Arizona Theatre Company Presents LOST IN YONKERS, 2/26-3/19

This spring Arizona Theatre Company journeys to the New York boroughs and into Neil Simon's masterwork, LOST IN YONKERS, the fourth installment of ATC's AMERICA PLAYS! Celebrating Great American Stories series. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the Tony Award for Best Play, LOST IN YONKERS is as funny as it is poignant and is certain to leave you spellbound with laughter and tears. Featuring Tony Award-winner and Arizona favorite Judy Kaye, and directed by Samantha K. Wyer, LOST IN YONKERS plays in Tucson at the Temple of Music and Art from February 26 through March 19, 2011.  It continues its run in Phoenix at the Herberger Theater Center from March 24 through April 10, 2011. LOST IN YONKERS is sponsored in part by JP Morgan Chase, Shirley Estes, and The Stonewall Foundation. AMERICA PLAYS! is sponsored by The Johnson Family Foundation, and Freeport McMoran Copper & Gold Foundation. The Tucson media sponsors for the 2010-2011 season are KGUN9, MIX-FM and Tucson Lifestyle.  Arizona Theatre Company's season sponsors are I. Michael and Beth Kasser.

LOST IN YONKERS tells the story of a family coping with the challenges of keeping together during World War II and the struggles to balance love with tough times. Grandma Kurnitz is the matriarch with a will of iron and a hardwood cane who spared no rod in raising her four children. When her two teenage grandsons are forced by circumstances to live with her for a year, the clash of generations and battle of wills leads the whole family to learn important lessons about Love, duty, devotion, and trust.

"Neil Simon is at his best in LOST IN YONKERS, writing a tale that combines his delightful humor with surprising pathos in this story of a multi-generational family who struggles to find room to breathe under the oppression of a strong-willed matriarch with eyes in the back of her head," said Director Samantha K. Wyer. "Simon draws the audience into the world of the play effortlessly, and soon the family's dreams for the future become our own as we cheer for them to triumph."
LOST IN YONKERS is the first Neil Simon play produced by ATC since The Sunshine Boys 36 years ago in 1975. Neil Simon (Playwright) has been represented on Broadway by Come Blow Your Horn; Little Me; Barefoot in the Park; The Odd Couple; Sweet Charity; Plaza Suite; Promises, Promises; The Gingerbread Lady; The Prisoner of Second Avenue; The Sunshine Boys; The Good Doctor; Chapter Two; They're Playing our Song; Brighton Beach Memoirs; Biloxi Blues (1985 Tony Award); Broadway Bound; Lost in Yonkers (1991 Pulitzer Prize; Tony Award); Laughter on the 23rd Floor, and many more. His films include The Out-of-Towners, Plaza Suite, The Heartbreak Kid, The Prisoner of Second Avenue, The Sunshine Boys, The Goodbye Girl, The Cheap Detective, California Suite, Chapter Two, Brighton Beach Memoirs and Biloxi Blues.

SAMANTHA K. WYER (Director)worked at ATC for thirteen seasons as Associate Artistic Director / Director of Education, until 2011. She recently became the Director of Education at Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington DC. Ms. Wyer's ATC directing credits include  The Lady with All the Answers, It's a Wonderful Life, To Kill a Mockingbird, I Am My Own Wife, Tuesdays With Morrie, Permanent Collection, A Streetcar Named Desire, A Moon for the Misbegotten, Proof, Wit and Secret Things by Elaine Romero. Her other Arizona directing credits includeAn Empty Plate in the Café du Grand Boeuf, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Betrayal, The Three Sisters,Angels in America: Millennium Approaches, Arcadia, and Two Days of Grace at Middleham by Toni Press-Coffman, a play she also directed for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland.  She has been a teacher and director for Arizona State University, University of Arizona and the University of Missouri.

Judy Kaye (Grandma Kurnitz) returns to ATC where she last appeared in Souvenir, reprising her Tony-nominated performance as Florence Foster Jenkins. She received the Tony Award in 1988 for the role of Carlotta in the Broadway production of The Phantom of the Opera, and recently starred as Mrs. Lovett on Broadway and in the National Tour of Sweeney Todd. This is Ms. Kaye's second appearance in Lost in Yonkers, following her critically acclaimed portrayal of Grandma Kurnitz at The Old Globe in a different production. Last year, she appeared at the Menier Chocolate Factory in London in the new Harold Prince musical Paradise Found, which is currently in development. Highlights of her career also include the Broadway productions of Mamma Mia (Tony and Drama Desk nominations), On the Twentieth Century (Theatre World Award, Drama Desk nomination) and Ragtime (Theatre LA Ovation Award). Ms. Kaye has appeared with symphony orchestras around the country and the world, and sung at the White House twice.

Also returning to ATC is Kate Goehring (Bella), who was last seen in The Clean House. Her other ATC credits include Work Song: Three Views of Frank Lloyd Wright, and How I Learned to Drive. Ms. Goehring played Harper in the national tour of Angels In America (LA Pride/Carbonel Awards). Off-Broadway, she was seen in Carrie: A Period Piece at P.S. 122 and Laughing Wild at Bailiwick Repertory Theatre (After Dark/Jeff Awards). Her regional appearances include Intiman Theatre, Arena Stage, McCarter Theatre Center, Goodman Theatre,Huntington Theatre Company, and Actors Theatre of Louisville; Preston Maybank (Louie) originated the role of the King of Bohemia in ATC's world premiere of Steven Dietz's Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure, a production which went on to play at the Pasadena Playhouse and Kansas City Repertory Theatre. He has worked in numerous theatres across the country, New York and Europe, including Joe Papp's Public Theater, South Coast Repertory, Pasadena Playhouse, The Laguna Playhouse, LaMirada Theatre for the Performing Arts, and Kansas City Repertory Theatre, among many others; and KERRY McCUE (Gert), who last appeared as Mary Bailey in It's a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play. In Phoenix, she has worked with Actors Theatre, Arizona Jewish Theatre, Southwest Shakespeare Company, Shakespeare Sedona and Phoenix Theatre's New Works Festival, among others.

