Diversionary Theatre Announces Cast & Creative Team For HEAD OVER HEELS

Diversionary Theatre has announced the cast and creative team for its San Diego-premiere of Head Over Heels, a musical based upon "The Arcadia" by Sir Philip Sidney, with songs by the iconic 80's all-girl rock band, The Go-Go's.

Conceived and featuring an original book by Jeff Whitty - winner of the 2004 Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical for Avenue Q - and adapted by James Magruder, whose adaptations have been produced at theatres across the nation including the La Jolla Playhouse, with choreography by Katie Banville, and music direction by Patrick Marion, Head Over Heels is co-directed by Stephen Brotebeck and Matt M. Morrow. Head Over Heels will begin previews May 25 (press opening: Saturday, June 3) at Diversionary Theatre in University Heights. For tickets and information, please visit diversionary.org.

The cast features Gerilyn Brault returning to the Diversionary stage as "Pamela," Faith Carrion as "Pythio," Berto Fernández as "Dametas," Joey Kirkpatrick as "Musidorous," Adelaida Martinez as "Philoclea," Amanda Naughton making her Diversionary debut as "Gynecia," Lauren King Thompson returning to Diversionary as "Mopsa," and Alyssa Junious, Sutheshna Mani and Kevin Phan as "Ensemble."

The creative team includes: Justin Humphres, Scenic Designer; Elisa Benzoni, Costume Designer; Joel Britt, Lighting Designer; Alyssa Kane, Props Designer; Harper Justus, Sound Designer; Peter Herman, Wig Designer; Alyssa "Ajay" Junious, Associate Choreographer; Kandace Crystal, Intimacy Design; Jacob Bruce, Fight Choreographer; Shannon Humiston, Stage Manager.

"Head Over Heels bravely confronts the rapidly changing social, sexual, and gender dynamic of our day. I love that this story is told in verse, paying homage to its roots in Sir Philip Sidney's 'The Arcadia.' And even though it's a jukebox musical, The Go Go's songs are interwoven so fluidly with intelligence and heart, that it feels like they were written for this story specifically. The mash up of rock music and verse create an altogether fresh and new mode of storytelling that is an explosion of pure joy," says Matt Morrow, co-director of Head Over Heels and Diversionary Theatre's Executive Artistic Director. About Head Over Heels

From the visionary behind Avenue Q comes a bold new Broadway musical fairytale where Once Upon a Time crashes into our present moment. In the mythical land of Arcadia, the royal family is challenged to set out on a journey to save their beloved kingdom from extinction. Through their adventure gender roles are upended, relationships liberated, and love is discovered in the most surprising of ways. Told to the hypnotic beat of the iconic 80's all-girl rock band The Go-Go's, Head Over Heels joyously unveils a path to a new world where diversity is celebrated and ladies lead!

The Go-Go's preside over an amazing three-decade reign as high pop priestesses, from their halcyon days as America's sweethearts to their current status as superstars who pioneered a genre. The internationally-loved pop hitmakers helped cement the foundation of the early 80's pop-rock sound without the aid of outside composers, session players or, most importantly, creative compromise. From their very first show, The Go-Go's sang and played their own songs, offering five feisty role models for a generation of ready-to-rock girls and good, hooky fun for pop-loving guys. Their story truly is a punk version of the American Dream. They came, they saw and they conquered the charts, the airwaves and, with their kicky kitsch appeal, pop culture in general. For a while, the band was virtually inescapable: TV guest shots, magazine covers, high-profile concert tours and movie offers turned Belinda Carlisle, Jane Wiedlin, Charlotte Caffey, Gina Schock and Kathy Valentine into certified rock stars. Their sparkling California pop appealed to an astonishingly wide cross-section of music fans.

Sir Philip Sidney was an English poet, courtier, scholar, and soldier, who is remembered as one of the most prominent figures of the Elizabethan age. His works include "Astrophel and Stella," "The Defence of Poesy" (also known as "The Defence of Poetry or An Apology for Poetry"), and "The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia."

