Latest News

IT'S WHO YOU KNOW: Class, Race and Getting Ahead in the The Recommendation

(1/30/12) • "The right recommendation can change your life," says the narrator of Jonathan Caren's sharp, funny and socially critical new play, The Recommendation. Caren follows three very different characters — white, privileged Aaron Feldman; first-generation American Iskinder Iudoku; and second-strike criminal Dwight Barnes — as they struggle with power and friendship on the uneven playing field of the American class system.

Class, as sociologists see it, is commonly described as the intersection between education, income, occupation and net wealth. But class as we live and experience it can be a difficult subject to discuss, especially in a culture that prides itself on equal opportunity and the American Dream, that perennial promise that hard work can breed success regardless of origins or obstacles. Indeed, looking at the most recent Forbes 400 (the magazine's list of the wealthiest people in America), only 30% of the wealthiest Americans inherited their fortunes. Those who do not come from great wealth can still make great fortunes in America. But, as The Recommendation explores, parents with money, education and connections give their children a hefty leg up on the ladder to success.

For the poorest Americans, income mobility seems to be shrinking. According to data from the University of Michigan's Panel Study of Income Dynamics, a national socioeconomic study that began in 1968, it is getting more difficult for the poorest Americans to move up the ladder—and that struggle is even harder for African Americans. One recent analysis of the study data by Katharine Bradbury and Jane Katz showed that over a 10 year time span, 40% of white families who started in the poorest 10% of Americans remained in that group, while over 70% of black families who started in the poorest 10% were still there 10 years later.

The statistics when it comes to employment are equally alarming. Since the 1970s, the percentage of low-wage, low-benefit workers in the American economy has grown dramatically, and African Americans are much more likely to remain in those positions for their entire careers. The National Bureau of Economic Research published a study in 2004 exposing that even having a "black-sounding" name was enough to reduce job prospects when applicants respond to classified ads. In their publication Are Emily and Greg More Employable than Lakisha and Jamal?, the NBER shared their findings that identical resumes sent out under different names got significantly different responses. Resumes identified with a "white" name like Carrie or Kristin got called back by employers 13% of the time, while the same resume submitted under "black" names like Aisha, Keisha and Tamika had only a 2 to 5% callback rate. When higher qualifications were added to the resumes, a white name yielded as many more callbacks as an additional eight years of experience.

A related study conducted in 2002 by Princeton sociologist Devah Pager explored the impact of a criminal record on employment opportunities. She sent two teams of job seekers into the field armed with identical qualifications, except that one member of each team admitted to a felony drug conviction and 18 months in prison. One team was white, the other black. As expected, the criminal record decreased the number of employer callbacks in each team, but the surprise result of the study was the difference that race made in the equation. White applicants got called back 34% of the time; the number shrank to 17% if they had a criminal record. For black applicants with no criminal record, the callback rate was just 14%, with a drop to 5% if they put a felony conviction on their application. Pager repeated the study in both Minneapolis and New York City with similar results.

This is the playing field on which Jonathan Caren's characters form alliances, compete against one another and fight to get ahead. Iskinder, the son of an African immigrant father and a white mother, succeeds in making it to an Ivy League school. There he meets Aaron Feldman, whom Iskinder describes as "smart, privileged and white as the sky is when you die." Aaron is not just privileged—he is a born salesman, skilled at using his father's connections to get what he wants and unafraid to use those connections to help his friends as well.

If the statistics hold true, Iskinder would need eight years of additional experience (or a felony conviction on Aaron's part) to stand on level ground with Aaron when it comes to employment opportunities or to have a shot of matching Aaron in terms of income. But the truth is, Aaron isn't even playing by those rules. Once the young men are out of school, Aaron does not even have to apply for jobs on the open market. Why? He has the all-important golden ticket: powerful recommendations from powerful people.

It's no secret that many jobs aren't filled by mailed-in resumes. Many jobs aren't advertised at all. As the saying goes, "It's not what you know, it's who you know." Who does Aaron know? Teachers at exclusive prep schools, high-profile entertainment lawyers and famous celebrities. Who does Iskinder know? Aaron. Throughout The Recommendation, Iskinder finds himself torn between the world of his father, who tells him, "Do not spy with avaricious eyes," and Aaron's world. One word from Aaron's father gets Iskinder into law school at UCLA, and one swipe of Aaron's credit card gets Iskinder the clothes he needs to become the man he wants to be. As a basis for a friendship, the gaps of class, race and opportunity between the two men make for dangerous, shifting ground.

