South Coast Rep Presents 'Dead Man's Cell Phone' Starting 9/21

South Coast Repertory will present the Southern California premiere of Dead Man's Cell Phone, Sarah Ruhl's fantastical new play about a woman who answers a dead man's cell phone and finds her life turned upside down.  Directed by Bart DeLorenzo, Dead Man's Cell Phone runs Sept. 21 – Oct. 12 on the Julianne Argyros Stage.  Low-priced previews are available Sept. 21 – 25.  Opening night is Sept. 26.  Press night is Saturday, Sept. 27 at 7:45 p.m.  Tickets to Dead Man's Cell Phone may be purchased online at www.scr.org, by phone at (714) 708-5555 or in person at the SCR box office.

In Dead Man's Cell Phone, Jean decides to answer the incessantly ringing cell phone of a stranger seated across from her in a café, only to realize that he's deceased.  Soon she's telling his callers what she thinks they need to hear as she draws them into the surprises and mysteries of their lives – and her own.  The New York Times raved about Ruhl's "beguiling new comedy" which recently played to sold-out houses in New York, and Variety called the playwright's imaginative comedy "wondrously mad and moving."

Dead Man's Cell Phone marks Ruhl's return to South Coast Repertory following the West Coast Premiere of The Clean House in 2005, which also enjoyed a New York run and was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.  Her other plays include Demeter in the City, which was nominated for an NAACP Award, Eurydice, Melancholy Play, Late: a cowboy song, Orlando and Passion Play, winner of the Kennedy Center Fourth Forum Freedom Award.  Ruhl's plays have also been performed in throughout the United States and in England, Germany, Israel, New Zealand and Australia, and have been translated into Spanish, Polish, Russian and Korean.  In 2003, she was the recipient of a Helen Merrill Award and a Whiting Writers' Award, a PEN/Laura Pels Award, and in 2006 was the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship.

Bart DeLorenzo recently directed the world premiere of Donald Margulies' Shipwrecked! An Entertainment at South Coast Repertory, as well as readings of plays by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, Anthony Clarvoe and an earlier version of Shipwrecked! for SCR's 2007 Pacific Playwrights Festival.  He is the founding artistic director of the Evidence Room Theater in Los Angeles where he has directed many local and world premieres over the last 13 years.  He recently directed the world premiere of Joan Rivers: A Work in Progress at the Geffen Playhouse, the Center Theatre Group's kick-off premiere of Suzan-Lori Parks' 365 Days/365 Plays outdoors on the Music Center plaza and on the steps of Disney Hall, and the world premiere of Sandra Tsing Loh's long-running Mother on Fire at the 24th Street Theatre, and its many subsequent revivals.  DeLorenzo has received five LA Weekly awards and three Back Stage Garland awards for his work.

The cast of Dead Man's Cell Phone features Andrew Borba (Dwight), Nike Doukas (The Other Woman/Stranger), Shannon Holt (Hermia), Christina Pickles (Mrs. Gottlieb), Lenny Von Dohlen (Gordon) and Margaret Welsh (Jean).

The creative team includes Keith E. Mitchell (set design), Angela Balogh Calin (costume design), Lap-Chi Chu (lighting design), John Zalewski (sound design), John Glore (dramaturg) and Julie Haber (stage manager).

Laurie Smits Staude is the Honorary Producer of Dead Man's Cell Phone and KCRW and OC Weekly are the Media Partners.

Associated events taking place during the run of Dead Man's Cell Phone include:

POST-SHOW DISCUSSIONS:  Tuesday, Sept. 30 & Wednesday, Oct. 1

Discuss the play with members of the Dead Man's Cell Phone cast during free post-show discussions led by South Coast Repertory's literary team after the 7:45 p.m. performances on Sept. 30 & Oct. 1.

