, Memento, Nurse
Betty, Addams Family Values. TV: Desperate Housewives, Frasier.
PATRICK KERR, Will Hays
La Jolla Playhouse: His Girl Friday, Mother Courage and Her
Children. Broadway: You Can't Take It with You, The Ritz. OffBroadway: Stage Kiss, The Devils, Jeffrey (with Harriet Harris
and directed by Christopher Ashley). Regional: Yale Rep, The
Old Globe, Mark Taper, Geffen, Berkeley Rep, Guthrie and
others. TV: Recurring roles on Frasier and Curb Your Enthusiasm.
KATHERINE KO, Faith Maclean, First Dancer and others
La Jolla Playhouse: Debut. UC San Diego credits: The
Burial at Thebes, Venus, Borealis, Angels in America:
Millennium Approaches, Rhinoceros and The Venetian
Twins. Commercial and print credits: Converse, Disney,
Cartoon Network, IHOP and US Bank. Back dancer and
choreographer for Shakira's Did It Again song tour appearing on Dancing
with the Stars, XFactor London and Saturday Night Live. Education:
Current M.F.A. Acting Candidate at UC San Diego.
JEFF MARLOW, D.A. Woolwine
La Jolla Playhouse: Glengarry Glen Ross, Sideways. Regional:
Hamlet, Nothing Sacred (South Coast Repertory); Moonlight
and Magnolias, An Empty Plate in the Café du Grand Boeuf,
And the Winner Is, The Sleeper (Laguna Playhouse); You
Can’t Take It with You, The Power of Duff (Geffen Playhouse);
Handle with Care, Around the World in 80 Days (Colony Theatre). As a
member of the Reduced Shakespeare Company: tours of the U.S., Europe
and Asia in The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged)
[revised], The Complete History of America (abridged), Completely
Hollywood (abridged). Film: Stevie D, Akeelah and the Bee, The Hebrew
Hammer. Television: Heartbeat, Dr. Ken, Angie Tribeca, Brooklyn NineNine, The Player, Mistresses, Rizzoli & Isles, Rake, The Thundermans,
NCIS, Grey’s Anatomy, Without a Trace, Pushing Daisies.
MARTIN MECCOURI, Officer and others
La Jolla Playhouse: Debut. New York credits include Rope,
Well, Archimedes Principle, The Eight: Reindeer Monologues
and Foreign Wars. Regional: Jesus Christ Superstar
(Academy of Music Theatre); The Tempest (New Orleans
Fringe). San Diego credits: The Cherry Orchard, Angels in
America: Millennium Approaches, Borealis, Mr. Burns, a post-electric play
and Golden Boy. Mr. Meccouri is currently entering his third and final year
in UC San Diego’s M.F.A. Acting program.
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THE COMPANY
TALENE MONAHON, Mary Miles Minter
La Jolla Playhouse: Debut. Off-Broadway: Jeanie in Robert
Askins’ Permission (MCC), Mae in The Wild Party! (Encores!),
Blanche in Widower’s Houses (TACT/Gingold). Other New
York credits include Here’s Hoover! (Les Freres Corbusier)
and The Chocolate Show (47th St Theater). Regional:
Darlene in Confederacy of Dunces (Huntington); Masha in The Seagull
(Peterborough Players); Cecily in The Importance of Being Earnest
(Northern Stage); Emily in Our Town and Julie Jordan in Carousel (New
London Barn Playhouse). Ms. Monahon’s solo show, All in Good Fun, was
a bestseller at the United Solo Festival and has been produced across
New England. B.A. from Dartmouth College.
JOE DiPIETRO, Playwright
was most recently at the Playhouse in 2014 with the Page To Stage
musical Chasing the Song. His first production at the Playhouse,
Memphis, went on to win four Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Best
Book and Best Score. Last season, his historical drama The Second Mrs.
Wilson debuted at Long Wharf Theatre and George Street Playhouse.
Broadway: Nice Work If You Can Get It (Drama Desk Award, Tony
nomination – Best Book) All Shook Up, Living on Love. Off-Broadway:
Clever Little Lies; The Toxic Avenger; The Thing About Men; Over the
River and Through the Woods; I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change.
He sits on the board of Only Make Believe, a charity dedicated to
bringing interactive, therapeutic theatre to chronically ill children.
KATE ROCKWELL, Mabel Normand
La Jolla Playhouse: Debut. Broadway: Margot in Legally
Blonde, Hair, Skylar in the original Broadway cast of Bring It
On: The Musical and Sherrie in Rock of Ages. First National
Tours: Bring It On, Legally Blonde, Hair. Other regional
credits include Tarzan and Beauty and the Beast (The Muny),
Phantom (Westchester Broadway Theater), High School Musical (North
Shore Music Theatre). Television: Deadbeat, You're the One That I Want.