Caren's twist is finding a way to put Aaron in a place where all his connections and all his privilege mean nothing, where someone else holds all the cards. That place is a Hollywood jail, and that person is Dwight Barnes. In many ways a mirror of Aaron, Dwight is to the California Prison System what Aaron is to Brown University. "You got any friends in this piece?" Dwight asks Aaron. "You gots to have friends." Dwight has everything Aaron needs behind bars — the knowledge, the connections — and Aaron has everything Dwight needs on the outside. With one promise — "You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours" — Aaron makes a deal with Dwight that will forever change his relationship with Iskinder.

While Aaron is being locked away in jail, Iskinder is sitting in a lawn chair, dreaming. "It's the one," he says, "where I'm climbing this ladder, away from my father." That dream is the American Dream: finding some way to climb the ladder of class, status and wealth and possibly leaving your family, your friends, even yourself behind.

—Danielle Mages Amato

To learn more about the Globe's production of The Recommendation and to view photos, visit our Facebook page!

(Photo by Henry DiRocco.)

"LIKE" US ON FACEBOOK FOR EXCLUSIVE NEWS, PHOTOS AND SPECIAL OFFERS!

I'M AT THE PIZZA HUT, I'M AT THE TACO BELL, I'M AT THE COMBINATION RECOMMENDATION PARTY

(1/27/12) • The cast, creative team and staff of The Old Globe celebrated the opening of The Recommendation with a scrumptious buffet of Pizza Hut and Taco Bell delights - a sly culinary wink to a satirical rap song referred to in Jonathan Caren's topical drama. Penny Fuller, Hallie Foote and other members of the Globe's hit comedy Dividing the Estate dropped by to offer their congratulations. The Recommendation runs through February 26th in the Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre, part of the Globe's Conrad Prebys Theatre Center.

HORTON IS A HIT!

(1/26/12) • The Gordon family may be divided about their estate, but the critics aren't divided about Dividing the Estate! Don't miss the hit Horton Foote comedy now playing through Feb. 12 at The Old Globe.

CRITIC’S CHOICE!
"Director Michael Wilson’s deftly paced Globe production returns much of his cast from the play’s 2008-09 Broadway premiere.  That includes the matchless Broadway icon Elizabeth Ashley."
U-T SAN DIEGO

"Amusing!  Foote is a proven master at dialogue, humor and family dynamics. Broadway grand dame Elizabeth Ashley is witty, dry and aloof as Stella, and Hallie Foote is wonderfully desperate as the miserable Mary Jo."
NORTH COUNTY TIMES

"A delightful family drama."
LOS ANGELES TIMES

To view additional photos from Dividing the Estate, visit our Facebook page!

AN INTERVIEW WITH PLAYWRIGHT JONATHAN CAREN

(1/25/12) • Old Globe Literary Manager and Dramaturg Danielle Mages Amato talks with playwright Jonathan Caren about his play, The Recommendation.

ARE THERE PEOPLE OR EXPERIENCES IN YOUR OWN BACKGROUND THAT INFORMED THE CHARACTERS AND THE STORY OF THE RECOMMENDATION?

The Recommendation was born out of a series of conversations with a friend, Amdie, who lost his job at a large midtown firm during the financial crisis and went to work pro bono as a public defender on Staten Island. I was inspired by his willingness to put his ego aside and help those who, guilty or not, were in no financial position to afford outside legal defense. In taking that job, my friend found himself caught between two staunchly contrasting worlds, and reflecting on that particular set of circumstances in and of itself was the genesis for the idea. I grew up in L.A. and went to a public school with kids who fit a whole spectrum of backgrounds. The characters and experiences in the play are a combination of both the stories I've heard and the people I knew growing up, though I can't say any character is based on one person in particular. And of course the conversations and insights I owe to my friend.

THE PLAY SEEMS, AT ITS HEART, TO BE ISKINDER'S STORY. HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE WHAT MOTIVATES HIM AND WHAT CHANGES HE GOES THROUGH AS THE PLAY PROGRESSES?

I think it's Iskinder's story, but it's somewhat deceptive because he's an antihero. Like many good-natured, liberal people, Iskinder feels a need to give back to the world, considering the good fortune he's been blessed with. But he is seduced by the opportunities provided by Aaron Feldman, who takes him off his initial track. The only way for Iskinder to justify his newfound position in the world is by retaining what little morality he has left, and in his mind that means helping Dwight Barnes.

YOU'RE EXPLORING THE CLOSELY INTERTWINED ISSUES OF CLASS AND RACE IN THE RECOMMENDATION: TWO BIG, POTENTIALLY CONTROVERSIAL TOPICS. WAS THERE A PARTICULAR ANGLE ON THOSE ISSUES THAT YOU WANTED TO PURSUE?

