SBCC Theatre Arts Department Closes MACHINAL 11/6

SBCC Theatre Arts Department will begin the fall with an intriguing drama by Sophie Treadwell, MACHINAL. It will run October 20-November 6, 2010 in the intimate Interim Theatre on SBCC's West Campus.
THE PLAY

Celebrated as the first major success by an American woman playwright, Machinal was written in 1928 and ran on Broadway to great critical success featuring Clark Gable as the lover, Dick Roe. Based largely on the sensational murder trial of Ruth Snyder and Judd Gray who were accused of killing Snyder's husband, the play explores the emotions of a young woman looking for love in a world that seems dominated by the machine-like attitudes of everyone around her. Considered one of the best examples of American Expressionism, the play perfectly captures the young protagonist's escalating emotions as she yearns for freedom in the confining structure of her everyday routine. Riveting, affecting and surprisingly modern in tone, the play will take audience members on a rollercoaster ride of one woman's experiences of love and despair.
THE PLAYWRIGHT

Sophie Treadwell was playwright, journalist, women's rights advocate, novelist, and maintained a professional career that spanned close to sixty years, from the 1910's to 1970. She is considered today as one of America's most prominent women playwrights of the first half of the twentieth century. Treadwell's foray into the theatre began as an actress in vaudeville and included early mentoring by the famed Polish actress Helena Modjeska. Author of forty plays, Treadwell was one of only a few women dramatists who also directed and produced many of her own works. Her best-known play, the 1928 expressionist drama Machinal, was produced with a young Clark Gable in the cast. Based loosely on a sensational murder trial in New York, Machinal has received numerous revivals in the past decade, most notably by the New York Shakespeare Festival, the Royal National Theatre in London and The American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco. She began her career as a journalist while attending the University of California at Berkeley. During World War I, the State Department recognized Treadwell as one of America's first accredited female foreign war correspondents. In the 1920's, she became the only American journalist granted an interview with Pancho Villa at his remote ranch following the Mexican Revolution. She was married to a fellow journalist, the renowned sportswriter William O. McGeehan.

THE CAST

Katie Laris will direct and has cast talented SBCC Theatre students who will play multiple roles in the production.

Matthew Andreas (Filing Clerk/Boy/Barber/ Offstage Boy) is a beginning student at SBCC. This is his debut performance in an SBCC production. Aside from acting, his many and diverse interests include painting, writing, and fire dancing.
Megan Connors (Young Woman) moved to Santa Barbara to attend City College at the beginning of the 10-11 school year. She transferred from Northern Arizona University where she spent her freshmen year of college. She is 19, a theatre major, and has participated in performances in high school and college.
Annie Diehl (Telephone Girl/Court Reporter/Offstage Wife #2) is a Theatre major at SBCC making her debut performance in Machinal. She was last seen in Betty's Summer Vacation at Diablo Valley College in the Bay Area, for which she was nominated for an Irene Ryan Award in her role as Mrs. Seizmagraff.

Jesse Garcia (Adding Clerk/Man with Boy/Bailiff/Jailer/Offstage Husband #2) has recently discovered his passion for acting while attending SBCC. He has previously worked and studied in the realms of psychology and theatre, and is presently seeking various and mutual influences among the two disciplines. Machinal marks his debut performance both on SBCC's stage and as an actor.

Austin Hunt (Waiter/Lawyer for the Defense/Guard/Offstage Boy) has been performing in the arts for the last 6 years, including musicals and plays such as The Wiz, Damn Yankees, Comedy of Errors, and many others. Last year at Santa Barbara City College, he performed in the advanced acting classes one acts, playing Craig in Hidden in this Picture.
Viola Hammar (Stenographer/ Nurse/ Matron/ Offstage Mother) is a theatre student at Santa Barbara City College. She is from Sweden and was last seen in What a Crazy Life (Vilket snurrigt liv) in Stockholm, Sweden, where she played one of the leading parts, Mrs. Margareth Bridgewater. She has been seen in many plays in Sweden, such A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens last year. She has also been dancing and singing in the theatre and dance school M2 in Sweden for several years.
Heather Johnson (Pregnant Woman/Reporter/Offstage Wife #1) moved from Eugene, Oregon to Santa Barbara in 2009. She has actively been a student during her entire stay in Santa Barbara. Her debut performance was in Count the Ways, which was also directed at SBCC by Katie Laris. Machinal is the second play she will perform in.

John Marino (Telephone Girl's Boyfriend/Lawyer for the Prosecution/Guard/Offstage Husband #1) has appeared in two plays a year since he was thirteen. Some of his most recent productions include Arsenic and Old Lace (Teddy), Oklahoma! (Jud Fry), and The Fantasticks (El Gallo). This is his second year at Santa Barbara City College where he is currently enrolled as a Theatre Arts major. Machinal is his first production with SBCC.

Aaron-Michael Mendoza (Man with Pregnant Girlfriend/Reporter) is a student at Santa Barbara City College studying acting and directing. He played Elmer Wadkins, the racist, tobacco spittin', chipped tooth red neck, in Greater Tuna, directed by Rick Mokler. He also appeared in the student directed one-act, Wanda's Visit.

