Pacific Stages' LOBBY HERO Ends Run March 21

Pacific Stages Ovation recommended production of "Lobby Hero," by award winning writer Kenneth Lonergan will end its run March 21st.

Lobby Hero is a drama about a luckless young security guard who is drawn into a local murder investigation. Loyalties are strained to the breaking point, as Jeff's tightly wound supervisor is called to bear witness against his troubled brother. An attractive rookie cop finds she must stand up to her seasoned partner, truth becomes elusive and justice proves costly. Lobby Hero was nominated for Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Off-Broadway Play. As John Simon of NY Magazine wrote "Soon after making the year's best movie, 'You Can Count on Me,' Kenneth Lonergan delights us with his irrepressible Lobby Hero, confirming him as a comic wizard." Lonergan said of Lobby Hero, "I was interested in somebody who's just trying to do their job and be a human being at the same time in an environment that makes it very difficult to be both."

Dana Lynn Bennett (Dawn) Originally from New York, Dana Lynn Bennett relocated to Los Angeles to pursue a career in the film industry. She has performed in many theatres on both coasts, most recently in the world premiere production of Christopher Franciosa's Pompeii. She is a member of the Ruskin Group Theatre in Santa Monica and is a co-producer of the renowned LA Café Plays. In her spare time, she is a volunteer teacher/mentor for Fostering Imagination, a non-profit organization that teaches theatre and filmmaking to Los Angeles' foster youth. 

Kareem Ferguson (William) has worked in regional theaters such as the Guthrie, Alliance, Pioneer and Penumbra Theatre companies. He continues to perform in television and film projects for all the major

networks. He recently played the title role in The Ghost a new play for Ensemble Studio Theater-Los Angeles. Kareem is also the Artistic Director of Crucial Arts a New York based theater and film producing company and is a Pacific Stages company member

Nick Mennell (Bill) was most recently seen onstage at the world renowned Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis in Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest. His last stage appearances in LA were Misalliance at the Odyssey and Susan Rubin's Bitch at the Bootleg Theater, for which he won the Los Angeles Theater Audience Award for Best Actor. Notable television appearances include Sins of the City, Numbers, and Southland. Film credits include My Little Eye, Halloween, The Lost Tribe, and Michael Bay's remake of Friday the 13th. Mr. Mennell is a graduate of the Juilliard School and is a Pacific Stages company member.

Edward Tournier (Jeff) is originally from Boston where he worked with The American Repertory Theatre, Huntington Theatre Company, SpeakEasy Stage Company, Boston Playwrights Theatre, and Commonwealth Shakespeare Company. Recent Los Angeles theatre credits include Mercury Fur at the Need Theater (Nominated for a 2009 Ovation Award for Best Ensemble,) The world premiere of Razorback at the Rogue Machine Theatre Company, They're Just Like Us! at Theatre of NOTE, the world premiere of Secrets of the Trade at the Black Dahlia Theatre (Nominated for six Ovation Awards including Best Play, Winner of five Garland Awards including Best Play and Best Ensemble and Winner of the 2009 GLAAD Media Award for Best Play,) The History Boys at the Ahmanson Theatre, and Small Tragedy at the Odyssey Theatre. Film and Television credits include Havoc 2: Normal Adolescent Behavior, Without a Trace (CBS), and Cleaner (A&E). Edward studied acting at the Boston University School of Theatre and London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts and is a Pacific Stages company member.

Jeryll Adler (Executive Director/Founder) has cultivated her vision over the last seven years for the creation and development of Pacific Stages by drawing from a multi-faceted career in the fields of the arts, entertainment, media and business. Her experience in entertainment and media include positions at The American Place Theatre as Director of Marketing, along with tenures at companies including Capital Cities/ABC, Inc. Adler founded the marketing department for IndieWire, the lead news source for the independent film industry. While pursuing her producing career, Adler was approached by a group of actors from ABC's Daytime division to found a theatre, The Rogue Repertory Company. For this company, over a two-year period, Adler produced, promoted, raised money, and grew the company from six to sixty actors, running in the black from its very first production. For the past seven years Adler has been a sales consultant to The Arthouse Marketing Group, a nationwide cinema marketing network.