I didn't start with the intent of writing about class and race. At first, it was an experiment to see what happened when two characters from opposing backgrounds were put in a confined space and forced to get to know each other. I found the stark situation so rife with misunderstanding I started mining it for humor. But I almost didn't write the play because I thought, given my race, "Who am I to speak for these characters?" In a way, I thought Dwight could be cast color-blind, but something interesting does happen when he's black, and that is a kind of kinship with Iskinder based not on class but race. Again, it was my friend Amdie who propped me up and inspired me to explore these issues with his insight and perspective. More than anything while writing the play, I came to realize I was exploring a generally veiled hypocrisy of the middle class: we are quick to condemn the rich, yet many of us are willing to do anything to become them at the same time. I should probably put this in the first person and say that this play was an awakening of that in myself. That is Iskinder's unconscious dilemma in The Recommendation.

ONE OF THE INTERESTING ASPECTS OF THE RECOMMENDATION IS THAT IT EXPLORES CLASS AND RACE THROUGH THE EXPERIENCES OF YOUNG PEOPLE, PARTICULARLY PEOPLE IN THEIR TWENTIES. HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE THE IMPACT OF THOSE ISSUES ON THAT GENERATION—PERSONALLY, PROFESSIONALLY AND IN TERMS OF RELATIONSHIPS?

I recently read a piece in The New York Times by William Deresiewicz called "Generation Sell" that tried to define our generation as one of self-branding entrepreneurs, and I thought it was spot on. We've commodified friendships out of necessity and survival. There are those who can help and those who cannot, and I don't always share moral viewpoints with the former. The article presses on further to say that our generation doesn't want to take a stand or step on any toes because as salespeople, we can't afford to lose our customers. It's kind of a sad realization and state of affairs in America that has made me try to be more self-aware about whom I befriend and why. It's also why modern friendship is more complex than ever and why friendship and class become progressively harder to balance without harboring both guilt for what we have or resentment for that which we lack.

To learn more about the Globe's production of The Recommendation and to view photos, visit our Facebook page!

(Photo by Henry DiRocco.)

CELEBRATING DIVIDING THE ESTATE

(1/20/12) • The cast, creative team and staff of The Old Globe celebrated the opening of Dividing the Estate at the cast party held in Hattox Hall. Theatre legends Elizabeth Ashley and Penny Fuller celebrated with their co-stars and welcomed the cast of the Globe's upcoming World Premiere production of The Recommendation, who stopped by after their rehearsal to congratulate their show-neighbors. Dividing the Estate runs through February 12th on the Donald and Darlene Shiley Stage in the Old Globe Theatre, part of the Globe's Conrad Prebys Theatre Center.

TRAVEL THE WORLD WITH THE OLD GLOBE

(1/18/12) • Join us for a special informational meeting to learn more about the Globe’s 2012 Spring Theatre Tours to London and New York on Monday, January 23 from 5:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. in the Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre. part of the Conrad Prebys Theatre Center. For additional information, call (619) 231-1941, or email theatretours@TheOldGlobe.org.

A FAMILY AFFAIR

(1/18/12) • Brother and sister Horton Foote Jr. and Hallie Foote talk about Dividing the Estate, their father's work and the opportunity to appear together on stage again.

Interview by Danielle Mages Amato

Hallie, you have done Dividing the Estate multiple times now and are considered the foremost interpreter of your father's plays. What do you find compelling about this play in particular?

HALLIE FOOTE: It's a wonderful play. Every time we do it, it feels a little bit different and I think it gets better. People love to see it, and the actors have a lot of fun playing the roles. I hope to be able to do it again after this.

Horton, you haven't been on stage in many years. What brings you back now?

HORTON FOOTE JR: I stopped acting almost 17 years ago to open a restaurant and my whole life focus kind of changed. In the past two or three years, I've really started feeling like I would, just one last time, like to do something of my father's for sentimental reasons. I found out that the circumstances were correct, and I very gently threw my hat into the ring.

When was the first time you appeared together in one of your father's plays?

HORTON: Was it The Habitation of Dragons, Barbara Hallie?

HALLIE: We did film versions of 1918 and On Valentine's Day in 1985 and 1986, then we did The Widow Clare, The Habitation of Dragons and our sister's play, God's Pictures. And we did Laura Dennis together at Signature Theatre.

What are you most looking forward to about working together again?

HALLIE: We have a good time working together, actually.

