Colony Theatre Presents SHOOTING STAR, Previews 9/14

The Colony Theatre will present the third production of its 37th season of shows - the West Coast Premiere of SHOOTING STAR, written by Steven Dietz and directed by David Rose. SHOOTING STAR will preview on Wednesday, September 14; Thursday, September 15; and Friday, September 16 at 8:00pm and will open on Saturday, September 17 at 8:00pm and continue through Sunday, October 16 at The Colony Theatre, 555 North Third Street (at Cypress) adjacent to the Burbank Town Center.

Elena and Reed had a passionate love affair when they were in college. It ended badly, and they haven't seen each other since. It's now 25 years later, and they have an unexpected reunion while trapped in an airport during a blizzard with all flights cancelled. She is still a flower child. He is a buttoned-down corporate executive. Is it ever too late for a second chance? Filled with laughter and heartache, SHOOTING STAR is a bittersweet romantic comedy about the middle days of our lives and how we got there.

The award-winning Colony Theatre was founded in 1975 as a 99-seat Equity-waiver theatre in Silver Lake. Over the years the company was so successful artistically, and built such a large subscriber base, that in 2000 it was able to move into a 270-seat theatre created for it by the City of Burbank, becoming one of only 5 mid-size professional theatres in the LA area that produces a year-round season of plays and musicals, and that employs actors under contract with Actors' Equity Association. Since the move to Burbank, The Colony was named one of "25 Notable U.S. Theatre Companies" by the Encyclopedia Britannica Almanac for 8 years in a row and voted "Best Live Theatre in LA" in The Daily News 2006 Readers' Choice poll. The company's audience is so loyal that in an era when subscription is declining dramatically, and when the industry-wide "gold standard" renewal rate of 80% is considered unattainable, for the past two seasons The Colony has achieved a subscription renewal rate over 90%. This season, at a time when many theatres are shortening their seasons and canceling performances, The Colony is expanding, for the first time in its history presenting six shows instead of the usual five.

ABOUT THE CREATIVE TEAM

Steven Dietz (Playwright) is one of America's most widely-produced and published contemporary playwrights. He is a two-time winner of the Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays Award, for Fiction (produced Off-Broadway by the Roundabout Theatre Company), and Still Life with Iris. He received the PEN USA West Award in Drama for Lonely Planet; the 2007 Edgar Award for Drama from the Mystery Writers of America for his widely-produced Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure (adapted from William Gillette and Arthur Conan Doyle); and the 1995 Yomuiri Shimbun Award (the Japanese "Tony") for his adaptation of Shusaku Endo's novel Silence. Other widely produced plays include Inventing Van Gogh, God's Country, Private Eyes, The Nina Variations, Trust, Rocket Man, Halcyon Days, Ten November, Foolin' Around with Infinity, and More Fun Than Bowling. Other award-winning stage adaptations include Force Of Nature (from Goethe), Over The Moon (from P.G. Wodehouse), The Rememberer (from Joyce Simmons Cheeka), Paragon Springs (from Ibsen), Dracula (from Bram Stoker), and, with Allison Gregory, Go, Dog. Go! (from P.D. Eastman). Steven's work as a director has been seen at many leading regional theatres in the United States, including The Actors Theatre of Louisville's Humana Festival, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Denver Center Theatre Company, Northlight Theatre (Chicago), ACT Theatre (Seattle), San Jose Repertory Theatre, City Theatre Company (Pittsburgh), Westside Arts (Off-Broadway), and The Sundance Institute, among many others. He was a resident director for ten years at the Playwrights' Center in Minneapolis, where he also served as Artistic Director of Midwest PlayLabs. Recent work includes the Pulitzer-nominated Last Of The Boys (Steppenwolf Theatre, Chicago); the acclaimed adaptation of Dan Gutman's baseball novel, Honus And Me; Becky's New Car (ACT, Seattle); and two newly-commissioned plays: City Of Ghosts (McCarter Theatre, Princeton) and Near Aberdeen (Steppenwolf, Chicago). Steven's plays have been seen at over 100 regional theatres in the United States, as well as Off-Broadway. International productions have been seen in England, Japan, Germany, France, Australia, Sweden, Austria, Russia, Slovenia, Argentina, Peru, Singapore and South Africa, and his work has been translated into seven languages.

David Rose (Director) has staged over 25 productions at The Colony including the West Coast Premiere of Year Zero, Visiting Mr. Green, the L.A. Premiere of Mary's Wedding, and The Voice of the Prairie. Other Colony productions include the L.A. Premiere of Almost, Maine, "Master Harold" ... and the boys (NAACP Theatre Award nomination), the West Coast Premiere of ...Young Lady From Rwanda, Billy Bishop Goes to War, Sherlock's Last Case, the L.A. Premiere of The Drawer Boy, the L.A. Premiere of Fuddy Meers, The Nerd, The Man Who Came to Dinner, the World Premiere of Bea[u]tiful in the Extreme, Our Country's Good (six Ovation Award nominations, Drama-Logue Award), the L.A. Premiere of The Living, The Front Page (L.A. Weekly Award for Revival Production of the Year), You Can't Take it With You (Drama-Logue Award), June Moon, and the West Coast Premiere of Peccadillo. He also directed Second Stage productions of True West, Baby with the Bathwater, and I Can Fit My Fist in My Mouth. As an actor, David has appeared at The Colony in Bedroom Farce (Drama-Logue Award), Mornings at Seven, The Clearing, Incident at Vichy, Einstein and the Polar Bear, and Pastoral. Elsewhere in Los Angeles, he has directed productions of Geniuses (Drama-Logue Award), Justin Tanner's Big Bear, and the nine-month run of the smash hit Road to Nirvana (Drama-Logue Award) - all at Burbank's Third Stage - as well as The Dining Room at Theatre 40, Inspecting Carol at the Ivy Substation (Drama-Logue Award), and Chased From Paradise and The Blues Are Running at the Lost Studio. He is the former Artistic Director of The New York Comedy Repertory Ensemble and a founding member of Washington, D.C.'s acclaimed Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company.

