NOISES OFF Closes at A Noise Within 1/30, 2011

A Noise Within (ANW) will end its hilarious and critically acclaimed production of the joyfully out-of control British farce NOISES OFF by Michael Frayn on Sunday, January 30, 2011. Company Co-Founders/Co-Artistic Directors Geoff Elliott and Julia Rodriguez-Elliott co-direct the production, in which Elliott also performs, which was presented last season for the first time in the company's history and garnered rave reviews. According to the Los Angeles Times, "a superb cast hit the banana peel running and never let up," and Backstage said, "Michael Frayn's delightfully complicated British farce could hardly have a better rendition than this." Other critics called it "excruciatingly funny"; "The entire production is a riot, some of the most fun you can expect at a theatrical production"; and "nothing short of brilliant."

In Frayn's farce, chaos reigns both onstage and off. Under-rehearsed and over-worked, with a penchant for drama more personal than professional, a bumbling troupe of veteran thespians ready themselves for the world premiere of a new play with the auspicious title Nothing On. In the process they bring the house down, quite literally.

Says Elliott, "Presenting this show last season was a true highlight. I don't know if I've ever had more fun being in a production and co-directing it." Rodriguez-Elliott adds, "It's fun for the actors and the audience! Everything about this play is simpatico with A Noise Within's focus on ensemble work; people saw it two and three times."

The cast features Shaun Anthony (Tim Allgood), Apollo Dukakis (Selsdon Mowbray), Geoff Elliott (Lloyd Dallas), Jill Hill (Brenda Blair), Mikael Salazar (Garry Lejeune), Lenne Klingaman (Poppy Norton-Taylor), Abby Craden (Brooke Ashton), Stephen Rockwell (Frederick Fellowes) and Deborah Strang (Dotty Otley).

To enhance the theatre-going experience, A Noise Within offers comprehensive study guides for every production, each with a synopsis, director's notes, general theatre lore, links to other resources and detailed information about the playwright, characters, setting, period, costumes, scenic design, music and more. The Noises Off Study Guide along with those for previous A Noise Within productions are available on-line at http://www.anoisewithin.org/education_studyguides.html.

A Noise Within (ANW) is the only year-round classical repertory company in Southern California and one of only a handful in the entire country dedicated solely to producing classical dramatic literature in the repertory tradition of rotating productions with a resident company of professional artists. Led by Co-Founders and Co-Artistic Directors Geoff Elliott and Julia Rodriguez-Elliott, A Noise Within has been hailed by critics as "adventurous," "compelling and current," "ingenuity at work," "a bona fide class act," and "what great theatre is all about." Founded 19 seasons ago, ANW quickly established itself as one of the region's key theatre companies, attracting fiercely loyal audiences and consistently high praise from the media for its productions and as a leading force in arts education. The company has presented more than 120 plays from the classics of world literature, each season producing works from authors ranging from Shakespeare and Molière to Ibsen, O'Neill and Shaw to Miller and Williams. ANW's consistent dedication to quality has been rewarded with more than two dozen Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards as well as numerous LA Weekly and Backstage Garland awards. A Noise Within's next chapter provides the long-awaited opportunity to sink deep and lasting roots when the company moves in 2011 from its long-time base in Glendale to a spectacular, permanent home in a Pasadena mixed-use development at the corner of Foothill Boulevard and Sierra Madre Villa Avenue. The facility, hailed as an anchor in East Pasadena's arts growth, is designed to broaden A Noise Within's artistic possibilities, offer a greater scope of educational opportunities, meet ticket demand and allow the company to expand its role as a leader in the presentation and preservation of classical theatre.

GEOFF ELLIOTT (Co-Director/Lloyd Dallas), who this season also co-directs and appears in A Noise Within's productions of Measure For Measure and Great Expectations - is co-founder and co-artistic director of A Noise Within with his wife, Julia Rodriguez-Elliott. They have co-produced close to 100 productions and directed/co-directed more than 40 for the company. Elliott has also performed major roles for some of the leading regional theatres in America, including The American Conservatory Theatre, South Coast Repertory, Arizona Theatre Company, Milwaukee Repertory Theatre and California Shakespeare Festival. He has received three Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle awards and more than a dozen other awards for acting. His Shakespearean roles include Iago in Othello, Theseus/Oberon in a Midsummer Night's Dream, Coriolanus, Richard in King Richard III and Hamlet. He has also performed leading roles in classic plays by such authors as O'Neill, Miller, Ibsen, Rostand, Wilde and Williams. Last season, he directed Richard III, Noises Off, in which he also played the role of Director, and The Playboy of the Western World, in which he played Old Mahon. Elliott holds a BFA from the University of Florida and an MFA from The American Conservatory Theatre.

