Photo Flash: OPUS

Old Globe Executive Producer Lou Spisto is pleased to announce the cast of The Old Globe’s production of Opus, by Michael Hollinger, directed by Kyle Donnelly, to run in the Globe’s Arena Stage at the San Diego Museum of Art’s James S. Copley Auditorium March 21 – April 26, 2009 (press opening: Thursday, March 26 at 8:00pm). Tickets are available by calling (619) 23-GLOBE, online at www.TheOldGlobe.org, or by visiting the Globe Box Office at 1363 Old Globe Way in Balboa Park.

The cast of Opus features Jim Abele as “Elliot,” Jeffrey Bender as “Alan,” Mark H. Dold as “Dorian,” Corey Brill as “Carl” and Katie Sigismund as “Grace.”

A world-renowned string quartet struggles to prepare for high-profile performance at the White House when their brilliant but unstable violist mysteriously disappears. When they hire a gifted
young woman as a replacement, the rehearsal room becomes a pressure cooker as passions rise,
personalities clash and the musicians contend with the evanescent nature of their life’s work. But
no opus will ever be as complex or compelling as the offstage travails of these five extraordinary
individuals, as they wrestle with feuds, ambition, mortality, and their passion for the music.

The creative team includes Kyle Donnelly, director; Kate Edmunds, scenic design; Denitsa D.
Bliznakova, costume design; York Kennedy, lighting design; Lindsay Jones, sound design;
Diana Moser, stage manager, Marie Natoli, PA.

Michael Hollinger’s (Playwright) plays include An Empty Plate in the Café du Grand Boeuf, Red Herring, Tiny Island, Tooth and Claw and Incorruptible. His Arden Theatre production of Opus was nominated for seven Barrymore Awards, winning for Outstanding New Play. Opus also received a 2007 Harold and Mimi Steinberg New Play Citation from the American Theatre Critics Association. He has written seven touring plays for young audiences, as well as numerous short works. For PBS, he has scripted three short films and co-authored the feature-length Philadelphia Diary. Other awards include the Roger L. Stevens Award from the Kennedy Center's Fund for New American Plays, the F. Otto Haas Award for an Emerging Theatre Artist, a Mid-Atlantic Emmy Award, the Frederick Loewe Award for Musical Theatre, a commission from the EST/Sloan Science and Technology Project, and fellowships from the Independence Foundation, Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation, and Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. Hollinger is a resident playwright of New Dramatists and Assistant Professor of Theatre at Villanova University.

Kyle Donnelly (Director) directed the Globe’s productions of Orson’s Shadow and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Recent credits include Lisa Kron’s Well at Arena Stage, where she previously served as Associate Artistic Director from 1992 to 1998 and directed such productions as She Loves Me, Born Yesterday, Tom Walker, The Women, Lovers and Executioners, The Miser, Molly Sweeney, A Small World, Dancing at Lughnasa (winner of Helen Hayes Award for Best Production), Summer and Smoke, A Month in the Country, The School for Wives, Misalliance, Polk County (Helen Hayes Award for Best New Musical) and others. She directed the American premiere of Brian Friel's Give Me Your Answer, Do! for Roundabout Theatre and worked at Williamstown Theatre Festival, Goodman Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre, Huntington Theatre, American Conservatory Theatre, Seattle Rep, McCarter Theatre, Berkeley Rep, Actor's Theatre of Louisville, and many other regional theaters around the country. She founded her own acting studio called the Actors' Center in Chicago which was a leading training center for actors in that city. She is a faculty member of UCSD’s Department of Theatre and Dance, a member of SSDC and winner of the Alan Schneider award from TCG.

The internationally-acclaimed, Tony Award® -winning Old Globe is one of the most renowned regional theatres in the country and has stood as San Diego’s flagship arts institution for 72 years. The Old Globe produces a year-round season of 15 plays and musicals on its three stages, including its highly-regarded Shakespeare festival. The Globe has become a gathering place for leading theatre artists from around the world, such as Tom Stoppard, Daniel Sullivan and Chita Rivera, among many others. Numerous Broadway-bound premieres and revivals, such as Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, The Full Monty and Damn Yankees, have been developed at The Old Globe and have gone on to enjoy highly successful runs in New York and at regional theatres across the country.

Highlights of the Globe’s 2008/09 Season include the revival of Clare Boothe Luce’s The Women, the world premiere of Itamar Moses’ new play Back Back Back, John Guare’s Six Degrees of Separation, the musical Working, with new songs by Lin-Manuel Miranda, and the world premiere of Cornelia. Under the leadership of Executive Producer Louis G. Spisto and Resident Artistic Director Darko Tresnjak, the Globe is at the forefront of the nation’s leading performing arts organizations, setting a standard for excellence in American theatre.

Photos by Craig Schwartz

Katie Sigismund and Corey Bril

Katie Sigismund and Mark H. Dold

Jeffrey Bender, Jim Abele, and Corey Bril

Katie Sigismund, Jeffrey Bender, and Jim Abele

Jeffrey Bender and Katie Sigismund

Jeffrey Bender and Katie Sigismund