Dallas Theater Center to Present THE ODD COUPLE, 3/15-4/14

Dallas Theater Center announced today the upcoming production of Neil Simon's classic American comedy, The Odd Couple, directed by DTC Artistic Director Kevin Moriarty. When two men with struggling relationships, neat and particular Felix Ungar and disheveled and rough-edged Oscar Madison, decide to live together, the results are funny and poignant. The Odd Couple opens with previews on Friday, March 15 and runs through Sunday, April 14 at the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre in the AT&T Performing Arts Center. Tickets to The Odd Couple are on sale now and can be purchased online at www.DallasTheaterCenter.org or by phone at (214) 880-0202.

"Neil Simon's hilarious comedy classic, The Odd Couple, is instantly recognizable to all generations," says Moriarty. "I have lovEd Simon's work since I first began attending plays as a young audience member. His witty dialogue, vibrant characters, keen observations of human behavior and hilarious one-liners have made him one of the most produced playwrights of the twentieth century and a true legend of American stage comedy. The Odd Couple is one of his funniest and most popular plays. It will be a great joy for me to direct this production."

Broadway regular Michael Mastro (West Side Story, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof) and J. Anthony Crane (Spamalot, Ugly Betty) make their Dallas Theater Center debuts as Felix and Oscar. Set in the 1960s, The Odd Couple follows two very different men as they attempt to handle the failure of their marriages and manage to get along with one another. Oscar is fun and care-free, Felix is emotional and high-strung. Simon's play finds humor in their extremely different personalities and their inability to compromise.

Brierley Resident Acting Company members Hassan El-Amin (King Lear, God of Carnage), Chamblee Ferguson (A Christmas Carol, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat) and Lee Trull (King Lear, Next Fall) along with John Taylor Phillips (Henry IV) make up Felix and Oscar's card-playing friends. The guys are joined by fellow Company member Tiffany Hobbs (A Christmas Carol, Cabaret) and Southern Methodist University student Mia Antoinette Crow (a former Skokos Learning Lab student from Booker T. Washington High School) as the Pigeon sisters.

Bringing to life Simon's story is set designer Timothy R. Mackabee (DTC debut), with a true-to-life representation of an Upper Westside Manhattan apartment. Audience members will get a look into all corners of the apartment, including a view at buildings next door. Costume designer Jennifer Caprio (It's a Bird ... It's a Plane ... It's Superman), lighting designer Tyler Micoleau (The Trinity River Plays; A Midsummer Night's Dream) and sound designers Broken Chord (King Lear, The Tempest) round out the creative team.

The Odd Couple opens with previews on Friday, March 15 at 8:00pm with a Pay-What-You-Can performance. Tickets to this performance will be available for purchase online at www.DallasTheaterCenter.org beginning Monday, March 11. Any unsold tickets to the PWYC performance will be available for purchase at the Wyly Theatre box office the night of the show beginning at 6:30pm. DTC's Come Early sponsored by Wells Fargo will take place one hour before every performance. Patrons will have the opportunity to learn about the play prior to viewing the production. DTC's Dr. Pepper Snapple Stay Late will take place after each performance. Patrons will have the opportunity to engage with artists, learn about the production and share insights about the play in a lively discussion. Details for Come Early and Stay Late are available online. Tickets for The Odd Couple are on sale now. Ticket prices start at $15 and are available online at www.DallasTheaterCenter.org or by phone at (214) 880-0202.

On Thursday, March 7 from 6:00 - 8:00pm, Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams and DTC will co-host a cocktail party to launch the upcoming production of The Odd Couple. In addition to meeting members of the cast at the McKinney Avenue location, guests will be able to purchase tickets to The Odd Couple and will have the opportunity to enter to win a $1500 Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams gift certificate. The event is free to attend, but RSVPs are requested. Those interesTed May RSVP by email to rsvp@mgbwdallas.com or by phone at (214) 753-8700.

J. Anthony Crane (Oscar Madison) DTC debut. Broadway: Sight?Unseen (Manhattan Theatre Club), Butley (Booth Theater). Off-Broadway: Modern Orthodox; Relativity; The Brothers Karamazov. Regional credits include: Lancelot in Spamalot (Wynn Las Vegas); Jack Kerouac in Beat Generation (Merrimack); Scar in the first national tour of The Lion King; The Old Globe; Humana New Works Festival; Contemporary American Theater Festival; Cleveland Play House; Paper Mill Playhouse; Pasadena Playhouse. Numerous FILM/ TV: Life on Mars; Ugly Betty; The Practice; Third Watch; JAG; Six Degrees; Frasier; CSI; and USA's The Big Easy. Graduate of Northwestern University.