JULIA RODRIGUEZ-ELLIOTT (Co-Director), co-founder and co-artistic director of A Noise Within along with her husband Geoff Elliott, has co-produced close to 100 productions and has directed/co-directed more than 40 productions, including the current season's productions of Measure For Measure and Great Expectations, the critically acclaimed 2009-10 production of Noises Off, earlier productions of Neil Bartlett's adaptation of Oliver Twist and The Rehearsal, and the 2004 performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Hollywood Bowl with the Los Angeles Philharmonic conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen. Other directorial credits include The Winter's Tale, Othello, The Tempest, Coriolanus, Macbeth, Ubu Roi, Loot, A Flea in Her Ear, Mourning Becomes Electra, Great Expectations, Buried Child, Another Part of the Forest, Life is A Dream, Master Builder and The Price. For four consecutive years, Rodriguez-Elliott has conducted a workshop for the National Endowment for the Arts Journalism Institute in Theatre and Musical Theatre at the University of Southern California Annenberg School for Communication. Rodriguez-Elliott has extensive experience teaching theatre arts to students from middle school to college and regularly conducts student workshops as part of A Noise Within's highly regarded educational programming. She has served on theatre panels for organizations such as the National Endowment for the Arts, Los Angeles County Arts Commission and the LA Stage Alliance. In addition, she regularly conducts lectures for CalArts, the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and schools throughout the California State and University of California school systems, to name a few. Rodriguez-Elliott holds a BFA from the University of Florida and an MFA from The American Conservatory Theatre.

APOLLO DUKAKIS (Selsdon Mowbray) is a resident artist of A Noise Within and has appeared in more than a dozen productions with company, including as Leonato in Much Ado About Nothing, Michael James Flaherty in Playboy of the Western World, Selsdon Mowbray in Noises Off, King Edward in Richard III and Mr. Dimanche in Don Juan, Brabantio/Gratiano in Othello, Horace Vandergelder in The Matchmaker, Cominius in Coriolanus, Elbow/Barnardine in Measure for Measure, Pantalone in The King Stag, Argan in The Imaginary Invalid, Abbess/2nd Merchant in The Comedy of Errors, The Stage Manager in The Skin of Our Teeth, Dubois in The Misanthrope, Doctor Baugh in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Ragueneau in Cyrano de Bergerac (1998 and 1995), Baptista in Taming of the Shrew, Boss Mangan in Heartbreak House and Shepherd in Oedipus the King. Dukakis co-founded and served as associate artistic director, and resident actor at The Whole Theatre in New Jersey from 1973 to1990. Other credits include Homebody/Kabul at Trinity Repertory Company, Hecuba at American Conservatory Theatre, Nine Armenians at Mark Taper Forum, Anna in the Tropics at Pasadena Playhouse and Palo Alto's TheaterWorks, Pera Palas at Theatre @ Boston Court, which received LA Critics Award-Best Ensemble, Glengarry Glen Ross at Dallas Theatre Center, Lear in King Lear at Shakespeare Santa Monica, Rhinoceros at Antaeus, Shylock in Merchant of Venice at Pacific Repertory Theatre (Carmel), and Old Actor in The Fantasticks at Arizona Theatre Company, and he has worked at Denver Center Theatre Company, Williamstown Theatre Festival, American Place Theatre, La Mama, George St. Playhouse, Provincetown Playhouse, among others. Active in film and television as well, he has performed in American Heart, Last Action Hero, Shadow of the Blair Witch, Arrest and Trial, 7th Heaven, Seinfeld, L.A. Law, Life Goes On, Hunter, Dream On and Beauty and the Beast.

