Arizona Theatre Company Presents THE MYSTERY OF IRMA VEP, 4/9-30

Vampires, and mummies, and werewolves...oh my! Back by popular demand, Arizona Theatre Company promises an evening of outrageous fun and wonderful entertainment with the hilarious quick-change horror spoof THE MYSTERY OF IRMA VEP as the grand finale of its 2010-2011 Season.

Charles Ludlam's great comic spoof is once again directed by ATC Artistic Director David Ira Goldstein and stars ATC favorites Bob Sorenson and Oliver Wadsworth. This 'ridiculous' comedy is guaranteed to keep you in stitches right up until the final twist. IRMA VEP runs in Tucson at the Temple of Music and Art from April 9 - 30, 2011. It continues its run in Phoenix downtown at the Herberger Theater Center May 5 - 22, 2011. The Tucson media sponsors for the 2010-2011 Season are KGUN9, MIX-FM and Tucson Lifestyle. Arizona Theatre Company's season sponsors are I. Michael and Beth Kasser.

Audiences laughed until they couldn't breathe when we produced this virtuoso quick-change horror story a dozen years ago. THE MYSTERY OF IRMA VEP has been the most requested show by our audiences - so we're bringing it all back to endanger your funny bone again! Two lightning-fast actors portray all the residents of Mandacrest --as well as a host of vampires, werewolves, mummies and things that go bump in the night--who travel from the moors of England to the tombs of Egypt and back again. With Gothic plot turns thrown out like thumbtacks in the road, along with a stage full of outrageous sets and costumes, THE MYSTERY OF IRMA VEP is an incessantly entertaining theatre experience bursting with fun. "The play will keep you laughing...and laughing hard," The Arizona Republic raved when we produced the play in 1999.

Charles Ludlam (Playwright) was born in 1943 and was said to have possessed a true sense of the ridiculous - so much so, in fact, that he named the company he founded the Ridiculous Theatrical Company. With Ludlam acting as Artistic Director, Playwright-in-Residence and often a featured star, the company formed in New York in 1967 and quickly developed a reputation for impeccable ensemble performances with a knack for vaudevillian farce, satire and melodrama. When the company premiered The Mystery of Irma Vep in 1984, Time Magazine hailed it as one of the best plays of the year. His other plays included Camille, The Artificial Jungle, The Enchanted Pig, Bluebeard, and The Ventriloquist's Wife. Irma Vep would go on to earn a special Drama Desk Award and two Obie Awards, becoming one of the most produced plays world-wide. Ludlam would go on to teach at New York University and Yale.

David Ira Goldstein (Director) celebrates his nineteenth season as Artistic Director of ATC. He has directed over 35 mainstage productions for ATC ranging from classics to musicals to numerous world premieres including the world premieres of Jeffrey Hatcher's Ten Chimneys and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde as well as seven original plays by Steven Dietz. He has been a guest director at theatres from coast to coast including Berkeley Rep, Seattle Rep, Florida Stage, San Jose Rep, GeVa Theatre, The Children's Theatre Company of Minneapolis and Northlight Theatre. As Artistic Director, he has produced over 165 mainstage plays, workshops and presentations including acclaimed appearances by the Royal National Theatre of Great Britain and the Theatre Royal Bath. His musical A Marvelous Party: The Noël Coward Celebration, which originated at ATC, has played extensively across the US, winning many awards including four Jeff Awards in Chicago (including Best Director), the Elliot Norton Award in Boston and the Los Angeles Drama Critics Award for Best Production.

BOB SORENSON (Jane Twisden/Lord Edgar/Intruder) returns to ATC where he has appeared in The Pajama Game, I Am My Own Wife, Permanent Collection, Over the Moon, Fully Committed, Ghosts, Art, The Mystery of Irma Vep, How I Learned to Drive, Scapin, Swinging on a Star, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, A Midsummer Night's Dream and Noises Off. Actors Theatre of Phoenix credits include The Arizona Project, Henry V, Illuminati and Putting It Together, among others. He recently played Malvolio for Southwest Shakespeare Company. For Phoenix Theatre, he has appeared in Annie; Mister Roberts; I Do, I Do; Rumors and Play It Again, Sam, among others. Mr. Sorenson's directing credits include More Fun Than Bowling, It Had To Be You, The Bug, Rounding Third and The Complete History of America, Steel Magnolias, Personals, Six Women With Brain Death among others. His film and television credits include HBO's Boardwalk Empire and the recurring role of Dr. Stephen Kurt on NBC's Law & Order.

