Jenny O'Hara Replaces Smart in 'River'
By: BWW News Desk Apr. 03, 2008
Jenny O'Hara (King of Queens, Mystic River) has replaced Jean Smart in the West Coast premiere of Julie Marie Myatt's Boats on a River.
Gregory Itzin and Jenny O'Hara 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.
Itzin is known for his Emmy-nominated roles as the President on 24. He 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.
Los Angeles Awards - Live Stats
Best Musical - Top 3
1.
JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR (Hollywood Bowl)
9.1% of votes
2.
HEATHERS (Backyard Playhouse: Treetop Production)
5.3% of votes
3.
HAIR (Conundrum Theatre)
5.3% of votes
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