Christopher Hart, Brian Kelly & More Set For Pittsburgh CLO's TRIPLE ESPRESSO

Pittsburgh CLO is proud to announce the cast and creative team for the Pittsburgh premiere of Triple Espresso: a highly caffeinated comedy, which runs September 9, 2010 through January 9, 2011 at the CLO Cabaret. Tickets are available at CLOCabaret.com or by calling 412-456-6666.

The Story
Triple Espresso tells the irresistible story of a comedy trio going for their big break, only to have their hopes dashed over and over on the rocks of one magnificently funny failure after another. Hugh, Buzz and Bobby reunite for a hilarious evening of music, magic and mega-laughs in this audience favorite that appeals to everyone from age 6 to 106.

Cast (In Alphabetical Order)
Christopher Hart (Buzz Maxwell) is said to have the most famous right hand in Hollywood. His hand has appeared as "Thing", the enchanting disembodied hand in three Addams Family movies: The Addams Family, Addams Family Values, and Addams Family Reunion. Mr. Hart then went on to be cast in the film Idle Hands, in which he played an evil disembodied hand on a rampage, expressing a whole new character with his hand. His sleight-of-hand magic has been featured in national television commercials for McDonalds, Honda, RCA, and others. He has twice been awarded "Stage Magician of the Year" by Hollywood's Magic Castle, and Princess Stephanie of Monaco personally awarded him the top prize at the "Grand Prix Magique" held in Monte Carlo. He has performed his magic all over the world, including Japan, Spain, Germany, Paris, and Las Vegas, and often appears on international television.

BrIan Kelly (Bobby Bean) is a veteran jokester, whose monkeyshines have been seen in Tony & Tina's Wedding, ComedySportz, We Gotta Bingo, Guys on Ice, Sisters of Swing Mystery Café, Comedy Central's Let's Bowl, and numerous TV commercials. With composer friend Todd Price, he wrote (directed and starred in) the musical comedy The Temp. MR. Kelly has also written elementary educational school shows and children's CDs.

Dane Stauffer (Hugh Butternut) is an alumnus of the Playwright's Center, as well as New York University and was a member of the country's oldest Sketch Comedy/improv house, Dudley Riggs' Brave New Workshop. Mr. Stauffer has directed for the Fritz Blitz Festival of New Plays ("the most rewarding marriage of script, performers and director"). A prolific playwright, he has had over a dozen plays produced in the last decade, most recently The Magic Pot: Three Tales from China, which made its NYC Premiere in July, to good notices in the NY Times, and Time Out. Recently he was seen as Howard Elroy, the Beauty Pageant host on TV (Wicked Wicked Games with Tatum O'Neal). He has also been featured on KTCA/PBS Technical Difficulties, and the Emmy award winning American Scream: Dudley Rigg's first 30 years. His solo show "I'm ready to talk about my Narcissism" and his recent Cabaret revue," When a Man loves a Diva," have both played to critical acclaim and sold out houses. He is improvising weekly with "Smokehouse" at Second City Hollywood and wherever/whenever he can, also teaching improv to everyone from artists to kids, teachers to corporate execs.

Artistic Personnel
William Partlan (Artistic Director) directs each presentation of Triple Espresso and collaborates with directors around the world to adapt the play to other languages and cultures. He also serves as Associate Professor in Directing in the School of Theatre and Film of the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts at Arizona State University. He has directed off-Broadway, regional and international premieres over the last 25 years. He is known for his work with new plays and playwrights like Alan Ball, Lee Blessing, Jeff Hatcher, and John Patrick Shanley. He has directed numerous plays at the O'Neill Center's National Playwrights' Conference including premieres of August Wilson's Ma Rainey's Black Bottom and Fences. Mr. Partlan directed All God's Dangers, starring Cleavon Little, at Cricket Theatre, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, off-Broadway and for PBS' American Playhouse.

His acclaimed American premier production of Hugh Whitemore's The Best of Friends was produced off-Broadway by Michael Douglas and Producers Circle. He directed Swim Visit and Sacred Journey off-Broadway at Primary Stages. Mr. Partlan was the Artistic Director of Cricket Theatre in Minneapolis for nine years, where he premiered over fifty new plays, including Triple Espresso. He has directed for National Public Radio's Earplay series and has served as an on-site reporter for the National Endowment for the Arts and as Jury Chairman for the 2000 Cairo International Festival for Experimental Theatre. He is a magna cum laude graduate of Dartmouth College and the National Theatre Institute. He has his MFA in Directing from the University of Minnesota on a Bush Foundation Fellowship.

