Antony Hagopian, Mfundo Morrison Join Old Globe's GROUNDSWELL

Executive Producer Lou Spisto today announced the complete cast and creative team for Ian Bruce's Groundswell, a psychological drama set in South Africa. Directed by Kyle Donnelly, Groundswell will run in the Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre March 12 - April 17. Preview performances run March 12 - March 16. Opening night is March 17 at 8:00 p.m. Tickets can be purchased online at www.TheOldGlobe.org, by phone at (619) 23-GLOBE or by visiting the Box Office at 1363 Old Globe Way in Balboa Park.

Set in a beachfront resort on the jagged edge of west South Africa, two men plot to convince their lone guest to invest in their diamond mining scheme. The three men find themselves caught in a power struggle fueled by greed and desperation and will go to any length to secure a chance at a better life. Groundswell is a haunting, psychological thriller that offers a provocative look at a society still haunted by its divided past.

The cast of Groundswell features Antony Hagopian (Johan), Mfundo Morrison (Thami) and Ned Schmidtke (Smith).

The creative team includes Kate Edmunds (Scenic Design), Denitsa Bliznakova (Costume Design), Russell H. Champa (Lighting Design), Lindsay Jones (Sound Design), Gillian Lane-Plescia (Dialect Coach) and Annette Yé (Stage Manager).

Playwright Ian Bruce was trained as an actor in Johannesburg and appeared briefly in the early 1970s on the South African stage and TV before leaving South Africa to begin a 17-year long political exile in Holland, where he cofounded the Tekhwini Theatre Foundation with Anthony Akerman and Joseph Mosikili. In 1978 his first play, Falls the Shadow, won a Dutch Arts Council Best New Play Award and several works on South African themes followed. The only one of these to evade South Africa's censorship laws, My Father's House, was courageously produced by PACT, the most progressive of the four provincial Arts Councils that existed in South Africa at the time, in 1987. After his return to South Africa in the early 1990s, Bruce focused on the uses of drama for development and spent some years living and working in poverty-stricken rural communities. In 1998 he began working with the New Africa Theatre Association, for which he and his wife, Ina, have created a host of productions, educational plays and industrial theater works. He is the current Executive Director of the New Africa Theatre Association. Since Groundswell, Bruce has written two more major plays: Transit (written and produced in 2009) and Burnt! (written in 2010 and currently in production in Cape Town).

Director Kyle Donnelly has directed Opus, Orson's Shadow and A Midsummer Night's Dream at The Old Globe. She has had a long association with Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., having been Associate Artistic Director from 1992 to 1998 and directed many productions including Dancing at Lughnasa (winner of the Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Resident Play) and Polk County (Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding New Musical). She directed the American premiere of Brian Friel's Give Me Your Answer, Do! for Roundabout Theatre Company. Her regional credits include Spoon Lake Blues (The Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center Festival), The Constant Wife (American Conservatory Theater and Seattle Repertory Theatre), Philadelphia, Here I Come! (Williamstown Theatre Festival), Dancing at Lughnasa (Goodman Theatre), Molly Sweeney (Steppenwolf Theatre), Polk County (McCarter Theatre and Berkeley Repertory Theatre), Zara Spook and Other Lures (Humana Festival of New American Plays at Actors Theatre of Louisville) and Three Nights in Tehran (Signature Theatre Company). She is the head of the professional actor training program at the University of California, San Diego.

Antony Hagopian (Johan) most recently appeared as Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady at the John W. Engeman Theater at Northport in Long Island, New York. He has appeared on Broadway in Frost/Nixon (and also in the National Tour) and Off Broadway in Walking Down Broadway (Mint Theater Company) and Stray (Cherry Lane Theatre). His regional credits include Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Pittsburgh Public Theater, The Shakespeare Theatre Company, Pioneer Theatre Company, Missouri Repertory Theatre, The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, The Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Virginia Stage Company, Indiana Repertory Theatre, New Jersey Shakespeare Festival, PlayMakers Repertory Company and Dorset Theatre Festival, among others. Television credits include "Law & Order," "The Sopranos," "As the World Turns," "All My Children" and "Guiding Light."

Mfundo Morrison (Thami) is an actor/writer/producer and is the grandson of South African activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Morrison has been a cast member on several award-winning television shows including "General Hospital" and "The Closer." He was part of the "General Hospital" cast that won the Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series several years in succession. Morrison's Production Company, Harmattan Productions, is currently developing a comedy he has written set in Los Angeles and Johannesburg, South Africa.

Ned Schmidtke (Smith) has previously appeared at the Globe in The Pleasure of His Company, Sea of Tranquility, A Body of Water, Blue/Orange and Pericles. He has appeared on Broadway and in the National Tour of Aren't We All? His many regional credits include Tonight at 8:30 (The Antaeus Company), The Molière Comedies (Mark Taper Forum), Driving Miss Daisy (Utah Shakespeare Festival), Six Degrees of Separation (National Tour), The Real Thing (Court Theatre), Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2 (Oregon Shakespeare Festival), The Three Sisters (Goodman Theatre), Libra (Steppenwolf Theatre Company), Enemy of the People (Northlight Theatre), Tartuffe (Stratford Shakespeare Festival), Passion Play (Arena Stage) and Plenty (Huntington Theatre Company). Schmidtke's film credits include The Change-Up (in post-production), Accepted, Wedding Crashers, xx: State of the Union, Mercury Rising, My Best Friend's Wedding, Chain Reaction, The Relic and Music Box. His television credits include "Criminal Minds," "Medium," "Point Pleasant," "24," "Without a Trace," "Cold Case," "Huff," "NYPD Blue," "JAG," "The West Wing," "The Practice," "ER" and "Crossing Jordan."

TICKETS to Groundswell can be purchased online at www.TheOldGlobe.org, by phone at (619) 23-GLOBE or by visiting the Box Office at 1363 Old Globe Way in Balboa Park. Performances at the Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre begin on March 12 and continue through April 17. Ticket prices range from $29 to $67. Performance times: Previews: Saturday, March 12 at 8:00 p.m., Sunday, March 13 at 7:00 p.m., Tuesday, March 15 at 7:00 p.m. and Wednesday, March 16 at 7:00 p.m. Regular Performances: Tuesday and Wednesday evenings at 7:00 p.m., Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings at 8:00 p.m., Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2:00 p.m. and Sunday evenings at 7:00 p.m. There is also a Wednesday matinee on March 30 at 2:00 p.m. and no Saturday matinee performance on April 2. Discounts are available for full-time students, patrons 29 years of age and under, seniors and groups of 10 or more.

Photo Credit: Katarzyna Woronowicz

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