Roger Forbes, Elizabeth Franz, Robert Foxworth and Jill Tanner Lead QUARTET, Beginning Tonight at The Old Globe

The Old Globe presents its third production of the 2014 Summer Season, Ronald Harwood's comedy Quartet, directed by Richard Seer (Other Desert Cities, God of Carnage, The Last Romance). Harwood received an Academy Award for his screenplay of The Pianist and was nominated for The Diving Bell and the Butterfly and The Dresser (also a hit on Broadway and the West End). Quartet will play in the Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre, part of the Globe's Conrad Prebys Theatre Center, today, July 25 - August 24, 2014.

The acting company includes Roger Forbes (Wilfred Bond; the National Theatre under Sir Laurence Olivier, London's Garrick and Cambridge Theatres, founding member of Geva Theatre in New York), Globe Associate Artist Robert Foxworth (Reginald Paget; Globe and Broadway'sAugust: Osage County, Broadway's Twelve Angry Men, Ivanov, Honour, Judgment at Nuremberg, and Henry V), Elizabeth Franz (Jean Horton; Broadway's Morning's at Seven, Tony Award for Death of a Salesman, Brighton Beach Memoirs, and Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You), and Jill Tanner (Cecily Robson; Broadway's Dividing the Estate, Enchanted April, Rose, My Fat Friend, and No Sex Please, We're British).

The creative team includes Globe Associate Artist Ralph Funicello (Scenic Design), Charlotte Devaux (Costume Design), York Kennedy(Lighting Design), Christopher R. Walker (Sound Design), Nicolas Reveles (Opera Consultant), and Annette Yé (Stage Manager).

From the author of The Dresser comes an uplifting comedy recently made into a major motion picture. Three former opera singers, Reginald, Cecily, and Wilfred, lead a harmonious existence at a home for retired musicians-until Reginald's ex-wife, grande dame Jean Horton, arrives. As long-ago grudges surface and old scores are settled, the quartet heads back into the rehearsal room for one final encore. Globe favorite Richard Seer directs.

"The quartet of actors at the heart of Quartet are veterans of some of the great stages in the world, and it's an honor to present them at the Globe," said Artistic Director Barry Edelstein. "Under the incisive guidance of our own Richard Seer, they bring deep humanity to this warm, wise, and entirely lovely play about living one's later years with grace, and about the healing power of music. I look forward to sharing this most winning play with our audience."

Ronald Harwood (Playwright) was born in Cape Town, South Africa, in 1934 and went to England in 1951. His novel Home was awarded the Jewish Quarterly-Wingate Prize for Fiction in 1994. He is the editor of The Faber Book of Theatre and the author of a history of the theatre, All the World's a Stage, which accompanies the BBC television series, which he presented. He also wrote Sir Donald Wolfit, C.B.E.: His Life and Work in the Unfashionable Theatre. He was Visitor in Theatre at Balliol College, Oxford. Since 1993 he has been President of PEN International, the world organization of writers. His plays include A Family, The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold (from Evelyn Waugh), The Dresser, Tramway Road, The Deliberate Death of a Polish Priest, Interpreters, J.J. Farr, Ivanov (from Anton Chekhov), Another Time, Reflected Glory, and Poison Pen. Taking Sides had simultaneous world premieres in Chichester and Krakow prior to opening at the Criterion Theatre in London's West End. Another Time, under the title Temps Contre Temps, won the Molière Award for Best Show, Paris 1993. His play The Handyman opened in Chichester in September 1996 starring Frank Finlay. He won the Academy Award for his screenplay of The Pianist and was nominated for The Dresser and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. His also wrote the films The Browning Version starring Albert Finney and Cry, the Beloved Country starring James Earl Jones and Richard Harris. In 1996 he was awarded the Chevalier de L'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

Richard Seer (Director) is an award-winning director and actor who has directed and/or performed on Broadway, Off Broadway, on film and television, and in over 70 productions at regional theatres in this country and Great Britain, including The Kennedy Center, Goodman Theatre, Stratford Shakespeare Festival, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Huntington Theatre Company, San Jose Repertory Theatre, Studio Arena Theater, Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and the Sybil Thorndike Theatre in England. He originated the role of Young Charlie in the 1978 Tony Award-winning Broadway production of Hugh Leonard's Da and received the Theatre World Award for his performance. At The Old Globe, he has directed productions of Other Desert Cities, God of Carnage, Life of Riley, The Last Romance, The Price, Romeo and Juliet, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Trying, Fiction, Blue/Orange (San Diego Critics Circle Award), All My Sons, Da, and Old Wicked Songs. His recent directing assignments also include Third (Huntington Theatre Company), Bill W. and Dr. Bob and Sonia Flew (San Jose Repertory Theatre), and Other Desert Cities(TheatreWorks Silicon Valley). He received his M.F.A. in directing from Boston University, where he was awarded the prestigious Kahn Directing Award. In 1990, Mr. Seer was invited to return to Boston University's School for the Arts as an Associate Professor of Acting and Directing. He has been Director of the Old Globe/University of San Diego Graduate Theatre Program since 1993 and is the University's current Chair of Theatre. In 2010, he was awarded the Craig Noel Distinguished Professorship.