ABOUT THE CAST AND DESIGN TEAM
Michelle Duffy (Elena) is one of the most honored theatre actresses in California. She won the Ovation Award for Lead Actress in a Musical for Can-Can at the Pasadena Playhouse, a Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Award for starring in Sunday in the Park with George at Theatreworks, a Drama-Logue Award and a Garland Award for both A Streetcar Named Desire at American Conservatory Theatre and Putting It Together at The Colony. She was also nominated three times for Chicago's Joseph Jefferson Award (Best Actress for My Children! My Africa!, Best Supporting Actress for both West Side Story and Blues in the Night). She was last seen at The Colony in Our Country's Good, and has also appeared on many southern California stages including The Ahmanson (the musical Leap of Faith), Old Globe, La Jolla Playhouse, South Coast Rep, A Noise Within, South Bay Cities CLO, Musical Theatre West (Ovation Award nomination for Sweeney Todd) , and La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts. She has appeared around the country at Cleveland Playhouse, Milwaukee Rep, Goodman Theatre (Chicago), and Northlight Theatre (Chicago), and internationally at Vienna's English Theatre (Austria), Barbican Theatre (U.K.), Birmingham Rep (U.K.), and ACT Theatre Tokyo (Japan). Her recent TV appearances include "Desperate Housewives," "House," "The Closer," and "Mad Men."

KEVIN SYMONS (Reed) is one of Los Angeles's busiest theatre actors. He returns to The Colony Theatre for his seventh production, having previously appeared in No Way to Treat a Lady, Rounding Third, Stage Struck, Gunmetal Blues, The Nerd, and Bea[u]tiful in the Extreme. At Laguna Playhouse, he appeared in Leaving Iowa, Alexandros, Shear Madness, The Constant Wife, Rounding Third, Tabletop, and Spinning Into Butter. Other theatre credits include She Loves Me (Rubicon Theatre); Twice Upon A Time (South Bay Cities CLO); Wicked City Blues (York Theatre, Off-Broadway); New World (MET Theatre); Tallulah and Tennessee with Betty Garrett, The Trial of Othello, Baby Cradle and All and Steve Allen's A Christmas Carol (Theatre West); Demon Wine with Tom Waits and Bill Pullman, Death of a Salesman with Philip Baker Hall, The Crucible and Boys' Life (Los Angeles Theatre Center); Our Town (Grove Shakespeare); Finding the Sun directed by Edward Albee; and The Hairy Ape directed by Jose Quintero. As a member of Musical Theatre Guild, he appeared in three productions last season at the Alex Theatre including the recent Batboy: The Musical. On television, he was a series regular on the NBC comedy "Darcy's Wild Life" and has numerous other appearances include recurring and guest star roles on "Parks and Recreation," "Desperate Housewives," "NCIS.," "Weeds," "United States of Tara," "My Name Is Earl," "Numbers," "Mad Men," "Drive," "iCarly," "Medium," "Veronica Mars," "Joan of Arcadia," "The West Wing," "The Bold and the Beautiful," "Sabrina, the Teenage Witch," and HBO's "Indictment." Film credits include "Alvin and the Chipmunks," "Terminator II," "Valhalla," "The Little Death," "The Wild Side," and "A New Tomorrow."

SHOOTING STAR has assembled an award-winning design team. The Scenic Design is by David Potts (Emmy Award - HBO's "Deadwood"). The Lighting Design is by Luke Moyer (Ovation Award - Dracula). The Costume Design is by Dianne K. Graebner (Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well). The Sound Design is by Cricket S. Myers (Tony Award nomination - Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo). Props design and set dressing is by Colony Theatre resident designers MacAndMe.

ABOUT THE SCHEDULE AND PRICING

SHOOTING STAR will open on Saturday, September 17 at 8:00pm and continue through Sunday, October 16. Performances for SHOOTING STAR are Thursdays & Fridays at 8:00pm; Saturdays at 3:00pm & 8:00pm; and Sundays at 2:00pm. Ticket prices range from $20.00 - $42.00 (student, senior and group discounts are available). SHOOTING STAR will preview on Wednesday, September 14; Thursday, September 15; and Friday, September 16 at 8:00pm at The Colony Theatre, 555 North Third Street (at Cypress) adjacent to the Burbank Town Center.

Opening night performance with reception - all tickets $50.00. There are question-and-answer talkbacks after the performances on Friday, September 23 and Thursday, October 6. For tickets, call the Colony Theatre Box Office at 818/558-7000 ext. 15 or online at www.ColonyTheatre.Org.

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