DEAD MAN'S CELL PHONE Rings Up Long Beach Playhouse

An incessantly ringing cell phone disturbs a woman sitting at a café table. She is furious at the owner for not picking up the call, until she discovers he's dead. So begins Dead Man's Cell Phone, a wildly imaginative new dramatic comedy written by Sarah Ruhl.

"Sarah Ruhl is one of my favorite contemporary playwrights," said Madison Mooney, Executive Director for the Long Beach Playhouse. "She's an astute observer of humanity with a knack for uncovering what's just beneath the surface in situations, and then making it hilarious.

"One reviewer described her plays as 'buoyantly surreal stories moored by cosmically serious themes.' In Dead Man's Cell Phone the lead character, Jean, confronts her assumptions about death, morality, redemption, and the need to connect in a technologically obsessed world."

The show's story is perfect for the upstairs theatre both for its traditional proscenium stage and its audience's affection for less traditional fare. In 2014, another play by Ruhl, In the Next Room, or the Vibrator Play was a hit with the Studio Theatre's audience. It sold out nearly all its performances.

For this show Sean Gray Sean Gray, Playhouse Producing Artistic Director and Larry Mura, Assistant Technical Director are busy concocting the multiple scene changes that move the story along. The play opens in a café, from there, the set morphs into a funeral home, a house, a stationery store, an airport and, ultimately, a back yard.
Kathy Paladino is the director and this is her debut at the Playhouse. "Although Kathy is new to the Playhouse, she is well-known to most of us for her work in other theaters in the area" said Gray. "With 11 actors, it's a good sized cast. And a good mix of returning and debuting actors."

The returning actors are Latonya Kitchen, David Vailancourt, Hayley Jackson and Cody Aaron Hanify. Debuting actors are: Noelle Howe, Tiffany Hall, Maurielle Pierson, Amber Villa, Marlene Galan-Woods, Amanda Webb and Michelle Pederson.

"Sarah Ruhl asks us to ponder the tension between technology's ability to connect us and to divide us. She advises us to crack the oyster, use our imaginations and enjoy the journey," said Gray. "I think we've done that with this show."

Dead Man's Cell Phone opens on June 10 and runs through July 8. It contains adult language and content.

SPECIAL EVENTS FOR THIS PLAY:

• Pay what you can Thursday June 8- community can see this production for whatever they can afford
• Two for One Preview Friday June 9 - Tickets are $10.00
• Opening Night Champagne Reception with cast on June 10 - Tickets are $27.00

Ticket Pricing:
Friday: Adults are $20.00, Seniors $18.00, and Students $14.00Saturday and Sunday: Adults are $24.00, Seniors $21.00, and Students $14.00.

Tickets are available at www.lbplayhouse.org, or by calling 562-494-1014, option 1.
To request an interview with the director, cast members or reserve your media tickets to this performance, please send an email to: pr@lbplayhouse.org.

Long Beach Playhouse is located at 5021 E. Anaheim St., Long Beach, CA, 90804, right across from the Long Beach Recreation golf course. The Playhouse is community-supported theatre with programs and events that cut across age, gender, ethnic, and cultural boundaries.

Performances are 8 p.m. Friday, and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday. The box office is open Wednesday-Saturday from 3:00-8:00 pm and Sundays from 1:00-2:00 pm on scheduled matinees.

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