Theatre @ Boston Court Stages Samuel Beckett's HAPPY DAYS, Opening Tonight

The Theatre @ Boston Court presents Happy Days by Samuel Beckett, directed by Andrei Belgrader and featuring Brooke Adams and Tony Shalhoub. Opening night is tonight, September 13, 2014 on the Main Stage at Boston Court Performing Arts Center, 70 North Mentor Avenue.

Renowned director Andrei Belgrader re-examines this Samuel Beckett classic, newly relevant to a generation burdened by climate change and environmental doom. Brooke Adams plays Winnie, a woman buried up to her bosom in a mound of dirt with nothing to pass the time but the ragged contents of her bag, her nimble wit, and her husband Willie, played by Tony Shalhoub, lurking somewhere behind her. This droll, existential allegory demonstrates the vitality of the human spirit in the face of a deteriorating world.

Production Staff: Takeshi Kata, Scenic Design; Tom Ontiveros, Lighting Design; Melanie Watnick, Costume Design; Madison Orgill, Prop Design & Scenic Artis; Emma Fasler, Casting; Kate Jopson, Assitant Director; Matthew Quinlan, Dramaturg; Alyssa Escalante, Stage Manager; Ed Krieger, Production Photograhy.

Samuel Beckett (1906-1989) is widely recognized as one of the greatest dramatists of the twentieth century. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1969. Mr. Beckett is most renowned for his play Waiting for Godot which launched his career in theatre. He then went on to write numerous successful full-length plays, including Endgame in 1957, Krapp's Last Tape in 1958, and Happy Days in 1960. Mr. Beckett received his first commission for radio from the BBC in 1956 for All That Fall. This was followed by a further five plays for radio including Embers, Words and Music, and Cascando. Like no other dramatist before him, Mr. Beckett's works capture the pathos and ironies of modern life yet still maintain his faith in man's capacity for compassion and survival no matter how absurd his environment may have become.

Andrei Belgrader is a theatre and television director. He has also been a master teacher at the Yale School of Drama, a professor at UCSD, Head of the Directing Department at Juilliard and he currently teaches at USC School of Dramatic Arts. On television, he has directed numerous episodes of Monk as well as Law & Order: Criminal Intent and the sitcom Coach. He directed extensively at major regional theatres such as the American Repertory Theatre, Yale Repertory, the Goodman and Seattle Repertory, as well as in New York City. His recent projects in New York: Beckett's Endgame at BAM, with John Turturro and Elaine Stritch, and The Cherry Orchard at CSC, with Dianne Wiest, John Turturro and Michael Urie and the 2013 production of Henrik Ibsen's The Master Builder also with John Turtorro. All three productions were named among the 10 best productions of the year in major publications such as The New York Times and New York magazine and The Cherry Orchard was awarded the Lucille Lortel Award for Best Revival in 2012.

Brooke Adams is making her Boston Court debut as Winnie in Happy Days. Film/TV credits include: Days of Heaven, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Monk, Law & Order SVU, Family, Lace, and Moonlighting. Theatre credits include: The Old Neighborhood (American Repertory Theatre), Lost in Yonkers (Ahmanson Theatre), The Heidi Chronicles (Plymouth Theatre), The Cherry Orchard (Atlantic Theatre Company), Lend Me a Tenor (Music Box Theatre), Key Exchange (Orpheum), and If Memory Serves (The Pasadena Playhouse). She also produced and performed in the film, Made-Up, written by her sister Lynne Adams, and directed by Tony Shalhoub.

Tony Shalhoub comes to Boston Court having just performed in the five-time Tony-nominated play Act One at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre on Broadway. Film/TV credits include: Men in Black, Cars, Addams Family Values, Frasier, Too Big to Fail, and Wings. Theatre credits include: The Odd Couple (Ahmanson Theatre), Conversations with my Father (Royale Theatre), The Scene (Second Stage Theatre), Golden Boy (Belasco Theatre), and Waiting for Godot (Classic Stage Company Theatre). He has won 3 Emmys, 2 Screen Actors Guild awards, and a Golden Globe for the title role in the television series, Monk.

Happy Days is supported in part by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Arts Commission, The Shubert Foundation, The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust, Founding Director Z. Clark Branson, and the generous contributions of The Theatre @ Boston Court supporters and contributors.

The Theatre @ Boston Court is the award-winning resident theatre company at Boston Court Performing Arts Center in Pasadena, CA. Michael Seel, Executive Director; Jessica Kubzansky and Michael Michetti, Co-Artistic Directors; Hillary Metcalf, Managing Director.

"Happy Days (Beckett)" is presented by special arrangement with SAMUEL FRENCH, INC.

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