HORTON: I'm very excited to be working with Barbara Hallie again. It's always fun. My father was very easy to work with. I felt very safe and had a great time. It was always a very satisfying artistic experience.

HALLIE: I think actors love working on his plays, in parts that he writes, because they are very rich, and you can keep mining them. It's almost endless, the things you discover about the characters. That's not always the case with all plays.

Was his work as a playwright something that you were always aware of while growing up? Or was it something that was more separate from you?

HALLIE: He always wrote at home. He had an almost pathological dislike of being away from all of us. He did love the theatre, don't get me wrong, but he wasn't crazy about going out to Hollywood and getting jobs. He loved being at home and writing. He could write around a lot of chaos, but if he was up in the attic, where he wrote, and the door was closed, it was probably not a good idea to disturb him.

HORTON: I remember vividly, when we lived in the house in Grandview, New York, I also had a bedroom in the attic. I remember him sitting in his chair, with a steno pad and pencil, and he had this beautiful unabridged dictionary on a beautiful stand. His door was always open when he was writing in the afternoon, and almost every day, coming home from school, I would run up there and see him.

HALLIE: He was a clear presence, a daily presence. It got to the point that when he would travel, he would take one of us with him.

Do you have a favorite play of your father's?

HORTON: I think it's Dividing the Estate. To me, it's almost miraculous. Although people don't think of my father as a comedy writer, I find all of his plays funny. But this play, it's not like comedy. It's just real life exposed in a way that you can't help but identify with it, and you can't help but find it hysterical.

HALLIE: I always say my favorite play is the one I'm working on. I agree that people don't think of my father as funny sometimes, but even his sad plays have a lot of humor in them. It's partly because that's just part of life—sometimes people can be very funny, despite whatever else is going on. I also think there's a timelessness to his plays. They're set in a certain time and place, but that doesn't limit them. As an example, Dividing the Estate takes place in 1987, but we started working on it in 2008, when the market was really crashing and the collective panic was palpable. Life repeats itself, and I think my father was very tapped into that. Certain universal themes often happen over and over again.

How do you see your father's legacy as an American playwright?

HALLIE: I think he was one of the great writers of the 20th century. My siblings and I have started a foundation to educate people about his work and his importance as a writer. I really feel strongly about it.

HORTON: People don't realize that his career on Broadway spanned over 60 years. He was a pioneer of early television with Paddy Chayefsky, Rod Serling and Tad Mosel. And he's one of the most prolific playwrights in the world.

HALLIE: Over 60 plays.

HORTON: He always wrote what he knew how to write; he didn't try to pattern his work around what was fashionable. He always stuck to his guns.

HALLIE: He was blessed. He always knew what he wanted to do. And I think it was almost a mystical experience for him. He deeply loved it. But he also couldn't not write. There was just no way.

HORTON: There are very few people I've ever met who had that purity, that kind of calm. He had a certain peace about him, and that peace was that he knew why he was here on this planet. He was a writer.

To learn more about the Globe's production of Dividing the Estate and to view photos, visit our Facebook page!

(Top photo: Horton Foote Jr. and Hallie Foote in The Old Globe's production of Dividing the Estate. Photo by Henry DiRocco. Bottom photo: Horton Foote (left) on the set of The Habitation of Dragons with his son, Horton Foote Jr. (middle), and actor Frederic Forrest (right). The Habitation of Dragons aired on television in 1992. Photo by Keith Carter.)

ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT: HORTON FOOTE

(1/17/12) • Horton Foote was born in Wharton, Texas, on March 14, 1916. His first play, Texas Town, was produced in 1941 in New York. For the next 68 years, until his death on March 4, 2009, Foote continued to write plays that illuminated a century of rural Texas life. Foote first achieved prominence in the 1950s and 1960s writing television plays, especially for "Philco-Goodyear Television Playhouse," "Playhouse 90" and "The DuPont Show of the Month." In 1953, he adapted his television play The Trip to Bountiful for a Broadway production featuring Lillian Gish, Eva Marie Saint and Jo Van Fleet.

In 2008 Dividing the Estate, directed by Michael Wilson, appeared on Broadway and earned a Tony nomination for Best Play. It later moved to Hartford Stage in May 2009.

In 2009, the nine-play The Orphans' Home Cycle—which includes Roots in a Parched Ground, Convicts, Lily Dale, Courtship, Valentine's Day, 1918, The Widow Claire, Cousins and The Death of Papa—premiered at Hartford Stage and Off Broadway at Signature Theatre Company. The three-part repertory, under the direction of Michael Wilson and designed by Jeff Cowie, David C. Woolard, Rui Rita and John Gromada, featured Devon Abner, James DeMarse, Hallie Foote, Maggie Lacey and Jenny Dare Paulin. It received the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Play, Drama Desk Lifetime Achievement Award, Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding New Off-Broadway Play and New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Play.