Mia Antoinette Crowe (Cecily Pigeon) is making her DTC debut in this production of The Odd Couple. She attended Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts and is currently a junior at SMU where she is studying for a BFA in Acting. Her most recent credits include For Colored Girls, Blues for Mr. Charlie, and The Skriker.

Hassan El-Amin (Roy) is a member of the Brierley Resident Acting Company and Community Artist at DTC, where his credits include: King Lear; A Christmas Carol; God of Carnage; The Wiz; Henry IV; Death of a Salesman. Regional: Fences; Seven Guitars; Radio Golf; Jitney; Blues for an Alabama Sky; A Raisin in the Sun; The Lion King; The Tempest; Julius Caesar; King Lear; Othello. Kennedy Center; Mark Taper Forum; Goodman Theatre; Arena Stage; Guthrie Theater; ALLIANCE THEATRE; Huntington Theatre; The Denver Center for the Performing Arts; Portland Center Stage; Milwaukee Repertory Theater; San Diego Repertory Theatre; Penumbra Theatre; Colorado, Oregon, and Utah Shakespeare Festivals. Film/TV: E-Ring (NBC). Soundtracks: Tears of the Sun; The Wild. Education: MFA, University of Delaware.

Chamblee Ferguson (Vinnie) is a long-time DTC performer and a member of the Brierley Resident Acting Company. Selected DTC: King Lear; A Christmas Carol; Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat; Tigers Be Still; The Tempest; Cabaret; A Midsummer Night's Dream; The Taming of the Shrew; and Twelfth Night. He has worked at numerous theaters nationally. Local theaters include: Stage West Theatre; Lyric Stage; Circle Theater; WaterTower Theater; Casa Mañana Theatre; Dallas Children's Theater; and Uptown Players. Film/TV credits include: Parkland, Chasing Shakespeare; Friday Night Lights; The Chase; Prison Break; A Scanner Darkly; Walker, Texas Ranger; and PBS's Wishbone. Chamblee was a 2011 Lunt-Fontanne Fellow and is a DFW Theater Critic's Award recipient. MFA, SMU.

Tiffany Hobbs (Gwendolyn Pigeon) is a member of the Brierley Resident Acting Company and Casting Associate at DTC where her credits include: Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat; Stagger Lee (staged readings); Cabaret; A Christmas Carol. Awards: 2011 San Francisco Broadway World Awards-Best Leading Actress in a Musical for Motormouth Maybelle (Hairspray) and Best Featured Actress in a Musical for Joanne (Company); 2011 female Star Project winner (NBC and the American Black Film Festival). Recent roles include: Juanita (Blues for Mister Charlie), Susan (Race), Frosine (The Miser); Berniece (The Piano Lesson). New York Theater: The Burnin' (The Public Theater). MFA, SMU.

Michael Mastro (Felix Ungar) DTC debut. Broadway: West Side Story; Twelve Angry Men; Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (2003); Mamma Mia!; Judgment at Nuremberg; Side Man; Barrymore (with Christopher Plummer); Love! Valour! Compassion!. Off-Broadway: Volpone (Red Bull), Any Given Monday (59E59/Act Two) and many others. Regionally, he has performed in everything from Shakespeare to Neil Simon, at theaters including: The Shakespeare Theatre DC; George Street Playhouse; Paper Mill; The Old Globe; Penguin Rep and Williamstown. Film: Kissing Jessica Stein; The Night We Never Met; Jungle 2 Jungle. TV: Nurse Jackie; lots of Law & Order; Magic City; Alias; Hack; Cosby.

John Taylor Philips (Murray) couldn't be happier to return to DTC, where he last appeared as Glendower in Henry IV. He has appeared in numerous productions across the country in theaters such as Goodman Theatre, Chicago Shakespeare Company, Milwaukee Repertory Theater, the Utah Shakespeare Festival, Illinois Shakespeare Festival, and American Players Theatre. Favorite roles include: Twelfth Night (Feste); The Winter's Tale (Leontes); Lombardi: The Only Thing (Jim Taylor); Nobody's Fool (Paul); The Play's the Thing (Albert); Medea (Jason); and A Streetcar Named Desire (Stanley). Film credits include: Parkland, My Soul to Take and My Soul to Take II.