Her solo show, Back to My Roots, premiered in NYC in 2015.
CHRISTOPHER ASHLEY, Director/Playhouse Artistic Director
has served as La Jolla Playhouse’s Artistic Director since October, 2007.
During his tenure, he has helmed the Playhouse’s acclaimed productions
of Come From Away, The Darrell Hammond Project, Chasing the
Song, His Girl Friday, Glengarry Glen Ross, A Dram of Drummhicit, A
Midsummer Night’s Dream, Restoration and the acclaimed musicals
Xanadu and Memphis, which won four 2010 Tony Awards including Best
Musical. He also spearheaded the Playhouse’s Without Walls (WoW)
series and the Resident Theatre program. Prior to joining the Playhouse,
he directed the Broadway productions of Xanadu (Drama Desk
nomination), All Shook Up and The Rocky Horror Show (Tony, Drama
Desk and Outer Critics Circle Award nominations), as well as the Kennedy
Center Sondheim Celebration productions of Sweeney Todd and Merrily
We Roll Along. Other New York credits include: Blown Sideways Through
Life, Jeffrey (Lucille Lortel and Obie Awards), The Most Fabulous Story
Ever Told, Valhalla, Regrets Only, Wonder of the World, Communicating
Doors, Bunny Bunny, The Night Hank Williams Died and Fires in the
Mirror (Lucille Lortel Award), among others. Mr. Ashley also directed the
feature films Jeffrey and Lucky Stiff, as well as 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.
LEE SELLARS, Charles Eyton
La Jolla Playhouse: Ether Dome. Broadway: A Time to Kill,
West Side Story, Talk Radio. Off-Broadway: Iow@ (Playwrights
Horizons); A Small Melodramatic Story (LAByrinth Theatre);
The Eelwax Jesus 3D Pop Music Show. Regional: Chimerica
(Studio Theatre DC); On Clover Road, The Full Catastrophe
(CATF); Our Town (George Street Playhouse); Tales from Hollywood
(Guthrie Theatre); A Few Good Men, The Hollow (The Alley); Private
Eyes, The Pavilion (Actors Theatre Louisville); I Am a Man (Goodman
Theatre, Arena Stage); Black Starline (Goodman Theatre); Inventing Van
Gogh (City Theatre, Pittsburgh).
CAROLINE SIEWERT, Dorothy Palmer and others
La Jolla Playhouse: Debut. UC San Diego Theatre and
Dance: Sam in Movers + Shakers, Lyubov in The Cherry
Orchard, Ophelia in Hamlet and R in Three Women in Four
Chairs. Other credits include Rabbi/Hannah in Angels in
America: Millennium Approaches (UCSD Studio Project), as
well as Susan in bobrauschenbergamerica and Ellida in The Lady from
the Sea, both with The Brewing Dept. in New York. She is a second-year
M.F.A. actor at UC San Diego with a B.F.A. from NYU/Tisch. Many many
thanks to the wonderful Hollywood team for sharing their time and talent.
TERRANCE WHITE, Officer Jerry and others
is from Los Angeles, CA and is a current second year M.F.A.
actor at UC San Diego. La Jolla Playhouse: Debut. UC
San Diego: Burial at Thebes, Hamlet, Borealis, The Cherry
Orchard and The Venetian Twins. The Brothers Size, Waiting
for Lefty, Dance of the Holy Ghost (Ubuntu Theatre Project).
Education: B.A. in Theatre Arts from Clark Atlanta University.
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WILSON CHIN, Scenic Designer
La Jolla Playhouse: Debut. The Old Globe: Seven shows including
Baskerville, Othello, The Winter’s Tale, Anna Christie. Broadway: Next Fall.