Jeff Whitty co-created the musical Avenue Q, for which he won the 2004 Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical. Avenue Q ran for sixteen years commercially in New York, six years on London's West End, and continues to be produced all over the world in dozens of languages. Other musicals include Bring It On with a score by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Amanda Green (Broadway, Best Musical Tony nomination), an adaptation of Armistead Maupin's Tales Of The City with music by Scissor Sisters (best Book, Bay Area Critics Circle Award), and the original pre-Broadway Head Over Heels, a jukebox musical featuring modern music, based on a long-lost book from 1580, which he wrote entirely in iambic pentameter. Mr. Whitty's plays include The Further Adventures of Hedda Gabler (in which he performed the titular role in New York, sharing leading lady status with Billy Porter as Mammy from "Gone With the Wind"), The Plank Project (a cheeky parody of The Laramie Project); The Hiding Place, a comedy about Bohemian New York artists; and the multi-cycle play Balls. His work has premiered at the Atlantic Theater Company off-Broadway, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, South Coast Repertory (Costa Mesa, CA), ACT (San Francisco), the Ahmanson Theater (LA) and the Alliance Theater in Atlanta. His modern-language adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream was commissioned by the Play On! Festival, and productions are now lined up in several US theaters, in Prague and London as well as a podcast for Next Chapter Podcasts.

James Magruder is a playwright, translator, and fiction writer, currently represented on Broadway as co-bookwriter on Head Over Heels, the musical mash-up of Sir Philip Sidney's "The Arcadia" and the song catalogue of The Go-Go's. His other translations and adaptations for the stage include Marivaux's The Triumph of Love (Center Stage, Classic Stage Company, La Jolla Playhouse), the book for its musical version, Triumph of Love (Broadway and beyond, Germany, and Japan), Labiche's Eating Crow (Dallas Main Street Theatre), Lesage's Turcaret (Catalyst Theatre), Dancourt's Knight Errant, Molière's The Imaginary Invalid (Yale Repertory Theatre), Bougie Man, a version of Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme for South Coast Rep, The Miser (Center Stage, Northlight Theatre), Gozzi's The Love of Three Oranges (La Jolla Playhouse), Christmas Carol 1941 (Arena Stage), The Madwoman of Chaillot (American Conservatory Theatre) and Der Bourgeois Bigwig, a reconstruction of the Molière/Hofmannsthal/Strauss musical comedy for Princeton University. His "Three French Comedies" (Yale University Press) was named an "Outstanding Literary Translation" by the American Literary Translators Association (ALTA). He has worked as a dramaturg at Yale Repertory Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, Baltimore Center Stage, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Berkshire Theatre Festival, South Coast Repertory Theatre, The Stratford Festival in Canada, and on Broadway. He has taught, off and on, at Swarthmore College, Princeton University, the University of Baltimore, and the Yale School of Drama.

Stephen Brotebeck is a Professor in the MFA Musical Theatre program at SDSU where he has directed and choreographed numerous productions including Postcard American Town (World Premiere), Steel Pier, Pippin, James and the Giant Peach, The Full Monty and The Drowsy Chaperone (Craig Noel Award Nomination). Broadway: Ghost, Peter and the Starcatcher (Movement Associate). Former Artistic Director of the Okoboji Summer Theatre. As a director Mr. Brotebeck has helmed the Off and Off-Off Broadway productions of The Shark Play, Breaking The Shakespeare Code, St. Francis (NY Fringe - Excellence in Directing Award), The Maltese Walter, Greasemonkey and Scenes from a Balcony. Kennedy Center: Spring Gala (Director), My Fair Lady, Camelot, and Children of Eden (Associate Director/ Choreographer). Additional credits as a director and/or choreographer include Ghost at the Finger Lakes Musical Theatre Festival; Girlfriend and The Loneliest Girl in the World at Diversionary Theatre; Peter and the Starcatcher, Monty Python's Spamalot, And The World Goes 'Round (Oscar Wilde Nomination), and I Love A Piano (Oscar Wilde Nomination) at Farmers Alley Theatre; Looking For Roberto Clemente at Imagination Stage; The Great American Songbook Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony presented by Michael Feinstein. Internationally, Stephen has directed productions for Creativiva Caribbean, and choreographed multiple projects in Indonesia, China, and Guatemala for Passport to Broadway.

