South Coast Repertory News

Geva Theatre Center's 2014 Fielding Studio Series continues with the National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere of I and You by Lauren Gunderson. This production comes to Geva from the Olney Theatre in Maryland and is directed by Eleanor Holdridge. I and You begins performances on April 10 and runs in the Fielding Nextstage through April 27.

Members of the Santa Ana community-and others-are invited to attend one or more staged readings of a new community-inspired play by Jose Cruz Gonzalez. The play-in-development is part of Dialogue/Dialogos, a creative partnership between South Coast Repertory (SCR) and Latino Health Access (LHA).

Pioneer Theatre Company presents Alabama Story, the third installment of PTC's new play reading series, called Play-By-Play. Alabama Story by Kenneth Jones runs April 4 and 5, 2014. PTC Artistic Director Karen Azenberg directs the production.

Award-winning musical theater superstar, Patti LuPone, who has portrayed some of Broadway's most memorable roles, returns to Segerstrom Center for the Arts for a special one-night-only performance of her latest concert, Far Away Places tonight, March 22 at 8 p.m. in the Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall.

Aurora Theatre continues the 2013-2014 Harvel Lab Series with a Teatro del Sol production, Mariela in the Desert by Karen Zacarias. It is 1950 and artists Mariela and Jose are living an isolated existence in the desert of Northern Mexico, haunted by the ghost of their young son. Jose is very ill and Mariela sends a telegram to their daughter encouraging her to come home. Where once the walls were beautifully decorated, now only one painting remains, and it is shrouded in mystery. This play will be performed in Spanish with English supertitles. This production features and amazing cast including the stunning Blanca Aguero in the title role of Mariela and Aurora Theatre Producing Artistic Director Anthony P. Rodriguez as her husband, the ailing artist Jose.

In small towns there are those who stay and those who go. With the return of a sibling, the daily routine of life is shaken up in South Coast Repertory's world premiere of Five Mile Lake by Rachel Bonds. Bonds' new drama is one of three full productions for the 2014 Pacific Playwrights Festival. The show runs April 13-May 4, on the Julianne Argyros Stage. Daniella Topol directs. Tickets are available online: www.scr.org.

The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts presents the West Coast premiere of A Coffin in Egypt, a new chamber opera in one act, based on the play, A Coffin in Egypt by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Horton Foote, for three performances only April 23, 25 and 27 in the Bram Goldsmith Theater. A Coffin in Egypt stars mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade, one of opera's most beloved figures, whose formidable bravura has won her wide acclaim. Ricky Ian Gordon, the composer, has also composed The Grapes of Wrath, Rappahannock County, and Orpheus and Euridice. Leonard Foglia, librettist and director, directed Master Class on Broadway and Jake Heggie's Opera Last Acts.

Segerstrom Center has announced that Shirley MacLaine, originally announced for Friday, September 19, will now appear on Saturday, September 20, 2014.

Disney's Aladdin, a new musical comedy based on the Academy Award-winning animated film, opens tomorrow night, March 20th. Produced by Disney Theatrical Productions, the show features music by Tony Award and eight-time Oscar winner Alan Menken (Beauty and the Beast, Newsies, Sister Act), lyrics by two-time Oscar winner Howard Ashman (Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid), three-time Tony Award and three-time Oscar winner Tim Rice (Evita, Aida) and two-time Tony Award nominee Chad Beguelin (The Wedding Singer), with a book by Beguelin, and is directed and choreographed by Tony Award winner Casey Nicholaw (The Book of Mormon). Scroll down to learn more about the full company, plus watch interviews with the cast!

Following their recent breakout success on America's Got Talent, receiving great accolades from the judges and audiences, Lightwire Theater brings its unique method of storytelling to light at Segerstrom Center for the Arts May 17 at 1:00pm and May 18 at 1:00pm and 3:30pm in Samueli Theater. The timeless tales of Hans Christian Andersen's The Ugly Duckling and Aesop's fable The Tortoise and the Hare meet modern day cutting-edge technology as a dark stage illuminates, bringing these beloved characters to life with the use of electroluminescent wire. Audiences will marvel at the stunning imagery, compelling choreography and stirring music.

The Pasadena Playhouse announced Bruce Davison, Sharon Lawrence and RoxAnne Hart to star in A SONG AT TWILIGHT by Noel Coward, the fifth production of its 2013 - 2014 Season. A SONG AT TWILIGHT is performed tonight, March 18 to April 13; the press opening is Sunday, March 23.

Segerstrom Center for the Arts welcomes the national tour of I LOVE LUCY® LIVE ON STAGE, the brand new hit stage show adapted from the most beloved program in television history, today, March 18 - 23 in Segerstrom Hall.

Carla Ching's comedy Fast Company, about a family of Asian American con artists on the trail of a million-dollar comic book, opens tonight (March 17) at 7:00pm for its New York premiere at the Ensemble Studio Theatre, 549 West 52nd Street.

The world-renowned Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis arrives at Segerstrom Center for the Arts tonight, March 14 at 7:30 p.m. in Segerstrom Hall.

With 'SECONDS', a Festival of Play Readings, Mixed Blood Artistic Director Jack Reuler has curated a 'can't miss' opportunity to catch a glimpse of what's hot in American theatre!

The third play in MALIBU PLAYHOUSE's 2013-2014 season will be The Vortex by Noel Coward, opening Friday, April 11, 2014. The play will be directed by Artistic Director Gene Franklin Smith and stars Shannon Holt and Craig Robert Young. Tickets are $30, and may be purchased through the box office, online at http://www.malibuplayhouse.org or by calling 323-960-7711. There will be previews on April 9th and 10th for $20. Shows are Fridays and Saturdays at 8 PM and Sundays at 3 PM. Malibu Playhouse is located at 29243 Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu, CA 90265 (near Zuma Beach, between Kanan-Dume Road and Morning View Drive, near Heathercliff Road).

What happens when an elderly patient with dementia goes missing in a northern Idaho blizzard, leaving his wife and others behind to face the unknown? The story is Rest, a heartbreakingly funny and tender play commissioned by South Coast Repertory from Samuel D. Hunter. SCR Founding Artistic Director Martin Benson directs the world premiere of Rest, March 28-April 27, on the Segerstrom Stage. The show is a cornerstone production of SCR's Pacific Playwrights Festival. Tickets are available online: www.scr.org.

Magic Theatre will welcome back one of Scotland's leading contemporary playwrights, Linda McLean, with the world premiere of Every Five Minutes, directed by Producing Artistic Director Loretta Greco. Every Five Minutes runs March 26 - April 20. Deemed 'a gritty, fiercely empathetic realist of great skill' (San Francisco Chronicle), McLean's new play celebrates the miraculous power of the human spirit. Every Five Minutes begins with a simple homecoming dinner that takes a fantastical turn as Mo slips into a dreamscape that even those closest to him can't imagine.

Theatre Exile closes its 17th season with the Philadelphia premiere of Annapurna, a moving and explosive new play by critically acclaimed, emerging Broadway playwright Sharr White. Driven by the emotionally charged relationship between a husband and wife, Exile's production stars Barrymore Award-winning actors Pearce Bunting (Exile's A Behanding in Spokane, HBO's Boardwalk Empire) and Catharine Slusar (Iron, Any Given Monday) as Ulysses and Emma. Performances run April 17 - May 11 in Theatre Exile's South Philadelphia Studio X.