Michael Pearce Donley (Author) is a composer and performer who lives in the Twin Cities. His collaboration with his partners Bob Stromberg and Bill Arnold continues. He composed the music for Stromberg's Mr. Wonder Boy, as well as the songs for Arnold's new musical, Stupid in Love, written with John Gaspard. He's worked with Ten Thousand Things, Nautilus Music-Theater, Front Porch Theater, Plymouth Playhouse, Hey City and other local theaters as a composer, musical director, pianist and actor. His original music has been featured in the popular children's recording GT and the Halo Express, and he was the musical director for the national live radio program Sunday Nite. Michael is a member of The Dramatist's Guild of America, Inc.

Bill Arnold (Author) Mr. Arnold has performed at comedy and magic clubs, as well as entertaining at corporate events and hosting fundraisers, all over the country. He recently co-wrote a new play called Stupid in Love, Head over Heels in Doubt, with Michael Pearce Donley and John Gaspard.

Bob Stromberg (Author) Bob Stromberg grew up in the Allegheny Mountains of rural Pennsylvania. Receiving an art degree from North Park College in Chicago, he continued his studies for two years with legendary mime teacher Tony Montanaro at Celebration Theatre in Maine. Then he began a career performing his unique blend of story, standup and shtick in venues from churches, to corporate settings and stadiums. Mr. Stromberg originated the character of Bobby Bean and played the part for Triple Espresso's first ten years. Most recently he created the new one-man show, Mr. Wonder Boy, which premiered in September 2008 in Minneapolis at the Music Box Theater. Mr. Stromberg has written three books, Why Geese Fly Farther Than Eagles, Finding the Magnificent in Lower Mundane and the beautifully illustrated family story, The Miracle at Stinky Bay. Many know him for his appearances on the awarding winning TV show Bananas.

Nayna Ramey (Set Design) is based in the Twin Cities. Her regional work includes A Thousand Clowns and The Diary of Anne Frank at the Intiman Theatre; Liliom, Indian Ink and Morningstar at Kansas City Repertory Theatre; Hamlet and The Comedy of Errors at Shakespeare Santa Cruz; Othello and Amadeus at Texas Shakespeare Festival; twelve seasons at American Players Theatre with designs including Hay Fever, Ah Wilderness, The Play's the Thing, Romeo & Juliet, Cymbeline, Othello, The Tempest, Antony and Cleopatra, and Uncle Vanya; Jewtopia, The Miamians, His Eye is on the Sparrow and Golda's Balcony at Florida Studio Theatre; My Way and You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown at the McKnight Theatre/St. Paul; Grease and Hair at the Historic Pantages Theatre/Minneapolis; Tuesdays with Morrie, Noises Off and Pygmalion at Indiana Repertory Theatre; Snapshots, Hiding in the Open and Main Street at the History Theatre/St. Paul, and over 60 productions at Chanhassen Theatres including Footloose, Oklahoma, 42nd Street, Easter Parade, Grease, West Side Story, Anything Goes, Annie, Cats and My Fair Lady.

Michael Klaers (Lighting Design) was the lighting designer for the original Triple Espresso-a show that was supposed to run eight weeks. A couple years later, he also became the Production Manager. His work has been seen at Idaho Shakespeare Festival, Florida Studio Theatre, Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Great Lakes Theater Festival, Shakespeare Festival of St. Louis, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts, Missouri Repertory Theatre, Indiana Repertory Theatre, the Guthrie Theater, Madison Repertory Theatre, The Cricket Theatre, Mixed Blood Theatre and many others.

Kathleen Egan (Costume Design) "Kegan" originally designed the long-running Triple Espresso for the Cricket Theatre in Minneapolis. In Minneapolis-St. Paul, she designed for the Guthrie Lab, The Frank Theatre, and others. For the Indiana Repertory Theatre: Iron Kisses, The Immigrant, Drawer Boy, Red Badge of Courage, Same Time Next Year and the world premier of Looking Over the President's Shoulder, which played nation-wide and at the Fords Theatre. She's also designed Off-Broadway, at the Hartman Theatre and Pennsylvania Stage Company.