Matt M. Morrow has helped to grow Diversionary Theatre's operating budget by 150% since joining the organization in 2014. Under their leadership the theatre has been nominated for 35 San Diego Critics Circle Awards, winning two Outstanding New Play Awards in 2017 and 2019. Alongside Diversionary's Board of Trustees, Matt led the Securing Our Future campaign, a $2.7 million renovation project for the theatre's home in University Heights, slated to reopen early Fall 2021. Notable productions Matt has directed and/or produced with Diversionary include the 20th Anniversary production of Hedwig and the Angry Inch (Winner, 2019 Outstanding Lead Performance in a Musical, SDCC Award), Miranda Rose Hall's The Hour of Great Mercy (Winner, 2019 Best New Play, SDCC Award), the World Premiere of Gordon Leary and Julia Meinwald's musical The Loneliest Girl in the World, Georgette Kelly's Ballast (Winner, 2017 Best New Play, SDCC Award), Justin Huertas' Lizard Boy The Musical (Winner, Outstanding Lead Performance in a Musical, Off Bway transfer Summer 2023). Matt was honored with the inaugural Larry T. Baza Arts & Culture Award from San Diego Pride, and was a Creative Catalyst Fellow with The San Diego Foundation and La Jolla Playhouse. He has developed new work with The Sundance Theatre Institute, The Old Globe, The Banff Centre, Center Theatre Group, American Conservatory Theater, Lincoln Center, PlayPenn, and Page 73 Productions in residence at the Yale School of Drama. Matt served as The John Wells Professor of Directing at Carnegie Mellon University's School of Drama (Graduate & Undergraduate Directing programs), and is a member of the Lincoln Center Director's Lab. Matt is currently adjunct Professor of Directing at UCSD's Graduate Directing program. He holds a BFA in Directing from Carnegie Mellon University.

Katie Banville's choreography credits include Cygnet Theatre - Cabaret (Choreographer), Rock of Ages (Choreographer/Assoc. Director), Spamalot (Choreographer/Assoc. Director), A Christmas Carol (Choreographer), Gypsy (June/Asst. Choreographer), Company (April/Asst. Choreographer); Okoboji Summer Theatre - Beehive: The '60s Musicals (Dir/Chor); Freaky Friday - San Diego Musical Theatre (Co-Director) and Moonlight Amphitheatre; Backyard Renaissance -Tarrytown, Gutenberg! The Musical!, Smokefall; San Diego State University - Company; The Old Globe - A Doll's House (Movement Coordinator). Performance credits: The Heart of Rock and Roll, Benny and Joon - The Old Globe; Freaky Friday, Escape to Margaritaville - La Jolla Playhouse. MFA Musical Theatre, San Diego State University. Co-Chair Theatre Arts, Grossmont College.

Patrick Marion is thrilled to be back at Diversionary after working on Hedwig And The Angry Inch and The Loneliest Girl In The World. Other select credits include Cygnet Theatre: La Cage Aux Folles, The Last Five Years (SD Critics Circle Nominee), Rock Of Ages, Shockheaded Peter (SD Critics Circle Nominee), The Rocky Horror Show, A Christmas Carol, Company, Assassins; LPT (associate artist): Million Dollar Quartet, Oz, West Side Story, Les Miserables, miXtape; Welk Resorts Theatre: Nunsense.

Diversionary Theatre is the nation's third-oldest LGTBQ+ theatre dedicated to amplifying queer voices through the performing arts in a dynamic, inclusive, and provocative environment that celebrates and preserves their unique culture, while contributing to an environment of diversity and inclusion throughout the broader community. Since Diversionary's founding in 1986, it has continually provided an inspiring and thought-provoking theatrical platform to explore complex and diverse stories of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning communities in the form of live entertainment that can be enjoyed by all.

Diversionary Theatre:

4545 Park Boulevard #101, San Diego, California 92116 in University Heights.

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