World premieres: Julia Cho’s Aubergine (Berkeley Rep); Samuel D. Hunter’s
Lewiston (Long Wharf); Elizabeth Irwin’s My Mañana Comes (Playwrights
Realm); Meghan Kennedy’s Too Much, Too Much (Roundabout); Mike
Lew’s Tiger Style! (Alliance Theatre); Terrence McNally’s Mothers and Sons
(Bucks County Playhouse); Conor McPherson’s The Birds (Guthrie Theatre);
Sharyn Rothstein’s By the Water (Manhattan Theatre Club). Opera: Lucia
di Lammermoor (Lyric Opera of Chicago); Eine Florentinische Tragodie
and Gianni Schicchi (Canadian Opera). Education: B.A. from UC Berkeley,
M.F.A. from Yale. www.wilsonchin.com
PAUL TAZEWELL, Costume Designer
La Jolla Playhouse: Chasing the Song, Side Show, His Girl Friday,
Memphis, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Jesus Christ Superstar, The
Wiz, Palm Beach. Broadway: Hamilton, Side Show, Memphis (Tony nom),
A Streetcar Named Desire (Tony nom), Jesus Christ Superstar, In the
Heights (Tony nom), Guys and Dolls, The Color Purple (Tony nom), Elaine
Stritch at Liberty, Caroline or Change and Bring in ’da Noise, Bring in
’da Funk (Tony nom). TV: NBC's The Wiz Live!, HBO's Lakawanna Blues.
Opera: Faust for The Met and English National Opera, Porgy and Bess
and Showboat for Washington National Opera, Magdelena for Théâtre
du Châtelet, Margaret Garner for Michigan Opera Theatre and Little
Women for New York City Opera.
LA JOLLA PLAYHOUSE LEADERSHIP
HOWELL BINKLEY, Lighting Designer
La Jolla Playhouse: Come From Away, Chasing the Song, Jesus Christ
Superstar, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Memphis, Xanadu, Cry-Baby,
Zhivago, The Wiz, Private Fittings, Palm Beach, Jersey Boys, The
Farnsworth Invention, Dracula, Eden Lane and How to Succeed... starring
Matthew Broderick. Broadway: Hamilton, After Midnight (2014 Tony
nomination), How to Succeed... starring Daniel Radcliffe (2011 Tony
nomination), West Side Story (2009 Tony nomination), Gypsy starring
Patti LuPone, In the Heights (2008 Tony nomination), Avenue Q, The
Full Monty, Parade, Kiss of the Spider Woman (1993 Tony nomination).
Extensive Regional and dance works include The Joffrey Ballet’s Billboards,
Co-Founder and Resident Lighting Designer for Parsons Dance. Proud
recipient of the 1993 Sir Laurence Olivier Award and Canadian Dora
Award for Kiss of the Spider Woman and the 2006 Henry Hewes Design
Award, Outer Critics Circle and Tony Awards for Jersey Boys.
STEVE RANKIN, Fight Director
La Jolla Playhouse: Guards at the Taj; The Hunchback of Notre Dame;
Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots; Bonnie & Clyde; Memphis; The
Farnsworth Invention; The Wiz; Zhivago; Palm Beach; Jersey Boys;
Dracula, The Musical; The Who’s Tommy; Elmer Gantry; The Collected
Works of Billy the Kid. Broadway: Doctor Zhivago; Memphis; Bonnie
& Clyde; Guys and Dolls; The Farnsworth Invention; Jersey Boys;
Dracula; Henry IV, Parts I and II; The Who’s Tommy; Twelfth Night; Two
Shakespearean Actors; Getting Away with Murder; Anna Christie. OffBroadway: The Third Story, Pig Farm, The Real Inspector Hound, The
Night Hank Williams Died and Below the Belt. Stratford Shakespeare
Festival: Romeo and Juliet, Caesar and Cleopatra, Macbeth and Henry
V. Metropolitan Opera: Rodelinda, Boris Godenov, Faust and Iphegenie
at Tauride. Hartford Stage: Rear Window. Mr. Rankin plays mandolin with
the New Folk Artist Susie Glaze and the HiLonesome Band.
CHRIS LUESSMANN, Sound Designer
Favorite sound designs include: Billy Crystal's 700 Sundays, The Darrell
Hammond Project and Alice Chan (La Jolla Playhouse); The Third Story
(MCC Theatre); The Rocky Horror Show (Cygnet Theatre); Invierno (PCPA
Theatrefest); Long Story Short (San Diego Rep); Dracula and A Christmas
Carol, for which he won Patte Awards, Baby, The 25th Annual Putnam
County Spelling Bee, Jaques Brel Is Alive and Well..., The Tempest,
Educating Rita, Henry IV Part I and Voice of the Prairie (North Coast
Rep); Das Barbecü, Too Old for the Chorus and Forbidden Broadway
SVU (Theater in Old Town); Sweeney Todd, My Fair Lady, The Wizard
of Oz (SD Critics Circle Award), Les Misérables, Little Shop of Horrors,
Shrek The Musical (Moonlight Stage Productions); South Pacific (Lamb's
Players). Education: B.A. in Theatre from UCLA and an M.F.A. in Theatre
from UC San Diego.
