Arizona Theatre Company Presents MASTER HAROLD” … AND THE BOYS

Arizona Theatre Company (Sean Daniels, Artistic Director; Billy Russo, Managing Director) presents Athol Fugard's powerfully haunting masterpiece, "Master Harold" ... and the Boys from Jan. 18- Feb. 8 at the Temple of Music and Art in Tucson and from Feb. 13 to March 1 at the Herberger Theater Center in Phoenix.

"Master Harold" ... and the Boys is a semi-autobiographical masterwork set in apartheid South Africa in 1950that explores the relationship between a young white man, Hally (Oliver Prose), and his two middle-aged servants. Sam (Ian Eaton) and Willie (Odera Adimorah).

In a small South African tea shop in 1950, two black men and a white boy joke and dance together, defying the brutalities of apartheid through a personal connection built through joy. But festering issues of family, race, and power are not so easy to ignore, and a single phone call can trigger catastrophe.

One of the great plays of our time, twice on Broadway, winner of the Drama Desk and London Evening Standard Awards for Best Play, Master Harold ... and the Boys reveals the profound personal consequences of oppression. Still timely, still compelling, still profoundly moving.

"Athol Fugard asks us the great question of our time. If there are places in your life where you have been given an advantage - what do you do with that info? Yes, it's a play about South Africa, but it's also about now, and our families and the daily choices we make. It's why this is one of the great plays of our generation," said ATC Artistic Director Sean Daniels.

Directed by Kent Gash, who has directed two previous shows for ATC, Master Harold ... and the Boys was first produced at the Yale Repertory Theatre in March 1982 and opened on Broadway on May 4 the same year, where it ran for 344 performances.

Initially banned from production in South Africa and the first of Fugard's plays to premiere outside of his home country, "Master Harold" ... and the Boys" has long seemed one of Fugard's most astute plays, its climax a ferocious dramatization of the dehumanizing evils at the heart of Apartheid," wrote The Washington Post.

ATC's creative team for "Master Harold" ... and the Boys includes Jason Sherwood, Scenic Designer; Kara Harmon, Costume Designer; Dawn Chiang, Lighting Designer; Lindsay Jones, Sound Designer; Dawn-Elin Fraser, Dialect Coach; Tara Rubin, Casting Director; and Glenn Bruner, Production Stage Manager.

"Master Harold" ... and the Boys will be followed by The Legend of Georgia McBride and Women in Jeopardy!.

For more information, go to www.arizonatheatre.org or call the box office in Tucson at (520) 622-2823 or in Phoenix at (602) 256-6995.

BIOGRAPHIES

Kent Gash (Director) ATC: Directed and Choreographed Five Guys Named Moe and Ain't Misbehavin'. Off-Broadway: Lockdown (Rattlestick Playwrights Theater); Barbecue (The Public Theater); Langston in Harlem (Urban Stages); MissEvers' Boys, Home (Melting Pot Theatre); Beggar's Holiday (York Theatre); Regional: Guys and Dolls (The Guthrie); Goodnight, Tyler (Premiere), C.A. Lyons Project (Premiere); God of Carnage (Alliance Theatre); The Winter's Tale (Dallas Theater Center);The Wiz (Ford's Theatre); Gem of the Ocean (South Coast Repertory); The Mountaintop (Trinity Repertory Company); Seven Guitars (Marin Theatre Company); Wig Out! and Choir Boy (Signature Theatre, DC); The Comedy of Errors (OSF); Mahalia and Pure Confidence (Cleveland Playhouse) Crowns and Pure Confidence (Denver Center Theatre Company); The Brothers Size (McCarter Theatre Center); Wig Out! (Sundance Institute); Native Son (also playwright, IntimanTheatre); Ain't Misbehavin' (Trinity Rep and seven additional productions); Private Lives, Coriolanus(Santa Cruz Shakespeare); Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (first African American production), Joe Turner's Come and Gone (Virginia Stage Company); Associate Artistic Director: the Alliance Theatre (2001- 2009); Associate Artistic Director: Alabama Shakespeare Festival (1999-2001). Awards; AUDELCO, Bay Area Theatre Critics; Suzi Bass Awards; Elliot Norton Award; The Independent Reviewers of New England Awards; Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Artist in Residence Grant.Teaching Professor and Founding Director, New Studio on Broadway at NYU Tisch School of the Arts. Mr Gash holds an M.F.A. in Directing from the University of California, Los Angeles and a B.F.A., Acting from Carnegie Mellon University.

Athol Fugard (Playwright) is an internationally acclaimed South African playwright whose best known work deals with the political and social upheaval of the apartheid system in South Africa. He was educated at the University of Cape Town. His plays include The Captain's Tiger, Valley Song, My Children! My Africa, A Lesson from Aloes, The Island, and the award-winning Sizwe Banzi is Dead. Mr. Fugard has received six honorary degrees from esteemed colleges and is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society.

CAST

Odera Adimorah (Willie) is thrilled to be cast in Arizona Theatre Company's production of "Master Harold" ... and the Boys. Other theatre credits include: Classical Theater of Harlem's production of Romeo and Juliet, Columbia Stages production of In the Red and Brown Water (Sango), Funnyhouse of a Negro (Patrice Lumumba) and Unpacking: A Ghost Story at the HERE Arts Center.