Tickets to Dead Man's Cell Phone can be purchased online at www.scr.org, by phone at (714) 708-5555 or by visiting the box office at 655 Town Center Drive in Costa Mesa.  Performances begin on Sept. 21 and continue through Oct. 12.  Ticket prices range from $20 to $64.  Low-priced preview performances are available from Sept. 21-25.  Performance times:  Previews:  Sunday, Sept. 21 at 2:00 p.m., and Tuesday, Sept. 23, Wednesday, Sept. 24 and Thursday, Sept. 25 at 7:45 p.m.  Regular Performances:  Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings at 7:45 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2:00 p.m. Discounts are available for full-time students, patrons 25 years of age and under, educators, seniors and groups of 15 or more.  There will be a "Pay-What-You-Will" performance on Saturday, Sept. 27 at 2:00 p.m. (Suggested Price:  $10; $7 minimum) and an ASL-interpreted performance on Saturday, Oct. 11 at 2:00 p.m.

South Coast Repertory is located at 655 Town Center Drive in Costa Mesa, at the Bristol Street/Avenue of the Arts exit off the San Diego (405) Freeway in the Folino Theater Center, part of the Segerstrom Center for the Arts.  Parking is available off Anton Blvd. on Park Center Drive.

Tony Award-winning South Coast Repertory, under the artistic direction of David Emmes and Martin Benson, is widely recognized as one of the leading professional theaters in the United States.  Founded in 1964, SCR is committed to theater that illuminates the compelling personal and social issues of our time, not only on its stages but through its education and outreach programs.  While its productions represent a balance of classic and modern theater, SCR is renowned for its extensive new play development program, including the Pacific Playwrights Festival.  Of SCR's more than 400 productions, 104 have been world premieres with subsequent stagings achieving enormous success across America and around the world.  SCR-developed works have garnered eight Pulitzer Prize nominations with Margaret Edson's Wit winning the prize in 1999 and David Lindsay-Abaire's Rabbit Hole in 2007.  Located in Costa Mesa, California, in 2002 SCR opened the Folino Theater Center, an expanded three-theater complex that includes the 507-seat Segerstrom Stage, the 336-seat Julianne Argyros Stage and the 94-seat Nicholas Studio.

BIOGRAPHIES

Sarah Ruhl (Playwright) plays include The Clean House, which won the 2004 Susan Smith Blackburn Award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2005, Dead Man's Cell Phone, which won the Helen Hayes Award for Best New Play, Demeter in the City, which was nominated for an NAACP Award, Eurydice, Melancholy Play, Late: a cowboy song, Orlando, and Passion Play, winner of the Kennedy Center Fourth Forum Freedom Award.  Her plays have been performed at Lincoln Center Theater, Playwrights Horizons, Second Stage Theatre, Goodman Theater, Cornerstone Theater, Arena Stage, South Coast Repertory Theater, the Wilma Theatre, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Co, La Jolla Playhouse, Piven Theater Workshop in Chicago, among many other theaters across the country.  Her plays have also been performed in England, Germany, Israel, New Zealand and Australia, and have been translated into Spanish, Polish, Russian and Korean.  Ruhl received her MFA from Brown University and is originally from Chicago.  In 2003, she was the recipient of a Helen Merrill Award and a Whiting Writers' Award, a PEN/Laura Pels Award, and in 2006 was the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship.  Her work is published in an anthology from TCG.  She is a member of New Dramatists and 13P.

Bart DeLorenzo (Director) recently directed the world premiere of Donald Margulies' Shipwrecked! An Entertainment, as well as readings of plays by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, Anthony Clarvoe and an earlier version of Shipwrecked! for the 2007 Pacific Playwrights Festival.  He is the founding artistic director of the Evidence Room Theater in Los Angeles where he has directed many local and world premieres over the last 13 years including plays by David Greenspan, Kelly Stuart, Martin Crimp, Philip K. Dick, Gordon Dahlquist, David Edgar, Charles L. Mee, Naomi Wallace and Edward Bond.  He recently directed the world premiere of Joan Rivers: A Work in Progress at the Geffen Playhouse, the Center Theatre Group's kick-off premiere of Suzan-Lori Parks' 365 Days/365 Plays outdoors on the Music Center plaza and on the steps of Disney Hall, and the world premiere of Sandra Tsing Loh's long-running Mother on Fire at the 24th Street Theatre, and its many subsequent revivals.  Other works include Racine's Britannicus adapted by John Rafter Lee at California Repertory and the return of Shipwrecked! An Entertainment at the Geffen Playhouse.

