The Zephyr Theater presents the world premiere of Finding Nick, a new play written and performed by Nicholas Guest, and directed by Lee Sankowich, in a six-week engagement beginning February 19, through March 27, on Thursday and Friday nights at 8 p.m. in Hollywood, produced by Racquel Lehrman and Victoria Watson of Theatre Planners.
Actor Nicholas Guest (National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, The Long Riders, Sons of Anarchy, Mad Men, Frozen, and Tangled) explores a lifetime in search of an identity through live music, poetry and multiple personalities. Musicians Tony Carafone (guitar),
Hillary Smith (cello), and Elizabeth Guest (additional vocals) accompany Nicholas, who plays the guitar and sings during the performance.
Ticket ($25) are available online at
www.plays411.com/nick or by calling 323-960-4420. Performances are Thursdays and Fridays at 8 p.m.
The years are 1967 through 1969. Guest, the son of an English diplomat stationed in New York at the U.N and a Jewish mother, finds that in the "Summer of Love" just as he is choosing a college, his family has been reassigned to Geneva and will be leaving the Big Apple, causing him to begin a journey to find the person he is going to be. Episodic vignettes populated by entertaining characters he encounters along his way, popular songs (in both English and French) from the period that Guest performs with accompaniment, as well as many humorous situations as he finds his way, highlight the evening. The veteran actor, in line for a British title after brother
Christopher Guest and a Los Angeles resident, known for his outstanding characterizations on film and TV, as well as brilliant vocal work for both the large and small screens brings all of his talent and experience to bear in this light comedic tale of one man's journey to himself.
Nicholas Guest was born and raised in New York City. Because his British father worked at the United Nations during his childhood, the family travelled all over Europe. His first professional job was opposite
Maureen Stapleton in The Gingerbread Lady, directed by
Anthony Perkins. He studied in New York with
William Hickey at H.B. Studios, and later with
Stella Adler. He started working in the theatre in New York and then segued to television and film work.
He was in The Defection of Simas Kudrika as the Russian interpreter Baltrunar with
Alan Arkin; The Long Riders, directed by
Walter Hill, featuring the Quaid, Keach, Carradine and Guest brothers; Trading Places, directed by John Landis (for which he also co-wrote a song with
Robert Curtis Brown); Appointment with Death with
Peter Ustinov,
John Gielgud and
Lauren Bacall. Guest also played the infamous Todd Chester in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation as
Julia Louis-Dreyfus' husband.
Nicholas played
Patrick Elliott, the British headmaster, on USA High for three years. Among other roles, he played
Mickey Rooney's son in The Legend of O.B. Taggart, a British solicitor on Mad Men, and a psychologist opposite
James Woods on Shark. Guest is also a busy voice-over actor; he was heard recently on Sons of Anarchy as John Teller and in the Disney films Frozen and Tangled. He is married to actress Pamela Guest and they are very proud of their children.
Zephyr
Producing Artistic Director
Lee Sankowich - In 2006 after serving sixteen years as Artistic Director of the Marin Theatre Company,
Lee Sankowich resigned to return to producing and directing independently. Among the forty-five plays he directed there were two Estate-sanctioned world premieres of previously unproduced
Tennessee Williams plays. His career began with a jump start with his successful production of One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, which ran for two and a half years in New York, five and a half years in San Francisco, a year and a half in Boston, and in Israel. In total, he did eleven productions of the play. Since then, he has worked in regional theatres across the country, including Baltimore Center Stage, The
Mark Taper Forum, South Coast Rep,
Florida Stage, Geva,
Jewish Repertory Theatre, City Theatre, Theatreworks, Pittsburgh Public Theatre (where he was a Resident Director), and was an Associate Professor of Drama at
Carnegie Mellon University. Among several awards, Lee is the recipient of four San Francisco Bay Area Drama Critics Awards for Direction. He currently owns and operates the Zephyr Theatre in Los Angeles.
Racquel Lehrman is the founder and managing director of Theatre Planners. She graduated from NYU-Tisch School of the Arts and lived in NY for over eight years producing theatre. Theatre Planners has since developed into a very busy and successful outlet for actors, producers and theatre companies. Doing everything from publicity, consulting, printing and graphics, we love making productions a reality and keeping the theatre scene in LA alive and strong. Racquel is also the proud owner of The Lounge Theatres in Hollywood in the heart of Theatre Row.
Photo Credit: Georgina Cates
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