Karen Carpenter Directs HANDLE WITH CARE at the Colony Theatre, Now thru 12/14

The Colony Theatre will present the third production of its historic 40thAnniversary season, the West Coast Premiere of HANDLE WITH CARE by Jason Odell Williams, directed by Karen Carpenter. HANDLE WITH CARE will preview tonight, November 5; Thursday, November 6; and Friday, November 7 at 8:00pm. It will open on Saturday, November 8 at 8:00pm and continue through Sunday, December 14, with no performances Thanksgiving week.

Magic can happen in the unlikeliest places ? like Christmas Eve in a seedy motel, where fate and bizarre circumstances bring together a young Israeli woman who has little command of English, and a young American man with little command of romance. Is their love an accident? Pure coincidence? Or is it destiny that's been generations in the making? It's a wonderful new play about love, communication, fate, and the importance of GPS-enabled tracking devices.

ABOUT THE CREATIVE TEAM:

JASON ODELL WILLIAMS (Playwright) is an Emmy-nominated writer and producer whose plays have been produced at the DR2, the cell, the Kitchen Theatre Company, Gulfshore Playhouse, JCC Centerstage, the Minnesota Jewish Theatre Company, Theatre Jacksonville, Actors' Summit, and Teatron Toronto. His work has been developed at Primary Stages, The Lark, The Blank Theatre (L.A.), and the Hudson Valley Writers Workshop where he won first prize in their 2012 new play competition. Previous plays have starred Vincent Piazza and Anatol Yusef from HBO's Boardwalk Empire; readings have starred Tony Award winner Norbert Leo Butz, Tony nominee Tovah Feldshuh, and film and TV star Matthew Lillard. In addition to having its West Coast Premiere at the Colony, Handle With Care recently premiered Off-Broadway at The Westside Theatre and ran for 112 performances starring Carol Lawrence, Charlotte Cohn and was directed by Karen Carpenter. The play will be produced at 4 other regional theatres this season and will soon be published by Dramatists Play Service. Jason is currently a writer and producer on the National Geographic Channel's hit TV series Brain Games. His first novel, Personal Statement, was published in August 2013 and has been optioned for a three-picture deal. Jason would like to thank the cast, Karen, Barbara and everyone at the Colony, for this production and especially his "girls" Charlotte & Immy for their love and support. This play is dedicated to Norma Fire, the original "Safta."

KAREN CARPENTER (Director) directed the smash hit, Love Loss and What I Wore, by Delia and Nora Ephron (Drama Desk Award, Best Unique Theatrical Experience,) which ran a record 3 years in New York. Karen has directed hundreds of our most celebrated comediennes in the show to date; additional companies have played all over the world, and a new production tours the U.S. in 2015. Recently, NYTimes critics' pick Handle With Care; Michael Keaton in Lauren Yee's Countville, Festival de Sole; premieres of Wendy Yondorf's Admit One in a sold-out run at New Jersey Rep, now B'way-bound; Rosemary Loar's Spoolie Girl, Midtown International Theater Festival (Best of the Fest); and Mary Walsh's Dancing With Rage, which toured Canada. Karen is Artistic Director of the William Inge Center for the Arts, where she directed Lifetime Achievement Tributes to David Henry Hwang, Arthur Kopit, and the 100th Birthday of William Inge for the Inge Festival. Five seasons as Associate Artistic Director of the Old Globe: produced over 60 plays and musicals, directed American premiere of Abi Morgan's Splendour (Critic's Choice, L.A. Times), Nilo Cruz's Two Sisters and a Piano (Critic's Choice, L.A. Times), Jeffrey Hatcher's Smash (Patté Award), Harold Pinter's Betrayal (Craig Noel Award, The Reader's "Best Bet"), As You Like It (Best of the Year, San Diego Magazine). As Production Stage Manager, Broadway premieres of August Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Gone, The Piano Lesson, and Two Trains Running. Boston University's Alumni Award and Karen Carpenter Award for Excellence in Theater Arts; Faculty, Yale Drama. kcdirector.com For Nora.

