Itzin and Smart Star in 'Boats on a River'

Gregory Itzin and Jean Smart star as an American expatriate and a British nun in the West Coast premiere of Julie Marie Myatt's Boats on a River.  L.A. Theatre Works records five performances April 9-13 at the Skirball Cultural Center to air on LATW's nationally syndicated, weekly radio theater series, "The Play's The Thing."

An exciting new play by an emerging American playwright, Boats on a River was commissioned by the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis.  The L.A. Theatre Works production is directed by Guthrie associate artist Michael Bigelow Dixon, who directed last year's world premiere in Minnesota.

"In Boats on a River, Myatt explores a subject no one wants to talk about: the child sex-slave industry.  The Los Angeles-based playwright made two trips to Cambodia to examine the issue of children enslaved in that country's thriving sex trade.  The result is a new drama imbued with remarkable humanity, insight and a complex perspective.

The play is set in an aftercare shelter in Phnom Penh, where American expatriate Sidney Webb and his British colleague, Sister Margaret, work long hours to rehabilitate children rescued from Cambodia's brothels.  Through their door races an eager young lawyer who announces that he's planned a surprise raid on a brothel, and that he intends to place the liberated girls under the shelter's care.  But the raid turns out to be a mess, and he returns with only three frightened girls in tow.  Played by young adult women in performance, the girls begin the arduous process of recovery under the concerned watch of the shelter workers.  The result is a poignant, smart and unflinching look at the world of sex-trafficking in Southeast Asia through the eyes of Western aid workers," press notes state.

Boats on a River was a finalist for the prestigious Susan Smith Blackburn Prize.

Smart and Itzin are both known for their Emmy-nominated roles as the President and First Lady on 24. Smart is known for her role as Charlene on Designing Women and has two Emmys for her role on Frasier. She last appeared on Broadway in The Man Who Came to Dinner and can currently be seen as Christina Applegate's mother on Samantha Who? on ABC. Itzin received training at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco before receiving Tony and Drama Desk nods for his role in The Kentucky Cycle.
 
For three decades, L.A. Theatre Works has been the leading radio theater company in the United States, committed to using innovative technologies to preserve and promote significant works of dramatic literature and bringing live theater into the homes of millions.  LATW's radio theater series, The Play's The Thing, airs weekly on 89.3 FM KPCC in Southern California; 89.7 WGBH in Boston; 91.5 FM WBEZ in Chicago; 94.9 KUOW in Seattle; 93.5 FM KRTS "Marfa Public Radio" in Texas; 90.5 FM KUT in Austin;88.9 FM KUNM in Albuquerque; 94.1 KPFA in Northern California; 91.1 FM KRCB in Sonoma County; 89.1 KUOR in Redlands; as well as on many other public radio stations nationwide and XM Satellite Radio.  Selected programs from LATW are also heard internationally over BBC World Service, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Radio Telefis Eirann (Ireland), Radio Hong Kong, and Radio New Zealand.  The L.A. Theatre Works Audio Theatre Collection is available in bookstores, libraries, through their catalog, digitally on itunes, overdrive.com, audible.com, and on the L.A. Theatre Works website at www.latw.org .

Performances of Boats on a River take place on Wednesday, April 9 at 8 pm; Thursday, April 10 at 8 pm; Friday, April 11 at 8 pm; Saturday, April 12 at 3 pm; and Sunday, April 13 at 4 pm.  Tickets range from $20.00 to $47.00.  The Skirball Cultural Center is located at 2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd, off the San Diego (405) Freeway in the Santa Monica Mountains (exit Skirball Center Drive).  For tickets and information, call the L.A. Theatre Works box office at (310) 827-0889 or go to www.latw.org.

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