Andrew Borba (Dwight) appeared last at SCR in Lovers and Executioners.  Recent stage appearances include the title role in The Tragedy of King Richard III at the Shakespeare Festival St. Louis; the world premiere of Tranced at Laguna Playhouse; The Constant Wife, Private Lives and It's a Wonderful Life at Pasadena Playhouse.  Other roles include a Picture of Dorian Gray and Medea at Theatre @ Boston Court; Every Good Boy Deserves Favor, The Just and All My Sons at Chautauqua Theater Company; Pericles and The Countess at The Old Globe; and Closer at Berkeley Repertory Theatre; The Misanthrope at Dallas Theater Center; Mrs. Warrens' Profession, Tony Kushner's The Illusion, Othello at Portland Stage Company; An Enemy of the People at Long Wharf Theatre; A Shayna Maidel at Delaware Theatre Company, The Tempest and Two Gentlemen of Verona at Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival.  Andrew spent four seasons at The Oregon Shakespeare Festival, where he appeared in Arcadia, Othello, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Pentecost, Cymbeline, Coriolanus, Love's Labour's Lost, Henry IV, Part 1 and others.  Film and Television credits include the upcoming Lure, Nine Lives, Live from Baghdad, Recurring roles on "The Shield," "Jericho," "Lincoln Heights," "Enterprise" and recent guest appearances on "Grey's Anatomy," "House," "Without a Trace," "Monk," "CSI: Miami," "24" and "Nip/Tuck."

Nike Doukas (The Other Woman/Stranger) most recently appeared in An Ideal Husband at the Pittsburgh Irish and Classical Theatre, Betrayal at New Place, and Sea of Tranquility at The Old Globe.  Her SCR credits include Ridiculous Fraud, Cyrano de Bergerac, Major Barbara, Much Ado About Nothing, Everett Beekin, The Beard of Avon, Pygmalion, How the Other Half Loves, Arms and the Man, Blithe Spirit, Green Icebergs, The Company of Heaven and Loot.  She has also performed at A Contemporary Theatre (Seattle), Pasadena Playhouse, Mark Taper Forum, Shakespeare Festival/LA, Doolittle Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, American Conservatory Theater, Shakespeare Santa Cruz and Berkeley Shakespeare Festival.  Television and film credits include, "Shark," "Numb3rs," a recurring role on "Desperate Housewives," "Without a Trace," "Criminal Minds," "Boston Legal," "Malcom in the Middle," a recurring role on "Almost Perfect" and Seven Girlfriends.  Doukas has an MFA from American Conservatory Theater, and is a member of the Antaeus Company, where she appeared last year in Tonight at 8:30.

Shannon Holt (Hermia) is making her SCR debut.  Los Angeles theater credits include Tonight at 8:30 with The Antaeus Company; She Stoops to Comedy (LA Weekly nomination for Leading Female Performance), Kelly Stuart's Homewrecker, Andromache and Michael Sargent's Sweet Hostage at Evidence Room; Jessica Goldberg's Sex Parasite and Good Thing at Mark Taper Forum's Taper, Too; The Oresteia (LA Weekly nomination for Leading Female Performance and Drama-Logue Award), The Good Woman of Setzuan, Narrow Road to the Deep North (Ovation Award nomination for Leading Actress) and Woyzeck at Actors' Gang; John Steppling's Citizen Faust (Garland Award Honorable Mention) at L.A.T.C.; 36 Views at Laguna Playhouse and M. Butterfly at East West Players.  She had performed regionally at Trinity Rep, The Public Theater and Actors Theater of Louisville.  Film and television credits include the upcoming feature The Marc Pease Experience, Love Liza, Elsewhere, Bob Roberts, "ER," "The Unit," "Seinfeld," "That 70s Show," among others.

