'Taking Over' and 'Wishful Drinking' Add Tour Dates and Locations

Today Tony Taccone, artistic director of Berkeley Repertory Theatre, announced additional dates for two solo shows that he staged in Berkeley before launching them on tours across the continent. Danny Hoch’s Taking Over had its world premiere at Berkeley Rep in January and hit it big in Montreal this July; next week it starts an All City Tour featuring free performances in Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx in addition to previously announced dates in Manhattan and Los Angeles. Moreover, after a record-breaking run in Berkeley last winter, Carrie Fisher’s Wishful Drinking careened through Hartford, San Jose, Santa Fe, and Washington, DC this summer; now it adds Seattle to a list of upcoming destinations that also includes Boston.

“The reaction from audiences and critics alike to these shows has been intensely gratifying,” Taccone remarks. “I'm glad that people from all over the country have been able to enjoy the work and that together with plays like Bridge & Tunnel, Brundibar, Eurydice, and Passing Strange we are creating an artistic dialogue beyond the boundaries of our local community.”

The new dates for Taking Over are part of the Hip-Hop Theatre Festival, which Hoch founded in 2000. The full schedule is as follows:

NEW: Reserve your free tickets now!
The Bronx: October 1 - 4, 2008
Hostos Center for Arts & Culture / 450 Grand Concourse @ 149th Street / 718.518.4455 / hhtf.org

NEW: Reserve your free tickets now!
Queens: October 6 - 10, 2008
LaGuardia Performing Arts Center / 31-10 Thomson Ave, Long Island City / 718.482.5151 / hhtf.org

NEW: Reserve your free tickets now!
Brooklyn: October 11, 2008
Grand Street Campus Auditorium / 850 Grand Street / 718.497.4282 / hhtf.org

Manhattan: November 6 – December 28, 2008
The Public Theater / 425 Lafayette St / 212.967.7555 / publictheater.org

Los Angeles: January 21 – February 22, 2009
Kirk Douglas Theatre / 135 North Grand Ave / 213.628.2772 / centertheatregroup.org

Meanwhile, Carrie Fisher keeps on Drinking for sold-out houses in these cities:

Washington, DC: September 5 - 28, 2008
Arena Stage at the Lincoln Theatre / 1215 U St / 202.488.3300 / arenastage.org

Boston, MA: October 13 - 26, 2008
Huntington Theatre Company / 264 Huntington Ave / 617.266.0800 / huntingtontheatre.org

NEW! Seattle, WA: April 2 – May 3, 2009
Seattle Repertory Theatre / 155 Mercer Street / 206.443.2222 / seattlerep.org

ABOUT BERKELEY REP

Taking Over is the third work Taccone has brought to Manhattan in as many years and the fifth for Berkeley Rep in that period. In fact, the Theatre helped send 16 shows to New York in the last 21 years. Beginning with Hard Times in 1987, this string of successes includes Philip Kan Gotanda’s Yankee Dawg You Die (1989); José Rivera’s Each Day Dies with Sleep (1990); Craig Lucas’ Prelude to a Kiss (1990); Laurence Yep’s Dragonwings (1992); Heather MacDonald’s Dream of a Common Language (1992); Gotanda’s Ballad of Yachiyo (1997); Anne Galjour’s Alligator Tales (1997); Hoch’s Jails, Hospitals & Hip-Hop (1998); Mary Zimmerman’s Metamorphoses (1999); Naomi Iizuka’s 36 Views (2002); Tony Kushner and Maurice Sendak’s Brundibar (2006); Sarah Jones’ Bridge & Tunnel (2006); Sarah Ruhl’s Eurydice (2007); and Stew’s Passing Strange (2007). “It is a striking body of work, a reminder of the importance of regional theaters,” the New York Times noted in a recent feature. “Berkeley Rep has a tradition of playing host to formidable talents before their big breaks [and] the company continues to pride itself on producing provocative, often overtly political theatre, the kind that generates loud and clamorous debate.”

 

Born in a storefront, Berkeley Rep has moved to the forefront of American theatre. Founded in 1968 by Michael Leibert, the Theatre quickly earned respect for presenting the finest plays with top-flight actors. In 1980, with the support of the local community, Berkeley Rep built the 400-seat Thrust Stage where its reputation steadily grew over the next two decades. It gained renown for an adventurous combination of work, presenting important new dramatic voices alongside refreshing adaptations of seldom-seen classics. In recognition of its place on the national stage, Berkeley Rep was honored with the Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre in 1997. The company celebrated by unveiling a new 600-seat proscenium stage in 2001, the state-of-the-art Roda Theatre. It also opened the Berkeley Rep School of Theatre, the permanent home for its tradition of outreach and education programs. The addition of these two buildings transformed a single stage into a vital and versatile performing arts complex, the linchpin of a bustling Downtown Arts District which has helped revitalize Berkeley. In four decades, four million people have enjoyed 300 shows at Berkeley Rep, including 50 world premieres. The Theatre now welcomes an annual audience of 180,000, serves 20,000 students, and hosts dozens of community groups, thanks to 1,000 volunteers and more than 400 artists, artisans, and administrators.

