Arizona Theatre Company is proud to present Work Song: Three Views of Frank Lloyd Wright, an epic and thrilling new play by Jeffrey Hatcher and Eric Simonson. Simonson will direct Work Song, a provocative play that chronicles famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright's life. To capture the complexity and contradictions of Wright's life and personality, Hatcher and Simonson created three one-act plays that each uses a different lens through which to view the legend, the architect and the man. Wright, a local icon who spent much of his later life at Taliesin West in Arizona, was not only a prolific designer of buildings but also fathered seven children with different women, suffered personal tragedy and stirred intense social controversy.
Work Song begins previews April 13, opens to the press on April 19 and runs through May 4 at the Temple of Music and Art in downtown Tucson. It will continue its run in Phoenix May 9-26 at the Herberger Theater Center. The production underwriters for Work Song are The Stonewall Foundation and Mary Jo Ghory, MD.
Work Song premiered last season at Milwaukee Repertory Theater, which commissioned the play with Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago. ATC's production, in partnership with Missouri Repertory Theatre, is only the second production of Work Song. The play will have special relevance to Arizona audiences since Wright made his winter home at Taliesin West in the Arizona desert, and many of his most famous buildings are located here.
Described as "elegant," "vigorous" and "breathtaking" by the Chicago Tribune, this epic play takes on Frank Lloyd Wright's uniquely American spirit with a dramatic design as exquisite as one of his buildings. The first act is mostly biographical, covering several years of Wright's young adulthood, his early career and relationships in Chicago, Oak Park, Illinois, and Spring Green, Wisconsin. The second act, a blend of fact and fantasy, takes place over the course of a few days at Taliesin in Spring Green, Wisconsin, Wright's summer home and the base for The Fellowship, the architectural apprentice program that he established in the early '30s. The third act, which is entirely fictional, takes place in one day as Wright, now an old man, visits a couple who live in the first house he designed in Oak Park and attempts to buy it back from them.
Eric Simonson, co-author and director of Work Song, created the Steppenwolf Theatre Company's New Plays Project, helping to develop such plays as Picasso at the Lapin Agile, which was produced at ATC in the 1998-99 season. His production of The Song of Jacob Zulu ran on Broadway where it received six Tony Award nominations, including one for Best Director. He directed Nomathemba, Hamlet, The Last Hurrah and Bang the Drum Slowly for the Huntington Theatre Company and productions at Steppenwolf Theatre, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, and various other theatres and opera companies. Simonson was nominated for a 2001 Academy Award for his first documentary film, On Tiptoe: Gentle Steps to Freedom.
Jeffrey Hatcher, co-author, has written adaptations of The Turn of the Screw and The Servant of Two Masters for Milwaukee Repertory Theater. His original plays and adaptations, including Three Viewings, Scotland Road, Complete Female Stage Beauty, What Corbin Knew, Hanging Lord Haw Haw and Smash, have been produced by many regional theatre companies including Yale Repertory Theatre, South Coast Repertory, Old Globe Theatre, Intiman Theatre, Portland Stage Company, The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis and Alabama Shakespeare Festival. Mr. Hatcher has received a Charles MacArthur Fellowship and numerous grants and awards from the American Theatre Critics Association.
Lee E. Ernst makes his ATC debut playing Frank Lloyd Wright, reprising the role he played last season to much praise at Milwaukee Repertory Theater, where he is a resident company member. His credits include the roles of George in Of Mice and Men, Hildy in The Front Page, Levin in Anna Karenina, Norman in The Norman Conquests and Rodrigues in Silence by Steven Dietz.
Returning to ATC are: Benjamin Stewart (Dan Burnham/Alexander Woollcott), who has made 43 appearances at ATC since his debut in 1978. His ATC credits include Blithe Spirit, Tartuffe, A Flea in Her Ear, The Rivals, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, You Can't Take It With You, Candide, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Boys Next Door, Amadeus, She Stoops to Conquer, Little Shop of Horrors and The Two Gentlemen of Verona. Mr. Stewart most recently appeared in A Christmas Carol at the Guthrie Theater.
Also returning to ATC in the roles of Mamah Cheney and Ayn Rand is Kate Goehring, who played L'il Bit in ATC's production of How I Learned to Drive. Goehring received Los Angeles Pride and Miami Corbonell awards for her portrayal of Harper in the national tour production of Angels in America. Her television credits include "ER," "March in the Windy City" for the BBC and "Moment of Rage" for which she received an Emmy nomination for Best Supporting Actress.
Wendy Robie (Anna Wright/Olgivanna Wright) last appeared at ATC in The Heidi Chronicles in 1992. She has appeared in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? at Phoenix Theatre, Mother Courage at Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Macbeth at Los Angeles Theatre Center and Les Liaisons Dangereuses and Little Foxes at Portland Repertory Theatre. Her film and television credits include The People Under the Stairs, Glimmer Man, "Twin Peaks," "Party of Five," "Baywatch" and "Quantum Leap."
Peter Silbert (Edwin Cheney/Otto Freundlich) returns to ATC where he played Van Helsing in Steven Dietz' Dracula and Frederick Fellowes in Noises Off. He has appeared in many productions at Milwaukee Repertory Theater, A Contemporary Theatre, Missouri Repertory Theatre and Seattle Repertory Theatre.
Rounding out the twenty-member cast and making their ATC debuts are Joshua Bevans (Riley/Reporter/Stout), Philip "Max" Blanchard (Tommy Cheney/John Brooks), Leon Addison Brown (Julian Carlton/Leelai), Sean Dougherty (George Brodelle/William Brooks/Farris/Wes Peters), John Hoogenakker (John Wright/Grant), Kirsten Potter (Catherine Wright/Britta/Carolyn Brooks) and Mark Robbins (Louis Sullivan/Overton). The ensemble includes Angelica Frost, Ravi Gahunia, Jennifer Elise Gould, Craig Howard, Steven Moore, Andrea Morales and Jeremy Thompson.
The design team for Work Song includes Kent Dorsey (Set Designer), Kärin Kopischke (Costume Design), Phil Monat (Lighting Designer), Barry G. Funderburg (Sound Design) and John Boesche (Projection Design).
Tickets range from $24-36 and are available
at www.arizonatheatre.org or by calling the ATC box office at
520-
622-2823. 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 on-line.)
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 520-884-8210.
ATC will offer a Pay What You Can performance on Tuesday, April 16 at 7:30 PM. A limited number of tickets will go on sale at the Temple of Music and Art at 10 AM on the day of the performance and are limited to two tickets per order with a suggested donation of $5.
ATC offers audio-described performance for patrons with visual impairments on Thursday, April 25 at 7:30 PM. and Wednesday, May 1 at 2 PM. 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 Thursday, April 25 at 7:30 PM and Saturday, April 27 at 8 PM. 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 (520) 622-2823. Patrons with hearing impairments may access the box office via Arizona Relay at 800-367-8939 (TTY/ASCII).
For ticket information regarding the Phoenix run of Work Song, call the ATC Box Office in Phoenix at (602) 256-6995.