ABOUT THE CAST AND DESIGN TEAM:

CHARLOTTE COHN (Ayelet) is delighted to be working at the Colony Theatre. Performing highlights include Broadway's La Boheme (Baz Luhrmann, director) and Coram Boy, Happy End at A.C.T. (Bay Area TheatreCritics Circle Awards Best Actress nominee), La Boheme at The Ahmanson in L.A. (Ovation Award Winner), The Murder of Isaac and The Boys from Syracuse, both at Baltimore's Centerstage, Handle With Care (written by her husband Jason Odell Williams) and David Gordon's Uncivil Wars- Moving with Brecht and Eisler. She is a founding producer of both NYMF and Mainstreet Musicals. Other producing credits include:Rated P for Parenthood and the recent NY Times Critics' Pick Handle With Care (both at the Westside theater Off-Broadway). Charlotte was born in Denmark and raised in Israel where she served in the Israeli Army, rising to the rank of Lieutenant. She lives in Manhattan with her husband, playwright Jason Odell Williams and her daughter, Imogen.

JEFF MARLOW (Terrence) is thrilled to be back at The Colony, where he previously appeared in Indoor/Outdoorand Around the World in 80 Days (Ovation Award nomination). Other theatre credits include Sideways andGlengarry Glen Ross at the La Jolla Playhouse; Hamlet and Nothing Sacred at South Coast Repertory; You Can't Take It With You, and Extraordinary Chambers at the Geffen Playhouse; Moonlight and Magnolias, An Empty Plate in the Café du Grand Boeuf, And The Winner Is, and The Sleeper at the Laguna Playhouse; How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying at Reprise; Sheldon & Mrs. Levine, Surviving Sex, and Where's Poppa at the Falcon Theatre; and Medea at the Theatre @ Boston Court (Drama Critics Circle Award nomination). As a member of the sketch comedy troupe the Reduced Shakespeare Company, Jeff has toured the U.S., Europe, and Asia in The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) [revised], The Complete History of America (abridged), The Bible: The Complete Word of God (abridged), and Completely Hollywood (abridged). Jeff's film credits include the upcoming Stevie D as well as Akeelah and the Bee and The Hebrew Hammer. TV credits include Mistresses, Rizzoli & Isles, Rake, The Thundermans, NCIS, Grey's Anatomy, The Young and the Restless, Pushing Daisies, Without a Trace, The Bernie Mac Show, Strong Medicine, andJudging Amy.

TYLER PIERCE (Josh) is happy to be back at the Colony Theatre. He was most recently seen on stage in Los Angeles in the world premiere of Sheila Callaghan's Everything You Touch at The Theatre @ Boston Court. He has appeared in tours of Legends with Joan Collins and Linda Evans, Barriers, and A Midsummer Night's Dream. Selected regional theatre credits include: How to write a New Book for the Bible, Death of a Salesman,and Death of the Author (South Coast Rep), Hasty Pudding (Ojai Playwrights), Venus in Fur (B Street), I'll be Back Before Midnight (Colony Theatre); How to Write a New Book for the Bible (Berkeley Rep and Seattle Repertory Theatre); Good People (Geffen Playhouse); Gronholm Method (Falcon Theatre); Death of a Salesman(The Old Globe); A Streetcar Named Desire (Guthrie Theater); The Night Is a Child (Milwaukee Repertory Theater and Pasadena Playhouse); Crime and Punishment (Berkeley Repertory); Dracula, A Christmas Carol(Actors Theatre of Louisville); Macbeth, Pericles, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Lorenzaccio, The Tempest (The Shakespeare Theatre Company); Youth Inc. (McCarter Theatre Center); Fat Pig, The Internationalist (The StudioTheatre). New York theatre includes work at Theatre at St. Clement's, Circle East, New York Classical Theatre, HERE Arts Center, Atlantic Theater Company, Atlantic Theatre Studio, Theatre for a New Audience, Lark Play Development Center, New Dramatists, and New Georges. Tyler is a proud member of Actors' Equity. www.tylerpierce.wix.com/actorsite

