Fonda, Lithgow, Dukakis Set for Plays at Mark Taper Forum
By: Nicole Rosky Aug. 24, 2010
The 2011 Center Theatre Group/Mark Taper Forum season was announced today by Center Theatre Group Artistic Director Michael Ritchie. Stellar actors such as Jane Fonda, John Lithgow and Olympia Dukakis will be featured in plays by Moisés Kaufman, John Lithgow and Morris Panych, respectively, plus works by Lanford Wilson and Theresa Rebeck will be presented in the Taper's 44th season at the Los Angeles Music Center.
"The season will bring in the New Year 2011 with the magnetic raconteur John Lithgow spinning delightful tales in his 'Stories by Heart.' This is a master class in the art of storytelling," said Ritchie.
"Next we have Jane Fonda in '33 Variations,' written and directed by Moisés Kaufman, presented at the Taper's sister theatre, the Ahmanson. It is a genuine treat to have Jane at our theatre, and to welcome back Moisés, who will now have directed on all three of CTG's stages."
"I've long been a fan of Lanford Wilson, one of America's greatest living playwrights," Ritchie said. "His 'Burn This' is such a timeless gift to us all. What an explosive, fascinating story, and it will be directed by a CTG-favorite, Nicholas Martin.
"Theresa Rebeck is someone I've always wanted to present at CTG, and her play 'The Novelist' is perfect for the Taper. With the intimacy of a family drama, this play tackles difficult issues of art, authorship and the shifting sand of human relationships.
"We'll close the season with a gem of a play, 'Vigil,' written and directed by Morris Panych and featuring Marco Barricelli and the redoubtable Olympia Dukakis in a clever pas de deux that re-defines the word droll."
"The purpose of theatre has always been to tell stories," states Ritchie, "and I think this new season at the Taper is exceptionally rich in the stories it tells about our society - its values, customs, myths and idiosyncrasies. These stories are rooted in the humanity of their characters and in the power of language. And, most of all, these stories draw upon the American penchant for humor as a prism to view life and to explore human connections.
"I think audiences will be touched by these stories, moved by the performances of these great actors, and, most important, entertained by the productions that make up the 2011 season at the Mark Taper Forum."
"Stories by Heart"
Featuring the works of P.G. Wodehouse and Ring Lardner
The Mark Taper Forum's 2011 season will open with John Lithgow's "Stories by Heart," a special one-man theatrical memoir that features the works of P.G. Wodehouse and Ring Lardner, January 4 through February 13, 2011. The opening is scheduled for January 5.
Tony, Emmy and Golden Globe Award-winner Lithgow offers a touching and humorous reflection on storytelling as the tie that binds humanity in "Stories by Heart." In this piece he traces his roots as an actor and storyteller, interspersing his own stories with two classic short stories that were read to him when he was a child.
Lithgow imparts the wonder and joy he felt when he first heard Wodehouse's "Uncle Fred Flits By" (1935), a funny story about a nephew taken on an afternoon's escapade by his mischievous uncle, and Lardner's "Haircut" (1925), a darkly comic tale told by the local barber about a small-town practical joker who gets his due.
"Is there another actor breathing who's as sweetly charming as John Lithgow? . . . [He reduces] audiences to laughter and tears just by telling them a story . . .," Marilyn Stasio of Variety said. Ken Russell of The Times (London) remarked, "Lithgow's particular gift is deftly to interpret material through a slightly skewed, surreal and scampish perception."
John Lithgow's extensive Broadway credits include, among others, "The Changing Room" (Tony Award - Featured Actor), "Requiem for a Heavyweight" (Tony Award nomination -Actor in a Play), "Division Street," "Beyond Therapy" and "M. Butterfly" (Tony Award nomination - Actor in a Play), and the musicals "Sweet Smell of Success" (Tony Award - Best Actor in a Musical) and "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" (Tony Award nomination - Best Actor in a Musical). He has appeared in over 30 films including "The World According to Garp" and "Terms of Endearment" (Oscar nominations for both), "All That Jazz," "Blow Out," "Twilight Zone: The Movie," "Ricochet" and "Cliffhanger." Lithgow received three Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe Award for his work on the hit NBC comedy series "3rd Rock from the Sun." This year he won a Golden Globe and was nominated for an Emmy for his work on Showtime's "Dexter." He is the author of eight New York Times best-selling children's picture books.