Ian Eaton (Sam) credits his enrichment in theater beginning at Harlem School of the Arts, where he studied voice, violin and acting as a youngster. He continued studying acting at LaGuardia High School (Fame High), and graduated with a BFA in Acting from City College. THEATRE: Charlie Parker in Flight (Metropolitan Theatre), Esteban in Day of the Kings (INTAR), Tara's Crossing (The Lucille Lortel), and Othello (The Clarion Theater). He has also performed in several national tours throughout the east coast, and spent 14 summers performing Shakespeare free of charge with Connecticut Free Shakespeare (CFS), appearing most recently as Petruchio in Taming of the Shrew. TV/FILM: Law and Order, HBO's Oz, Signs He Made at Home (Independent Film). a??Ian is a proud member of Only Make Believe, a non-profit organization that creates and performs interactive theater for children in hospitals and care facilities.

Oliver Prose (Hally) is thrilled to make his Arizona Theatre Company debut with this production of "Master Harold"... and the Boys. Oliver is a favorite for NYC writers developing new works, which includes collaborations with Jeanine Tesori & David Lindsay Abaire as Aaron in their new musical Untitled; Adam Bock as Joey in his new play The Thugs; Wes Braver and Rachel Dean as Perseus in their new musical Medusa; Jill Sobule, Robin Eaton and Jim Lewis as Johnny LaGuardia in their musical adaptation of Times Square directed by Steve Cosson; and with Sean McCabe and Jinhae Kim as the title character in their new musical comedy Saint Sebastian. Regional credits include: Michael Wormwood in Matilda, Trekkie Monster in Avenue Q, Abraham in Altar Boyz, and as a soloist in Godspell. In concert, Oliver appears in venues throughout New York City including Lincoln Center, The Public Theatre's Joe's Pub, The Duplex, and Dixon Place. A recent graduate from NYU Tisch's BFA program where he portrayed the leading roles of Konstantin in Chekov's The Seagull, Joe in Stephen Schwartz' Working; Donald Marshall III in Irene directed by Brian Hill; and Leo Frank in Jason Robert Brown and Alfred Uhry's Parade.

CREATIVE TEAM

Scenic Design: Jason Sherwood

Costume Design: Kara Harmon

Lighting Design: Dawn Chiang

Sound Design: Lindsay Jones

Dialect Coach: Dawn-Elin Fraser

Casting Director: Tara Rubin

Production Stage Manager: Glenn Bruner

Tickets for "Master Harold" ... and the Boysstart at $25 and are subject to change depending on time, date and section, and are available at www.arizonatheatre.org or by calling the box office at (520) 622-2823 in Tucson or (602) 256-6995 in Phoenix. Discounts are available. Active Military/Vets/Service/1st Responders receive $10 off the price of tickets (except Premium). Students with valid ID pay $15 for all performances. 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). $15 Community Night performance in Tucson is Tuesday, Jan. 21 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, Feb. 16 at 7 p.m. in Phoenix. (Tickets must be purchased at the Temple of Music and Art or the Herberger Theater Center starting one hour prior to curtain. Tickets are first-come, first served. Cash preferred. Two tickets maximum per person.) For discounts for groups of 10 or more, call (520) 884-8210, x7213.

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 in Tucson on Thursday, Dec. 19 at 2 p.m. and in Phoenix on Saturday, Jan. 18 at 2 p.m. Interested patrons with vision loss 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 in Tucson on Thursday, Feb. 6 at 7:30 p.m. and in Phoenix on Saturday, Feb. 29 at 2 p.m. Open Captioning allows patrons to read the play's dialogue on an LED screen as the play progresses. An open captioned performance is offered in Tucson on Thursday, Feb. 6 at 2 p.m. and in Phoenix on Sunday, Sunday, Feb. 23 at 7 p.m. 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 available via Arizona Relay at (800) 367-8939 (TTY/ASCII) for the box office in Tucson at (520) 884-9723, or (602) 256-6995 in Phoenix.

Fact Sheet:

"Master Harold" ... and the Boys

Written by Athol Fugard

Directed by Kent Gash

Tucson Venue:
Temple of Music and Art

330 S. Scott Ave., Tucson

Previews Begin: Saturday, Jan. 18 at 7:30 p.m.
Opening Night: Friday, Jan. 24 at 7:30 p.m.
Closing Performance: Saturday, Feb. 8 at 7:30 p.m.

Phoenix Venue:

Herberger Theater Center

222 E. Monroe St., Phoenix

Previews Begin: Thursday, Feb. 13 at 7:30 p.m.

Opening Night: Saturday, Feb. 15 at 7:30 p.m.

Closing Performance: Sunday, March 1 at 2 p.m.

Ticket prices begin at $25 and are available in-person at the Temple of Music and Art box office or via phone at (520) 622-2823, or at the Herberger Theater Center box office or by calling (602) 256-6995 in Phoenix. Tickets also can be purchased online at www.arizonatheatre.org.