Sachs Directs Higgins, Hurley & More In LA Premiere Of SHINING CITY, Plays Fountain Theatre 9/12-12/19

Stephen Sachs will direct the Los Angeles premiere of Shining City, a modern-day ghost story from one of Ireland's most important young playwrights, Conor McPherson. Called "an absolutely glorious new play... as close to perfection as contemporary playwriting gets" by The New York Times, Shining City will star Morlan Higgins, William Dennis Hurley, Kerrie Blaisdell and Benjamin Keepers. Performances take place September 19 through December 19 at The Fountain Theatre, with low-priced previews beginning September 12.

A middle-aged businessman living in Dublin (Morlan Higgins) has seen the ghost of his recently deceased wife. Terrified and sleepless, he reaches out to a therapist (William Dennis Hurley), a former priest who is wrestling with his own demons. McPherson uses richly drawn characters and powerful storytelling to weave a tale of love, loss and faith that is haunting, amusing, and deeply moving - a story about the fragile ache of the human heart.

Stephen Sachs saw the 2006 Broadway production of Shining City while in New York directing Morlan Higgins and William Dennis Hurley in The Fountain's Off Broadway production of Exits and Entrances.

"McPherson hooks you right away with a traditional Irish ghost story," says Sachs. "But as the play progresses, we realize that it's really about a different kind of spiritual contact, the spiritual contact between human beings, the deep need to find home in human connection. It is brilliantly written, at once funny and poignant - and I knew right away that I wanted to bring it to L.A. and that it would be perfect for Morlan and William."

"What I'm really trying to do," McPherson explained in an interview with the Associated Press, "is to take the audience to a very deep place. I'm not particularly interested in exploring ideas as much as feelings. Ideas are very transitory things for me. Feelings, they last."

Shining City had its World premiere at London's Royal Court Theatre prior to a headline appearance at the Gate Theatre during the 2004 Dublin Theatre Festival. The 2006 Broadway production won instant critical and popular acclaim, appearing on the year's "Top 10" or "Best of" theater lists of Time magazine, Entertainment Weekly and The New York Times, and garnering two Tony Award nominations including Best Play.

"We are honored to be able to present the Los Angeles premiere at The Fountain," concludes Sachs. "Following the West Coast premiere of Athol Fugard's Coming Home, it's deeply rewarding to present to L.A. audiences another new play by a major international playwright."

The timing couldn't be better: five days after the opening night performance of Shining City at The Fountain, a new film by Conor McPherson, his supernatural drama The Eclipse, will open the Irish Film Festival at the Linwood Dunn Theater in Hollywood.

Conor McPherson was born in Dublin, where he still lives. His plays include This Lime Tree Bower, St. Nicholas, The Weir, Port Authority, Poor Beast in the Rain, Dublin Carol and The Seafarer. He is the recipient of the Olivier Award for Best Play (The Weir), the Evening Standard Award for Outstanding New Playwright, and the London Critics Circle Award for the Most Promising Playwright. His plays have been performed across the U.S., as well as in Ireland, England, Germany, France, Australia, Poland, Italy, Japan, Argentina and Uruguay. In addition to The Eclipse, his screenplays include Our Lady of the Forest for Channel 4, Brothers for Film Four, The Actors for Film Four/Miramax, Saltwater for Treasure Films/BBC (International Confederation of Art Cinemas Prize at the Berlin Festival), Endgame for RTE/Channel 4, I Went Down for BBC/Treasure Films (Best Screenplay, San Sebastian 1997, selected at Cannes, Edinburgh and Sundance Festivals), and MacIntyre (commission for Treasure Films).

Stephen Sachs is founding co-artistic director of The Fountain Theatre, where he recently directed the West Coast premiere of Coming Home by Athol Fugard; the American premiere of Fugard's Victory; the World premiere of the playwright's Exits and Entrances at The Fountain (four Ovation Awards) and Off-Broadway at Primary Stages in New York; and the Los Angeles premiere of his Road to Mecca. Other directing credits include Sachs's own adaptation, Miss Julie Freedom Summer (from Strindberg's Miss Julie) at the Fountain, Vancouver Playhouse and Canadian Stage Company; the 2007 world premiere of his own stage adaptation of Stephen Mitchell's version of Gilgamesh (Theatre @ Boston Court); and the inaugural production at the Getty Villa in Malibu, a new translation of Euripides' Hippolytos starring Linda Purl. Arthur Miller gave Sachs exclusive permission to direct his rarely seen After The Fall (three Ovation awards). Mr. Sachs is the only director in Los Angeles to have twice won the Ovation Award for Best Director of a play, and has won numerous awards for directing such plays as the West Coast premiere of String of Pearls; his own original play Sweet Nothing in My Ear (now a HallMark Hall of Fame film); the Los Angeles premiere of Steven Dietz's Lonely Planet (starring Philip Anglim); The Seagull (starring Salome Jens, Philip Baker Hall, Bud Cort); the celebrated 20th Anniversary production of The Boys In The Band; and the West Coast premiere of Romulus Linney's Unchanging Love.

