Second Story Theater Presents ST. NICHOLAS, Opens 6/18

Second Story Theatre presents ST. NICHOLAS, written by Tony Award-winning playwright Conor McPherson (The Seafarer, The Weir), directed by Scott Paulin (Getting Frankie Married, The Roads to Home) and performed by Michael McGee. ST. NICHOLAS will open on Friday, June 18 at 8pm and will run for six weeks through Sunday, July 25th (there will be no performances the Fourth of July weekend) at the SFS Theatre, 5636 Melrose Ave. (at Larchmont) in Los Angeles.

ST. NICHOLAS is Conor McPherson's wry and ribald tale of a jaded, skirt-chasing Irish theater critic (Michael McGee) who falls hopelessly in love with a young and heartbreakingly beautiful dancer/actress from the famed Abbey theater in Dublin. Following young Helen to London the critic is drawn into a world of big city vampires, elegant and sophisticated, and in the end, soulless. It is an often-hilarious journey of desperate love and agonizing self-discovery. It is also a witty assault on modern culture, where too often greed and self-gratification replace reflection and generosity of spirit.

ABOUT THE CREATIVE TEAM

Conor McPherson (Playwright) was born in Dublin, the son of a business and accounting teacher. Educated at University College Dublin, McPherson began writing his first plays there as a member of the college's dramatic society, and went on to found Fly By Night Theater Company which produced several of his plays. He is considered one of the best contemporary Irish playwrights. The Weir opened at the Royal Court before transferring to the West End and won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play for 1999.

His 2001 play, Port Authority premiered at the New Ambassadors Theatre in London in February 2001, before moving to Dublin's Gate Theatre in April of that year. The production was directed by McPherson himself. The Atlantic Theater Company staged a production of the play in spring of 2008. Says New York Times critic Ben Brantley, "I found myself holding on to what these actors had to say as if I were a 5-year-old at bedtime being introduced to ‘The Arabian Nights.'"

McPherson also directed his play, Dublin Carol, at the Atlantic Theater Company in 2003.
His 2004 play Shining City prompted the London Telegraph to describe him as "the finest dramatist of his generation..." A meditation on regret, guilt and confusion, the play is set entirely within the Dublin offices of a psychiatrist who himself has psychological secrets. It subsequently opened on Broadway in 2006 and was nominated for two Tony Awards, including Best Play. In September 2006, to great critical acclaim, McPherson made his National Theatre debut as both author and director with The Seafarer. Jim Norton won an Olivier Award for his performance while McPherson was nominated for both the Olivier and Evening Standard Awards for Best Play. In October 2007 The Seafarer came to Broadway keeping with it most of its creative team, including McPherson as director (with stage and film actor David Morse taking over as Sharky, and Ciarán Hinds portraying Mr. Lockhart.) The production on Broadway received rave reviews. "McPherson is quite possibly the finest playwright of his generation" wrote Ben Brantley at the New York Times. Jim Norton's performance as Richard Harkin in The Seafarer at The National Theatre won the 2007 Best Supporting Actor Laurence Olivier Award, and he picked up a Tony Award in 2008 for Best Featured Actor in a play. McPherson wrote and directed a stage adaptation of Daphne Du Maurier's story The Birds, which opened in September 2009 at the Gate Theatre in Dublin. The film of his first screenplay, "I Went Down," was critically acclaimed and a great commercial success. His first feature film as a director, "Saltwater," won the CICAE award for Best Film at the Berlin Film Festival. His second feature film was The Actors, which he wrote and directed.

SCOTT PAULIN (Director) is a director and actor living and working in Los Angeles. He began performing in the San Francisco Bay Area in the 1970s appearing at The Magic Theater, The Berkeley Repertory Theater, The Berkeley Stage Company, and the Eureka Theater where he received the Bay Area Theater Critics Circle Best Actor Award for his performance as Pavlo in the West Coast Premiere of David Rabe's The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel. He began directing at The Bay Area Playwrights Festival with Bill Talen's adaptation of Tolstoy's short story The Gambler. Since moving to Los Angeles in 1980 he has worked extensively in the theater, film and television. He has directed a number of plays by Horton Foote including The Roads to Home, The Midnight Caller, Blind Date, and The One-Armed Man (the last three one-acts performed together as Harrison, Texas) at The Second Story Theater. His production of Getting Frankie Married---and Afterwards by Mr. Foote, recently closed at The Open Fist Theater in Hollywood. He directed the World Premiere of Nicolas Kazan's The Good Soldier at The Odyssey, John Patrick Shanley's Welcome to the Moon, and Four Dogs and A Bone, Tennessee Williams' 27 Wagons Full of Cotton, Michel Tremblay's Johnny Mangano and his Astonishing Dogs (Trois Petit Tours), and The Woolgatherer by William Mastrosimone at The Second Story Theater. In the last year he has performed in Laura Richardson's comedy Come Back Little Horny and Shock Therapy by Tom Baum at The Lillian Theater. He has also directed thirty-five hours of television drama winning the Humanitas Prize for an episode of the NBC civil rights drama I'll Fly Away. As an actor he has guest starred in more than one hundred hours of television drama, mini-series, and MOWs and he has played leading roles in feature films including The Right Stuff, A Soldier's Story, Cat People, Pump Up the Volume, Turner and Hooch, The Accused, and I Am Sam. He is married to actress Wendy Phillips and is the father of Jenny Dare Paulin, also an actress, living in New York.

MICHAEL MCGEE (Man) Mr. McGee's San Francisco, productions include: TANGO, THE ADDING MACHINE, CRIMES OF THE HEART, GEMINI, THE BRIDGE, LYSISTRATA, BLEACHER BUMS, performed at: The StageGroup Theatre, Marin Theatre Company, Shelton Theatre, Berkeley Jewish Theatre and other theatres. He also directed a production of Pinter's THE HOTHOUSE for the San Francisco Actor's Theatre. Los Angeles highlights: McGee directed Gorky's THE LOWER DEPTHS on Skid Row, with homeless artists and actors. He continued working on Skid Row with, the late Scott Kelman of Pipeline Productions, developing shows for Skid Row workshops with music, poetry and acting, funded by Los Angeles Cultural Affairs. McGee played, Polonius, in a production of HAMLET directed and starring Bruce Beatty with a cast including Don Cheadle, Jesse Borrego, Michael Boatman, David Duensing and others.

He appeared in the 2nd Story Theater production of, HARRISON, TEXAS, three plays by Horton Foote, directed by Scott Paulin. McGee has appeared in several independent films playing featured roles and has a starring role in the award winning comedic feature "THE RAT THING" written, directed by and with Kevin Keresey, the film played this year at the Cannes Independent Film Festival. McGee also writes and he, along with screenwriter/novelist Matt Benjamin, founded and ran a screenwriters workshop for inmates at Terminal Island Federal Correctional Institution in Long Beach for 3 years.

The design team includes: Set and Costume Design by Scott Paulin. The Lighting Design is by Christopher Singleton.

ABOUT THE SCHEDULE AND PRICING

ST. NICHOLAS will open on Friday, June 18 and will run for six weeks through Sunday, July 25th (there will be no performances over Fourth of July weekend) at the SFS Theatre, 5636 Melrose Ave.. (at Larchmont) in Los Angeles.

Performances are Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm; Sundays at 4pm. Ticket prices are $20.00 for all performances. For tickets, please call 323-960-5296 or for more info, please visit www.stnicholasplay.com.

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