La Jolla Playhouse Closes Dostoevsky's NOTES FROM UNDERGROUND 10/17

La Jolla Playhouse presents the Yale Repertory Theatre production of Dostoevsky's Notes from Underground, adapted by RoBert Woodruff and Bill Camp, based on a translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, directed by RoBert Woodruff, running in the Sheila and Hughes Potiker Theatre September 17 - October 17 (media night: Friday, Sept 24 at 8:00 pm).

The cast features acclaimed actor Bill Camp as the Man, Merritt Janson as Liza/Musician and Michaël Attias as Apollon/Musician. The creative team includes RoBert Woodruff, co-adaptor/ director; Bill Camp, co-adaptor; David Zinn, scenic designer; Moria Sine Clinton, costume designer; Mark Barton, lighting designer; Michaël Attias, composer/sound designer; and Peter Nigrini, projection designer.

This haunting, compelling play, based on Fyodor Dostoevsky's (Crime and Punishment, The Brothers Karamazov) landmark 1864 novella, is brought to the stage in an astonishing adaptation by RoBert Woodruff, frequent Playhouse artist during the ‘80s and ‘90s and leading avant-garde director, and Obie Award-winning actor Bill Camp, who gives a tour-de-force performance as the Man. Having resigned his position as a civil servant to live in isolation, the Man holes up in a squalid office cluttered with discarded equipment and wet snow. Obsessively reliving old wounds and spurning any chance at affection, he begins a descent into madness that is at times heartbreakingly funny, at times disquieting, but always honest, searing and unforgettable. The Boston Globe hailed the production as a "brilliantly original and theatrical work of art."

Tickets for Notes from Underground are $31 - $66 and are available at The Playhouse Box Office: (858) 550-1010 or online at www.LaJollaPlayhouse.org.

Biographies
RoBert Woodruff (Co-Adaptor/Director) has directed numerous productions at La Jolla Playhouse (The Tempest, Figaro Gets a Divorce, Happy Days, La Petomane - A Comedy of Airs, A Man's a Man) and across the country, at such theatres as Lincoln Center Theater, The Public Theater, Brooklyn Academy Of Music, American Conservatory Theater, Guthrie Theater, Mark Taper Forum, among others. Recently, he directed Chair at Theatre for a New Audience, created Ifigeneia in Aulis with Toneelgroep Amsterdam, and completed Philip Glass's Appomattox for the San Francisco Opera. Internationally, his work has been seen at the Habimah National Theatre in Israel, Sydney Arts Festival, Los Angeles Olympic Arts Festival, Edinburgh International Festival, Hong Kong Festival of the Arts and Spoleto Festival USA. Mr. Woodruff has taught at the University of California campuses at San Diego and Santa Barbara, NYU's Tisch School of the Arts and Columbia University. He is currently on the faculty of Yale School of Drama. In 1972, he co-founded the Eureka Theatre in San Francisco, where he served as Artistic and Resident Director until 1978. In 1976, Mr. Woodruff established the Bay Area Playwrights Festival, a summer forum for the development of new plays that is still flourishing. From 2002 to 2007, Mr. Woodruff was the Artistic Director of American Repertory Theatre. He has been named a 2007 USA Biller Fellow by United States Artists, an arts advocacy foundation dedicated to the support and promotion of America's top living artists.
Bill Camp (Man/Co-Adaptor)'s credits include the Broadway productions of St. Joan, The Seagull, Jackie: An American Life, Heartbreak House, Coram Boy; and the Off-Broadway productions of Homebody/Kabul (OBIE Award), Lydie Breeze, The Demons, The Misanthrope, Beckett Shorts (New York Theatre Workshop), Macbeth, Measure for Measure (Theatre for a New Audience), One Flea Spare (The Public Theater) and Inferno (Jewish Rep). At American Repertory Theatre, he appeared in Henry IV, Parts I and II, Henry V, Picasso at the Lapin Agile, Long Day's Journey into Night (Elliot Norton Award), Richard II, The Provok'd Wife and Olly's Prison. Other U.S. credits include productions at Brooklyn Academy Of Music, Mark Taper Forum, Guthrie Theater, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Seattle Repertory Theatre, and Hartford Stage, among others. Television and film credits include Public Enemies, The Guitar, Deception, The Dying Gaul, Brotherhood, Law & Order, Joan of Arcadia and The Great Gatsby.

The nationally-acclaimed, Tony Award-winning La Jolla Playhouse is known for its tradition of creating the most exciting and adventurous new work in regional theatre. The Playhouse was founded in 1947 by Gregory Peck, Dorothy McGuire and Mel Ferrer, and is considered one of the most well-respected not-for-profit theatres in the country. Numerous Playhouse productions have moved to Broadway, including Big River, The Who's Tommy, Thoroughly Modern Millie, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, A Walk in the Woods, Dracula, Billy Crystal's 700 Sundays, the Pulitzer Prize-winning I Am My Own Wife, Jersey Boys, The Farnsworth Invention, 33 Variations and Memphis. Located on the UC San Diego campus, La Jolla Playhouse is made up of three primary performance spaces: the Mandell Weiss Theatre, the Mandell Weiss Forum Theatre, and the Joan and Irwin Jacobs Center for La Jolla Playhouse, a state-of-the-Art Theatre complex which features the Sheila and Hughes Potiker Theatre. La Jolla Playhouse is led by Artistic Director Christopher Ashley and Managing Director Michael S. Rosenberg.

Fact Sheet: Notes from Underground

WHAT: Notes from Underground
By Fyodor Dostoevsky
Adapted by RoBert Woodruff and Bill Camp
Based on a Translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky
Directed by RoBert Woodruff

WHEN: September 17 - October 17 (media night: Friday, September 24 at 8:00 pm)
Performances Tue/Wed at 7:30 pm; Thu/Fri/Sat at 8:00 pm; Sun at 7:00 pm
Matinees: Sat/Sun at 2:00 pm

WHERE: Sheila and Hughes Potiker Theatre

WHO: Director: RoBert Woodruff Composer/Sound Design: Michaël Attias
Scenic Design: David Zinn Costume Design: Moria Sine Clinton Lighting Design: Mark Barton Dramaturg: Shirley Fishman
Peter Nigrini, Projection Designer Stage Manager: Kris Longley-Postema

Cast: Bill Camp Man
Merritt Janson Liza/Musician
Michaël Attias Apollon/Musician

BACKGROUND:
This haunting, compelling play, based on Fyodor Dostoevsky's (Crime and Punishment, The Brothers Karamazov) landmark 1864 novella is brought to the stage in an astonishing adaptation by acclaimed director RoBert Woodruff and Obie Award-winning actor Bill Camp, who gives a tour-de-force performance as the Man. Having resigned his position as a civil servant to live in isolation, the Man holes up in a squalid office cluttered with discarded equipment and wet snow, ready to take vengeance on a corrupt world. Obsessively reliving old wounds and spurning any chance at affection, he begins a descent into madness that is at times heartbreakingly funny, at times disquieting, but always honest, searing and unforgettable.

Notes from Underground was commissioned by the Yale Center for New Theatre with the generous support of the Robina Foundation and had its world premiere at Yale Repertory Theatre in March 2009.

Please note: this production contains nudity, violence and strong language.

TICKETS: $31 - $66

BOX OFFICE: (858) 550-1010; www.lajollaplayhouse.org