Ed Asner to Lead Staged Reading of Walter Bagot's ELEVATOR MUSIC at Skylight Theatre, 5/9

Ed Asner, winner of seven EMMY Awards with 20 nominations and five Golden Globes, will star in the staged reading of Walter Bagot's third play, Elevator Music, at the Skylight Theatre. An entertainment icon, Broadway performer, and Television Academy "Hall of Famer," Asner will be sharing the stage with theatre veteran Rob Nagle (recently Rogue Machine's Pocatello, Antaeus, Troubadour, Denver Center, and Arena Stage).

Asner is the only actor to win both a comedy and a drama Primetime EMMY for the same role (for Lou Grant). He is a champion of the Skylight Theatre Company development programs.

A weekend in an elevator forces father and son into the ultimate showdown. The two men, who share a dysfunctional relationship, arrange to meet on a Friday evening at the father's office for his retirement party. They become trapped in the office-building elevator over the weekend with no avenue of escape until the building reopens on Monday morning. ELEVATOR MUSIC is set in the early 1990's in Chicago.

Walter Bagot's plays include Has Anyone Seen Joey, produced at the Marilyn Monroe Theater, and Combinations, produced at Stage Lee Strasberg. Walter, with his wife, Tanya Everett Bagot, are award-winning choreographers of stage musicals, having received a Drama-Logue award for outstanding choreography of the epic musical, Mendel and Moses. Walter has written two screenplays currently being considered for production, "McRae," a WW2 film, and "Flap-Ball-Change," a Broadway dance 'dramedy.' Walter is currently writing his fourth play and is about to have a poetry collection published.

"Last November, Skylight Theatre Company saluted Ed Asner on his 86th birthday, honoring his remarkable career and unwavering support for theatre. Now, we welcome him back to our stage for a reading of Elevator Music by Walter Bagot. Proceeds from the reading will benefit Skylight's successful Artistic Development Program, INKubator, which nurtures developing artists from across greater Los Angeles and at-risk teens in local high schools and detention centers. Since 2011 we've hosted festivals of new plays, taught writing, offered 97 public readings in our Play Reading Series and expanded over 1500 teens' creative experiences through workshops and performances. We're proud of the fact that in just five years, 22 of those readings were developed into fully produced plays performed here at Skylight, nationally and internationally. One is on stage across town right now," says Gary Grossman, Skylight Theatre Company Producing Artistic Director

Director Elina de Santos is a frequent guest director at many top theaters in Los Angeles. She is the Co-Artistic Director of the Rogue Machine Theatre and has directed 3 World premieres for them; the multi-award winning Dirty Filthy Love Story, by Rob Mersola (featured in Theatre Arts Magazine's August 2013 edition), Razorback by the multi-award winning resident playwright, John Pollono and Yard Sales Signs by Jennie Webb, as well as numerous others. Additional credits include the award winning Broken Glass by Arthur Miller at West Coast Jewish Theatre, and for the Pasadena Playhouse, the West Coast Premiere of Vincent In Brixton by Nicolas Wright and starring Stephanie Zimbalist. Odyssey Theatre - LA Premiere of David Mamet's Speed The Plow, and Clifford Odets' Awake & Sing! Pacific Resident Theatre - Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman and Tennessee Williams', Orpheus Descending garnering LADCC Awards for performance, direction and production. Ark Theatre, A Doll's House by Henrick Ibsen, LA Weekly Best Direction, production and ensemble nominees. Other selected credits include: Orphans by Lyle Kessler for International City Theatre, OC Weekly Best Production, Romeo and Juliet: Circus Verona, Deaf West Theatre, Ovation Nomination. Her producing credits include the Ovation winning production of the year, Dying City by Chris Shinn and the award winning The New Electric Ballroom by Enda Walsh, at Rogue Machine. Elina is the recipient of the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Career Achievement Award in directing, 2012.

"I've wanted to do Elevator Music since I first read it two years ago, and I'm very happy to be finally doing it at Skylight. Skylight Theatre Company is a jewel among LA's small theatres, not only because of the quality of their work, or the fact that they develop and produce new plays and mentor promising artists, but because they embrace and live the idea that theatre can make a difference and have an impact - through the timely stories they nurture and bring to life on stage, by engaging youth with creative educational programs, and in their fundamental commitment to being a good neighbor." - Ed Asner

In addition to his voluminous and celebrated work in television, Ed Asner has turned in unforgettable performances in films such as JFK, Elf, Up, and most recently Pacific Edge. He has returned periodically to Broadway, toured the country for many years in the one-man show FDR, co-founded L.A. Theatre Works, and only two years ago graced the Skylight Theatre stage in a reading of Terrence McNally's Some Men. And if that weren't enough, Ed served two terms as President of the Screen Actors Guild, protecting the rights and advancing the profession of working actors.

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