Custom Made Theatre Co. to Premiere SAM & DEDE, 2/11-3/5

Custom Made Theatre Co. Stages World Premiere of Gino Dilorio's "Sam and Dede, or My Dinner with Andre the Giant," Feb 11 - Mar 5.

Dilorio imagines a lifelong friendship between Samuel Beckett and the boy who would become the world's best known wrestler. Based on a true event, Sam and Dede creates a world as absurd as a Beckett play itself.

San Francisco. January 25, 2016. It's a totally true story: 12-year old Andre the Giant, already over 6 feet tall and 240 pounds, didn't fit on the school bus. Andre's neighbor, as repayment of a favor, offered to drive Andre to school in his truck. The neighbor was Samuel Beckett. Sam and Dede, or My Dinner with Andre the Giant, imagines a series of scenes between a giant - a man who cannot hide, and a writer obsessed with silence. Dilorio fashions a world as absurd as a Beckett play itself.

Directed by Leah S. Abrams. With Dave Sikula as Samuel Beckett and Robert Shepard as Andre the Giant. Custom Made Theatre, 533 Sutter Street, San Francisco, 94102. February 11-March 5.

Wrestling fans remember Andre the Giant as a great showman, athlete, and a man with a heart big enough to match his outsized body. Filmgoers remember him as the very large sidekick in the iconic The Princess Bride. Playwright Gino Dilorio thinks of him, first and foremost, as the kid Samuel Beckett befriended. Dilorio fashions a tale about an unlikely duo - a comic absurdity that plays out in Beckett-inspired rhythm.

Director Leah S. Abrams says, "I've been rather obsessed with Sam and Dede since it was just an idea the playwright shared with us. The play, like Beckett's work, is a piece of music. The first person I watched masterfully direct a Beckett play was an orchestra conductor, and that style is inherent in DiIorio's script. Sam and Dede has a series of movements, as we have been calling them in rehearsal, with the last being the ultimate pay-off and tying together the worlds of these two larger-than-life characters. It is a funny and insightful work - the characters bring out the thoughtful and playful in one another.

"Sam and Dede was the first play presented as part of our NYC reading series and I've been fortunate to direct a few readings of it as the script has evolved, both in New York and here in San Francisco. This world premiere is exactly what we'd hoped would come of this cross-country exchange. It's also the first script we submitted as an NNPN associate member for their annual new play showcase where it was a finalist; NJ Rep, an NNPN core member, is slated to produce it in 2017. I feel like we've had a hand in giving the piece some momentum - it's always exciting when other theatres and audiences discover something you've helped introduce."

Custom Made Theatre Company brings in a top creative team to realize this World Premiere production - Jon Bailey, Beth Hall, Brooke Jennings, Maxx Kurzunski, Erik LaDue, Stewart Lyle, Florence McCafferty, Kitty Torres, and Ryan Lee Short.

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