CHARLES G. LaPOINTE, Wig Designer
La Jolla Playhouse: Blueprints to Freedom, The Hunchback of Notre
Dame, Chasing the Song, Side Show, Sideways, His Girl Friday, Yoshimi
Battles the Pink Robots, A Dram of Drummhicit, Peer Gynt, Bonnie &
Clyde and Memphis. Over 50 Broadway shows including The Wiz Live!,
On Your Feet, Doctor Zhivago, Hamilton, Spongebob The Musical, The
Color Purple 2016 Revival, Anastasia, Of Mice and Men, Violet, Side
Show, Elephant Man, The Radio City Spring Spectacular, After Midnight,
Beautiful, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, Motown, Jekyll and
Hyde, Clybourne Park, Bring It On, Newsies, The Mountaintop, Memphis,
Lombardi, Fences, Miracle Worker, Superior Donuts, 33 Variations, In the
Heights, Jersey Boys, The Color Purple and A Raisin in the Sun.
TARA KNIGHT, Projection Designer
La Jolla Playhouse: A Dram of Drummhicit, Our Star Will Die Alone
(2013 Without Walls Festival). Dance: The Floating World (San Diego
Museum of Art, Emmy Award); Camera Dances (Co-Director, Best
Experimental Film, Amsterdam Film Festival); Right Here (Co-Director,
Screenings: Finland, Portugal, Brazil). Animation: Hedwig and the
Angry Inch (Animation Assistant). High Tide (Director, Best Animation,
Amsterdam Film Festival); Mikumentary Series (Director, Screenings:
Discovery Channel, South by Southwest Interactive, Time Warner “Future
of Storytelling,” Mori Art Museum in Tokyo). Tours: 2014 Hatsune Miku
Expo (Hammerstein Ballroom, Late Night with David Letterman, Nokia
Theatre). Associate Professor of Digital Media, UC San Diego.
WAYNE BARKER, Composer/Piano Player
La Jolla Playhouse: Peter and the Starcatchers, A Midsummer Night's
Dream (orchestrations). Broadway: Peter and the Starcatcher (Tony
nomination, Drama Desk Award), Dame Edna: Back with a Vengeance.
Off-Broadway: Parallel Exit's I Love Bob, Basil Twist's Sisters’ Follies.
Regional: The Great Gatsby, The Primrose Path (Guthrie); Twelfth Night,
The Three Musketeers (Seattle Rep); Laugh (Studio Theatre). Songs heard
in: HBO Family's A Little Curious, 2006 Commonwealth Games, 75th
Royal Command Performance and Dame Edna's Farewell Tours. Recent
performance credits include A Confederacy of Dunces (Huntington);
Souvenir (Portland Stage). Toured with Barry Humphries 2000-2006;
performed 1988-1994 with Chicago City Limits in NYC.
EVA BARNES, Voice and Speech Coach
La Jolla Playhouse: Ether Dome, Chasing the Song, Sideways, His Girl
Friday, A Dram of Drummhicit, Jersey Boys, Xanadu, Carmen, Restoration,
Zhivago, Palm Beach, The Third Story, The Scottish Play, The Love of
Three Oranges, Tartuffe, The Adoration of the Old Woman, The Model
Apartment and Our Town. Other theatres: Mark Taper, Ahmanson Theatre
(Romeo and Juliet, directed by Sir Peter Hall), Arena Stage, Shakespeare
Theatre, D.C., McCarter Theatre, Public Theater and San Diego Rep.
She also coached Anna Deavere Smith’s House Arrest and Twilight: Los
Angeles, 1992 (Broadway and PBS film). Film: Big Night. Ms. Barnes is on
the Acting Faculty at UC San Diego.
SHIRLEY FISHMAN, Dramaturg
During fifteen years at La Jolla Playhouse, Ms. Fishman has worked on
such plays and musicals as Indecent, Healing Wars, Come From Away,
The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Chasing the Song, Ether Dome, Side
Show, Sideways, Glengarry Glen Ross, An Iliad, Hands on a Hardbody,
American Night, 2016 POP Tour Alice Chan and other projects in
development. During her five years at the Joseph Papp Public Theater
she dramaturged such projects as Jessica Hagedorn’s Dogeaters, Two
Sisters and a Piano by Nilo Cruz and Tina Landau’s Space, among others,
and was co-curator of the New Work Now! annual new play festival.