Lee Trull (Speed) is a member of the Brierley Resident Acting Company and Literary Associate at DTC where his credits include: King Lear; Next Fall; The Tempest; Cabaret; Arsenic and Old Lace; The Beauty Plays; A Midsummer Night's Dream; In the Beginning; and A Christmas Carol. Work at other theaters includes: Trinity Repertory Company; Kitchen Dog Theater; Classical Acting Company; Theatre Three; WaterTower Theatre; Stage West Theatre; Dallas Children's Theater; and Shakespeare Dallas. Playwright: Huck Finn; Gift of the Magi (CAC); Puppet Boy (Stage West Theatre). Mr. Trull is an artistic company member at Kitchen Dog Theater, an artistic consultant for Second Thought Theatre, and he serves on the National New Play Network's Ambassadors Council.

Neil Simon (Playwright) has been represented on Broadway by Come Blow Your Horn; Little Me; Barefoot in the Park; The Odd Couple (winner, 1965 Tony Award for Best Author of a Play); Sweet Charity; The Star-Spangled Girl; Plaza Suite; Promises, Promises; Last of the Red Hot Lovers; The Gingerbread Lady; The Prisoner of Second Avenue; The Sunshine Boys; The Good Doctor; God's Favorite; California Suite; Chapter Two; They're Playing Our Song; I Ought to Be in Pictures; Fools; Brighton Beach Memoirs; Biloxi Blues (1985 Tony Award); the female version of The Odd Couple; Broadway Bound; Rumors; Lost in Yonkers (1991 Pulitzer Prize, Tony Award); Jake's Women; The Goodbye Girl; Laughter on the 23rd Floor; Proposals; The Dinner Party; and 45 Seconds From Broadway. Off-Broadway: London Suite, Hotel Suite and Rose's Dilemma. Films include Barefoot in the Park; The Odd Couple; The Out-of-Towners; Plaza Suite; The Heartbreak Kid; The Prisoner of Second Avenue; Murder by Death; The Sunshine Boys; The Goodbye Girl; The Cheap Detective; California Suite; Chapter Two; Seems Like Old Times; Only When I Laugh; I Ought to Be in Pictures; Max Dugan Returns; Brighton Beach Memoirs; Biloxi Blues and Lost in Yonkers.

Timothy R. Mackabee (Set Design) Broadway: Mike Tyson: Undisputed Truth (directed by Spike Lee). Off-Broadway: Good Ol' Girls, Seed, Mel & El: Show & Tell (Ars Nova). Regional: Yale Rep; Asolo Rep; Florida Stage; Philadelphia Theater Co.; Studio Theatre; North Shore Music Theatre; Theatre J; Weston Playhouse; Everyman Theatre; Maltz Jupitier Theatre; Williamstown Theatre Festival; Triad Stage; Weston Playhouse. Dance: Alchemy (Doug Varone & Dancers); Raw, Beyond The Red, and Seed (Cedar Lake Dance). Opera: Paul's Case (World Premiere). Film/TV: Smash; The Today Show; Football Night In America; Margot at the Wedding Resident Set Designer, Williamstown Theatre Festival. Education: BFA, North Carolina School of the Arts, MFA, Yale School of Drama. timothymackabeedesign.com

Jennifer Caprio (Costume Design) Jen is thrilled to be back at Dallas Theater Center, where her credits include It's a Bird ... It's a Plane ... It's Superman and In the Beginning. Broadway: The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. Recent NY: InTransit (Primary Stages-Lortel Nomination); Fugitive Songs (Dreamlight); Striking 12 (Daryl Roth). International: The Collected Works of Billy the Kid (Edinburgh Festival) Regional: Motherhood the Musical (G Four Productions); Florida Grand Opera; Minnesota Opera; Opera Colorado; Opera Boston; PlayMakers Repertory Company; Virginia Stage Company; George Street Playhouse; Great Lakes Theater Festival; La Jolla Playhouse; Utah Shakespeare Festival; Williamstown Theatre Festival; Westport Country Playhouse and Cleveland Play House, among others.

Tyler Micoleau (Lighting Design) DTC: The Trinity River Plays; A Midsummer Night's Dream; and The Who's Tommy. The Dallas Opera: The Lighthouse (a collaboration with DTC). Notable Off-Broadway credits: Heartless (Signature Theatre); Disgraced (Lincoln Center Theater/LCT3); A Map of Virtue (13P); When the Rain Stops Falling (Lucille Lortel Award, Lincoln Center Theater/ Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater); The Aliens (Rattlestick Playwrights Theater); Blasted (American Theatre Wing Hewes Award, Soho Rep); Hell House (Hewes nom., St. Ann's Warehouse); Bug (Lucille Lortel and OBIE Awards, Barrow Street Theatre). Regional: American Repertory Theater; Long Wharf Theatre; Trinity Repertory Company; The Old Globe; The Shakespeare Theatre; Huntington Theatre; many others. 2010 Village Voice OBIE Award for Sustained Excellence.

