FOUR PLACES Makes West Coast Debut At Rogue Machine, Opens 5/14
By: Charlie Piane Apr. 26, 2010
What starts as an innocent lunch between a septuagenarian Mom and her two adult children degenerates into a fierce game of cat and mouse which leads to a confession that will radically upset the lives of the entire family. In Joel Drake Johnson's darkly humorous play, a weekly family outing takes some unimaginable turns.
ROBIN LARSEN (Director) is a multi-award winning director recognized most recently for her work at the Black Dahlia Theatre, named "one of a dozen young American companies you need to know" by American Theater Magazine. At the Black Dahlia, Robin directed one of the most lauded plays of the 2007 Los Angeles theater season, the West Coast Premiere of Karoline Leach's Tryst (performance schedule extended four times). Her production was nominated for 5 Ovation Awards and won two Backstage Garland Awards, including Best Director. In the Dahlia's 2004 Los Angeles Drama Critic Circle Award winning season, Robin directed the Los Angeles Premiere of David Schulner's An Infinite Ache, a ‘Critic's Pick' by the Los Angeles Times, the LA Weekly and Backstage, it appeared on five critics' "Best of 2004" lists, and collected twelve Los Angeles Press awards and nominations, including awards for Best Direction and Production of the Year. Her first short film, Sombra, won the Student Academy Award, garnered the Kodak Emerging Filmmaker Award, and screened at the Cannes International Film Festival. Robin's next film Out of Habit won a Director's Guild Film Award, the Princess Grace Award, and numerous ‘Best Short' awards. Her latest short film No. 6 (starring Ron Perlman, Charlotte Ayanna, and Brian Baumgartner has won Best Short at the Sonoma Film Festival and was nominated for Best Short at Method Fest and the USA Film Festival. Robin's screenwriting credits include the recent Women Project, for Imagine/Universal, which is set to star Diane Keaton, Catherine O'Hara, Tracey Ullman, and Rita Wilson.
JOEL DRAKE JOHNSON (Playwright) is an award winning playwright. Victory Gardens Playwrights Ensemble has produced three of his plays: Before My Eyes (Jeff nomination), The End of the Tour (Jeff nomination) and Four Places (a finalist in the National Art's Club's Best New Play of 2006). He got his start as a writer at Chicago's critically acclaimed Econo-Art Theatre, which produced his plays Beautiful Dreamer and Blind Hearts. His play As the Beaver, a critical and popular hit for Chicago's Zebra Crossing Theatre was produced at the Burbage Theatre in Los Angeles and the Vortex Theatre in Austin, TX. His other plays have been produced at the New Playwrights' Theatre in Ashland, Oregon, the Haunted Space in Los Angeles, the West Bank Theatre and The Ensemble Studio Theatre in New York, Manbites Dog in Durham, and the Milwaukee Repertory Theatre. Johnson won Illinois Arts Council grants for Blind Hearts, The Fall to Earth and A Blue Moon (nominated for Best New Work by the Joseph Jefferson Committee). The Jeff Award winning production of The Fall to Earth was first produced (in an extended run) by Steppenwolf. It was published by Broadway Play Publishing in the fall of 2006. Steppenwolf Theatre subsequently commissioned Johnson to write A Blameless Life and Tranquility Woods which they produced in the summer of 2005 and 2007. The End of the Tour was chosen for inclusion in the anthology New Plays From Chicago. The Road Theatre presented the West Coast Premiere of The End of the Tour as part of their 2007-08 season. Johnson is a member of The Dramatists Guild, Pen America Center and the Chicago Dramatists advisory board. He has taught playwriting at Northwestern University and DePaul University. He now has a third commission from Steppenwolf Theatre.
John PerriN FLYNN (Artistic Director/Producer) directed both the critically acclaimed and award winning Los Angeles premiere of Rogue Machine's inaugural production Compleat Female Stage Beauty and the company's World Premiere production of Henry Murray's multi-award winning Treefall last season. He directed the Craig Lucas hit Small Tragedies at The Odyssey Theatre and the world premiere of John Pollono's Lost and Found at The Lounge Theatre. Executive producer and director of Lifetime's long running award winning series Strong Medicine, John has produced two other series and 14 television movies or miniseries including the Emmy nominated Burden of Proof. He most recently produced Rogue Machine's Los Angeles Premiere of Stop Kiss.
ROXAnne Hart (Ellen) was most recently seen on stage opposite Al Pacino in Salome. Broadway credits include Passion (Tony nomination, opposite Frank Langella), The Devil's Disciple (opposite Victor Garber), Loose Ends (opposite Kevin Kline), Cheaters, and Equus. Her Off Broadway/Regional credits include Eden Lane, Toys In The Attic, Lips Together, Teeth Apart (Dramalogue Award), Digby (Theater World Award and Drama Desk nomination), Hedda Gabler, Much Ado About Nothing, Vanities, and Comedy of Errors. Roxanne's many Films credits include Salomaybe, License To Wed, Letters From Iwo Jima, Art School Confidential, The Good Girl, Moonlight Mile, Easy, Once Around, Highlander, Oh God, You Devil, and The Verdict. Selected Television are Hung, Medium, Our Mother's Murder, Grey's Anatomy, House, ER, Oz, Dream On, Horton Foote's Alone, Last Innocent Man (opposite Ed Harris), Painting Churches and Chicago Hope. Tim Bagley (Warren) was most recently in The Receptionist at the Odyssey Theatre, opposite Megan Mullally. He wrote and performed in the Groundlings main company, winning two LA Weekly awards, for best solo comedy performance and best ensemble. He was The Captain in the highly acclaimed spoof Beverly Winwood Presents An Actor's Showcase. Tim wrote and starred in the play Happy Hour, which won the Jury Award at The Aspen Comedy Festival. He is best known for his TV work as Harold Krenshaw on Monk, as Larry on Will and Grace, and as Stanley on Southland. Film highlights include Knocked Up, Employee of the Month, The Day After Tomorrow, and the upcoming Project Endgame, Finding Bliss, and The Space Between.