John Markiewicz (Sound Design) has twenty years experience in performance audio, live broadcast, recording and installations. He is owner of Audio Logic Systems. John's many credits include work with Fannie Mae, Interbank, Minnesota Public Radio, the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Green Bay's Weidner Center for the Performing Arts, Concordia University, the University of St. Thomas and the College of St. Catharine; and with a wide range of artists including Bobbie McFerrin, Savion Glover, Lee Greenwood, Pam Tillis, Tony Campolo, Phillips, Craig and Dean, Ken Davis, Jaci Velasquez, Juice Newton, Pat Boone, B.J. Thomas, Point of Grace and Jars of Clay.

Producing Personnel
Dennis Babcock, Executive Producer for Triple Espresso, LLC is also President of PalmTree Productions, Inc., and Producer for Mr. Wonder Boy. He began his professional career in 1973 as an actor at The Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis under the direction of Michael Langham. In 1978, as the Guthrie's Special Events Producer, he created the Live at the Guthrie series to bring a variety of theatrical and musical artists to the Twin Cities. These included such celebrities as Princess Grace of Monaco, Henry Fonda, James Whitmore, Joel Grey, Julie Harris, Hume Cronyn, Jessica Tandy, Neil Sedaka, Melissa Manchester and Sir Cliff Richard. Dennis was the Managing Director of the Pittsburgh Public Theater from 1982-1984 and returned to the Guthrie Theater to serve as General Manager from 1984-1986. In 1987 he created his own company, PalmTree Productions, Inc. He has created and produced such acclaimed shows as Vincent, with Leonard Nimoy, Grandma Moses - An American Primitive, with Cloris Leachman, and he worked with John Astin in the creation and original production of Edgar Allan Poe- Once Upon A Midnight. Since 1996, Dennis has produced Triple Espresso in 45 cities in the United States and six foreign countries and overseen the translation and producing of the show in German and Flemish.

Rosalie Miller, Associate Producer for Triple Espresso, LLC and Vice President for PalmTree Productions, Inc. came to theater by way of radio, where she worked for eight years on the original production of Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion. Rosalie began working with PalmTree Productions, Inc. in 1994, as Group Sales and Merchandising Manager for a touring production of A Christmas Carol. She later authored A Christmas Carol Study Guide and toured with the show as Company Manager. Since 1997, she has worked closely with the Executive Producer, Artistic Director, playwrights, designers, actors, crew and staff of Triple Espresso and is also Associate Producer for Mr. Wonder Boy.

Donald Schoenbaum, Associate Producer for Triple Espresso, and Vice President of PalmTree Productions, Inc., is a pioneer in the regional theater movement. He has been involved in more than 300 plays as producer, director and actor. In 1963, with Adrian Hall, he started Trinity Repertory Theatre in Providence, Rhode Island. In 1966, he became Associate Manager of the Guthrie Theater and took over as Managing Director three years later. During his twenty-one year tenure, the Guthrie grew from a five-play, twenty-five week seasonal operation to a year-round theatrical enterprise. In 1982, under Don's management, the Guthrie received the prestigious Antoinette Perry Award (The Tony) for theatrical excellence. He has been the recipient of two Ford Foundation fellowships and in 1985; he received the nationally recognized Arts Management Magazine Award as the Arts Executive of the Year.

Performance Schedule for Triple Espresso
Wednesdays 7:30pm
Thursdays 1:00pm* & 7:30pm *Thursday matinees - 9/30, 10/28, 11/18, 12/16
Fridays 7:30pm
Saturdays 2:00pm & 7:30pm
Sundays 2:00pm

No performances on the following dates: October 6, November 3 & 25, December 24, January 5

Tickets
Tickets start at $34.75 and are available online at CLOCabaret.com, by calling 412-456-6666 or at the Box Office at Theater Square. Groups of 10 or more can call the Group Sales Hotline at 412-325-1582 to learn more about special discounts, priority seating and corporate discounts.
Visit pittsburghCLO.org for more information.