Winnie Holzman and Paul Dooley Bring ONE OF YOUR BIGGEST FANS to George Street Playhouse, Now thru 2/23

By: Jan. 28, 2014
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What's in a name? Plenty - if it is the title of a new play. You want the title to capture your audience's imagination, yet also be reflective of the play itself. Often, like the words on the page, the title gets changed in the process as well. Such is the case with the third play in George Street Playhouse's 2013-14 season: Assisted Living by husband and wife team Paul Dooley and Winnie Holzman. The new title is now One of Your Biggest Fans. Mr. Dooley and Ms. Holzman will trod the boards in New Brunswick beginning today, January 28 through February 23 in the dual role of authors as well as actors. Noted director Larry Biederman will helm the production.

"One of Your Biggest Fans is touching, smart - and funny," said GSP Artistic Director David Saint. "Paul was such a delight in The Sunshine Boys and I am so pleased he is returning to George Street. Winnie is a good friend and I am thrilled to have them here at The Playhouse as both actors and playwrights."

One of Your Biggest Fans explores the surprising connections between four very different characters - Frank, a beloved soap opera star facing an uncertain future; Emily, his former makeup artist and longtime girlfriend; Edgar, a curmudgeon who feels abandoned in his assisted living facility; and Heather, Edgar's unfulfilled, unmarried daughter who is Frank's biggest fan. Holzman and Dooley's play (their first full length collaboration) is a funny and touching look at the ways we can change each other's lives - sometimes without even knowing it.

Creating the world of the play are Scenic Designer James Youmans (Broadway's West Side Story, The Nutcracker and I at GSP), costume designer Esther Arroyo (Clever Little Lies), and lighting designer David Lander (The Heiress on Broadway), original sound designer Bob Blackburn's design will be augmented with addition sound design by Ted Crimy.

Tickets beginning at $28 may be purchased at the George Street Playhouse Box Office, 732-246-7717, or through The Playhouse website: www.GSPonline.org. George Street Playhouse is located at 9 Livingston Avenue, in the very center of New Brunswick's vibrant downtown dining and entertainment scene. Visit GSPonline.org for information on dining, parking and directions.

Paul Dooley is one of America's most beloved character actors. Affectionately known as "America's Dad," his on screen kids have included Julia Roberts, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Molly Ringwald, Toni Collette, Christina Applegate, Robin Wright and many more. His extensive film credits include the coming-of-age classics Breaking Away, and Sixteen Candles, and the movie musicals Hairspray and Popeye. Dooley has received two Emmy nominations for his work as the out-of-the-closet father on HBO's Dream On and as the "take no prisoners" judge on The Practice. In addition, he has had recurring roles on many TV series, including ER, Grace Under Fire, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and My So-Called Life. Dooley's film work also includes Insomnia with Al Pacino, and Christopher Guest's Waiting for Guffman and A Mighty Wind.

Winnie Holzman, Dooley's wife, is best known as the co-writer (with famed composer Stephen Schwartz) of the international musical phenomenon Wicked, for which she was nominated for a Tony. She also created the memorable television drama, My So Called Life, starring Claire Danes, which earned Holzman an Emmy nomination. Recently, she teamed with her daughter, Savannah Dooley, to create ABC Family's critically acclaimed series, Huge. She got her start writing the groundbreaking series thirtysomething, and also executive produced (with Ed Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz) the award-winning drama series, Once and Again. As an actress, Holzman played the chocolate-obsessed divorced woman in Jerry Maguire and Larry David's wife's therapist on Curb Your Enthusiasm.

Larry Biederman has directed many critically acclaimed productions throughout Los Angeles, including The Autumn Garden (Antaeus); Big Death and Little Death (Road Theatre); No Mercy (24th Street Theatre) and Dark Rapture (Evidence Room). His world premiere productions include Farewell Miss Cotton (Black Dahlia); Crumble (Moving Arts) and Wirehead (Echo Theatre Co.), which earned seven LA Weekly Award nominations including Best Direction. Biederman came to L.A. after seven seasons at A.C.T. in San Francisco, where he directed and taught, as he did at many reputable training programs, from the Williamstown Theatre Festival to The Old Globe. He now teaches privately, and serves as Head of Directing at Cal State Northridge. Biederman served as an acting coach on Winnie Holzman and Savannah Dooley's series Huge and he directed Winnie and Paul in a presentation of their ten-minute play Post-Its at the Rogue Machine Theatre.

Under the leadership of Artistic Director David Saint, George Street Playhouse has become a nationally recognized theatre, presenting an acclaimed mainstage season while providing an artistic home for established and emerging theatre artists. Founded in 1974, The Playhouse has been well represented by numerous productions both on and off-Broadway - recent productions include the Outer Critics' Circle Best Musical Award-winner The Toxic Avenger, the Outer Critics Circle, Drama Desk and Drama League nominated production of The Spitfire Grill and the recent Broadway hit and Tony and Pulitzer Prize winning play Proof by David Auburn, which was developed at GSP during the 1999 Next Stage Series of new plays. In addition to its mainstage season, GSP's Touring Theatre features four issue-oriented productions that are seen by more than 40,000 students annually. George Street Playhouse programming is made possible in part by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts.



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