The cast of LOST IN YONKERS also includes SPENCER ROWE (Eddie) who recently created the role of Hardy in the Lamb's Players Theatre premiere of miXtape. Other stage credits include Annas in Jesus Christ Superstar, Lt. Marco Rodriguez in the Walnut Street Theatre's premiere of Camila, Ben in The Sunshine Boys and Harry in Company; RYAN DeLUCA (Jay), who recently played Trinculo in The Tempest at The Rogue Theatre in Tucson. He has appeared frequently with Arizona Repertory Theatre; and MAXX CARLISLE-KING (Arty) made his stage debut at the age of two in Gypsy and has performed at Childsplay, Southwest Shakespeare Company, ASU Lyric Opera Theatre, Valley Youth Theatre, Shakespeare Sedona, Greasepaint Youth Theatre, Stray Cat Theatre and Nearly Naked Theatre. He is in the 9th grade at Arizona School for the Arts.

The creative team for LOST IN YONKERS includes Michael Schweikardt (Set Design) returns to ATC where he designed Jeffrey Hatcher's Ella. He designed the world premiere of the new Duncan Sheik/Kyle Jarrow musical Whisper House at Old Globe Theatre, the critically acclaimed productions of Annie Get Your Gun, 1776, Big River and Camelot for Goodspeed Musicals; Barnum for Asolo Rep; Oklahoma! starring Kelli O'Hara and Will Chase; and national and international tours of James Taylor's One Man Band; David Lee CUTHBERT (Lighting Design) returns to ATC where he designed lights and media for The Kite Runner and Enchanted April. He designed the Broadway, national and international productions of Billy Crystal's 700 Sundays. He also designed the national tour of The History (and Mystery) of the Universe and two tours with The New Pickle Family Circus.
Internationally, he designed Terminal, directed by Joseph Chaikin; David Kay MICKELSEN (Costume Design) has designed costumes for ATC since the 1982-83 season when he designed Journey's End. Since then he has designed 46 productions for ATC. He has designed more than 250 productions at some of the nation's leading theatres, including The Guthrie Theater, Denver Center Theatre Company, The Cleveland Play House, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, and many more; BRIAN JEROME PETERSON (Resident Sound Designer) celebrates his 25th season at ATC, where he has designed 63 productions most recently Ma Rainey's Black Bottom. His designs have been heard in many theatres includingBerkeley Repertory Theatre, Seattle Repertory Theatre, The Cleveland Play House, Northlight Theatre, Kansas City Repertory Theatre, Portland Center Stage, Actors Theatre of Louisville and San Jose Repertory Theatre; DIANNE J. WINSLOW (Dialect Coach) returns to ATC after serving as dialect coach for Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, The Lady with All the Answers, To Kill a Mockingbird, and over 20 others. Ms. Winslow is currently a professor of theatre arts at the University of Arizona. She is also the creator/director of Touring Shakespeare; and TIMOTHY TOOTHMAN is the Stage Manager.

LOST IN YONKERS is the fourth play in ATC's AMERICA PLAYS! Celebrating Great American Stories series. This ambitious five-year series of beloved American classics includes free community engagement opportunities designed to enhance ATC patrons' experience of the play. This year "1940s Family Fun Fair: REd White and Yonkers" will bring a 1940s themed street fair to Tucson and Phoenix. The fair will celebrate Lost in Yonkers while simultaneously saluting our current troops. The festivities will take place on Saturday March 19from 10:00 AM - 2:00 PM in Tucson in front of the Temple of Music and Art. In Phoenix the event will take place Sunday April 3from 12:00 PM - 4 PM at the Herberger Theater Center.

Arizona Theatre Company offers accessibility services for patrons with disabilities for select performances. Audio Description provides patrons with vision loss a running audio description of the movement and activities onstage through an infrared broadcast system. An audio-described performance is offered on March 17 at 2:00 PM. Interested patrons may request a tactile tour one hour prior to curtain. American Sign Language interpretation is presented by professional, theatrically-trained ASL-interpreters for people who have deafness or hearing impairment. An ASL-interpreted performance is offered on March 17 at 7:30 PM. Open-captioning allows patrons to read the play's dialogue on an LED screen as the play progresses. An open-captioned performance is offered on March 17 at 2:00 PM. For open-captioned or ASL-interpreted performances, patrons should request seats best suited to ASL interpretation or captioning when purchasing tickets. Large print and Braille playbills and infrared listening amplification devices are also available at every ATC performance with reservation. TTY access for the box office is available in Tucson at (520) 884-9723 or via Arizona Relay at (800) 367-8939 (TTY/ASCII).

Tickets start at $30, depending on date and section choice and are available at www.arizonatheatre.org or by calling the box office at (520) 622-2823. Discounts are available for students, seniors and active military on specific performance days. Half-price rush tickets are available for balcony seating for all performances one hour prior to curtain at the ATC box office (subject to availability). Ten Dollar Tuesday for LOST IN YONKERS is March 1. Balcony seats for this preview performance are available for a suggested $10 donation. (Tickets must be purchased at the ATC Box Office starting at 10:00 AM on March 1. Seating is 'first-come, first served' and is not guaranteed. Cash only, please. Two tickets per person maximum.) For discounts on groups of eight or more, call (520) 622-2823.

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