The final slot in ATC's season will feature not one, but three award-winning plays running in repertory in the first RepFest. The three plays will be the Southwest premiere of Michael Healey's The Drawer Boy; The Origins of Happiness in Latin by Felix Pire, winner of the 2001 National Latino Playwriting Award; and the winner of the 2000 Tony Award for Best Play, Copenhagen by Michael Frayn. The underwriter for RepFest is APS.
RepFest will run from May 9 through May 25 at the Herberger Theater Center in downtown Phoenix.
Each play in the RepFest will be fully staged with its own director and cast. The RepFest design team has the challenge of designing unique sets, costumes, lights and sound for each production, while making it possible to stage all three plays in the same space and, on occasion, performed within hours of each other. On Saturday, April 24, it will be possible to see all three plays on the same day.
"Why three plays at once?" said ATC Artistic Director David Ira Goldstein. "Because, quite simply, the range of modern theatre is so diverse, so varied and so full of a variety of compelling voices. Because a mainstage season of six plays sometimes can't stretch its arms wide enough to serve the many diverse interests of our audience. Because the community of theatre-goers that share in our work over 175,000 a year deserve and demand a wide range of experiences. Because plays, like people, are in constant conversation with each other and grow richer through the friction between them."
The Drawer Boy won Canada's prestigious Governor General's Literary Award for Drama and has charmed audiences around the world with its quirky humor and compassion. Named as one of 2001's "Ten Best Plays" by Time Magazine, The Drawer Boy follows the efforts of a young actor from Toronto who visits a farm in rural Ontario to gather research material for an upcoming play. The farm is run by two elderly men, childhood friends and WWII veterans who harbor a mysterious secret that slowly reveals itself as the young actor incorporates their lives into his script-and his script into their lives. Art and memory conspire to coax a story out of his characters that is more touching and surprising than anything he could have invented. McLean's calls The Drawer Boy "sheer magica moving tribute to art's healing power." The underwriter for The Drawer Boy is The Gay and Lesbian Community of Arizona.
The Drawer Boy is directed by ATC's Associate Producer Andrew J. Traister, whose association with ATC goes back ten years when he directed the premiere production of Minor Demons in 1992. Since then he has directed Lips Together, Teeth Apart, A Perfect Ganesh and How the Other Half Loves for ATC. He has also directed at Old Globe Theatre, Virginia Stage Company, Oregon Repertory Theatre, Intiman Theatre, San Diego Repertory Theatre and Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Traister's cast includes Michael Goodwin (Morgan), who is making his ATC debut and will soon appear as Woodrow Wilson's Chief of Staff in the HBO film, Iron-Jawed Angels, starring Hillary Swank and Anjelica Huston; John Dennis Johnston (Angus), who returns to ATC having last appeared here in Minor Demons in 1992; and Christopher M. Williams (Miles), who made his ATC debut in A Moon for the Misbegotten earlier this season and who recently played Louis in Actors Theatre of Phoenix's critically acclaimed productions of Angels in America: Millennium Approaches and Perestroika. The stage manager for The Drawer Boy is John Kingsbury.
The world premiere of The Origins of Happiness in Latin is a one-man show that takes us to Miami in the 1980s with Felix Pire's funny, touching and poetic accounts of growing up in his lively, loud and loving Cuban-American family. Pire is a gifted storyteller who can transform even an average adolescent afternoon into a hilarious epic tale of love and loyalty. He turns a microscope onto life's ordinary episodes, like getting a haircut from his aunt or teasing his little brother, exposing the emotion and impact of everything having to do with the family.
Felix Pire makes his ATC debut with his play The Origins of Happiness In Latin, which won ATC's 2001 National Latino Playwriting Award. He was the winner of the 1997 New York Outer Critic's Circle Award for Outstanding Solo Performance for his role in Men on the Verge of a His-Panic Breakdown by Guillermo Reyes. He was nominated for Best Actor for the same role at the 1995 Los Angeles Ovation Awards. Directing The Origins of Happiness in Latin is David P. Saar, who is making his ATC directorial debut. He is a playwright and the Founder and Artistic Director of Childsplay in Tempe. He has directed and taught for Childsplay since the company was formed in 1977. In October 2002 he received the Alumni Recognition Award for Notable Achievement from ASU's Herberger College of Fine Arts. The stage manager for The Origins of Happiness in Latin is Robyn Waterman.