Robert Bailey (Director and Associate Artistic Director) directed the Jeffrey Hatcher adaptation of Henry James' The Turn of the Screw for Pacific Resident Theatre. In New York he worked at several Off-Broadway theatres, including Circle Repertory Company, Ensemble Studio Theatre, the American Place Theatre, Home for Contemporary Theatre, and the Actors' Studio, where he was a member of the Playwrights and Directors Unit for several years. He also directed at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, at the Court Theatre and the Skylight Theatre in Los Angeles, and at the Washington Theatre Laboratory. Productions include Borderlines by John Bishop, Lilith by Allan Havis (starring Allison Janney), and The Dumb Waiter and Landscape by Harold Pinter. He was co-director with Otto Preminger for William Packard's The Killer Thing at the Corner Loft Theatre in New York, and also with Viveca Lindfors for her play Anna at the River Arts Repertory in upstate New York. His short film Last Call won awards for Best Short Film, Best Actor, and Best Actress at the Breckenridge Film Festival and Best Actor at the Hermosa Shorts Festival, and was selected for the Avignon, Sedona and Avignon/New York film festivals. Robert Bailey has directed and taught at Brown University, UCLA, and UC San Diego, and frequently directs at the USC School of Theatre.

Brendon Fox (Artistic Director) is a consultant and former Associate Producer for L.A. Theatre Works, and has also worked on staff at the Tony Award-winning Old Globe Theatre, the Court Theatre, and the Eclipse Theatre of Chicago, among others. He has previously directed for LATW two national tours and many plays including Private Lives, Arms and the Man, and Work Song. Brendon served for seven years as the

Associate Director for the Old Globe Theatre, where he directed An Infinite Ache, Sky Girls, and Much Ado

About Nothing. Regional directing credits include: Opus at Playmakers Repertory Theatre, As You Like It at

Weston Theatre Company, Tonight At 8:30 at Antaeus Theatre Company, What The Butler Saw at Two River Theatre Company, Richard 11 at Writers Theatre Chicago, A Bright Room Called Day (2006 Award, Best Ensemble,) CLOUD 9, Sir Patient Fancy at The Julliard School and the L.A. premiere of The Lady With All The Answers at the Pasadena Playhouse.

Pacific Stages chooses work from two categories of American Playwrights, the more established names and the next generation of the best, focusing on writers who share a love and talent for great stories and fascinating characters. With the core belief that the arts have the power to strengthen community and enrich the human spirit, Pacific Stages is dedicated to produce, present and perform the early, new and lesser known works of the best American Playwrights, and to nurture the next generation of storytellers through new play development and commissions

Pacific Stages, the only non-profit theatre company in El Segundo, began their program of concert readings featuring stage plays in June 2005. Each location was donated by local neighbors, schools and businesses with stages being built anywhere from art galleries to a former church and several living rooms. Local businesses made sure that each and every actor and director knew just how much this community appreciated their contribution, festooning the cast and crew of every performance with flowers and gifts. Pacific Stages has been able to build a talented and substantial Artists Company of 111, the likes of which have included Joe Spano, Dana Delaney, Chris Pine, Sam Anderson, Alan Blumenfeld, David Clennon, Russell Hornsby, Gregory Jbara, Matt Letscher, Ethan Phillips, David Proval, Victor Rivers, Stephen Wadsworth, Shannon Cochran and Sandy Martin. For over four years Pacific Stages has sustained and grown an audience in the South Bay.

In 2004, local business leader and developer Richard Lundquist began talks with Executive Director, Adler, about securing a permanent home for Pacific Stages. Adler's vision to bring a theatre to the South Bay comparable in scope to the great national non-profit theatres led Lundquist to donate the land to build a mid-size non-profit theatre in El Segundo as a public benefit component of Plaza El Segundo.

Pacific Stages will debut their inaugural production season, in their new space, with Lobby Hero written by Kenneth Lonergan. In March Pacific Stages will present the world premiere of Something Happened by award winning playwright, L. Trey Wilson. You can learn more about Pacific Stages at www.pacificstages.org

Photo: Edward Tournier, Kareem Ferguson, Nick Mennell and Dana Lynn Bennett. Photo Credit: Steven Moses

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