Jane Fonda in
"33 Variations"
Written and Directed by Moisés Kaufman
As previously announced, two-time Academy Award-winner Jane Fonda will star in "33 Variations," the compelling new play written and directed by Moisés Kaufman, and the second production on the Taper's 2011 season, January 30 through March 6, 2011. Opening is set for February 9. "33 Variations" will be presented at the Ahmanson Theatre.
The legendary film and stage actress will reprise the role she created for the 2009 Broadway run of "33 Variations" and for which she received a Tony Award nomination.
(The play was nominated for a total of five Tony Awards).
Jane Fonda will head a cast of eight in the play created by Kaufman, who received Tony Award nominations for "33 Variations" (Best Play 2009) and for "I Am My Own Wife" (Best Director 2004), and most recently directed the acclaimed "Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo" at the Mark Taper Forum and earlier at the Kirk Douglas Theatre. He also directed his play "Gross Indecency" at the Taper in 1998.
In "33 Variations," the audience is transported back and forth from present-day New York to 19th century Austria, when a musicologist (Fonda) is determined to solve the musical mystery of why Beethoven spent his last years feverishly writing 33 variations of what appeared to be a mediocre waltz.
Diagnosed with a serious disease, the scholar dismisses her daughter's concerns and flies to Europe to study Beethoven's original papers. It is here that a heartfelt and moving story unfolds of how two remarkable individuals separated by 200 years defy mortality for a short, precious time and revel in their respective passions.
Praising Fonda's "robust and confident performance," Joe Dziemianowicz of the New York Daily News said, "The Oscar winner brings everything to this role that's made her an iconic film star: Pure enthusiasm, toughness tempered by vulnerability, and that distinctive voice which makes every line fascinating."
Jane Fonda's work on stage and screen has earned numerous nominations and awards, including Academy Awards (Best Actress in 1971 for "Klute" and in 1978 for "Coming Home") and an Emmy Award for her performance in "The Dollmaker." Along with starring roles in dozens of highly acclaimed productions, Fonda also took on responsibilities as a film and television producer for projects, including "Coming Home," "The China Syndrome," "Nine to Five," "Rollover," "On Golden Pond," "The Morning After" and "The Dollmaker."
In addition to Tony Award nominations for Best Play and Best Actress, "33 Variations" was nominated for Featured Actor, Scenic Design and Lighting Design.
"Burn This"
Directed by Nicholas Martin
The passionate modern classic, "Burn This" by Pulitzer Prize-winner Lanford Wilson, to be directed by Nicholas Martin, is set for the third production of the Taper's 44th season, March 23 to May 1, 2011. Opening is scheduled for April 3.
At the core of "Burn This" is Anna, a dancer-choreographer who, up until the unexpected death of her roommate and dancing partner, Robbie, has been consumed by her career. Now in her grief, she meets Pale, Robbie's older brother, who bursts into her apartment to retrieve Robbie's belongings, and ends up staying for a while. Pale is dangerous, sexy, raw and demanding, and he interrupts the course of Anna's existence bringing major changes in her life.
"Burn This," which had it world premiere in CTG/Mark Taper Forum's 1986-87 season, moved to Broadway in 1987. Newsweek said of the play, "[It] has a voracious vitality and an almost manic determination to drive right into the highest voltage that life can register."
Wilson's numerous plays include, among others, "Talley's Folly" (1980 Pulitzer Prize in Drama), "The Hot l Baltimore" (New York Drama Critics' Circle Award, Outer Critics Circle Award and Obie Award), "Fifth of July," "Balm in Gilead," "The Rimers of Eldritch," "Lemon Sky," "Serenading Louie" and "Redwood Curtain." He was a founding member of the Circle Repertory Company" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circle_Repertory_Company">Circle Repertory Company.