Quartet will run July 25 - August 24, 2014, with Opening Night on Thursday, July 31 at 8:00 p.m., in the Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre, part of the Globe's Conrad Prebys Theatre Center. Subscription tickets to the Globe's 2014 Summer Season range from $92 to $332. Single tickets start at $29. Tickets can be purchased online at www.TheOldGlobe.org, by phone at (619) 23-GLOBE or by visiting the Box Office at 1363 Old Globe Way in Balboa Park. Performance times: Previews: Friday, July 25 at 8:00 p.m., Sunday, July 27 at 7:00 p.m., Tuesday, July 29 at 7:00 p.m., and Wednesday, July 30 at 7:00 p.m. Regular performances: Tuesday and Wednesday evenings at 7:00 p.m., Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings at 8:00 p.m., Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2:00 p.m. and Sunday evenings at 7:00 p.m. There are no performances on Saturday, July 26. Discounts are available for full-time students, patrons 29 years of age and younger, seniors, and groups of 10 or more.

Presented in the outdoor Lowell Davies Festival Theatre, the Old Globe 2014 Shakespeare Festival began June 22 with Shakespeare's great tragedy Othello, directed by Globe Artistic Director Barry Edelstein, and will continue with Shakespeare's comedy The Two Gentlemen of Verona, directed by Globe alumnus and Tony Award nominee Mark Lamos (Compleat Female Stage Beauty, Pentecost, Resurrection Blues). The Summer Season also features Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's Tony Award-winning musical Into the Woods, on the Donald and Darlene Shiley Stage in the Old Globe Theatre, part of the Conrad Prebys Theatre Center. This production, which made its World Premiere at The Old Globe in 1986, is an inventive reimagining by Fiasco Theater, directed by Noah Brody and Ben Steinfeld, in a production that originated atMcCarter Theatre Center.

Additional events taking place during the run of Quartet include:

INSIGHTS SEMINAR: Quartet & Screening of TOSCA'S KISS

Monday, July 28, FREE

The seminar series features a panel of artists selected from the current show. 7:00 p.m.

Immediately following the seminar, at 7:30 p.m., we will present a free screening, on the Donald and Darlene Shiley Stage in the Old Globe Theatre, part of the Conrad Prebys Theatre Center, of the 30th anniversary restoration of Daniel Schmid's multiple award-winning documentaryTosca's Kiss. This rarely seen film was an inspiration for Quartet and its restoration was overseen by Dustin Hoffman. General admission seating. Reservations are recommended, please call the Box Office at (619) 234-5623.

Meet the inhabitants of the "Casa di Riposa" in Milan, the world's first nursing home for retired opera singers, founded by composer Giuseppe Verdi in 1896. A touching and often hilarious film on the subject of aging and the power and timeless capacity of music to inspire. In Tosca's Kiss, which has developed an underground cult following over the years and is a favorite among opera and music lovers worldwide, director Daniel Schmid has captured a world in which these wonderful singers (many of whom had significant careers on the opera stage) relive and reenact their triumphant roles of the glorious past. The critics called it:

POST-SHOW FORUMS: Quartet

Tuesdays, August 5 and August 12, and Wednesday, August 6.

Discuss the play with members of the cast and crew following the performance. FREE

FYI: the Cabrillo Bridge has reopened, and you can now drive into Balboa Park on Laurel Street from the west side of the park!

The Old Globe is located in San Diego's Balboa Park at 1363 Old Globe Way. There are numerous free parking lots available throughout the park. Guests may also be dropped off in front of the Mingei International Museum. The Balboa Park valet is also available during performances ($10), located in front of the Japanese Friendship Garden. For additional parking information visit www.BalboaPark.org. For directions and up-to-date information, visit www.TheOldGlobe.org/Directions. NOTE: To look up online or GPS directions to The Old Globe, do not use the Delivery Address above. There is only a 10-minute zone at that physical address. For GPS users, click here for the map coordinates, and here for written directions to The Old Globe and nearby parking in Balboa Park.