ANNE GEE BYRD (Peggy) was most recently seen on stage in Molly at the Victory Theatre, and Buried Child at the Ensemble Theatre in Santa Barbara. She is known to LA theatre audiences for appearances at the Mark Taper Forum, the Geffen Playhouse, The Pasadena Playhouse, LA Theater Works, Andak Stage Company, The Odyssey, and for her work with the Antaeus Theater Company. She has worked in many of the major repertory theatres across the country including South Coast Repertory, The Old Globe, San Diego, Seattle Rep, La Jolla, ACT, San Francisco, The American Shakespeare Festival in Connecticut, the Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival, and the McCarter. She has also had a long television and film career with roles most recently on The Mentalist, Medium, Southland, and Monk. She was named best leading actress by the LA Weekly for her work as Mother Courage with the Antaeus Theatre Company. LISA ROTHSCHILLER (Barb) is a co-founder of Chicago's Defiant Theatre which became an important and revolutionary force in the Chicago theatre scene from 1993-2004. In addition to being part of the core staff, Lisa appeared in numerous productions with Defiant and she directed the United States premieres of two Sarah Kane plays (Cleansed and Phaedra's Love). During her decade in Chicago Lisa performed with nearly all the major theatres in the city, including Steppenwolf, The Goodman, and Lookingglass. She is the recipient of Jeff awards and After Dark awards for acting and directing. Lisamade her Los Angeles theatre debut last year, garnering excellent reviews, in Rantoul and Die by Mark Roberts. Our Design Team Lindsay Jones (Sound Designer) is a composer and sound designer for theatre, film and television. His music for film has been heard in film festivals around the world including Cannes, SXSW, Slamdance, Middle East International Film Festival (Dubai), Chicago Underground Film Festival, and the LA Latino Film Festival. His music for television has been featured on HBO, Bravo, The Sundance Channel, IFC, Telemundo, and will be featured this summer through Independent Lens on PBS. Most recently Lindsay composed the score for the Oscar-winning short documentary A NOTE OF TRIUMPH: THE GOLDEN AGE OF Norman Corwin for HBO Films and the pilot of FAMILY PRACTICE for Sony Pictures/LifetimeTelevision. Theatrically, he has composed and designed for world premieres of plays by writers such as Sam Shepard, David Mamet, A.R. Gurney, Terrence McNally, John Guare, Warren Leight, Lynn Nottage, Tarell Alvin McCraney, Craig Lucas, Richard Dresser, Romulus Linney, Carey Perloff, and Naomi Wallace. Off-Broadway credits include The Brother/Sister Plays, and 21 Positions (Public Theater), Dedication or The Stuff of Dreams starring Nathan Lane and Marian Seldes, and In The Continuum (Primary Stages), The God of Hell starring Tim Roth and Randy Quaid (Actors Studio), Something You Did starring Joanna Gleason, String of Pearls (Primary Stages), The Burnt Part Boys (Playwrights Horizons), Luminescence Dating (Ensemble Studio Theater), and Beautiful Thing (Cherry Lane). Selected Regional credits include Arena Stage, Kirk Douglas Theatre, Pasadena Playhouse, South Coast Repertory, The Old Globe, Steppenwolf, The Goodman Theatre, American Conservatory Theatre, The Guthrie Theater, Actors Theatre Of Louisville, Seattle Repertory, and Yale Repertory. International credits include productions in Austria, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Scotland and The Royal Shakespeare Company of England. ANGELINE SUMMERS-MARVEL (Lighting Designer) began her design career in Chicago, where she designed for such companies as Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, American Theatre Company, Next Theatre, Circle Theatre, Writer's Theatre, Mary-Arrchie and Seanachai. She has also designed around the country for Lyric Opera Cleveland, Phoenix Theatre Circle, Porthouse Theatre, and Pacific Resident Theatre. She served as the Resident Lighting Designer for PCPA Theaterfest for five years and was a Professor of Lighting Design at Kent State University before coming to Los Angeles. Angeline earned her MFA in Design from Northwestern University. JOCELYN HUBLAU (Costume Designer) worked with Robin Larsen on the award winning period film Out of Habit where. In Toronto Jocelyn worked to promote new voices with Cahoots Theatre Projects through productions such as Marty Chan's Mom, Dad I'm Living with a White Girl. As a Costume Designer some past shows include Fires in the Mirror (Berkeley Street Theatre), The Indian Medicine Shows (Theatre Passe Muraille), A View From the Roof (Tarragon Theatre), and The America Play (Theatre WUM) for which she received a Dora Mavor Moore Nomination for Outstanding Costume Design. MARK GUIRGUIS (Set Designer) has designed sets for San Diego Repertory Theatre, TheatreWorks, Firefly Theatre, Circuit Playhouse and Playhouse on the Square in Memphis. His numerous credits there include Side Man, Dinner with Friends, Urinetown, Romeo and Juliet and Jekyll and Hyde: The Musical (Ostrander Award). He most recently designed sets for Frost/Nixon at Playhouse on the Square. From 1999 to 2004 he served as lecturer and designer at Stanford University, Department of Drama where he designed sets for numerous productions. He is currently head of undergraduate design at the University of California, San Diego, Department of Theatre and Dance.
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