Broken Chord (Sound Design/Composition) is Daniel Baker and Aaron Meicht. New York: Atlantic Theater Company; Cherry Lane Theatre; The Incubator Arts Project; Juilliard; Keen Company; Manhattan Theatre Club; Primary Stages; The Public Theater; Rattlestick Playwrights Theater; Second Stage Theatre; and Women's Project. Regional: Dallas Theater Center; Actors Theatre of Louisville; Berkeley Rep; Centerstage; Hartford Stage; Huntington Theatre Co.; Oregon Shakespeare Festival; The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis; Shakespeare Theatre Company. brokenchordcollective.com

Jeff Gifford (Production Manager) is thrilled to be leading the great group of talented artists here at DTC who create everything you see on stage. Every day brings a new challenge and never a dull moment. World premieres are especially fun to work on and Jeff has participated in more than 30 of them. Jeff has been a Production Manager for more than 20 years and holds an MFA from California Institute of the Arts.

Chris "Wafles" Wathen (Stage Manager) Selected DTC: The Beauty Plays (SM); Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat; The Wiz; Pride and Prejudice; The Misanthrope; The Who's Tommy; A Christmas Carol (2007-2010, 2012); In the Beginning; Sarah, Plain and Tall; A Midsummer Night's Dream (ASM). Ball State University: Production Stage Manager (18-show season). Triad Stage: The Glass Menagerie (SM). Illinois Shakespeare Festival: Comedy of Errors (ASM), The Complete Works of William Shakespeare [abridged] (SM). Waffles often serves as Adjunct Instructor of Stage Management with Ball State University's Department of Theatre and Dance.

Tara Rubin CASTING (New York Casting) DTC: Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat; The Wiz; Arsenic and Old Lace; It's a Bird... It's a Plane... It's Superman. Broadway: The Heiress; Scandalous: The Life and Trials of Aimee Semple McPherson; Ghost; One Man, Two Guvnors (US Casting); Jesus Christ Superstar (US Casting); Hugh Jackman: Back on Broadway; How to Succeed ...; Promises, Promises; A Little Night Music; Billy Elliot; Shrek; Guys and Dolls; The Farnsworth Invention; ...Young Frankenstein; The Little Mermaid; Mary Poppins; My Fair Lady; Pirate Queen; LES MISERABLES; Spamalot; Jersey Boys; ...Spelling Bee; The Producers; Mamma Mia!; Phantom of the Opera; Contact. Off-Broadway: Love, Loss, and What I Wore, Old Jews Telling Jokes. Regional: Yale Repertory, La Jolla Playhouse, Westport Country Playhouse. Film: Lucky Stiff, The Producers.

One of the leading regional theaters in the country, Dallas Theater Center (DTC) performs to an audience of more than 120,000 North Texas residents annually. Founded in 1959, DTC is now a resident company of the AT&T Performing Arts Center and presents its Mainstage season at the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre, designed by REX/OMA, Joshua Prince-Ramus and Rem Koolhaas and at its original home, the Kalita Humphreys Theater, the only freestanding theater designed and built by Frank Lloyd Wright. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Kevin Moriarty and Managing Director Heather M. Kitchen, DTC produces a seven-play subscription series of classics, musicals and new plays and an annual production of A Christmas Carol; extensive education programs, including Project Discovery, SummerStage and partnerships with Southern Methodist University's Meadows School of the Arts and Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts; and community outreach efforts including leading the DFW Foote Festival and recent collaborations with the Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas Public Library, Dallas Holocaust Museum, North Texas Food Bank, Dallas Opera, and Dallas Black Dance Theater. Throughout its history, DTC has produced many new works, including The Texas Trilogy by Preston Jones in 1978, Robert Penn Warren's All the King's Men, adapted by Adrian Hall, in 1986, and recent premieres of Giant by Michael John LaChiusa and Sybille Pearson, The Trinity River Plays by ReGina Taylor, the revised It's a Bird... It's a Plane... It's Superman by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, Charles Strouse and Lee Adams, Give It Up! (now titled Lysistrata Jones and recently on Broadway) by Douglas Carter Beane and Lewis Flinn, Sarah, Plain and Tall by Julia Jordan, Laurence O'Keefe and Nell Benjamin and The Good Negro by Tracey Scott Wilson.

Photo Credit: Karen Almond

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