La Jolla Playhouse Presents Inventive Adaptation of PEER GYNT, 6/28-7/24

La Jolla Playhouse presents Peer Gynt, by Henrik Ibsen, adapted and directed by David Schweizer, running June 28 - July 24 (media night: Wednesday, July 6 at 7:30 pm) in the Sheila and Hughes Potiker Theatre. Tickets to Peer Gynt are available by calling the Box Office: (858) 550-1010 or online at LaJollaPlayhouse.org.

A co-production with Kansas City Repertory Theatre, Peer Gynt features a versatile five-person cast, including Danny Gavigan (Centerstage's Snow Falling on Cedars, Ireland national tour of Of Mice and Men) as Peer Gynt, Buttonmoulder and others; Birgit Huppuch (Public Theater's Neighbors, Foundry Theatre's Telephone - 2009 OBIE for performance) as Ase, Solveig and others; Luis Moreno (Uncivil Wars at the Baryshnikov Arts Center, The Arabian Nights at Arena Stage and Berkeley Rep) as Peer Gynt, Troll King and others; Kate Cullen Roberts (Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson on Broadway, Off-Broadway, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Fit at 59E59) as Ingrid, Anitra and others; and Evan Zes (Kansas City Rep's The Arabian Nights, Irish Rep's Around the World in 80 Days and The King Stag at the Barbican, London) as Peer Gynt, Mads Moen and others.

The creative team includes: David Schweizer (Playhouse's Tobacco Road), Adapter/Director; David Zinn (Playhouse's A Dram of Drummhicit, Notes from Underground, Surf Report, Xanadu, among others), Scenic Design; Christina Wright, Costume Design; Darrell Maloney, Lighting and Projection Design; Ryan Rumery, Composer/Sound Design; Shirley Fishman, Dramaturg.

Written by Henrik Ibsen in 1867, more than a decade before A Doll's House and Hedda Gabler, Peer Gynt was considered one of the most innovative plays in western European dramatic literature - so innovative, in fact, that the playwright himself called it unstageable. Schweizer's thrilling adaptation of Ibsen's sweeping epic is performed by just five performers playing forty characters on a stage full of surprises. Audiences will be taken on a wild and surreal adventure, in which the title character dreams, swindles and charms his way through life in an exhilarating quest for fame and fortune.

"We are delighted to welcome back innovative director/adapter David Schweizer to The Playhouse with his highly inventive adaptation of Peer Gynt," said Playhouse Artistic Director Christopher Ashley. "He has taken Ibsen's epic tale of one man's search for identity and made it funny, unexpected and completely relevant to our contemporary lives."

BIOGRAPHIES
Considered the "father of modern drama," Henrik Ibsen's plays include A Doll's House, Hedda Gabler, An Enemy of the People, The Master Builder, The Wild Duck, The Lady from the Sea, Little Eyolf, When We Dead Awaken, and many others among his 26 dramatic works and some 300 poems. His plays have retained a strong contemporary relevance and continue to be staged at innumerable theatres in all parts of the world. After Shakespeare, Ibsen is the most performed dramatist in the world.

Adaptor/director David Schweizer has been directing original theatre, performance, and opera for over 30 years, beginning with his radical adaptation of Troilus and Cressida at New York's Lincoln Center and returning there recently with Sir Richard Rodney Bennett's Mines of Sulphur for New York City Opera. Notable Off-Broadway productions include Charles Mee's Wintertime (Second Stage), William Hamilton's White Chocolate (Century Center), Mark Campbell's Songs from an Unmade Bed (NYTW), Rinde Eckert's Horizon and his OBIE Award-winning And God Created Great Whales (The Culture Project), which also toured and played at the Barbican Centre in London. Mr. Schweizer's international residencies include Lisbon, Sarajevo, Prague, Toga Village-Japan, and Warsaw, where an earlier version of his Peer Gynt is still running. Regionally he has staged works at Trinity Repertory Company, Arena Stage, Centerstage, Mark Taper Forum, Geffen Playhouse, McCarter Theatre and many others. His collaborations with experimental companies include It's a Man's World (Mabou Mines), A History of Sexuality (Theatre X) and Plato's Symposium with his own Modern Artists Company. Selected work with solo theatre artists includes Ann Magnuson's Rave Mom and You Could Be Home Now, Sandra Tsing Loh's I Worry and Aliens in America, John Fleck's Nothing Beats Pussy, Mike Albo's My Price Point, and Marga Gomez' Los Big Names. He staged Benjamin Britten's chamber opera Albert Herring at Gotham Chamber Opera, and the world premiere of Stephen Hartke's The Greater Good at Glimmerglass Opera. Some of his favorite recent work includes Tony Kushner and Jeanine Tesori's musical Caroline or Change, Victor Ullmann's opera The Emperor of Atlantis at Boston Lyric Opera and Tobacco Road (from the Erskine Caldwell novel) at La Jolla Playhouse. He is currently preparing Tennessee Williams' last full-length play, Of Masks Outrageous and Austere, for its world premiere production on Broadway next season, and he will open the Centerstage season this fall with Sheridan's The Rivals, closely followed by Verdi's Macbeth at Boston Lyric Opera.