JILL HILL (Brenda Blair), a long-time resident artist with A Noise Within, also appears as Mariana/Mistress Overdone this season's production of Measure for Measure and as Mrs. Joe/Biddy in Great Expectations. Last season, she played Brenda Blair in the company's production of Noises Off, and Widow Quin in The Playboy of the Western World. Her numerous roles with the company include Hortensia in The Rehearsal, Nancy in Neil Bartlett's adaptation of Oliver Twist, Mistress Quickly in Henry IV, Part 1, Hannah Jelkes in The Night of the Iguana, Hermione in The Winter's Tale, Mrs. Purdie in Dear Brutus, Fay in Loot, Deborah in A Touch of the Poet, Queen Rosumund/Anna Stanislas in Ubu Roi, Aline Solness in The Master Builder, Emilia in Othello, Lucienne in A Flea in Her Ear, Mrs. Molloy in The Matchmaker, Virgilia in Coriolanus, Clarice/Smeraldina in The King Stag, First Witch/Lady Macduff in Macbeth, Princess of France in Love's Labour's Lost, Imogen Parrott in Trelawny of the Wells, Estrella in Life is a Dream, Sabina in The Skin of Our Teeth, Mae in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Belle/Charwoman in A Christmas Carol, Bianca in Taming of the Shrew, Geraldine in What the Butler Saw, Teiresias in Oedipus the King, Molly/Mrs. Joe in Great Expectations and Birdie in The Little Foxes and Another Part of the Forest, among others. She has also appeared in productions with American Conservatory Theatre, Nassau Repertory, Kenyon Festival Theatre, The Westbank (NYC), and The Matrix Theatre (LA). Television viewers will recognize her from various soap operas and television guest star roles, and her distinct voice can be heard on such audio books as Gapcreek and The Truest Pleasure by Robert Morgan, produced by John Runnette. She studied at the English Speaking Theatre in Copenhagen and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London, earned a BFA from Denison University in Granville, Ohio, and is a graduate and company member of The American Conservatory Theatre.

Abby Craden (Brooke Ashton), an A Noise Within Resident Artist, is featured this season as Elvira Condomine in Blithe Spirit and has previously appeared with the company as Charlotte in Don Juan, Joanna in Dear Brutus, Lady Capulet in Romeo and Juliet, Louka in Arms and the Man, Portia in Julius Caesar, Ruth in The Homecoming, Angela in The King Stag, Leonide in The Triumph of Love, Cherie in Bus Stop, Sorel in Hay Fever, Rosaura in Life is a Dream, Celimene in The Misanthrope, and Roxane in Cyrano de Bergerac. At Theatricum Botanicum, Craden played Cleopatra in Antony and Cleopatra, Titania in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Olivia in Twelfth Night, Regan in King Lear, Millinette in Fashion, Bianca in The Taming of the Shrew, Sunshine Dore in Harold and Maude, Nina in The Seagull, and Abigail in The Crucible. Other productions include Isabelle in Measure for Measure at Portland Center for the Performing Arts; Nora in A Doll's House at LA Rep Co; Indiscretions and The Illusions at Ensemble Theatre of Santa Barbara; and Deep Eyes at LA Theatre Center. Among her film and television credits are Water Dreams, After Midnight, Flamingo Dreams, Portrait of Madame Marousia, Cold Love, Born to Lose, In Rhyme, Only Human, and Blood Plus. Craden studied acting with Larry Moss, the Boston University Conservatory Program and HB Studios.

