The Geffen Playhouse adds Bill Cain’s new play Equivocation to its 2009/2010 lineup as well as confirms director John Rando to helm Matthew Modine Saves the Alpacas. The Geffen Playhouse’s 2009 / 2010 season boasts award-winning actors (including Annette Bening, Laurence Fishburne and Matthew Modine), acclaimed directors (Randall Arney, Gil Cates, Leonard Foglia and John Rando) and contemporary new works, including two world premieres, a North American premiere and a West Coast premiere.
The season, which runs the gamut from satire and farce to musical and biography, kicks off with the world premiere of Blair Singer’s Hollywood parody
Matthew Modine Saves the Alpacas, segues into Bill Cain’s witty historical fiction Equivocation, is followed by the North American premiere of Joanna Murray-Smith’s wild comedy The Female of the Species, which leads into the world premiere of
Jonathan Brielle’s gritty musical Nightmare Alley (postponed from the current season), and concludes with the West Coast premiere of the
George Stevens, Jr’s stunning biography Thurgood.
“When putting together our season, we focus on each play as part of a larger experience – and this year we’re taking our audience on quite a ride,” said Geffen Playhouse Producing Director
Gil Cates. “We’ll collectively be transported and provoked by the work on stage, and we’ll walk out with a little different perspective than when we walked in. And, that’s why we go to the theater.”
The Geffen Playhouse, which begins on September 16, 2009 and runs through August 8, 2010 includes:
Matthew Modine Saves the Alpacas - Written by Blair Singer and directed by
John Rando. It runs from September 8 - October 18. Opening night is September 16.
Matthew Modine stars as
Matthew Modine in
Matthew Modine Saves the Alpacas, the world premiere of this rollicking satire that parodies celebrity humanitarianism, Hollywood and hand sanitizer. Eighties heartthrob
Matthew Modine was ‘A-List’ all the way. But now, a couple decades later, he’s not any lists. He needs to get back in the limelight – he needs ... a Cause. With the help of uber-publicist Whimberly North, Matthew channels his talents toward the common good and heads off to a small South American village to meet the Chimborazzi tribe and save their alpacas. Now, if only there wasn’t so much dirt in Ecuador...
Equivocation - Written by Bill Cain (director to be announced shortly). It runs from November 10 - December 20. Opening night is November 18.
In a world where history is told by the winner, comes a new play about the night England’s infamous Gunpowder Plot was foiled. For hundreds of years, this event has been celebrated as Guy Fawkes Day, but it’s clear there is no way the night could have unfolded the way the Crown claimed. So, without Fox News at his disposal, how does King James turn fiction into fact? He hires the world’s greatest playwright. Enter
William Shakespeare. With the weight of history on their shoulders, Shakespeare and his winsome troupe struggle to dramatize the King’s absurd account without losing their integrity - or their heads. Featuring playful allusions to some of the Bard’s greatest works, Equivocation is a high-stakes tale where history meets fiction and fiction meets its match.
The Female of the Species - Written by Joanna Murray-Smith and directed by
Randall Arney. It runs from February 2 - March 14. Opening night is February 10.
Academy Award winner
Annette Bening returns to the Geffen Playhouse in this wildly wicked farce. Loosely inspired by a real-life incident involving feminist philosopher Germaine Greer, The Female of the Species tells the story of Margot Mason – famed auteur of such influential works as “Madame Ovary,” “Love and Other Four Letter Words” and “The Complete Insignificance of Male Sexuality” – who has retreated to her country home to pen her next masterpiece. Problem is, nothing’s coming. Nothing, that is, except for a young former student who is intent on taking Margot hostage as punishment for her mixed message ideology. Enter Margot’s overlooked daughter, her simplistic son-in-law, her longtime publisher and a disgruntled cab driver ... and all of a sudden a simple kidnapping turns into a battle over who can throw the first punch and get the last word.
Nightmare Alley - Music, Book and Lyrics by
Jonathan Brielle. It is directed by Gilbert Cates. It runs from April 13 – May 23. Opening night is April 21.
Step into Nightmare Alley and enter the titillating world of carnies, cons and clairvoyants. With a score as wild as a funhouse and as evocative as a beautiful tightrope walker, this world premiere musical tells the tale of a young carnie couple who tempt the fickle hand of fate. Based on the darkly evocative 1946 William Lindsay Gresham novel of the same name, Nightmare Alley is a night at the theater full of special effects, wondrous feats and enough spirit to make believers of us all. But remember, here, things are never as they seem.
Thurgood - Written by
George Stevens Jr and directed by
Leonard Foglia. It runs from June 27 – August 8. Opening night is July 7.
Witness one of America’s greatest stories told from the stage by one of our greatest story tellers. Tony Award Winner, Emmy Award Winner and Oscar Nominee
Laurence Fishburne transforms into Thurgood Marshall to tell the triumphant story of how a boy from the backstreets of Baltimore changed history. From arguing the 1954 landmark case Brown v. Board of Education to becoming the first African-American Supreme Court Justice, Thurgood Marshall’s tenacious advocacy broke open the civil rights movement, paving the way for the young African-American leaders of our future. Fishburne’s acclaimed Broadway performance of Thurgood earned him a Drama Desk Award and an Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Solo Performance, as well as a Tony nomination for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play.
The Geffen Playhouse has been a hub of the Los Angeles theater scene since opening its doors in 1995. Noted for its intimacy and celebrated for its world-renowned mix of classic and contemporary plays, provocative new works and musicals, the Geffen Playhouse continues to present a body of work that has garnered national recognition. Named in honor of entertainment mogul and philanthropist David Geffen, who made the initial donation to the theater, the company is helmed by Producing Director and President of the Board Gilbert (Gil) Cates, Artistic Director Randall Arney, Managing Director Susan Barton and Chairman of the Board Frank Mancuso. Proudly associated with UCLA, the Geffen Playhouse welcomes an audience of more than 130,000 each year, and maintains an extensive education and outreach program, designed to engage young people and the community at large in the arts. For more information, please visit GeffenPlayhouse.com.
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