Oliver Wadsworth (Nicodemus/Lady Enid/Alcazar) recently finished the First National Tour of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang andOff-Broadway, he was seen in Endpapers at Variety Arts and Well at The Public Theater. He has appeared with Actors Theatre of Phoenix in This, Shipwrecked!, Angels in America, Parts I and II, Pillowman and Nickel and Dimed. Other regional credits include Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Misalliance, An Enemy of the People, Santaland Diaries, Dracula, Peter Pan, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Fully Committed, The Taming of the Shrew, Take Me Out, Murder on the Nile, Stones in His Pocket, and Art. Mr. Wadsworth's film and television credits include Law & Order: SVU, Ira Sach's Ed's Next Move, and Dotty Gets Spanked.

The creative team for THE MYSTERY OF IRMA VEP includes DREW BOUGHTON (Scenic Designer), who also designed Scapin and H.M.S. Pinafore for Arizona Theatre Company. His theatrical designs include Psychopathia Sexualis, She Stoops to Conquer, The Brothers Karamazov, Inspecting Carol, The Sisters Rosensweig; The Hardy Boys in the Mystery of Skull Bone Island, The Turn of the Screw and How I Learned to Drive. Television credits include, MTV's Undressed. Film credits include Pirates of the Caribbean 4: On Stranger Tides, Unstoppable, Seven Girlfriends and One Hell of a Guy. He was also Supervising Art Director on National Treasure: Book of Secrets; and Production Designer for the film Last Best Sunday;

David Kay MICKELSEN (Costume Designer) has designed 46 productions for ATC. He has designed more than 250 productions at some of the nation's leading theatres, including Guthrie Theater, Denver Center Theatre Company, Cleveland Play House, and Cincinnati Playhouse. He has designed productions for the Oregon, Utah, Colorado, and Illinois Shakespeare Festivals and Berkeley, St. Louis, Missouri, Tennessee, San Diego, New Mexico, Jean Cocteau, and Irish Repertory Theatres, among many other regional theatres;

Michael GillIAM (Lighting Designer) returns to Arizona Theatre Company where he designed Woody Guthrie's American Song, [title of show], Hair, George Gershwin Alone, The Fantasticks, Play On!, The Mystery of Irma Vep and Blue. He has designed lighting on Broadway, The West End, Off-Broadway and regionally at such theatres as Arena Stage, The Old Globe, La Jolla Playhouse, Seattle Rep, Goodman Theatre, Guthrie Theater, Pasadena Playhouse, Geffen Playhouse, The Kennedy Center, and Ford's Theatre, among many others;

ROBERTA CARLSON (Composer) has composed scores for many productions at ATC, including Enchanted April, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Macbeth, Over the Moon, As You Like It, Inventing van Gogh, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Dracula, and Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure. Her work has also been heard at the Guthrie Theater, Seattle Rep, Kansas City Rep, Capital Rep and San Jose Rep, as well as numerous theaters in Minneapolis;

BRIAN JEROME PETERSON (Resident Sound Designer) celebrates his 25th season at ATC, where he has designed 67 productions. His designs have been heard in many theatres includingBerkeley Rep, Seattle Rep, Cleveland Play House, Northlight Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville and San Jose Rep; Glenn Bruner is the Stage Manager.

Arizona Theatre Company offers accessibility services for patrons with disabilities for select performances. Audio Description provides patrons with vision loss a running audio description of the movement and activities onstage through an infrared broadcast system. An Audio-described performance is offered on April 28 at 2:00 PM.

Interested patrons with vision loss may request a tactile tour one hour prior to curtain. American Sign Language Interpretation is presented by professional, theatrically-trained ASL-interpreters for people who have deafness or hearing impairment. An ASL-interpreted performance is offered on April 28 at 7:30 PM.

Open-captioning allows patrons to read the play's dialogue on an LED screen as the play progresses. An open-captioned performance is offered on April 28 at 2:00 PM. For open-captioned or ASL-interpreted performances, patrons should request seats best suited to ASL interpretation or captioning when purchasing tickets. Large print and Braille playbills and infrared listening amplification devices are also available at every ATC performance with reservation. TTY access for the box office is available in Tucson at (520) 884-9723 or via Arizona Relay at (800) 367-8939 (TTY/ASCII).

Tickets start at $30 depending on date and section choice and are available at www.arizonatheatre.org or by calling the box office at (520) 622-2823. Discounts are available for students, seniors and active military on specific performance days. Half-price rush tickets are available for balcony seating for all performances one hour prior to curtain at the ATC box office (subject to availability). Ten Dollar Tuesday for TheMystery of Irma Vep is April 12 at 7:30 PM. Balcony seats for this preview performance are available for a suggested $10 donation. (Tickets must be purchased at the ATC box office starting at 10 AM on April 12. Seating is first-come first served and is not guaranteed. Cash only, please. Two tickets per person maximum.) For discounts on groups of eight or more, call (520) 622-2823.

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