Other plays by Foote include The Habitation of Dragons, The Last of the Thorntons and The Roads to Home.

Foote's numerous film credits include screenplays of his own work, including Courtship, On Valentine's Day, 1918 and Lily Dale, as well as adaptations. Foote received an Academy Award and the Writers Guild of America Award for his screenplay of Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird. His original screenplay Tender Mercies also won him an Academy Award. He adapted John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men for the 1992 film featuring John Malkovich and Gary Sinise.

In 1994, Signature Theatre Company dedicated its entire season to the works of Horton Foote. In 1995, he received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and a Lucille Lortel Award for an Individual Body of Work for The Young Man From Atlanta, which also received a Tony nomination for Best Play in 1997. Foote was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1998, and in 2000, he received the National Medal of Arts and was awarded an honorary degree at the University of Hartford. In 2002, he received the Texas Medal of the Arts Award in literature and arts.

A memoir of his childhood, Farewell, was published in 2000, and a second volume about his early career, Beginnings, was published in 2001.

To learn more about the Globe's production of Dividing the Estate and to view photos, visit our Facebook page!

(Photo by Keith Carter)

CAST ANNOUNCED FOR THE WORLD PREMIERE OF THE RECOMMENDATION

(1/9/12) • The World Premiere of Jonathan Caren's hard-hitting drama, The Recommendation, will run Jan. 21 - Feb. 26 in the Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre, part of the Globe's Conrad Prebys Theatre Center. Directed by Jonathan Munby, The Recommendation is a bold and candid look at modern friendship from an exciting new theatrical voice.

Aaron is smart, charming and over-privileged. Iskinder, his new college roommate, comes from a middle-class immigrant family and is under-connected. Soon the best of friends, Aaron takes Iskinder under his wing, sharing his world of favors and fortune. But the safe haven of college only lasts so long. After a chance encounter with an accused felon sets off a chain of events that puts Aaron's life at risk, the two men are forced to rethink the meaning of friendship.

The cast of The Recommendation features Jimonn Cole (Dwight Barnes), Brandon Gill (Iskinder Iudoku) and Evan Todd (Aaron Feldman). The creative team includes Alexander Dodge (Scenic Design), Linda Cho (Costume Design), Erick Sundquist (Associate Costume Design), Philip S. Rosenberg (Lighting Design), Lindsay Jones (Original Music and Sound Design), Tony Caligagan (Movement), Calleri Casting (Casting) and Diana Moser (Stage Manager.

To view more photos from The Recommendation, visit our Facebook page!

MEET THE CAST OF DIVIDING THE ESTATE

(1/6/12) • Meet the cast of the West Coast Premiere of Dividing the Estate, the final play by Pulitzer Prize winner Horton Foote. Directed by Michael Wilson, Dividing the Estate will run Jan. 14 - Feb. 12 on the Donald and Darlene Shiley Stage in the Old Globe Theatre, part of the Globe's Conrad Prebys Theatre Center.

Horton Foote Jr. joins Hallie Foote to make this production of their father's final play a family affair. Hallie Foote will appear as Mary Jo, for which she received a Tony Award nomination in the original Broadway production, and her brother, Horton Foote Jr., will return to the stage after an almost 20 year absence in the role of Lewis Gordon. Theatre legend and Tony Award winner Elizabeth Ashley will appear as Stella Gordon, the domineering matriarch of a fading Southern dynasty, a role she originated on Broadway. Penny Fuller, a Tony Award nominee for Applause and The Dinner Party, will reprise the role of Lucille that she also created for the Broadway production. Tony Award winner Roger Robinson will play Doug. Dividing the Estate is a co-production with Alley Theatre.

The cast of Dividing the Estate also includes Devon Abner (Son), Pat Bowie (Mildred), James DeMarse (Bob), Maggie Lacey (Pauline), Nicole Lowrance (Sissie), Jenny Dare Paulin (Emily), Keiana Richàrd (Cathleen), Roger Robinson (Doug) and Bree Welch (Irene Ratliff).

The creative team includes Jeff Cowie (Scenic Design), David C. Woolard (Costume Design), Rui Rita (Lighting Design), John Gromada (Original Music and Sound Design), Stephanie Klapper (New York Casting Director) and Marisa Levy (Stage Manager).

To view more photos from Dividing the Estate, visit our Facebook page!

