Andak Stage Presents LIBERTY INN: THE MUSICAL

The Andak Stage Company announces a seventh world premiere to open its fourth season. LIBERTY INN: THE MUSICAL is a full-length musical adapted from Goldoni's comic masterpiece La locandiera ("The Landlady") by Dakin Matthews (book and lyrics) and B. T. Ryback (music). This collaboration is the result of a meeting while the two were performing together in The History Boys at the Ahmanson Theatre. They wrote this musical, mostly in cyberspace, while Mr. Ryback was working in Los Angeles and New York, and Mr. Matthews was touring the world with Sam Mendes' Bridge Project.

Associate Artistic Director Anne McNaughton will direct the world premiere of this tuneful and rollicking courtship comedy with strong feminist themes, transferred from 18th Century Italy into a time in the early days of the new American republic. Deborah May and Norman Snow star as the wily American innkeeper and the misogynistic Hessian Captain in an intriguing ‘battle of the sexes' waged in her fashionable inn in post-colonial Liberty, New York. The rest of the seven-member cast-which includes an English Count, a French Marquis, an Italian actress, and two servants-will be announced later. The show will play for seven weeks at Andak's NewPlace Studio Theatre in the NoHo Arts District.

Dakin Matthews (Book & Lyrics, Co-Producer) is the Artistic Director of Andak Stage Company and a multiple award-winning playwright, who has produced five of his scripts at Andak: three originals (The Prince of L.A., A Magic Christmas, and The Savannah Option) and two translations (Spite for Spite and Don Juan the Trickster of Seville). Other scripts: The Liar and The Proof of the Promise, verse translations from the Spanish, were produced by the Antaeus Company and toured to the international Siglo de Oro Festival in El Paso; Uncommon Players was produced at the Old Globe Theatre and Shakespeare on the Beach, and The Great Fugue at ACT in San Francisco; his single play adaptation of Shakespeare's Henry IV has been produced across the country, including a Tony Award winning production at Lincoln Center Theater, for which he won a special Drama Desk Award. He is also a busy actor, teacher, dramaturge, and Shakespeare scholar, and was the Founding Artistic Director of the Antaeus Company.

Brett Ryback (Composer, Musical Director) is an actor, playwright, and composer. His plays and musicals include Weïrd (Winner, 2007 Tennessee Williams One-Act Competition), A Roz By Any Other Name, (Winner, Henrico County One-Act Competition), I, Abraham (UCLA commission), Quit India (Finalist, 2007 Richard Rodgers Award), the book for Darling (PACE New Musicals 2009), and the music for the movie-musical Shoulder Pads. He is currently completing the book, music, and lyrics to The Tavern Keeper's Daughter. This season Brett will be appearing in The 25th annual Putnam County Spelling Bee at La Mirada Theatre and in Dr. Cerberus at South Coast Repertory Theatre.

Anne McNaughton (Director, Co-Producer) is the Associate Artistic Director of Andak Stage Company and directed its previous productions of The Letters, Spite for Spite and The Bay At Nice, as well as the world premieres of The Prince of L.A., The Savannah Option, A Magic Christmas, Don Juan The Trickster of Seville, and her own Molière update, San Fran Scapin. Anne was the Artistic Director of the Valley Shakespeare Festival in Saratoga and a founding member of both the Antaeus Company and John Houseman's Acting Company, for which she directed U.S.A. off-Broadway. She was a Resident Director at San Jose Rep, California Actors Theatre, Berkeley Stage Company, and Berkeley Shakespeare Festival, and taught and directed in The American Conservatory Theatre's advanced training program. She is a member of the first graduating class of the Juilliard Drama Division and holds a graduate degree in directing from Stanford University. Her award-winning productions in the San Francisco Bay Area include Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Richard III, Artichoke, and Letters Home. Most recently, she directed The Prince of L.A. and Collected Stories at The Old Globe, and The Liar, The Proof of the Promise, Trial By Jury, and The Will for the Antaeus Company.

LIBERTY INN: THE MUSICAL opens Saturday, March 13 at 8:00pm and Sunday March 14, 2010 at 2:00pm (with opening receptions to follow). It will run through Sunday April 25, 2010, with no performances Easter weekend, April 2-4. Performances are Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00pm and Saturdays and Sundays at 2:00pm at NewPlace Studio Theatre, 10950 Peach Grove Street, North Hollywood, CA 91601. All tickets are $25, with discounts for previews, seniors, students, industry professionals, and groups. The Box Office line will open on February 15, 2009. Call (866) 811-4111 for reservations or visit www.Andak.org.

Deborah May (The Wily American Innkeeper) is an Associate Artist of The Old Globe, where she has appeared in ten productions. She also spent eight years at ACT in San Francisco, appearing in over 25 productions, and nine summers at PCPA in Santa Maria, appearing in over 20 productions. She has also worked on and off Broadway and at The Mark Taper Forum, Seattle Rep, Louisville Actors Theatre, the Guthrie Theatre, and the Huntington Theatre. Her TV credits include E.R., The Larry Sanders Show, Murder One, St. Elsewhere, and Guiding Light.

Norman Snow (The Hessian Captain) appeared in the critically acclaimed Andak Stage Company productions of Martin Crimp's The Misanthrope, John Lowell's The Letters, and Bernard Pomerance's The Elephant Man. On Broadway, Mr. Snow appeared in The School for Scandal, The Beggar's Opera, Macbeth, Inherit the Wind, The Robber Bridegroom, Edward II, The Three Sisters, Scenes and Revelations, The Time of You Life, Measure for Measure, and Next Time I'll Sing For You. Off-Broadway, he was seen in One Crack Out, The Lower Depths, The Fantod, Timon of Athens, and Cymbeline. He has appeared regionally at the Goodman Theatre (Richard III, Holiday, Lone Canoe), Great Lakes Theatre (Man and Superman, Hamlet), Annenberg Theatre (The Power and the Glory), The Old Globe (Art, Henry V, Hamlet, A Midsummer Night's Dream), Pasadena Playhouse (David's Mother), Yale Rep (Major Barbara), Long Wharf Theatre (Reclaimed), Mark Taper Forum (Richard II), South Coast Rep (The Company of Heaven), Matrix Theatre (Habeas Corpus), and the Globe West Hollywood (If Only). His films include The Europeans, Hard Choices, The Last Starfighter, and Manhunter. On TV he has appeared in many series and soaps, including Law and Order, L.A. Law, Quantum Leap, Star Trek, Days of Our Lives, and The Young and the Restless. Mr. Snow graduated from Juilliard as part of the first drama class (Group One), and was a founding member of John Houseman's The Acting Company and of The Antaeus Company. He was also a member of the renowned choir at St. Charles Borromeo in L.A. under maestro Paul Salumunivich, with whom he sang on numerous picture soundtracks as well as with the L.A. Master Chorale and the L.A. Philharmonic in Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex.

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