MARCIA RODD (Edna) made her Broadway debut in Oh What a Lovely War!, created the role of Olivia in Your Own Thing, originated the role of Bobbi Michelle in Neil Simon's hit Last of the Red Hot Lovers, and received a Tony nomination for her starring role in the Cryer/Ford musical Shelter. In LA, she received kudos playing the title role in Driving Miss Daisy, the psychiatrist is Agnes of God , Mary Todd Lincoln in The Last of Mrs. Lincoln, starred in Once in a Lifetime (Mark Taper), The Supporting Cast (Doolittle), On Golden Pond (with Julie Harris and Charles Durning at the Ahmanson) and as Golde in Fiddler On The Roof at the Dorothy Chandler and in both its 25th and 30th Anniversary Tours. She sang the lead role in Kander & Ebb's The World Goes 'Round(Actor's Alley) and received the ADA Best Actress award for Everyone's Friend at the Whitefire. She has guest-starred in countless TV shows and has had recurring roles in several, including a 4-year stint as the candy-eating dentist on Trapper John M.D, Johnny Depp's mother on 21 Jump Street, Judge Scott on Family Law, and the lead in 13 Queens Blvd opposite Eileen Brennan. Films include Little Murders, T.R. Baskin, and Jonathan Demme's Citizens Band. She portrayed the legendary Diana Vreeland in the one-woman play Full Gallop (Actors' Theatre of Louisville), played the title role in Lorca's House of Bernarda Alba (Santa Fe Rep), starred opposite Tom Posten in Sam Bobrick's Remember Me? in Kansas City, and fulfilled a childhood dream of playing Anna in The King & I in New London, NH. Most recently, she completed a run in The Beat Goes On, a musical revue in Hollywood and earlier this year played Mary McCarthy in Hellman v. McCarthy in NYC. She has directed innumerable plays, both new and old, has an 8 year-old Yorkie named Rocky and lives with a guy named Bill.

HANDLE WITH CARE features an award-winning design team. The Scenic Design is by David Potts (Emmy Award - HBO's Deadwood). The Costume Design is by Dianne K. Graebner (Ovation nominations - The Brothers Karamazov and Battle Hymn). The Lighting Design is by Jared A. Sayeg (Ovation nominations -Trying and Kiss Me, Kate). The Sound Design is by Drew Dalzell (Ovation Award, Songs for a New World). Props Design and Set Dressing is by Colony Theatre resident propmaster John M. McElveney and Scenic Art is by resident artist Orlando de la Paz.

HANDLE WITH CARE will open on Saturday, November 8 at 8:00pm and continue through Sunday, December 14. Performances forHANDLE WITH CARE are Thursdays & Fridays at 8:00pm; Saturdays at 3:00pm & 8:00pm; and Sundays at 2:00pm. (There are NO performances Thanksgiving week.) Ticket prices range from $20.00 - $49.00 (group discounts are available). HANDLE WITH CARE will preview on Wednesday, November 5; Thursday, November 6; and Friday, November 7 at 8:00pm at The Colony Theatre, 555 North Third Street (at Cypress) adjacent to the Burbank Town Center Mall.

Opening night performance with reception - all tickets $55.00. There are question-and-answer talkbacks after the performances onFriday, November 14 and Thursday, December 4. For tickets, call the Colony Theatre Box Office at 818/558-7000 ext. 15 or online at www.ColonyTheatre.org.

The Colony Theatre has long been a vibrant center of L.A.'s theatre life. Its subscribers renew at an astounding rate of 90%, and in 2012 the theatre received nine Ovation Award nominations, including the coveted one for Best Season. From its beginnings in 1975 as a 99-seat Equity-waiver theatre in Silver Lake, the company became so successful artistically, and built such a large subscriber base, that in 2000 it was able to move into a 270-seat state-of-the-art theatre created for it by the City of Burbank. As such, it became one of only a handful of mid-sized professional theatres in the L.A. area that produce a year-round season of plays and musicals, and that employ actors under contract with Actors' Equity Association. The theatre is located at 555 North Third Street, at the corner of Cypress, in the heart of Downtown Burbank.

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