SOME RAVES FOR SOME LOVERS

(12/20/11) • Burt Bacharach's first original stage musical in over 40 years is a hit! Written with Spring Awakening's Steven Sater, Some Lovers runs through Saturday, Dec. 31 at The Old Globe.

CRITIC’S CHOICE!
"A rare gift! Packed with nearly 20 new songs by the pop virtuoso Burt Bacharach, and in theater it
doesn’t get much more rare (or, for fans, more welcome) than that. An ingeniously constructed story . . . graceful, sophisticated melodies . . . there’s plenty of reason to feel affection for this chamber musical."
THE SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE

CRITIC’S CHOICE!
"Entertaining! If you’re a fan of Burt Bacharach’s rich song catalog from the ‘60s and ‘70s, then you’ll
find much to enjoy in his new holiday musical Some Lovers. The show’s four-member cast are exceptional singers-actors. It’s easy to get swept back in time with the likable, ear-pleasing 90-minute musical."
NORTH COUNTY TIMES

WOW!
"Burt Bacharach is back, and the Old Globe’s got him – in Some Lovers, the master composer’s
first original musical since 1968’s Promises, Promises, and as gorgeously tuneful and romantic
a show as you’re likely to see this or any other holiday season. Sater’s lyrics fit Bacharach’s
signature sound every bit as perfectly as Hal David’s did"
STAGE SCENE LA

To view more photos from Some Lovers, visit our Facebook page!

WATCH THE "EVERY OTHER HOUR" MUSIC VIDEO
FROM SOME LOVERS

THERE'S A NEW GRINCH IN TOWN

(12/12/11) • San Diego's favorite holiday tradition, Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, is back with a brand new Grinch, Steve Blanchard, along with new Whos and fun surprises. The critics are raving!

"Steve Blanchard is right at home in the Grinch’s trademark green fur and Santa hat, and he takes the role from children’s caricature to empathetic character. All the elements – the costumes, the jokes, the music – help the message of Dr. Seuss’ original work shine through. The holidays are meant to be with loved ones, taking in memories such as the one that the Grinch production will surely provide."
THE SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE

"The 2011 show has a new Grinch, a mostly new Who family and a new narrator, as well as lots of new bits that fill every second of the intermissionless 80-minute show with laughs, visual wonder and magic."
NORTH COUNTY TIMES

"Steve Blanchard's the new Grinch in town, and he's a hoot. He's nasty enough to inspire trepidation but establishes instant rapport with his audience. Direct addresses and snide asides cement that connection with laughter."
SAN DIEGO READER

To view more photos from Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, visit our Facebook page!

CRAIG NOEL LEAGUE MEMBER'S LUNCHEON

(12/6/11) • Members of the Craig Noel League, the Globe's Planned Giving Society, enjoyed a complimentary lunch and visit with Associate Artist Robert Foxworth. The event, held on Friday, November 18th in Hattox Hall, was attended by over 65 guests and included a viewing of the Globe's Education Program video introduced by Interim Managing Director Michael Murphy. Contact Bridget Cantu Wear at bcantuwear@theoldglobe.org for more information about the Craig Noel League, or click here.

BROADWAY WORLD INTERVIEWS STEVEN SATER & BURT BACHARACH

THE CAST OF SOME LOVERS SINGS "THIS CHRISTMAS" BY STEVEN SATER & BURT BACHARACH

SPECIAL GRINCH EDITION OF THEATER TOTS

GRINCH CHRISTMAS TREE LIGHTING

(11/23/11) • The sixth annual Old Globe Christmas Tree Lighting took place on Sunday, Nov. 20, kicking off the holiday season in conjunction with San Diego's favorite holiday musical, Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas! Designed by Grinch scenic designer John Lee Beatty, the unique tree is located in the center of the Globe Plaza and will remain for the run of the show. Nearly 2,000 fans were in attendance as the casts of The Grinch and the new musical Some Lovers performed songs from the shows.

2012 SUMMER SEASON ANNOUNCED!

(11/15/11) • The Old Globe’s 2012 Summer Season will feature the West Coast Premiere of Divine Rivalry by Michael Kramer with D. S. Moynihan and directed by Michael Wilson and the San Diego premiere of Yasmina Reza’s Tony Award-winning play God of Carnage directed by Richard Seer. Adrian Noble will return for his third season as the Artistic Director of the Globe’s Summer Shakespeare Festival and direct Shakespeare’s As You Like It and the Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee classic Inherit the Wind. Presented in repertory in the outdoor Lowell Davies Festival Theatre, the Festival will also include Richard III directed by Lindsay Posner, former Associate Director at London’s Royal Court Theatre.  Divine Rivalry will run on the Donald and Darlene Shiley Stage in the Old Globe Theatre and God of Carnage in the Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre, both part of the Globe’s Conrad Prebys Theatre Center. Tickets to the Globe’s 2012 Summer Season are currently available by subscription only, and prices range from $66 to $387. Subscription packages may be purchased online, by phone at (619) 23-GLOBE or by visiting the box office.