Christina Pickles (Mrs. Gottlieb) first appeared at SCR in 1982 in Bodies.  Broadway credits include Pantagleize, The Wild Duck, You Can't Take it With You, The Misanthrope, Sherlock Holmes, The School for Scandal and Inadmissible Evidence.  Off-Broadway credits include War and Peace, The Tavern, Chez Moi and Right You Are.  Regional theater credits include The Duchess of Malfi and The Merchant of Venice at McCarter Theatre Center; A Day in the Life of Joe Egg, Absent Friends and Trelawney of the Wells at Long Wharf Theatre; Heartbreak House, Nude with Violin, Summer Folk and A Touch of a Poet at Williamstown Theatre Festival; Measure for Measure and The Country Wife at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival; and The Seagull at ALLIANCE THEATRE.  Pickles received Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards for Cloud Nine at Canon Theatre and Undiscovered Country and The Letters of Janet Flanner at the Mark Taper Forum.  She is a member of the Antaeus Classical Theatre Ensemble where she has performed in Star Chamber and Hands Across the Sea.  Television credits include "Saint Elsewhere" and "Friends."  Pickles has been nominated for six Emmy Awards.  Film credits include Grace of My Heart, Masters of the Universe, Seizure, Romeo + Juliet, Legends of the Fall and The Wedding Singer.

Lenny Von Dohlen (Gordon) is making his SCR debut.  West Coast theater credits include Light at Boston Court Theatre, Theater District at Black Dahlia Theatre, The Blue Room at Pasadena Playhouse, and Lulu at La Jolla Playhouse.  New York theater credits include  Desire Under the Elms opposite Kathy Baker at Roundabout Theatre Co, Cloud Nine at Lucille Lortel Theatre, and originating roles in Twister (Academy Arts Theatre), Asian Shade (WPA) and Vanishing Act (Ensemble Studio Theatre) and The Maderati (Playwrights Horizons), both by Richard Greenberg.  Regional credits include Doubt at Indiana Repertory Theatre, The Velvet Rut at The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center and A Poster of the Cosmos at Contemporary Arts Center in New Orleans.  His film career spans his debut in the Academy Award-winning Tender Mercies to the soon-to-be-released Beautiful Loser.  His other films include Teeth, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, Jennifer Eight, Leaving Normal, Tollbooth, One Good Turn, Bird of Prey, Blind Vision, Billy Galvin and Electric Dreams.  Some of his television work include roles in Eudora Welty's "The Ponder Heart," "Twin Peaks," "CSI: Miami," "The Pretender," "Chicago Hope," "Picket Fences," "Love Kills" "thirtysomething" and "The Red Dwarf."

Margaret Welsh (Jean) is making her SCR debut.  New York Theater credits include: Lincoln Center Theater in Big Bill where she played all of the female roles and was nominated for a Lucille Lortel Award for Best Supporting Actress, Playwrights Horizon, Manhattan Class Company and Classic Stage Company.  Regional theater credits include Long Wharf Theatre, McCarter Theatre Center, Hartford Stage Co, Williamstown Theatre Festival, The Old Globe, Intiman Theatre and Geffen Playhouse.  TV credits include: a recurring character in John Stamos' "Jake In Progress" and  "Grey's Anatomy," guest appearances on "Without a Trace," "NYPD Blue," "The Practice," "Judging Amy," "The Division," "Stark Raving Mad" and "So Notorious."  Welsh also appeared as the lead in three MOW's and the feature films Mr. & Mrs. Bridge, American Heart, Smooth Talk, Ratchet, On the Bus and Under Cover of Darkness.

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