She serves as a Playwright’s Dramaturg for UC San Diego’s Wagner
New Play Festival and has been a dramaturg at Sundance Theatre
Lab, Denver Theatre Center, Magic Theatre, Native Voices at the Autry
and Playwrights Project, among others. She is an M.F.A. graduate of
Columbia University’s Theatre Theory/Criticism/Dramaturgy program.
(Continued on page 14)
P9
In 1892, Thomas Edison invented the Kinetoscope, the first
moving picture camera in the U.S., and very soon America
became obsessed with movies.
In the early days of its technology, film lengths were
under a minute long and without sound. As cameras
became more sophisticated, a reel of film ran 5-8 minutes;
eventually five-reels became a feature film. By the early
1900s, special effects, continuity of action over successive
shots and close-ups had been introduced. As films became
longer, writers were employed to simplify stories from
novels or plays into scenarios. In 1905, nickelodeons were
the first venues to show “moving pictures.” For the price
of a nickel, audiences saw the new invention; they were
hungry for more.
Soon films were being made all over the U.S., with the
center of filmmaking being New York City and its environs.
Most films were shot outdoors in daylight, but with the lack
of light during the harsh East Coast winters, the number
of films that could be made was limited. In 1908, Thomas
Edison established the Patent Trust Company, whose
members included the largest film companies, which
made production and distribution difficult for budding
filmmakers. They began to look to set up shop in other
cities. With guaranteed sunshine 350 days a year, Los
Angeles – with its cheap property, non-union labor and
varied landscapes – beckoned. By 1915, film production
in the Los Angeles/Hollywood area accounted for over
60% of all American filmmaking; five major film studios,
established by Jewish immigrants from Europe, generated
hundreds of films every year.
Motion picture people in Hollywood were known by the
locals as “movies.” With their high spirits and free-andeasy manner, the newcomers horrified many of the more
P10
staid residents who believed they were harming their
community. Others welcomed the “movies” because they
provided work for the locals. People began to gather at
shooting locations, hoping to be chosen to appear in a film
as an extra for a dollar a day.
The earliest studios were simply vacant lots with posts
around them and sheets of canvas to keep out the sun.
When buildings were eventually constructed on the
lots, there was no roof so that existing light could be
monitored. If it was raining, cameras would roll; the film
would be saved to use in other motion pictures. If a crew
was filming in a neighborhood and a fire broke out, it
would be filmed. Actors would sometimes be thrown
into the shot and later scenarios would be written to suit
the action. Producers would spot people on the street
or in shops and offer them jobs. By week’s end, a film
would be completed and sent on its way to an eagerly
waiting public.
During World War I, the demand for films as escapist
entertainment increased. Audiences clamored for more
complicated plots, multi-reel films, and information about
the actors. By 1910, actors began to receive screen credit
for their roles and news about them was in even more
demand. Photoplay, the first true movie fan magazine,
debuted in 1912 and contained interviews and gossip
about the stars’ careers and personal lives. All the articles
were controlled by the studios. Celebrity culture and the
studio star system had begun.
By the 1920s, Hollywood was shaping into a cultural
icon set apart from the rest of the country, a glamorous
landscape that attracted hopeful actors and actresses,
dazzled by a new American dream: film stardom and all
its accoutrements.
William Desmond Taylor and cast in Captain Alvarez (1914)
It was not all glamour. Stars were employees of the
studio and bound to them by contracts. After a screen
test, promising and attractive young actors would
be signed by a studio and transformed into stars by
building an image around them. In order to maintain
those images, the studios controlled what type of films
they appeared in and included morality clauses in their
contracts. Actors often felt ‘owned’ by the studios and
frustrated that they did not have the ability to choose
their own work or live freely without the specter of the
studio in their lives. In 1919, Charlie Chaplin, Mary
Pickford, D.W. Griffith and Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. created
their own studio, United Artists, in order to have more
creative and financial control over their careers.
The cultural shift that ushered in the Jazz Age was in
sharp contrast to the post-World War I issues that gripped
America: economic depression, prohibition laws, racial
violence, immigration, religion and morality. Forty million
Americans were going to the movies each week to
escape from the stress of their daily lives. They flocked
to see the likes of Greta Garbo and Rudolph Valentino
in steamy, sexy love stories, flappers in short dresses and
bobbed hair dancing across the screen, Douglas Fairbanks
swashbuckling his way through adventures, dazzling
spectacles like Cecil B. DeMille’s Ten Commandments with
a cast of thousands, and Fatty Arbuckle, Mabel Normand,
Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd and Buster Keaton in
slapstick comedies.
