NVA Presents SIMPATICO, 3/2-27

New Village Arts has built quite a reputation for its productions of the work of one of America's greatest dramatists, Sam Shepard. To celebrate Season 10, NVA presents a Shepard favorite.  SIMPATICO blends all of Shepard's trademarks with an unbelievable sense of humor in a film-noir style.  The plot deals with a horse-racing scheme run amuck and follows two former best friends through blackmail, intrigue, betrayal and redemption and includes bourbon, Buicks and a Kentucky Derby dress.  Equity actor Mike Sears (Carter) and NVA Ensemble Member Manny Fernandes (Vinnie) bring the two friends to life and are joined by NVA Ensemble Member Jack Missett (Simms), Kelly Iversen (Kelly), Terri Park (Rosie) and Kim Strassburger (Cecilia).  Watch unbelievable actors tackle extreme situations under the direction of award-winning director and NVA Ensemble Member Lisa Berger, known for her ability to take edgy stories and tell them with compassion, humanity and humor.  SIMPATICO will be playing at New Village Arts Theatre (2787 State Street, Carlsbad Village) from March 2 - 27, 2011.  The official opening night is March 5 at 8 PM.  Tickets can be purchased at www.NewVillageArts.org or by calling 760-433-3245.
 
Set in the netherworld of thoroughbred racing, SIMPATICO explores themes of memory, loyalty and restitution. When Carter, a successful horse breeder in Kentucky, receives a desperate phone call from Vinnie, a troubled barfly living in Cucamonga, California, their shady past threatens to ruin them both once and for all.  High society meets the low life in this thrillingly funny play by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Buried Child.
 
Sam Shepard is an American playwright and actor, born in Fort Sheridan, Illinois, as Samuel Shepard Rogers VII.  A product of the 1960's counterculture, Shepard combines wild humor, grotesque satire, myth, and a sparse, haunting language evocative of Western movies to create a subversive pop art vision of America.  His settings are often a kind of nowhere land on the American Plains, his characters are typically loners and drifters caught between a mythical past and the mechanized present, and his works often concern deeply troubled families.  His many plays include Curse of the Starving Class (1977), Buried Child (1978; Pulitzer Prize), True West (1980), A Lie of the Mind (1985), States of Shock (1991), Simpatico (1994), The Late Henry Moss (2000), and The God of Hell (2004).  Also involved in motion pictures, Shepard played the part of Chuck Yeager in The Right Stuff (1983), and wrote the screenplays for Paris, Texas (1984), Far North (1989) and Silent Tongue (1994); and has acted in a number of other films. His other work includes the stories, meditations, reminiscences, and other pieces collected in Motel Chronicles (1982), Cruising Paradise (1996), Great Dream of Heaven (2002), and Day Out of Days (2010).

Lisa Berger, MFA (Directing, U. of Montana) (Graduate Meisner actor intensive William Esper Studio, NYC) is a director, teacher and actor.  Her San Diego directing credits include Things We Want (New Village Arts), Killer Joe (Compass Theatre: Patte Award), Miss Julie and The Corpse Bride (Stone Soup), ANON(ymous) and Crimes of the Heart (Canyon Crest Academy), Buried Child (UCSD), The Long Christmas Ride Home (Patte Award) and Looking for Normal  (Diversionary Theatre), Handbag (AASD), The Pirates of Penzance (Lyric Opera Academy), and Islands of Repair (NYC Fringe).  Additional directing credits include Grease, Our Town, The Boys Next Door, Picnic, Laughing Wild and several children's musicals for the Metropolitan Opera Guild's Creating Original Opera program.   Lisa has appeared as an actor in Felt, The Corpse Bride (Best Performance Award) and Roquefort at the Actor's Alliance Festival and toured with the Montana Repertory Theatre.  She co-wrote and performed in Rita and Inez: The True Queens of Femininity which toured to several venues including the Edmonton Fringe Festival, Seattle Fringe Theatre Festival and Surf Reality and HERE in NYC.  In addition, Lisa has worked as a teaching artist for various arts organizations including La Jolla Playhouse,  Disney's The Lion King, Theatre for a New Audience and Arts Genesis.  She currently teaches at Mira Costa College, City College, Grossmont College and a Meisner Technique class with New Village Arts.
 
The cast includes NVA Ensemble Members Manny Fernandes and Jack Missett with Equity Actor Mike Sears and Kelly Iversen, Terri Park and Kim Strassburger.   In addition to his work in NVA's Ensemble (including Into the Woods, The Man Who, Sailor's Song, Golden Boy (San Diego Critics Circle Award), Dancing at Lughnasa and Three Sisters, Manny Fernandes is a Resident Artist at Cygnet Theatre (The Tragedy of The Commons, Private Lives, Mauritius, A Christmas Carol, Communicating Doors, Bug, Burn This, The Invention of Love and  Escanaba in da Moonlight) and has also appeared at Diversionary Theatre, North Coast Rep and San Diego Rep.  Equity Actor Mike Sears spent a decade working in theatre in New York City before moving to San Diego, where he has appeared in shows at Lamb's Players (Rehearsal For Murder), Cygnet Theatre (Man From Nebraska), North Coast Rep (Tuesdays with Morrie) and Mo'olelo (Good Boys), among others.  NVA Ensemble Member Jack Missett continues his run of playing Sam Shepard men, which has included Baylor in A Lie of the Mind, Taylor in Curse of the Starving Class, Saul in True West and the Old Man in Fool For Love (all with New Village Arts).  Making their New Village Arts' debuts are Terri Park and Kim Strassburger, two highly regarded San Diego actors who have appeared on stages all around town and rounding out the cast is frequent NVA actor Kelly Iversen, who recently received rave reviews for her portrayal of Mary Warren in the Moxie/Intrepid production of The Crucible.
The designers of SIMPATICO are looking to create a world that could come straight out of a Coen Brothers film and end up on NVA's intimate stage.  Ensemble Member Tim Wallace will be designing the set and sound, NVA's Executive Artistic Director Kristianne Kurner will be designing costumes and Moonlight Stage Productions Technical Director Justin Hall will design the lights, with Ensemble Member Bonnie Durben on props.  Ensemble Member Sam Sherman serves as Stage Manager.