San Francisco Playhouse presents BORN YESTERDAY

San Francisco Playhouse (Artistic Director Bill English; Producing Director Susi Damilano) announced casting for the third show of its 2017-18 Mainstage Season-Born Yesterday. Written by Garson Kanin, the play premiered on Broadway in 1946. Susi Damilano will direct the San Francisco Playhouse revival.

Harry, a ruthless, thuggish millionaire-with his showgirl fiancée, Billie, in tow-comes to Washington to bribe a senator and enrich his business interests. He soon hires a reporter to clean up Billie's image; but as she awakens to a world full of possibilities, she starts to question corruption's stranglehold over the disadvantaged.

"When I read this play, I was immediately struck by how resoundingly its message still rings after 70 years," said Producing Director Susi Damilano. "The timeless story of integrity triumphing over political self-interest feels as relevant as ever-and, I hope, will provide us with an opportunity to reflect on our own human nature."

The cast of Born Yesterday will feature Millie Brooks*, Michael Torres*, Anthony Fusco*, Ed Berkeley*, Jason Kapoor*, Louis Parnell*, Derek Fischer, Terry Bamberger, Casey Robert Spiegel, Marty Lee Jones, and Melissa Quine.

Garson Kanin (Playwright) was an esteemed theater and film director as well as a prolific writer. Kanin was trained at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and made his debut in theater as an actor. He quickly adapted to the role of stage director with help from his mentor George Abbott, and soon became a director for RKO. His early films include A Man to Remember and My Favorite Wife. While serving in the military during World War II, he co-directed with Carol Reed the documentary The True Glory which won an Academy Award in 1945.

He followed this success by writing and directing Born Yesterday. Over the next four decades he wrote 20 plays, including Peccadillo, Remembering Mr. Maugham, The Rat Race, and The Smile of the World. He also wrote the English libretto of Fledermaus, for the Metropolitan Opera. With Ruth Gordon, whom he married in 1942, he wrote the Academy-Award nominated screenplays A Double Life, Adam's Rib and Pat and Mike. He continued to write and direct for stage and screen, notably directing the premiere of Frances and Albert Hackett's adaptation of The Diary of Anne Frank. Kanin was also a novelist and memoirist. His books include Smash, Hollywood, and Tracy and Hepburn. Ruth Gordon died in 1985, and Kanin married Marian Seldes in 1990. He died at his home in New York in 1999. www.garsonkanin.com

Founded by Bill English and Susi Damilano in 2003, San Francisco Playhouse-now in its 15th season-has been described by the New York Times as "a company that stages some of the most consistently high-quality work around," and deemed "ever adventurous" by the Bay Area News Group. Located in the heart of the Union Square Theater District, San Francisco Playhouse is the city's premier Off-Broadway company, an intimate alternative to the larger more traditional Union Square theater fare.

San Francisco Playhouse provides audiences the opportunity to experience professional theater with top-notch actors and world-class design in a setting where they are close to the action. The company has received multiple awards for overall productions, acting, and design, including the SF Weekly Best Theatre Award and the Bay Guardian's Best Off-Broadway Theatre Award. KQED/NPR recently described the company: "San Francisco Playhouse is one of the few theaters in the Bay Area that has a mission that actually shows up on stage. Artistic director Bill English's commitment to empathy as a guiding philosophical and aesthetic force is admirable and by living that mission, fascinating things happen onstage." San Francisco Playhouse is committed to providing a creative home and inspiring environment where actors, directors, writers, designers, and theater lovers converge to create and experience dramatic works that celebrate the human spirit.

*Actors appear courtesy of Actors' Equity Association FOR CALENDAR EDITORS:

TICKETS: For tickets ($20-$125) or more information, the public may contact the San Francisco Playhouse box office at 415-677-9596, or https://www.sfplayhouse.org/sfph/2017-2018-season/born-yesterday/,

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