Fatty Arbuckle and Mabel Normand
was nephritis, but the newspapers insinuated suicide,
drug addiction and sexual impropriety. Fatty Arbuckle was
arrested in September, 1921 for the murder of a young
actress in his San Francisco hotel room during a night
of alleged debauchery. On February 1, 1922, director
William Desmond Taylor was murdered in his Hollywood
home, setting off a media frenzy. The ensuing public
outcry, fueled by conservative civic, religious, women’s
groups, newspapers and tabloids, shed a glaring light on
Hollywood from which it would not recover for decades.
The glitter of Hollywood has waxed and waned over the
years, but the dream factory continues to seduce as new
generations of filmmakers create their own films, fans make
their own stars and, as millions before them, enter into the
realm of illusion and wonder that is the movies.
D. W. Griffith (1915)
Charlie Chaplin with Jackie Coogan in The Kid (1921)
Behind the scenes, a spate of troubling events would
shake Hollywood to its core. In September 1920, popular
actress Olive Thomas, wife of actor Jack Pickford (brother
of America’s sweetheart Mary Pickford), died after
mistakenly swallowing poisonous tablets prescribed for her
husband’s medical condition. The official cause of death
P11
Charlotte Shelby, William Desmond Taylor
W
WHO WAS
William
illiam Desmond Taylor was
murdered on February
1, 1922 in an enclave
of Spanish-style bungalows in
the fashionable West Lake Park
District of Los Angeles, where
many affluent silent film artists
lived. Coming on the heels of
several scandals involving movie
stars – comic silent film star Fatty
Arbuckle’s arrest in connection with the death of a young
actress in his San Francisco hotel suite had occurred just
five months earlier – the veil of Hollywood glamour lifted
and the seamier side of its rich and famous was exposed.
Taylor’s murder unleashed a media frenzy that fed the
appetites of film fans and foes for years to come.
Desmond
Taylor?
Taylor was born William Cunningham Deane Tanner on
April 26, 1872 in Carlow, Ireland, grew up in Dublin and
traveled to the U.S. in 1890. He changed his name and
embarked on a number of adventurous occupations
– rancher in Kansas, New York antique dealer, gold
prospector in California and the Yukon, and actor with
a touring stage troupe. At the invitation of Hollywood
filmmaker Thomas Ince, who saw him on stage in San
Francisco, he arrived in Los Angeles in December 1912 to
appear in Ince’s westerns.
Taylor soon became part of the nascent silent film world,
appearing in 27 films, most notably Captain Alvarez and
The Kiss, both in 1914. That same year he was offered
a chance to direct his first film, The Awakening. With
his wealth of knowledge of art and literature, he soon
became the leading director of the Famous Players-Lasky
(Paramount) Studio. Between 1914 and 1922, Taylor
directed more than 50 films, including How Could You,
Jean? starring Mary Pickford (1918) and Huckleberry Finn
(1920). He was a three-term President of the Motion Picture
Directors Association, working diligently to remove drugs
William Desmond Taylor with Mary Miles Minter, Dick Jones
from the movie industry. With
a brief hiatus during World War
I, he left Hollywood to serve in
the Canadian army, returning to
his busy directing career in 1919
with Mary Miles Minter in Anne of
Green Gables.
Taylor was a well-liked and
respected member of the
movie industry. With his intelligence, sophistication and
gentlemanly manners, he was a sought-after guest at
Hollywood social gatherings. As news of the murder became
known, facts about Taylor’s hidden past began to emerge,
one being that he abandoned his wife and daughter after
an affair with a married woman. Lies, innuendo and rumors
about the case became indistinguishable from fact, and
all manner of fair reporting fell away. The public vilified
Hollywood’s immoral lifestyle, calling for regulation of
the industry. At the same time, it developed an insatiable
appetite for news about the case and its famous suspects
– Mary Miles Minter, Minter’s mother, Charlotte Shelby, and
Taylor’s friend Mabel Normand.
By the end of March, 1922, more than three hundred
people had confessed to Taylor’s murder. With a crime scene
contaminated by police blunders, interference by Paramount
studio heads, lack of evidence and no viable suspect, the
case was officially closed in the summer of 1938.
Photo of Mabel Normand on William Desmond Taylor’s desk
P12
ill Harrison Hays was born into a strict,
conservative Republican family in
Sullivan, Indiana, on November 5, 1879. He
grew up to be a non-smoking, non-drinking
Elder of the Presbyterian Church whose
sense of moral purpose stemmed from his
small town values and deep pride in Indiana’s
pioneer origins.