Morlan Higgins (John) returns to The Fountain where he starred in After the Fall; Exits and Entrances; Victory; The Boys in the Band; Borderlines; and, most recently, The Accomplices (as Rabbi Stephen Wise). Other credits include A Skull in Connemara at Theatre Tribe; the title role in Dylan at the Skylight; Mad Forest, Water Children, Dealing with Clair and The Birthday Party for The Matrix Theatre Company; Theseus in Hippolytos at the Getty Villa; and Hughie in Santa Barbara. He is the recipient of more than two dozen awards including two Ovation Awards, four LADCC Awards, four LA Weekly awards, four Garland Awards and five Drama-Logue Awards.

William Dennis Hurley (Ian) played Samuel Merlin in the Fountain Theatre's The Accomplices and "The Playwright" in the Fountain's world premiere production of Athol Fugard's Exits and Entrances, for which he received both LA Drama Critics Circle and BackStage West Garland Awards and continued on with the production to the Santa Barbara Theatre; Florida Stage; New Jersey Rep; Edinburgh, Scotland; and Off-Broadway's Primary Stages in NYC. Other credits: Father Flynn in Doubt at the Santa Barbara Theatre; Among the Thugs at the Odyssey Theatre (Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle and LA Weekly Awards); and The Boys Next Door at Hollywood Court Theatre (Ovation Award nominee).

Kerrie Blaisdell (Neasa) is a veteran of East Coast regional theater from Maine to Florida, including The Lonesome West (Broadway); the U.S. premiere of The Cavalcaders (Florida Stage); Auntie Mame, with Charles Busch (Ogunquit Playhouse/Bay St. Theatre); Blithe Spirit, Jar the Floor; and Inspecting Carol (Bay St. Theatre); The Hostage (Alliance Rep. - Ovation nominee); the L.A. premiere of The Long Christmas Ride Home (Theatre Tribe - Ovation Nominee); and Bold Girls (Matrix Theatre).

Benjamin Keepers (Laurence) has been seen as Chance Wayne in Sweet Bird of Youth (Lee Strasberg Institute); Jason in George Furth's sex, sex, sex...and sex (Tiffany Theater); Jason in The Okapi (Next Stage Theater); Freddy in All Good Soldiers in the West Wind (Greenway Court Theatre) and as Dr. John Buchanan in Summer in Smoke (The Globe Theatre).

Set Design for Shining City is by Shaun L. Motley; Lighting Design is by Ken Booth; Costume Design is by A. Jeffrey Schoenberg; Sound Design is by Peter Bayne; Dialect Coach is JB Blanc; Graphic Deisgn is by Scott Seidman; Production Stage Manager is Elna Kordijan; Bennett Bradley and Deborah Lawlor produce.

Housed in a charming two-story complex in Hollywood, California, The Fountain provides a nurturing, creative home for multi-ethnic theater and dance artists. Fountain productions have won more than 160 awards, and The Fountain Theatre is the only intimate theater to win the Ovation Award for Best Production of a Play four times. Fountain projects have been seen in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle, Florida, New Jersey, Minneapolis and Edinburgh. Recent highlights include its Off-Broadway production of Exits and Entrances in New York, worldwide readings/productions/tours of What I Heard About Iraq, the Ovation Award-winning Joe Turner's Come and Gone, the three-city tour of Sonidos Gitanos, the making of Sweet Nothing in my Ear into a movie for TV on CBS, and the recent Canadian premiere of Miss Julie: Freedom Summer in Vancouver and Toronto. The Fountain has been honored with a Certificate of Appreciation from the Los Angeles City Council for demonstrating years of artistic excellence and "enhancing the cultural life of Los Angeles."

Shining City opens on Saturday, September 19, with performances Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 pm and Sundays at 2 pm through December 19. Previews take place on Saturday, September 12; Thursday, September 17; and Friday, September 18 at 8 pm; and on Sunday, September 13 at 2 pm. Tickets are $25.00 on Thursdays and Fridays and $28.00 on Saturdays and Sundays, except opening night (September 19), which is $30.00 and previews which are $15.00. On Thursdays and Fridays only, Students with ID are $18.00 and seniors over 62 are $23.00.

The Fountain Theatre is located at 5060 Fountain Avenue (at Normandie) in Los Angeles. Secure, on-site parking is available for $5.00. The Fountain Theatre is air-conditioned and wheelchair accessible.

For reservations and information, call (323) 663-1525 or go to www.FountainTheatre.com.

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