Copenhagen is a mystery, a thriller and a story of friendship, set in the shadow of the approaching nuclear age. One ominous night in 1941, the German scientist Werner Heisenberg pays a surprise visit to the Copenhagen home of his estranged friend Neils Bohr. Is it to give a warning, to ask for advice, or to beg forgiveness for his work on the atom bomb? The mysteries of history combine with the unknowable nature of the human heart to create one of the most talked-about Broadway hits of recent years. The New York Times called Copenhagen "the most invigorating and ingenious play of ideas in many a year. An electrifying work of art."
Copenhagen is directed by Stephen Wrentmore, who returns to ATC where he was the Staff Director with the Royal National Theatre's touring production of Hamlet, which he toured throughout the U.S. and Europe. He recently returned from Kosovo, where he worked on Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues. Other recent credits include The Country by Martin Crimp at the National Theatre in Belgrade, and Forgive Me Father for the Dublin Festival. Wrentmore's cast includes: Brian Dykstra (Werner Heisenberg), who is making his ATC debut, and who recently closed the world premiere run of his play, That Damn Dykstra (the boxed set); Jeanne Paulsen (Margrethe Bohr), who returns to ATC after having enthralled Arizona audiences with her portrayal of Josie in this season's production of A Moon for the Misbegotten, and who was nominated for a Tony Award for her performance in The Kentucky Cycle; and Ken Ruta (Niels Bohr), who first appeared at ATC twenty years ago as Astrov in Uncle Vanya, and has since appeared in ATC's productions of Galileo, Our Town, The Illusion, Shadowlands, and The Heiress, as well as directing Billy Bishop Goes to War, 'Night Mother, The Learned Ladies, The Real Thing, Goodbye Freddie and The Last Night of Ballyhoo. Mr. Ruta appeared in the Broadway productions of The Elephant Man, The Three Sisters, Duel of Angels, Ross, Separate Tables and Inherit the Wind, as well as touring nationally in Oscar Wilde: Diversion and Delights. The production stage manager for Copenhagen is Glenn Bruner.
The design team for ATC's RepFest includes Scott Weldin (Scenic Designer), who designed ATC's world premiere productions of Steven Dietz's Inventing van Gogh, Rocket Man, and Private Eyes as well as Side Man, How I Learned to Drive, 2 Pianos 4 Hands, and Proof, and who has designed over 200 productions for theatres around the country; Kish Finnegan (Costume Designer), who is ATC's costume design manager and whose ATC design credits include Fully Committed; 2 Pianos, 4 Hands; Art; Seamarks; Mascara and Valley Song; Rick Paulsen (Lighting Designer), whose lighting designs for ATC include Fully Committed, Inventing van Gogh, Master Class, Rocket Man, The Illusion, Private Eyes, Dancing at Lughnasa and Minor Demons; Brian Jerome Peterson (Sound Design), who is in his 17th season with ATC as resident sound designer; and Michael Koerner (Composer), who returns to ATC where he was music director for The Fantasticks, My Fair Lady and HMS Pinafore.
Tickets range from $26-$51 and are available at www.arizonatheatre.org or by calling the ATC box office at (602) 256-6995. Discounts are available for students, seniors and the military and anyone under the age of 25 may purchase tickets for just $10. (No discounts are available for tickets purchased online.) Half-price rush tickets are available for all performances one hour prior to curtain at the ATC Box Office (subject to availability). For group discounts call (602) 256-6899 x6114.
ATC will offer a Pay What You Can performance on Sunday, May 11 at 7 PM. A limited number of tickets will go on sale at the Herberger Theater Center one hour prior to the performance on the day of the performance and are limited to two tickets per order with a suggested donation of $5 per ticket.
ATC offers audio-described performances for patrons with visual impairments on Wednesday, May 14 at 8 PM (Copenhagen), Thursday, May 15 at 2 PM (The Drawer Boy) and Sunday, May 18 at 7 PM (The Origins of Happiness in Latin). Each performance will include a tactile tour one hour prior to curtain. Braille and large-print playbills are available upon request from the house manager.