2012 Shakespeare Festival / Lowell Davies Festival Theatre (runs June 3 – Sept. 30 in repertory)

• As You Like It by William Shakespeare (June 10 – Sept. 30)
Flirtation, friendship and mistaken identity make for one of Shakespeare’s most beloved comedies.  Rosalind escapes into the forest and adopts the persona of a man to get close to her beloved Orlando.  But when he falls for another woman, she must untangle the web of deceptions she has woven to win her true love.  Adrian Noble directs.

• Richard III by William Shakespeare (June 3 – Sept. 29)
Richard III is one of Shakespeare’s most diabolical and outrageous villains.  As the power-hungry lord sabotages those around him with cunning and treachery in his quest to seize the English crown, his tenuous path to victory begins to crumble.  Renowned British director (Royal Court Theatre) Lindsay Posner makes his Old Globe debut with this riveting portrait of obsession and betrayal.

• Inherit the Wind by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee (June 17 – Sept. 25)
When a schoolteacher is put on trial for teaching Charles Darwin’s theories of evolution, two powerhouse lawyers clash on issues of faith and science.  Adrian Noble helms the classic courtroom drama loosely based on the real-life 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial.

• Divine Rivalry by Michael Kramer with D. S. Moynihan (July 7 – Aug. 12)
Divine Rivalry transports audiences to 16th-century Florence, where two of the world’s greatest artists, Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, face off in a painting competition orchestrated by political mastermind Niccolo Machiavelli (The Prince).  Michael Wilson, director of the Globe’s upcoming revival of Horton Foote’s Dividing the Estate, will remount his acclaimed production of Kramer’s new play, which recently had its world premiere at Hartford Stage.

• God of Carnage by Yasmina Reza (July 27 – Sept. 2)
When two sets of parents gather in an upscale Brooklyn home to discuss a playground altercation between their sons, decorum flies out the window, leading to a hilarious afternoon of name-calling, tantrums and tears.  Yasmina Reza’s Tony Award-winning comedy is a four-way prizefight that has riveted audiences around the world.  Richard Seer directs (his 11th outing at the Globe).

Read the press release.

A FAMILY AFFAIR

(10/28/11) • The West Coast Premiere of Dividing the Estate, the final play by Pulitzer Prize winner Horton Foote, will be directed by Michael Wilson - one of the foremost interpreter of Foote’s work - and will run Jan. 14 – Feb. 12, 2012 in the Old Globe Theatre, part of the Globe’s Conrad Prebys Theatre Center .

Horton Foote Jr. joins Hallie Foote to make this production of their father’s final play a family affair. Hallie Foote will appear as Mary Jo, for which she received a Tony Award nomination in the original Broadway production, and her brother, Horton Foote Jr., will return to the stage after an almost 20 year absence in the role of Lewis Gordon.

Theater legend Elizabeth Ashley will appear as Stella Gordon, the domineering matriarch of a fading Southern dynasty, a role she originated on Broadway. Penny Fuller, a Tony Award nominee for Applause and The Dinner Party, will reprise the role of Lucille that she also created for the Broadway production.

The cast of Dividing the Estate also includes Devon Abner (Son), Pat Bowie (Mildred), James DeMarse (Bob), Maggie Lacey (Pauline), Nicole Lowrance (Sissie), Jenny Dare Paulin (Emily), Keiana Richàrd (Cathleen), Roger Robinson (Doug) and Bree Welch (Irene Ratliff).
 
The creative team includes Jeff Cowie (Scenic Design), David C. Woolard (Costume Design), Rui Rita (Lighting Design), John Gromada (Original Music and Sound Design), Stephanie Klapper (New York Casting Director) and Marisa Levy (Stage Manager).

Dividing the Estate is a co-production of The Old Globe and the Alley Theatre. All photos are by Jann Whaley.

Read the press release.

MEET SOME LOVERS

(10/27/11) • The Old Globe will present the World Premiere of Some Lovers, a new musical with book and lyrics by Tony and Grammy Award winner Steven Sater (Spring Awakening) and music by Academy and Grammy Award-winning legend Burt Bacharach. Directed by Will Frears with music supervision by Lon Hoyt and choreography by Denis Jones, Some Lovers will run Nov. 26 – Dec. 31 in the Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre, part of the Globe’s Conrad Prebys Theatre Center.