Tony Taccone is in his 12th year as artistic director of Berkeley Rep, where he has staged more than 35 shows – including world premieres by Culture Clash, Rinde Eckert, David Edgar, Danny Hoch, Geoff Hoyle, Quincy Long, and Itamar Moses. Taccone made his Broadway debut with Bridge & Tunnel, which was lauded by the critics and won a Tony Award for its star, Sarah Jones. He commissioned Tony Kushner’s legendary Angels in America, co-directed its world premiere at the Mark Taper Forum, and has collaborated with Kushner on six projects. Their latest piece, Brundibar, featured designs by beloved children’s author Maurice Sendak: it debuted at Berkeley Rep and then traveled to Yale Repertory Theatre in New Haven and the New Victory Theatre in New York City, where it sold out its run and was nominated for two Drama Desk Awards. In 2004, his production of David Edgar’s Continental Divide transferred to the Barbican in London after playing the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Berkeley Rep, La Jolla Playhouse, and England’s Birmingham Rep. Taccone often works in Ashland, where he has also directed Coriolanus, Othello, Pentecost, and the American premiere of Seamus Heaney’s The Cure at Troy. His other regional credits include Actors Theatre of Louisville, Arizona Repertory Theatre, San Jose Repertory Theatre, Seattle Repertory Theatre, and Yale Repertory Theatre, as well as San Francisco’s Eureka Theatre where he served six years as artistic director before coming to Berkeley Rep.

ABOUT TAKING OVER

In Taking Over, Danny Hoch captures the indelible characters of his New York neighborhood, where the melting pot is boiling over with ethnic and economic tensions. He transforms effortlessly across the boundaries of race, age, and gender, masterfully depicting a city in transition with comical and compassionate results. “The gentrification of his native Brooklyn provides a terrific focus for Danny Hoch’s patented brand of multi-character, multi-ethnic solo theater,” Variety declares. “Hoch and Taccone have every gesture and beat tuned to perfection.”

Danny Hoch is the creator of Jails, Hospitals & Hip-Hop; Pot Melting; Some People; and Till the Break of Dawn. His work has toured to 50 U.S. cities and 15 countries, earning him numerous awards including two Obies, a Guggenheim Fellowship, an NEA Solo Theatre Fellowship, a Tennessee Williams Fellowship, and the CalArts/Alpert Award in Theatre. A senior fellow at the New School’s Vera List Center for Art and Politics, his writings on hip-hop, race, and class have appeared in American Theatre, Harper’s, The Nation, the New York Times, the Village Voice, and several books: Creating Your Own Monologue, Extreme Exposure, Out of Character, and Total Chaos. Danny’s film and television credits include American Splendor, Bamboozled, Blackhawk Down, HBO’s Def Poetry, Lucky You, Prison Song, Subway Stories, Thin Red Line, War of the Worlds, Washington Heights, We Own the Night, and Whiteboys. In 2000, Hoch founded the Hip-Hop Theater Festival, which has presented over 100 hip-hop generation plays and appears annually in Chicago, New York, San Francisco, and Washington, DC. As a director, his work includes the bilingual Representa for the San Francisco International Arts Festival at La Peña Cultural Center and Will Power's hit show Flow at the New York Theatre Workshop, which was named one of the Top 10 Plays of 2003 by the New York Times.

Taking Over features designs from Annie Smart (scenic design / costume design), Alexander V. Nichols (lighting design), and Asa Taccone and Drew Campbell (composers). Berkeley Rep’s production stage manager, Michael Suenkel, accompanies the show on the road.

The All City Tour is presented by the Hip-Hop Theater Festival and The Public Theater in association with Hostos Center for Arts and Culture, LaGuardia Performaing Arts Center, El Puente, and Sekka Scher. Founded in 2000, the Hip-Hop Theater Festival continues to invigorate the fields of theatre and hip-hop by nurturing the creation of innovative work within the hip-hop aesthetic, presenting and touring American and international artists whose work addresses the issues relevant to the hip-hop generation, and serving young, urban communities through outreach and education that celebrates contemporary language and culture. In each of its Festival cities, Chicago, New York, San Francisco, and Washington, DC, HHTF presents live events created by artists who stretch, invent, and combine a variety of theatrical forms, including theatre, dance, spoken word and live music sampling. Through open submissions and aggressive curating, both nationally and internationally, HHTF is fully dedicated to finding, developing, and introducing new artistic creations from a diversity of cultures and points of view. An ongoing goal of HHTF is to encourage the manifestation of hip-hop theatre as a recognized genre by commissioning and developing new work and helping artists build coalitions, collaborations, and networks throughout the United States and the world. HHTF also strives to bring new, younger audiences to the theatre in large numbers in an effort to ensure the future of live performance. To this end, HHTF is steadfast in presenting work that is accessible to everyone, regardless of race, class, age or gender. And through a creative mix of traditional marketing techniques and guerilla tactics, the Festival has enjoyed sold-out houses and educational workshops filled to capacity.