STEPHEN ROCKWELL (Frederick Fellowes), an A Noise Within Resident Artist for more than 14 years, also plays Lucio in this season's production of Measure For Measure and Herbert Pocket/Compeyson in Great Expectations. He has appeared in numerous productions at the repertory theatre company, including as Don Juan in Much Ado About Nothing, Frederick Fellowes in Noises Off, Hortensio in The Taming of the Shrew, Ensemble in Oliver Twist, Don Carlos in Don Juan, Polixenes in The Winter's Tale, Carrasco in Man of La Mancha, Jamie Cregan in A Touch of the Poet, George F. Babbitt in Babbitt, Captain Macnure/Ensemble in Ubu Roi, Ragnar Brovik in The Master Builder, Roderigo in Othello, Peter Quince in A Midsummer Nights Dream, Rugby in A Flea In Her Ear, Lysander in A Midsummer Nights Dream at The Hollywood Bowl, Orestes in Electra, Swallow in A Wilde Holiday, Junius Brutus in Coriolanus, Deramo in The King Stag, Banquo in Macbeth, Semyon Yepikhodov in The Cherry Orchard, King Ferdinand of Navarre in Love's Labour's Lost, Tom Wrench in Trelawny of the Wells, Clarin in Life is a Dream, Oscar Hubbard in The Little Foxes and Another Part of the Forest, Gentleman Caller in The Glass Menagerie, Joe Gargery in Great Expectations, Randall Utterword in Heartbreak House, Clitandre in The Misanthrope, and more. Among other acting credits, Rockwell has appeared at the Fremont Centre Theatre, Los Angeles Theatre Center, American Conservatory Theatre and the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival (HVSF). He has also directed Julius Caesar at the Open Fist Theater, Two Gentleman of Verona at HVSF, and Living Together at Fremont Center Theatre. His film and television appearances include In Justice, Rodney, The Mikes (Pilot), The Comeback, Hawaii, Malcolm In the Middle, Good Morning Miami, Miss Match, ER, Roswell, M.Y.O.B., The Drew Carey Show and 3rd Rock From the Sun. He has also been in several national television commercials, most notably in a T-Mobile spot as the father who "catches" his daughter with her boyfriend in the back seat of the car "texting!" Rockwell earned a BA in Drama from Vassar College and an MFA from American Conservatory Theatre.

MIKAEL SALAZAR (Garry Lejeune) has previously appeared at A Noise Within as Bluntschli in Arms and the Man, and Teddy in The Homecoming. He is also a founding member The Antaeus Company, where he has performed in numerous productions, including Pera Palas. At the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, Salazar has played Romeo in Romeo and Juliet, Neoptolemus in The Cure at Troy, Lennox in Macbeth, and has appeared at South Coast Repertory Theatre as Lucentio in The Taming of the Shrew, Oronte in The Misanthrope, Steve in Streetcar Named Desire, and Dennis in Loot. Other credits include Shloyme in God of Vengeance at A Contemporary Theatre in Seattle, Father Paul in Dakin Matthew's The Prince of L.A. at Andak Stage Company, and Picasso in Picasso at the Lapine Agile, Bassanio in Merchant of Venice, Prodigal Son in Tony Kushner's The Illusion at San Diego Repertory. Salazar has also performed at Shakespeare Santa Cruz and the Colorado Shakespeare Festival, and appeared in the film Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and on the television show Murphy Brown. He earned an MFA at UC Irvine and a BA from UC Berkeley.

Deborah Strang (Dotty Otley) has been a Resident Artist with A Noise Within for 18 years and has performed in more than 40 productions, including as Miss Havisham in Great Expectations this season, Awake and Sing!, Noises Off and Richard III, during the 2009-10 season, and Ghosts and Hamlet during the 2008-09 season. Other productions have ranged from Shakespeare to Tennessee Williams, and Chekhov to Alfred Jarry. Her favorite roles include Maxine Faulk in The Night of the Iguana, Mrs. Dearth in Dear Brutus, Paulina in The Winter's Tale, the Nurse in Romeo and Juliet, Nora Melody in A Touch of the Poet, Ma Ubu in Ubu Roi, Dolly Levi in The Matchmaker, Amanda Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie, Mrs. Antrobus in The Skin of Our Teeth, Regina in Little Foxes, Alexandra in O Pioneers, Ranyevskaya in The Cherry Orchard, Rosemary in Picnic and as Titania in A Midsummer Night's Dream in a co-production with the LA Philharmonic at the famed Hollywood Bowl. Also at ANW, Strang co-directed Moliere's The Learned Ladies on the main stage as well as productions of Comedy of Errors and Twelfth Night for the Summer With Shakespeare teen programs. She currently teaches Acting Shakespeare and coaches the interns in the ANW Conservatory and was a guest artist at the acclaimed Oklahoma Arts Institute at Quartz Mountain. Her film and TV credits include Cold Case, Close to Home, Numb3rs, Ghostwhisperer, Threshold, Carnivale, The X-Files, Deep Space Nine, Kiss the Girls, Things To Do In Denver, and Eagle Eye with Shia LaBeouf. Strang can be heard most Saturday mornings as the voice of Aunt May in the new animated TV series The Spectacular Spider-Man.

A NOISE WITHIN is located at 234 South Brand Boulevard, Glendale, CA 91204. To purchase tickets or for a full season brochure, call 818-240-0910 x1 or visit www.ANoiseWithin.org.

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