South Coast Repertory News

The Gift Theatre Artistic Director Michael Patrick Thornton announces the Chicago premiere of Thinner Than Water written by Melissa Ross and directed by The Gift ensemble member John Gawlik (2013 Jeff Award winner for When the Rain Stops Falling at Circle Theatre). The production marks Thornton's return to The Gift main stage since ensemble member Andrew Hinderaker's Jeff Nominated Dirty in 2012. Thornton recently appeared in Les Waters' production of Our Town at Actors Theatre of Louisville. Thornton joins guest artists Donna McGough (last seen in Coriolanus with The Hypocrites) and Darci Nalepa (Dirty) and fellow Gift ensemble members Brittany Burch (The Lonesome West), Paul D'Addario (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest), Gabriel Franken (Broadsword), Lynda Newton (Absolute Hell) and Jay Worthington (Vigils).

Gulfshore Playhouse will present the hilarious-whodunit-meets-screwball comedy, Ken Ludwig's The Game's Afoot tonight, February 21st through March 16th, with a $25 preview performance on February 20th.

Jack and the Giant Beanstalk by Linda Daugherty, directed by Mercy Vasquez, will be presented by South Coast Repertory's Junior Players April 22-23 and April 29-30 in the Nicholas Studio. Tickets are $10 and available online at www.scr.org.

From March 7 through April 5, 2014, SpeakEasy Stage Company will present the New England premiere of the acclaimed Off-Broadway drama THE WHALE by Samuel D. Hunter.

The adventurous St. Lawrence String Quartet marks its third Segerstrom Center appearance with an exciting program that includes a world premiere of composer James Matheson's new string quartet commissioned for the Center's Chamber Music Series by long-time subscribers Elizabeth and Justus Schlichting.

AstonRep Theatre Company continues its 2013-14 season with the Pulitzer Prize-winning drama WIT by Margaret Edson, directed by Ensemble Member Derek Bertelsen, playing May 8 - June 8, 2014 at The Raven Theatre (West Stage), 6157 N. Clark St. in Chicago. Tickets go on sale Monday, February 24 at www.astonrep.com or by calling (773) 828-9129. The press opening is Saturday, May 10 at 8 pm.

Like a beautiful painting Adam Guettel's The Light in the Piazza is a true work of art. With discordant music not unlike that of Stephen Sondheim, written for a small chamber orchestra, feelings of love - from all kinds of people -fuel passionately. Without the right actresses to play the American mother and daughter visiting Florence, the play loses its fragility and inner beauty. This production could not be more divine. Patti Cohenour as Margaret Johnson and Erin Mackey as her decidedly different daughter make sparks fly with their glorious acting and singing.

Segerstrom Center for the Arts presents an exclusive Southern California engagement of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater March 27 - 30.

Carla Ching's comedy Fast Company, about a family of Asian American con artists on the trail of a million-dollar comic book, begins previews for its New York premiere at the Ensemble Studio Theatre, 549 West 52nd Street, Wednesday, March 12, at 7:00pm for an opening Thursday, March 20, at 7:00pm (for a run currently scheduled through April 6). Robert Ross Parker of the Obie-winning troupe Vampire Cowboys directs.

Two captivating displays of youthful musicality take place next month as Pacific Symphony Youth Orchestra (PSYO) and Pacific Symphony Youth Wind Ensemble (PSYWE) perform an impressive range of music for their individual spring concerts. The students are bonded more than at any other time during the year, having recently returned from winter retreats, and have prepared some challenging repertoire to perform for the community. Led by Music Director Alejandro Gutiérrez, PSYO travels for the first time to Soka Performing Arts Center in Aliso Viejo, on Saturday, March 1, at 3 p.m., to perform a concert of 20th-century music by Prokofiev, John Williams, James Newton Howard, Ginastera and more. Then, the exuberant sounds of PSYWE are heard the following weekend on Sunday, March 9, at 3 p.m., in the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall. Led by Music Director Joshua Roach, the wind ensemble performs and narrates Mussorgsky's masterwork, “Pictures at an Exhibition,” and plays exciting music by Shostakovich, Grainger, Barber and Barnes. Tickets are $12, general admission; for more information or to purchase, call (714) 755-5799 or visit www.PacificSymphony.org.

Memories aren't always reliable as three high school buddies try to reconnect after a high school reunion. The complex nature of male friendship is explored in South Coast Repertory's world premiere of Reunion by Gregory S Moss. The show runs March 9-30, on the Julianne Argyros Stage. Adrienne Campbell-Holt directs. Tickets are available online: www.scr.org.

Amphibian Stage Productions (Kathleen Culebro, Artistic Director) opens its first main stage production of the 2014 season, Bank Job, a world premiere by award-winning playwright John Kolvenbach. Leicester Landon, Alexandra Lawrence, Michael Muller, William Earl Ray, and Marshall York will star in this comedy, running tonight, February 13 through Sunday, March 2 at Amphibian's theater at 120 S. Main Street. Jessica Bauman will direct the production.

The 2014 Studio SCR series at South Coast Repertory continues in February with the one-man show St. Jude, written by and starring Luis Alfaro. Robert Egan directs. Performances run today, Feb. 13-16 in the Nicholas Studio at SCR.

Segerstrom Center for the Arts continues its Cabaret Series tonight, February 13 - 15 with Tony Award-nominated stage, screen and film actor and singer Peter Gallagher making his Center debut in his critically acclaimed cabaret show, How'd All You People Get In My Room?.

Rehearsals started today for the Alliance Theatre's world premiere of THE TALL GIRLS, a play set in the depression-era Midwest where the success of a girls' basketball team may be the only way to a better life for the team's members. Playwright Meg Miroshnik, winner of the 2012 Alliance/Kendeda National Graduate Playwriting Competition for her play The Fairytale Lives of Russian Girls, has been described by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution as 'a ferocious talent with a promising career in store.'

Academy Award winner Estelle Parsons returns to the stage in The Velocity of Autumn, an explosive new play by playwright Eric Coble. Tony Award winner Stephen Spinella co-stars in this wickedly funny and poignant story about a 79-year-old artist in a showdown with her family over where she'll spend her remaining years.

Olney Theatre Center, a Maryland destination for professional theater performance and education, will present the National New Play Network (NNPN) Rolling World Premiere of I And You by playwright Lauren Gunderson February 26 - March 23, 2014 in the Mulitz-Gudelsky Theatre Lab.

The 2013 - 2014 jazz season at Segerstrom Center for the Arts welcomes the debut of the Fred Hersch Trio May 2 & 3 in Samueli Theater.

Do the Arts Make Us Better People? That is the question at hand when The New Yorker staff writer Susan Orlean, Getty Trust President and CEO James Cuno and Segerstrom Center for the Arts President Terrence W. Dwyer take part in a Zocalo Public Square panel discussion about the role the arts play in shaping our lives. This special event takes place in Samueli Theater at Segerstrom Center tonight, February 11 at 7:30 p.m. and will be moderated by Jori Finkel, contributing arts writer for The New York Times. There will be a free reception following the discussion.

Segerstrom Center for the Arts presents the Orange County engagement of the first North American tour of the new stage adaptation of THE WIZARD OF OZ. The show will play at Segerstrom Hall from today, February 11 - 23, 2014.