After graduating from Wabash College
in 1900, where he was recognized for his
exceptional oratory and public relations
skills, Hays was admitted to the bar, joined
his father’s law firm and soon after began his
career in Republican politics. He rapidly rose
through the ranks of the Party to become Republican National Chairman.
His abilities brought him to the attention of presidential candidate Warren
G. Harding. Hays was named Campaign Manager and became a political
star, raising enough money to finance the campaign, deftly crafting
Harding’s public image with savvy use of the media, and coalescing the
deeply-divided Republican Party into a historic landslide victory. In 1921,
Hays was named Postmaster General, but within a year he would leave
the hotbed of Washington politics for that of Hollywood.
With morality a divisive issue during the 1920s, a focal point of controversy
was Hollywood and its movies. Religious, civic and political groups
attacked the industry for what they considered their films' sordid content.
By 1922, the federal government and 36 states were considering enacting
censorship laws to reign in the studios. The media frenzy over several
scandals involving film stars was affecting box office, and banks began
to rescind their credit lines to the studios. Nervous about the growing
backlash, the industry decided to regulate itself and searched for someone
to assuage its adversaries and oversee the process. On January 14, 1922,
Hays became President of the newly-formed Motion Picture Producers and
Directors Association (MPPDA) at a salary of $100,000 a year.
Will H. Hays and the MPPDA came to an informal
agreement in 1922 on thirteen elements to be
avoided on screen, namely films that:
1. Dealt with sex in an improper manner;
2. Were based on white slavery;
3. Made vice attractive;
4. Exhibited nakedness;
5. Had prolonged passionate love scenes;
6. Were predominantly concerned with the
underworld;
7. Made gambling and drunkenness attractive;
8. Might instruct the weak in methods of
committing crime;
9. Ridiculed public officials;
10. Offended religious beliefs;
11. Emphasized violence;
12. Portrayed vulgar postures and gestures; and
13. Used salacious subtitles and advertising.
Operating on the principle that “no picture shall
be produced which will lower the moral standards
of those who see it,” the Hays Office drafted The
Production Code of 1930, that expanded on the
above stipulations. The code was agreed to by the
MPPDA in 1934, and it set the moral guidelines for
the motion picture industry until 1967, when it was
abandoned as unenforceable.
Within three months of taking office, Hays demonstrated his
organizational and public relations acumen by establishing relationships
with major banks, which resumed giving loans to the film industry.
He persuaded influential critics of the industry to drop their calls for
censorship, and organized the protesting religious, education and
political groups into committees that had input regarding film content.
Intent on improving Hollywood’s public image, morals clauses began to
appear in actors' contracts, giving studios power to terminate contracts
if actors were involved in scandals. By 1930 the Hays Office had created
the Production Code, which set forth what was morally acceptable on
screen. If a movie did not meet the code, it was not released. Rather than
face censorship, the movie industry accepted the code.
As the Great Depression took hold in the 1930s, attendance at films
again began to decline. In order to attract audiences, the studios
began to take liberties with the code, prompting a new backlash. Hays
continued to keep a vigilant eye on the film industry, mediating between
the studios and the public, until his retirement in 1945. He died of heart
failure on March 7, 1954, in his hometown of Sullivan, Indiana.
Cartoon from the Sacramento Bee, February 1922
P13
THE COMPANY
TELSEY & COMPANY, Casting
La Jolla Playhouse: Guards at the Taj, Blueprints to Freedom, Come
From Away, Chasing the Song, Hands on a Hardbody, Blood and Gifts,
Glengarry Glen Ross, Milk Like Sugar, Little Miss Sunshine, Limelight,
Bonnie & Clyde, 33 Variations and Memphis, among others. Broadway/
Tours: Paramour, Tuck Everlasting, Waitress, American Psycho, Fiddler on
the Roof, The Color Purple, On Your Feet!, Hamilton, Something Rotten!,
An American in Paris, Finding Neverland, The King and I, Kinky Boots,
Wicked, If/Then, The Sound of Music, Newsies, Motown, Rock of Ages.
Off-Broadway: Atlantic, MCC, Signature. Regional: Alliance, Goodman,
Hartford Stage, Long Wharf, New York Stage and Film, The Old Globe,
Paper Mill, Williamstown. Film: Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, Tallulah, The
Intern, Into the Woods. TV: The Family, Grease Live! The Wiz Live!, Flesh
and Bone, commercials.