American Sign Language-interpreted performances
are offered on Sunday, May 18 at 1 PM (The Drawer Boy),
Sunday, May 18 at 7 PM (The Origins of Happiness in Latin),
Wednesday, May 21 at 8 PM and Saturday, May 24 at 4PM (Copenhagen).
Patrons with hearing impairments will receive a biography of the
interpreters, a description of the play and name signs of each
character. Tickets for the audio-described and ASL-interpreted
performances are available through the ATC box office at 602-256-6995.
Patrons with hearing impairments may access the box office via
Arizona Relay at 800-367-8939 (TTY/ASCII).
PLACE: Herberger
Theater Center, 222 E. Monroe, downtown Phoenix
TICKETS: $26 - $51
Tickets are on sale at the ATC Box Office at 502 W. Roosevelt
and at www.arizonatheatre.org. Half-price adult Rush tickets
are available for all performances one-half hour prior to curtain
at the Herberger Box Office (subject to availability). To charge
tickets by phone, call the ATC Box Office at (602) 256-6995. Tickets
may be charged to MasterCard, VISA, American Express or Discover.
For group discounts call Jodie Snyder at (602) 256-6899.
The Drawer Boy
by Michael Healey
DIRECTION AND DESIGN:
Director Andrew J. Traister
Scenic Designer Scott Weldin
Costume Designer Kish Finnegan
Lighting Designer Rick Paulsen
Sound Designer Brian Jerome Peterson
Composer Michael Koerner
Stage Manager John Kingsbury
Asst. to the Stage Manager
Summer Star Martinez-Bonta
COMPANY:
Morgan Michael Goodwin
Angus John Dennis Johnston
Miles Christopher M. Williams
DATES: Thursday,
May 8 Preview 8pm $31-$43
Friday, May 9 Preview 8pm $31-$43
Sunday, May 11 Post Play Discussion/ 1pm $33-$45
Preview
Thursday, May 15 Audio Described 2pm $26-$35
Thursday, May 15 Opening 8pm $31-$43
Sunday, May 18 Post Play Discussion/ 1pm $33-$45
ASL Interpreted
Monday, May 19 8pm $31-$43
Thursday, May 22 Post Play Discussion 8pm $31-$43
Saturday, May 24 8pm $37-$51
The Origins of Happiness in Latin
by Felix Pire
DIRECTION AND DESIGN:
Director David P. Saar
Scenic Designer Scott Weldin
Costume Designer Kish Finnegan
Lighting Designer Rick Paulsen
Sound Designer Brian Jerome Peterson
Composer Michael Koerner
Stage Manager Robyn Waterman
COMPANY:
Himself and Others Felix Pire
DATES: Saturday,
May 10 Preview 8pm $37-$51
Sunday, May 11 Pay What You Can 7pm $31-$43
Friday, May 16 Opening 8pm $37-$51
Sunday, May 18 Audio Described/ 7pm $31-$43
ASL Interpreted
Tuesday, May 20 8pm $31-$43
Saturday, May 24 1pm $33-$45
Copenhagen
by Michael Frayn
DIRECTION AND DESIGN:
Director Stephen Wrentmore
Scenic Designer Scott Weldin
Costume Designer Kish Finnegan
Lighting Designer Rick Paulsen
Sound Designer Brian Jerome Peterson
Composer Michael Koerner
Stage Manager Glenn Bruner
Asst. to the Stage Manager
Summer Star Martinez-Bonta
COMPANY:
Werner Heisenberg Brian Dykstra
Margrethe Bohr Jeanne Paulsen
Niels Bohr Ken Ruta
DATES: Wednesday,
May 14 Preview / 8pm $31-$43
Audio Described
Saturday, May 17 Preview/ 2pm $33-$45
Singles Saturday
Saturday, May 17 Opening 8pm $37-$51
Wednesday, May 21 ASL Interpreted 8pm $31-$43
Friday, May 23 8pm $37-$51
Saturday, May 24 ASL Interpreted 4pm $33-$45
Sunday, May 25 1pm $33-$45
Sunday, May 25 7pm $31-$43