The Tony Award-winning Old Globe is one of the country's leading professional regional theatres and has stood as San Diego's flagship arts institution for over 75 years. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Barry Edelstein and Managing Director Michael G. Murphy, The Old Globe produces a year-round season of 14 productions of classic, contemporary, and new works on its three Balboa Park stages: the Donald and Darlene Shiley Stage in the 600-seat Old Globe Theatre and the 250-seat Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre, both part of The Old Globe's Conrad Prebys Theatre Center, and the 605-seat outdoor Lowell Davies Festival Theatre, home of its internationally renowned Shakespeare Festival. More than 250,000 people attend Globe productions annually and participate in the theatre's education and community programs. Numerous world premieres such as 2014 Tony Award winner for Best Musical, A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder, The Full Monty, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, A Catered Affair, and the annual holiday musical Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas! have been developed at The Old Globe and have gone on to enjoy highly successful runs on Broadway and at regional theatres across the country.

CAST BIOGRAPHIES:

Roger Forbes (Wilfred Bond) has acted for over 40 years in both the United States and in his native England. His credits include four years at the National Theatre under Sir Laurence Olivier as well as appearing in London's West End at the Garrick and Cambridge Theatres. In the U.S. he was a founding member of Geva Theatre in New York, where he acted in and directed over 30 plays. His credits include five seasons with Alabama Shakespeare Festival as well as seasons at Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Alliance Theatre, Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Studio Arena Theater, Long Wharf Theatre, Florida Stage, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, and Portland Center Stage. He spent two seasons at the Stratford Festival in Canada and has worked extensively in Vienna and Frankfurt. ln 2007 he premiered his one-man show Falstaff at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, which won him a Best Actor Award for 2007-2008, and subsequently toured the U.K. in 2008. He has made numerous film and television appearances in both the U.K. and the U.S. and has performed Off Broadway but never on it! His directing credits include King Lear (Ohio University), The Seagull (Alabama Shakespeare Festival), Shear Madness (Studio Arena Theater), Time and the Conways (The University of Utah), and most recently A Capital Affair and Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks (Vienna's English Theatre). He has taught at Ohio University, Auburn University, and summer courses at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, where he is currently a member of the audition board.

Robert Foxworth (Reginald Paget) is an Associate Artist of The Old Globe and has appeared in Other Desert Cities, Inherit the Wind, Richard III, August: Osage County, King Lear, The Madness of George III, Cornelia, Julius Caesar, Private Lives, Below the Belt, Love Letters, and Antony and Cleopatra. In 2011 he played Arthur in Superior Donuts at San Diego Repertory Theatre, for which he won Outstanding Lead Performance in a Play from the San Diego Theatre Critics Circle. He most recently appeared in Other Desert Cities at the Mark Taper Forum in L.A. His most recent appearance on Broadway was in August: Osage County as Charlie Aiken. Also on Broadway, Foxworth has appeared in Twelve Angry Men,Ivanov, Honour, Judgment at Nuremberg, and Henry V. He won the Theatre World Award for his portrayal of John Proctor in The Crucible at Lincoln Center Theater. His television series include "Storefront Lawyers," "Falcon Crest," and "LateLine" with Al Franken. He has guest starred on countless television shows over the years such as a two-year stint on "Six Feet Under" and episodes of "Law & Order" and "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit." Foxworth's regional theatre work has included Cyrano de Bergerac (Great Lakes Theatre Festival), Iago in Othello and The Scottish King in Macbeth (Guthrie Theater), George in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Hartford Stage), Uncle Vanya (Geffen Playhouse), and many more. He is the voice of Ratchet in the Transformers movies.

Elizabeth Franz (Jean Horton) It is impossible to do justice to any veteran actor's career in the allotted 200 words. In her 50 years of performing, Franz has acted on Broadway, at the Royal National Theatre in London, Off Broadway, in Scotland and in Egypt, all around the United States, in films both for the big screen and television, and on television series, both dramatic and comedic. She has been nominated numerous times for Tony, Emmy, Screen Actors Guild, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Awards and has been awarded a Tony Award, Obie Award, Lucille Lortel Award, Chicago's Joseph Jefferson Award, Boston's Elliot Norton Award, Los Angeles's Ovation Award, Friends of New York Theatre (FANY) Award, and Dramatist Guild Fund's Lifetime Achievement Award.

Jill Tanner (Cecily Robson) is delighted to be back at The Old Globe after a 30-year absence. She previously played the Nurse in Jack O'Brien's production of Romeo and Juliet, Rosaline in Love Labour's Lost, and Klytemnestra in Elektra. On Broadway she played in Dividing the Estate, Enchanted April, Rose, My Fat Friend, and No Sex Please, We're British. Last season she played Lady Margaret in Mint Theater Company's production of A Picture of Autumn in New York. She has played leads in almost every regional theatre in the country. Tanner has recorded over 100 books for both the Library of Congress and Recorded Books.

Pictured: Robert Foxworth appears as Reginald Paget, Elizabeth Franz as Jean Horton, Jill Tanner as Cecily Robson, and Roger Forbes as Wilfred Bond. Photo by Jim Cox.