ARTURO E. PORAZZI, Stage Manager
La Jolla Playhouse: Chasing the Song. Broadway: The Illusionists, First
Date, Memphis (2010 Tony Award for Best Musical), Xanadu, Chita Rivera:
The Dancer’s Life, Dessa Rose, Marie Christine, Triumph of Love, Victor/
Victoria, The Best Little Whorehouse Goes Public, Jelly’s Last Jam, Me
and My Girl, Singin’ in the Rain, The Three Musketeers, Zorba, Marilyn, an
American Fable, 42nd Street (original 1980 production and 2001 revival),
Angel, My Old Friends and Shenandoah. Other credits include corporate
communications and special events and television events for ABC-TV,
NBC-TV, NBC Universal, PBS, CBS-TV, Telemundo, FOX-TV and ESPN.
JENNIFER KOZUMPLIK, Assistant Stage Manager
La Jolla Playhouse: Miss You Like Hell DNA New Work Series workshop,
Come From Away, His Girl Friday, Blueprints to Freedom DNA Workshop.
Cygnet Theatre: Hay Fever, The Vortex, My Fair Lady, A Christmas
Carol, The Motherf**ker with the Hat, Maple and Vine, Travesties, The
Importance of Being Earnest, Gem of the Ocean, Man of la Mancha,
Dirty Blonde. San Diego REPertory Theatre: A Hammer, a Bell and a
Song to Sing; In the Wake; Superior Donuts; Culture Clash in AmeriCCA.
She received her B.A. in Theatre Arts from San Diego State University.
PLAYHOUSE LEADERSHIP
CHRISTOPHER ASHLEY, Playhouse Artistic Director
Please see Mr. Ashley’s bio on page 6.
MICHAEL S. ROSENBERG, Managing Director
has served as the Managing Director of La Jolla Playhouse
since April, 2009. Working in partnership with Artistic Director
Christopher Ashley, he has developed and produced new
work by Ayad Akhtar, Trey Anastasio, Amanda Green, Kirsten
Greenidge, Quiara Alegría Hudes, John Leguizamo, Herbert
Siguenza, Basil Twist, Doug Wright and The Flaming Lips. Playhouse
collaborations have included projects with UC San Diego, Museum of
Contemporary Art San Diego, The New Children’s Museum, San Diego
Rep, Tectonic Theatre Project, the I.D.E.A. District and the cities of
Escondido and Chula Vista. Previously, Mr. Rosenberg was Co-Founder
and Executive Director of Drama Dept., a New York non-profit theatre
company, where he produced new works by the likes of Douglas Carter
Beane, Warren Leight, Isaac Mizrahi, Paul Rudnick and David & Amy
Sedaris. His early work included stints at the Kennedy Center and the
National Dance Institute. Mike serves on the Boards of the San Diego
Regional Chamber of Commerce, NBC 7 San Diego Community Advisory
Board and the Theatre Communications Group – where he is on the
Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Committee and chairs the Global Theatre
Initiative Community. Follow him on Twitter: @MrMikeRosenberg.
P14
DEBBY BUCHHOLZ, General Manager
has served as general manager of La Jolla Playhouse since
2002. She is the Secretary of the League of Resident Theaters
(LORT) and a member of its Executive Committee. In 2009,
she received a San Diego Women Who Mean Business Award
from The San Diego Business Journal. Previously she served
as Counsel to The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and
the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C. She was a faculty
member of the Smithsonian Institution’s program on Legal Problems of
Museum Administration. Prior to The Kennedy Center, she served as a
corporate attorney in New York City and Washington, D.C. She is a graduate
of UC San Diego and Harvard Law School. Ms. Buchholz and her husband,
noted author and White House economic policy advisor Todd Buchholz, live
in Solana Beach and are the proud parents of Victoria, Katherine and Alexia.
DES McANUFF, Director Emeritus
served as La Jolla Playhouse’s Artistic Director from 1983
through 1994, and from 2001 through April, 2007. Under
his leadership, the Playhouse garnered more than 300
awards, including the Tony Award for Outstanding Regional
Theatre. Playhouse to Broadway credits: Jersey Boys (four
Tony Awards); Billy Crystal’s 700 Sundays (Tony Award); How to Succeed
in Business Without Really Trying (five Tony nominations); director and
co-author with Pete Townshend on The Who’s Tommy (Tony and Olivier
Awards for Best Director) and Big River (seven Tony Awards), among
others. Film credits: Quills, The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle, The
Iron Giant (9 Animation Society awards) and Cousin Bette. Recipient of
the Drama League’s 2006 Julia Hansen Award, Mr. McAnuff served as
Artistic Director at Canada’s Stratford Festival from 2007 through 2012.
He recently directed the hit productions of Sideways, Yoshimi Battles the
Pink Robots and Jesus Christ Superstar at the Playhouse.