Nicholas Martin, who directed "Dead End" at the Ahmanson Theatre in 2005 and "The House of Blue Leaves" at the Taper in 2008, has directed "Butley," "Match" and "Hedda Gabler" on Broadway, and "The New Century," "Fully Committed," "Full Gallop," "The Rehearsal" and "Betty's Summer Vacation," among others, off-Broadway. He has been the Artistic Director of both the Huntington Theatre Company and the Williamstown Theatre Festival.
"The Novelist"
Theresa Rebeck's brilliant, witty new play "The Novelist" will be the fourth production of the new season, September 7 through October 16, 2011. The opening will be September 18.
"The Novelist" takes place in a rambling New England country home, where an aging novelist, his wife and his sons embark on the familiar rituals that dysfunctional families hold so dear, this time witnessed by a beautiful young assistant hired to help the novelist finish his latest book. Entering Chekhovian territory, "The Novelist" explores the relationships of fathers and sons, husbands and wives, artists and their enablers, and ultimately, life and art and the inability sometimes to tell the difference.
Theresa Rebeck is a widely produced playwright throughout the United States and abroad whose work includes "Mauritius," "The Scene," "The Water's Edge," "Loose Knit," "The Family of Mann," "Spike Heels," "Bad Dates," "Our House," "View of the Dome," "Omnium Gatherum" (co-written with Alexandra Gersten-Vassilaros and a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2004) and "The Understudy." She has written two novels, "Three Girls and Their Brother" and "Twelve Rooms with a View." She also writes for television, including "Law & Order: Criminal Intent," "Brooklyn Bridge," "Dream On," "L.A. Law" and "NYPD Blue," among others.
A director for "The Novelist" will be announced soon.
"Vigil"
Written and Directed by Morris Panych
Featuring Marco Barricelli and Olympia Dukakis
Closing the Taper's 2011 season will be the wickedly funny "Vigil," a dark comedy written and directed by Morris Panych and featuring Marco Barricelli and Academy Award-winner Olympia Dukakis, November 2 through December 18. The opening is November 6.
In "Vigil," a self-involved, middle-aged man hurries to the bedside of an aunt he hasn't seen in 30 years after she writes to him that she is dying. With less than humanitarian motives, he becomes impatient when she continues to live. As his brief visit stretches through days, months and seasons, her condition and their relationship evolve in unexpected ways.
Robert Hurwitt of the San Francisco Chronicle said of this production, which was presented at A.C.T. in San Francisco in March 2010, that it is ". . . outrageously funny and oddly heartwarming . . . [Panych] stages it all with perfect comic timing . . . Dukakis and Barricelli volley like tennis masters.. . . ."
Morris Panych is a Canadian playwright, actor and director. He has directed over 80 productions and written two dozen plays that have been seen across Canada, Britain and in the United States. "Vigil" was first presented in 1995 in Canada.
Marco Barricelli is the Artistic Director of Shakespeare Santa Cruz. His acting credits include "Tamara" on Broadway and "Agamemnon" off-Broadway. Other plays include "Les Liaisons Dangereuses," "American Buffalo," "The Real Thing," "Glengarry Glen Ross," "The Invention of Love," "A Streetcar Named Desire" and "The Rose Tattoo," among others. He was an Associate Artist at A.C.T. for eight years.
Olympia Dukakis has appeared in more than 200 productions on and off-Broadway and in regional theatres. She has received two Obie Awards for Brecht's "A Man's a Man" and Christopher Durang's "The Marriage of Bette and Boo." Her many film credits include "Moonstruck" (Academy Award and Golden Globe Award), "Mr. Holland's Opus" and "Steel Magnolias," among others. Television credits include several for which she received Emmy Award nominations - "The Tales of the City" trilogy and "Lucky Day."
Tickets for the Mark Taper Forum's 44th season are currently available by subscription only. For information and to charge season tickets by phone, call the Exclusive Season Ticket Hotline at (213) 972-4444. To purchase subscriptions on-line, visit www.CenterTheatreGroup.org. For information regarding audio description and Project D.A.T.E. (sign language interpreted, open caption and audio description performances) call TDD (213) 680-4017 or voice (213) 972-4444.
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