Photo Flash: Old Globe's LIFE OF RILEY

Executive Producer Lou Spisto today announced the complete cast and creative team for the U.S. premiere of Alan Ayckbourn's new comedy, Life of Riley. Directed by Richard Seer, Life of Riley will run in the Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre, part of The Old Globe's Conrad Prebys Theatre Center, April 30 - June 5. Preview performances run April 30 - May 4. Opening night is Thursday, May 5 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.

Sir Alan Ayckbourn, one of the world's most successful living playwrights, was recently awarded the U.K.'s Critics' Circle Annual Award for Distinguished Service to the Arts and a Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theater. He is also The Old Globe's most-produced living playwright. Globe audiences have enjoyed 10 of Ayckbourn's plays since 1978, including the U.S. premieres of Mr. A's Amazing Maze Plays and Intimate Exchanges.

With Life of Riley (Sir Alan's 74th play!) the playwright looks backwards, forwards and, now and then, sideways with wry comic affection on the lives we lived or might have lived. George Riley's closest friends discover that he has just a few months to live and they each deal with the news in their own very surprising way. George has deeply affected each of their lives, and he is now plotting one last final farewell, which could upset all of their futures.

The cast of Life of Riley features David Bishins (Simeon), Ray Chambers (Jack), Rebecca Gold (Tilly), Dana Green (Tamsin), Colin McPhillamy (Colin), Henny Russell (Kathryn) and Nisi Sturgis (Monica).

The creative team includes Robert Morgan (Scenic and Costume Design), Chris Rynne (Lighting Design), Paul Peterson (Sound Design), Jan Gist (Dialect Coach) and Elizabeth Stephens (Stage Manager).

Playwright Alan Ayckbourn was born in Hampstead in 1939 to a violinist father and a mother who was a writer. No doubt he inherited their creativity but a bigger gift was his first close-up view of two people who couldn't be happy together. By 1945 they had split up and in 1948 his mother married her bank manager. Utterly incompatible, she had a complete breakdown before Alan persuaded her to leave home. He left school at 17 with two 'A' levels and an exhaustive knowledge of miserable relationships perceived through the woman's eyes which may explain so much of his writing. Two years in regional theater as an actor and stage manager led in 1959 to the writing of his first play The Square Cat for Scarborough's Theatre In the Round at the instigation of his then employer and subsequent mentor, Stephen Joseph. Some 74 plays later, his work has been translated into over 35 languages, is performed on stage and television throughout the world and has won countless awards. There have been English and French screen adaptations, the most notable being Alain Resnais' fine film of Private Fears in Public Places. Major successes include Relatively Speaking, How the Other Half Loves, Absurd Person Singular, Bedroom Farce, A Chorus of Disapproval, The Norman Conquests (recently revived to great acclaim by Matthew Warchus), A Small Family Business, Henceforward..., Comic Potential, Things We Do For Love, House & Garden and My Wonderful Day. He is also a noted director and it was only in 2009 that he retired as Artistic Director of the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, a post he held for 37 years. Indeed, he would perhaps consider his greatest achievement to be the establishment of this permanent home for the Theatre in the Round company he first worked for all those years ago when the splendid two auditoria complex fashioned from a former Odeon Cinema opened in 1996. His current plans include the world premiere of Dear Uncle, an adaptation of Anton Chekhov's Uncle Vanya and, in the autumn of this year, the premiere of his 75th play Neighbourhood Watch. In addition to the many honorary degrees and other awards he has received, he was recently inducted in to American Theatre's Hall of Fame, received the Society of London Theatres' Special Award and this year has been honoured with a Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre as well as the Critics' Circle Award for services to the arts. He was knighted in 1997. www.alanayckbourn.net.

Director Richard Seer is an award-winning director and actor and has directed and/or performed on Broadway, Off Broadway, on film and television and in over 70 productions at regional theaters in this country and Great Britain, including The Kennedy Center, Goodman Theatre, Stratford Shakespeare Festival, Brooklyn Academy Of Music, Huntington Theatre Company, Playwrights Theater, San Jose Repertory Theatre, Studio Arena Theater, Edinburgh Festival Fringe and the Sybil Thorndike Theatre in England. He originated the role of Young Charlie in the 1978 Tony Award-winning Broadway production of Hugh Leonard's Da and received the Theatre World Award for his performance. At The Old Globe, he has directed productions of The Last Romance, The Price, Romeo and Juliet, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Trying, Fiction, Blue/Orange (San Diego Critics Circle Award), All My Sons, Da and Old Wicked Songs (Patté Award). Recent directing assignments also include Third (Huntington Theatre Company) and Sonia Flew (San Jose Repertory Theatre). He received his M.F.A. in directing from Boston University, where he was awarded the prestigious Kahn Directing Award in 1985. In 1990, Seer was invited to return to Boston University's School for the Arts as an Associate Professor of Acting and Directing. He has been Director of The Old Globe/University of San Diego Graduate Theatre Program since 1993. In 2010, he was awarded the Craig Noel Distinguished Professorship.

TICKETS to Life of Riley 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 April 30 and continue through June 5. Ticket prices range from $29 to $67. Performance times: Previews: Saturday, April 30 at 8:00 p.m., Sunday, May 1 at 7:00 p.m., Tuesday, May 2 at 7:00 p.m. and Wednesday, May 3 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 May 18 at 2:00 p.m. and no Saturday matinee performance on May 21. Discounts are available for full-time students, patrons 29 years of age and under, seniors and groups of 10 or more.

The Tony Award-winning Old Globe is one of the country's leading professional regional theaters and has stood as San Diego's flagship arts institution for 75 years. Under the direction of Executive Producer Louis G. Spisto, The Old Globe produces a year-round season of 15 productions of classic, contemporary and new works on its three Balboa Park stages: the 600-seat Old Globe Theatre and the 250-seat Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre, which are both part of The Old Globe's Conrad Prebys Theatre Center, and the 612-seat outdoor Lowell Davies Festival Theatre, home of its internationally renowned Shakespeare Festival. More than 250,000 people attend Globe productions annually and participate in the theater's education and community programs. Numerous world premieres such as The Full Monty, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, A Catered Affair, and the annual holiday musical, Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, have been developed at The Old Globe and have gone on to enjoy highly successful runs on Broadway and at regional theaters across the country.

Photo Credit: Henry DiRocco

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