Melissa Morgan Squire (Mother) began her professional acting training at "The American Academy of Dramatic Arts" in New York City. She then proceeded on to the prestigious "Lee Strassberg Theatre Institute," also in Manhattan. After landing a contract role on CBS' The Young and Restless, she continued her studies at the "Strassberg Institute" in Los Angeles. Having taken some time off to travel the world and raise a son, she is now living in Montecito and is continuing to act.
Stuart Orenstein (Doctor/Judge) has been acting since 1990. He is currently a theatre arts student at SBCC. At SBCC he has appeared in Moonchildren, In Their Eyes and Closet Madness. At the Center Stage Theater he has appeared in Twelve Angry Men and Inherit the Wind. In Ojai he appeared in Senga Classic Stage Company's Production of I Remember Mama. Stuart was featured in the SBCC Film Studies Film Roses are Read and in the UCSB Film School's Theoryland which was screened at the SBIFF in 2010. Machinal is his 4th collaboration with director Katie Laris.
MaximilIan Smith (Husband) graduated from UCSB with a degree in Dramatic Art in 2009 and has since moved to Santa Barbara City College to pursue a career as an Emergency Medical Technician. He is excited to return to the stage after almost three years.

Michael Sullivan (Bartender/Priest) is a 19 year old Theatre Arts Major in his second year at SBCC. He has previously worked in a scene shop in Davis, CA on sets for Les Miserables and The Laramie Project, and has acted in various roles at Davis Senior High School and Acme Theatre Company in Davis. Most recently, he appeared as the singing, guitar-playing Jaime in Things That Fall From the Sky with Barnyard Theatre Company. Machinal is his first performance in Santa Barbara.
Trevor Thompson (Dick Roe) first began acting at SBCC in January 2009. He performed in the Count the Ways workshop in fall 2009 and The Suicide in spring 2010, both under the direction of Katie Laris. Earlier this summer, he played the lead in The Penitence, a movie, directed by Sam Houston Jones III.

PRODUCTION STAFF

Katie Laris (Director) is Production Chairman of the Theatre Arts Department, a stage director and an instructor of acting at SBCC. Recent productions include The Suicide, Moonchildren, Stirring the Pot, Twelve Angry Men, Over the Tavern, Seascape, The Physicists, The Man Who Came to Dinner, Lola Goes to Roma, Gunfighter: A Gulf War Chronicle, Real Women Have Curves, Ghosts, Fortinbras and Baby with the Bathwater. Previously she directed Fuente Ovejuna, All's Well That Ends Well and The Birds in New York City and The Trial, The Ride Across Lake Constance and Danger Cave in Portland, Oregon. She also produced and wrote TV programs for Animal Planet, Discovery Health Channel and PBS. Katie received her B.A. in Theatre/Literature from Reed College and her M.F.A. in Theatre Directing from Columbia University.

Rachel Myers (Scenic/Costume Designer) is a costume and scenic designer for theatre and film. Select credits include: Center Theatre Group, South Coast Repertory, The Shakespeare Theatre, The Getty Villa, Robert Wilson's Watermill Center, The Theatre at Boston Court, Yale Repertory Theatre and Williamstown Theatre Festival. She has production designed film, video and commercial projects for clients: The History Channel, Ray Ban, L'Oreal, and Getty Images. Rachel received her MFA from the Yale School of Drama and is a member of USA 829. Rachel is SBCC's newest faculty member, instructing courses in costume, makeup and theatrical design.

Patricia L. Frank (Lighting Designer) is an Adjunct Lecturer, Technical Director and Designer at SBCC. In almost 25 years at SBCC Pat has designed over 50 productions. Her most recent designs include set and lights for Picasso at the Lapin Agile and Moonchildren. She also designed the sets for Laughter on the 23rd Floor, The World Goes Round and Rumors. Pat has designed lights for BASSH, On the Verge, and The New Works dance concerts. Pat was honored with an Independent Award for her set designs of Enchanted April, Private Eyes and Resident Alien and her lighting designs of Bat Boy: The Musical and Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet). She received an MA in Dramatic Arts from UCSB and an MFA in Visual Arts from the University of North Dakota.
Barbara Hirsch (Sound Designer) owns Opus 1 mobile recording, a classical and acoustic music recording business. In a previous life, she loved working in theatre in various capacities: box office, sound, playing in the pit, composing music for theatre and sound design. She won a Dramalogue Sound Design award for Singin' in the Rain, an SBCLO production that helped to end a year's long drought. Rain soaked the ground shortly after it opened. It has been many years since and now she is delighted to have her theatre drought ended with the honor of being involved in this penetrating production of Machinal.

Cynthia Moore (Production Stage Manager) is a first-semester college student at SBCC pursuing degrees in both Theatre Arts and English. She has recently worked as Assistant Stage Manager for Anything Goes and Lend Me a Tenor and as Stage Manager for Once Upon a Mattress and Much Ado About Nothing, all performed at Dublin High School where she graduated in spring 2010. Machinal marks her debut production at SBCC.
Tayler Rivera (Assistant Stage Manager) has been a part of the SBCC Theatre since 2007 after he graduated from high school on the East Coast. His first production at SBCC was All in The Timing as a crew hand and is now stage managing for the SBCC Theatre. His most recent production was The Suicide as the Stage Manager.

PERFORMANCE INFORMATION

Machinal will be performed in the intimate Interim Theatre on SBCC's West Campus, 800 block of Cliff Dr. Performances will be October 20-November 6, 2010, Thursday through Saturday @ 8pm, Sunday @ 2pm with previews on October 20 & 21 @ 8pm. The Sunday, October 24, 2pm performance will be live-captioned for the hearing impaired. Ticket prices are $15 general/$12 seniors/$8 students and can be purchased by calling the Interim Theatre Box Office at 965-5935. Box Office hours are Monday through Friday, 1-5pm and 1 hour prior to each performance. The Interim Theatre is wheelchair accessible and parking is free and near the theatre on the West Campus of SBCC.

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