ABOUT Wishful Drinking

Carrie Fisher is the life of the party in Wishful Drinking. Onstage, she recounts a true and intoxicating story with the same strong, wry wit that she poured into bestsellers like Postcards from the Edge. Born to celebrity parents, Fisher lands among the stars when she’s picked to play a princess in a little movie called Star Wars. But it isn’t all sweetness and light sabers. As a single mom, she also battles addiction, depression, mental institutions, and that awful hyperspace hairdo. The Wall Street Journal raves, “Princess Leia has recycled her nightmarish life yet again, this time putting it onstage in the form of an exceedingly clever one-woman show. [She’s] drop-dead funny about a string of personal crises so horrific that the only alternative to laughing at them is slashing your wrists in sympathy.”

Carrie Fisher has been a compelling force in the film industry since her feature film debut opposite Warren Beatty in the 1975 hit Shampoo. The daughter of Eddie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds, she became a cultural icon when she played Princess Leia in the original Star Wars trilogy. Her star-studded career includes roles in countless films such as Austin Powers, The Blues Brothers, The Burbs, Charlie’s Angels, Garbo Talks, Hannah and her Sisters, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, The Man with One Red Shoe, Scream 3, This is My Life, When Harry Met Sally, and Wonderland. Her next films – Fanboys, White Lightnin’, and the remake of The Women – will be released this year. In 1987, Fisher’s book, Postcards from the Edge, leapt onto the New York Times’ bestseller list and netted her the Los Angeles Pen Award for Best First Novel. Three more bestsellers followed: The Best Awful, Delusions of Grandma, and Surrender the Pink. Fisher turned Postcards into a screenplay for the hit film starring Shirley MacLaine and Meryl Streep, and is currently adapting The Best Awful for HBO with producers Bruce Cohen and Dan Jinks. Her writing has also appeared in Details, Harper’s Bazaar, the New York Times, Travel & Leisure, Vogue, and many other major publications. Fisher’s television credits range all the way from Laverne and Shirley to Sex in the City, with recent appearances on popular programs such as 30 Rock and Weeds. Her experiences with addiction and bipolar disorder – and her willingness to speak honestly about them – have made her a sought after speaker and respected advocate for these communities.

Jonathan Reinis is the producer of over 150 plays, musicals, and dance performances including the Broadway productions of Jerry Springer: The Opera with Harvey Keitel at Carnegie Hall (2008), How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2006-2007), Kiki and Herb: Alive on Broadway (Tony nomination 2006), Dame Edna (Tony Award 2000), Russell Simmons’s Def Poetry Jam (Tony Award 2003), Bill Maher: Victory Begins at Home (Tony nomination 2003), and It Ain’t Nothin’ But the Blues (Tony nomination 1999). His off-Broadway credits include Room Service, Marga Gomez’s Los Big Names, Josh Kornbluth’s Love & Taxes, and Shay Duffin as Brendan Behan. Bay Area touring productions include Carrie Fisher at Berkeley Rep; Eve Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues; Josh Kornbluth’s Ben Franklin: Unplugged; Sam Shepard’s The Late Henry Moss with Sean Penn, Woody Harrelson, Nick Nolte, and Cheech Marin; Dame Edna; Ennio; His Way; Sandra Bernhardt; John Leguizamo’s premiere of Freak; Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde; and the national tours of Forever Tango, The Piano Lesson, and Steve Martin’s Picasso at the Lapin Agile. Reinis built and operated Theatre on the Square in downtown San Francisco for more than 20 years (1981-2002). His San Francisco shows include Talley’s Folly, Jeffrey, Irving Berlin in Revue, Bubbe Meises, The Kathy and Mo Show, Shirley Valentine, Love Letters, Mass Appeal, Nehemiah Persoff as Sholem Aleichem, Biloxi Blues, I’m Not Rappaport, Curse of the Werewolf, and Phantom of the Opera by Ken Hill. He also presented Stomp, Riverdance – The Show, Fame: The Musical, and the national tours of Dirty Blonde and Guys and Dolls. Reinis is a member of the Broadway League and ATPAM.

Two talented designers are also on the wagon for Wishful Drinking: Alexander V. Nichols (scenic design / lighting design / projections) and Christina Wright (costume design). The stage manager for the national tour is Daniel Kells.

Photo Credit Kevin Berne

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