Photo Flash: CORNELIA Runs At The Globe's Arena Theatre 5/16 - 6/21

The Tony Award®-winning Old Globe presents the world premier of Cornelia, by Mark Victor Olsen (Big Love), directed by Ethan McSweeny (In This Corner), to run in the Old Globe Theatre May 16 – June 21. Melinda Page Hamilton, who will play “Cornelia,” was in the Globe’s critically acclaimed productions of Bell, Book and Candle and All My Sons. Robert Foxworth is a television veteran but is perhaps best known for his role as “Bernard Chenowith” on HBO’s Six Feet Under. Tickets are available by calling (619) 23-GLOBE, online at www.TheOldGlobe.org, or by visiting the Globe Box Office at 1363 Old Globe Way in Balboa Park.

From the creator of the hit HBO series “Big Love” comes an epic slice of history centering on 1970s Alabama politics. Beautiful, divorced beauty queen Cornelia Folsom is a force of nature who works her way into the heart of Governor George Wallace.

Together they plan to take over the state and then the White House until an assassination attempt halts his presidential campaign. But no obstacle is too great for Cornelia to overcome, as she secretly harbors her own political ambitions amidst a hostile campaign staff, her rarely sober mother, and southern shenanigans in this sweeping, provocative tale of sex, power, and bare-knuckled American politics.

The cast of Cornelia features Melinda Page Hamilton as “Cornelia,” Robert Foxworth as “George,” Beth Grant as “Ruby,” Hollis McCarthy as “Marie” and T. Ryder Smith as The creative team includes Ethan McSweeny, director; John Lee Beatty, scenic design; Tracy Christensen, costume design; Chris Akerlind, lighting design; Paul Peterson, sound design; Leila Knox and Anjee Nero, stage managers.

Ethan McSweeny (Director: Cornelia) directed the Globe’s acclaimed productions of In This Corner
and A Body of Water (San Diego Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Direction). New York credits
include the Broadway production of Gore Vidal’s The Best Man (2001 Tony Award nomination, Outer Critics Circle and Drama Desk Awards for Best Revival); John Logan’s Never the Sinner (Outer Critics Circle Award); Willy Holtzman’s Sabina at Primary Stages; and Aeschylus’ The Persians (with Roberta Maxwell and Len Cariou) at National Actors Theatre. His regional credits include All My Sons at Chautauqua Theater Company, where he serves as Co-Artistic Director; the world-premiere of Mr. Marmalade at South Coast Repertory (2005 OCIE Award, Best Production); Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me at Westport Playhouse; Lee Blessing’s A Walk in the Woods, Dirty Blonde, Ctrl+Alt+Delete, Old Times and Master Class at George Street Playhouse, where he served as Associate Artistic Director (2000-2004), Dirty Blonde at the Wilma Theatre; Ctrl+Alt+Delete (world premiere) at San Jose Repertory Theatre: Wit at Pittsburgh Public Theater; The Beauty Queen of Leenane at the Alley Theatre; Hydriotaphia at Berkeley Repertory Theatre; Mad About the Bard (co-written with Floyd King) at the Folger Theatre; Twelfth Night, Julius Caesar (tour), as well as assistant director for more than 20 productions at The Shakespeare Theatre (Associate Director, 1993-97); numerous readings and workshops of new plays and musicals at the Cape Cod Theatre Project (artistic advisory board), the O’Neill Playwrights Conference, Manhattan Theatre Club (6 @ 6), The Public Theater (New Work Now!), South Coast Repertory (Pacific Playwrights Festival), The Kennedy Center (New American Plays), The Playwrights’ Center (PlayLabs 2004) and New Dramatists (resident director, 2001-2).

Co-creator of HBO’s hit series “Big Love,” Mark Olsen (Playwright: Cornelia) has also written HBO’s
miniseries, “Mary Chestnut's Civil War,” based on the private lives of Confederate elite and their slaves in Virginia during the Civil War, as well as the screenplay for HBO Films’ “Cabrini USA,” about the 40-year rise and fall of the Cabrini Green housing project in Chicago. In addition, Olsen has written screenplay adaptations including “The Woman Next Door” (from Francois Truffaut’s 1981 film, “La Femme d'a Cote”). He also produced the independent feature “Easter” with his “Big Love” co-creator Will Scheffer, and wrote the script “Gospel of Linda,” optioned by Regent Films. Olsen is also an attorney and member of the New York Bar.

The internationally-acclaimed, Tony Award® -winning Old Globe is one of the most renowned regional theatres in the country and has stood as San Diego’s flagship arts institution for 72 years. The Old Globe produces a year-round season of 15 plays and musicals on its three stages, including its highly-regarded Shakespeare festival. The Globe has become a gathering place for leading theatre artists from around the world, such as Tom Stoppard, Daniel Sullivan and Chita Rivera, among many others. Numerous Broadway-bound premieres and revivals, such as Dirty
Rotten Scoundrels, The Full Monty and Damn Yankees, have been developed at The Old Globe and have gone on to enjoy highly successful runs in New York and at regional theatres across the country.

Highlights of the Globe’s 2008/09 Season include the revival of Clare Boothe Luce’s The Women, the world premiere of Itamar Moses’ new play Back Back Back, John Guare’s Six Degrees of Separation, the musical Working, with new songs by Lin-Manuel Miranda, and the world premiere of Cornelia. Under the leadership of Executive Producer Louis G. Spisto and Resident Artistic Director Darko Tresnjak, the Globe is at the forefront of the nation’s leading performing arts organizations, setting a standard for excellence in American theatre.

Photos by by Craig Schwartz

Robert Foxworth and Melinda Page Hamilton

Melinda Page Hamilton