Danny Gavigan's (Peer Gynt/Buttonmoulder, others) regional credits include Snow Falling on Cedars (Centerstage); Mojo, All That I Will Ever Be (Studio Theatre); Mauritius (Bay Theatre Company); Lennie in Of Mice and Men (Keegan Theatre, Ireland National Tour); Dead City, References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot, Rough Magic (Rorschach Theatre); Five Flights (Theater Alliance); Marat/Sade (Marat, Forum Theatre) and The Two Gentlemen of Verona (Maryland Shakespeare Festival). Other credits include Cat's Cradle, It's Lonely Out in Space, The Ramayana, The Waverly Gallery and Made in China. His TV and film appearances include America's Most Wanted, Psychic Detectives, The Invasion and Ladder 49.

Birgit Huppuch (Ase, Solveig, others) has appeared regionally in Neighbors (Public Theater); Telephone (Foundry Theatre; 2009 OBIE Award); Miss St.'s Hieroglyphic Suffering (Guggenheim); Telethon and Dot (Clubbed Thumb); What the Public Wants (Mint Theatre); Ether Steeds (NY Fringe, Outstanding Ensemble Award); The Furniture Fire and Sprinkler (Drama League Director Fest); Sa Ka La (Oslo Elsewhere); Woman of Trachis (Target Margin); Beowulf (Banana, Bag & Bodice/LES); Haymarket (Alchemy Theatre Company); Mourn the Living Hector (NY Fringe/PL 115); Scapin (NY Classical Theatre); Isabella and Pay Up! (Pig Iron Theatre Company); Doe 2.0 (workshop, Tokyo, Japan) and Love Song (WHAT). Her film credits include The Understudy, Watchers and See: They Have Sight. Upcoming: Twelfth Night (Olivia, Pig Iron Theatre Company). Ms. Huppuch received her B.A. at Williams College

Luis Moreno's (Peer Gynt, Troll King, others) New York credits include Fêtes de la Nuit (The Ohio); The Age of Iron, Tartuffe (Classic Stage Company); Three Sisters (Nature Theater of Oklahoma); Food For Fish (Kraine); Into the Hazard - Henry 5 (Walkerspace); Auto Da Fe (International WOW); Uncivil Wars (Baryshnikov Arts Center); Uncle Vanya (13th St. Theatre) and Straight Up Vampire (Ars Nova/ Joe's Pub). His regional credits include The Arabian Nights (Arena Stage, Berkeley Rep); Anna in the Tropics (Capital Rep); Moby Dick Rehearsed and The Tempest (The Acting Company). His recorded book narration credits include: Carlos Castaneda, Justice Steven Breyer and Oscar Casares. Mr. Moreno received his B.A. at Bard College and his M.F.A. at Columbia University.

Kate Cullen Roberts (Ingrid, Anitra, others) appeared in the Broadway and off-Broadway productions of Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson. Other New York include Seven Minutes in Heaven (ArsNova/Colt Coeur), Fit (59E59), The Confidence Man (Woodshed Collective) and Joe's Pub. Regionally she has appeared in Party Come Here (Christopher Ashley, Director), The Witching Hour, Wing It, and Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, premiere (Williamstown Theatre Festival). Her TV and film credits include Law & Order: CI, Totally for Teens, The Rebound and Melvin. She earned her B.A. at Wake Forest University and her M.F.A. at the University of Texas at Austin.

Evan Zes (Peer Gynt, Mads Moen, others) has appeared Off-Broadway in White Woman Street, Around the World in 80 Days (Irish Repertory Theatre); American Dreams, As You Like It (The Acting Company); The Cherry Orchard (Beckett Theater); Romeo and Juliet (Lucille Lortel Theatre) and Time to Burn (Manhattan Ensemble Theater). International credits include: King Stag (The Barbican, London) and Dream Play (The Moscow Art Theatre). His regional appearances include Arabian Nights (KC Rep, Arena Stage, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Lookingglass Theatre); Victoria Musica (Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park); Around The World in 80 Days (Westport Country Playhouse); The 39 Steps (City Theatre); The Comedy of Errors (Shakespeare on the Sound); The Comedy of Errors, Macbeth, The Winter's Tale (The Old Globe); Full Circle, Ivanov, The Merchant of Venice (A.R.T); Othello (Pioneer Theatre Company) and Pericles (Goodman, Shakespeare Theatre). His TV and film appearances include All My Children, Last Night at Angelo's, The Street and French Fries. Mr. Zes received his M.F.A. from ART/Moscow Art Theatre School at Harvard.
The nationally acclaimed, Tony Award-winning La Jolla Playhouse is known for its tradition of creating the most exciting and adventurous new work in regional theatre. The Playhouse was founded in 1947 by Gregory Peck, Dorothy McGuire and Mel Ferrer, and is considered one of the most well-respected not-for-profit theatres in the country. Numerous Playhouse productions have moved to Broadway, including the currently running, Tony Award-winning musicals Memphis and Jersey Boys, as well as Big River, The Who's Tommy, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, A Walk in the Woods, Billy Crystal's 700 Sundays, the Pulitzer Prize-winning I Am My Own Wife, Thoroughly Modern Millie, The Farnsworth Invention and 33 Variations. Located on the UC San Diego campus, La Jolla Playhouse is made up of three primary performance spaces: the Mandell Weiss Theatre, the Mandell Weiss Forum Theatre and the Joan and Irwin Jacobs Center for La Jolla Playhouse, a state-of-the-Art Theatre complex which features the Sheila and Hughes Potiker Theatre. La Jolla Playhouse is led by Artistic Director Christopher Ashley and Managing Director Michael S. Rosenberg.

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