The cast of Some Lovers features Jenni Barber (Young Molly), who has appeared on New York stages in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Sam Mendes’ Bridge Project, From Up Here and Cactus Flower; Jason Danieley (Ben), whose Broadway credits include Next to Normal, Curtains, Candide and The Full Monty (also West End); Michelle Duffy (Molly), who has originated roles in the World Premieres of Leap of Faith, Continental Divide, An Italian Straw Hat and Mask; and Andrew Mueller (Young Ben), who recently appeared in the world premiere of For the Boys and received a Jeff Award for his work in Big River in Chicago.

The creative team includes Takeshi Kata (Scenic Design), Jenny Mannis (Costume Design), Ben Stanton (Lighting Design), Leon Rothenberg (Sound Design), Jonathan Tunick (Orchestrator), AnnMarie Milazzo (Vocal Designer), Jim Carnahan, CSA (Casting) and Matthew Silver (Stage Manager).

Read the press release.

WHO'S THE GRINCH?

(10/26/11) • The Old Globe’s 14th annual production of Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, directed by James Vásquez with book and lyrics by Timothy Mason and music by Mel Marvin, will run in the Old Globe Theatre Nov. 19 – Dec. 31.

Steve Blanchard will make his Globe debut as the cantankerous title character. He has appeared on Broadway in Beauty and the Beast, Camelot, The Three Musketeers and A Christmas Carol. His National Tours include Little House on the Prairie, Camelot, The Phantom of the Opera, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and Hans Christian Andersen. Steve's Off Broadway credits include Johnny Guitar, Frankenstein, Treasure Island and Moby Dick. His television credits include “Law & Order,” “Third Watch,” “Cupid,” “Ed,” Sunset Beat, “Police Story,” Rap Master Ronnie: A Report Card, “Guiding Light,” “One Life to Live” and “Another World.” Steve can be heard on the original recordings of Johnny Guitar, Sundown, Frankenstein and Northbound Train.

The cast also features Logan Lipton (Young Max), Steve Gunderson (Old Max), Remy Margaret Corbin and Caitlin McAuliffe (Cindy-Lou Who), Geno Carr (Papa Who), Kelsey Venter (Mama Who), Phil Johnson (Grandpa Who), Amanda Naughton (Grandma Who), Annie Buckley and Madison Pyle (Annie Who), Gabriela Leibowitz and Natasha Partnoy (Betty-Lou Who), Luke Babbitt and Dylan Nalbandian (Boo Who), Aaron Acosta and Jonas McMullen (Danny Who) with Liam James Brandt, Jacob Caltrider, Nancy Snow Carr, Nikki Castillo, Kevin Davison, Danielle Dawson, Julia Dawson, Madi Rae DiPietro, Randall Dodge, A.J. Foggiano, Meredith Inglesby, Kyle J. Jackson, Dylan Mulvaney, Carly Nykanen, Emma Rasse and Blue Schroeder (Ensemble).
 
The original production of Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas! was conceived and directed by Jack O’Brien with Additional Lyrics by Theodor S. Geisel, Additional Music by Albert Hague and original choreography by John DeLuca. This season’s production features Musical Direction by Ron Colvard, Additional Choreography by Bob Richard and Restaged Choreography by James Vásquez. The Grinch creative team also includes John Lee Beatty (Scenic Design), Robert Morgan (Costume Design), Pat Collins (Lighting Design), Paul Peterson (Sound Design), Anita Ruth (Orchestrator), Joshua Rosenblum (Vocal Arrangements and Incidental Music), David Krane (Dance Music Arranger) and Leila Knox (Stage Manager).

Read the press release.

THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW PREVIEW - SWEET TRANSVESTITE

WELCOME HOME

(10/11/11) • Thanks to everyone who helped to make Odyssey such a great success! The unique new musical, conceived and directed by Lear deBessonet with music, lyrics and book by Todd Almond, enjoyed three terrific sold out performances in the Lowell Davies Festival Theatre. And a big special thank you to our community partners: Culture Shock San Diego, San Diego Youth Symphony and Conservatory, San Diego Junior Theatre, St. Stephen's Church Choir and Valhalla High School Percussion Ensemble, Harbor Church (Mid-City), Jackie Robinson Family YMCA, Globe Guilders, The San Diego School of Creative and Performing Arts and UrbanLife.

To view more Odyssey photos, visit our Facebook page!