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SAN DIEGO (May 7, 2020)—The Old Globe today announced the world premiere of a 10-minute play created by renowned theatre artist Bill Irwin: In-Zoom, featuring Irwin and Broadway veteran Christopher Fitzgerald. The two-hander will premiere live online on Thursday, May 14 at 6:30 p.m. on The Old Globe’s website! A special preview performance will be streamed exclusively for Globe donors and subscribers on Wednesday, May 13 at 6:30 p.m., and a recorded version will be available to stream on the Globe website through Saturday, May 16 only! The short play is free to stream, but viewers are asked to make a donation if they can to help support The Old Globe in these extraordinary times.
Two comic minds convene a meeting on Zoom and surprise themselves as they look at our particular pandemic moment and the virtual way we’re living it. Two-time Tony Award winner Bill Irwin (Fool Moon, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?) and three time Tony Award nominee Christopher Fitzgerald (Broadway’s Waitress, Young Frankenstein, Wicked) delight in Irwin’s beguiling take on our new reality.
The creative team includes Leila Knox (Production Stage Manager) and Kevin Anthenill (Digital Platform Director). Special thanks to Jake Millgard, Kevin Hafso Koppman, and Kyrsten Hafso Koppman for their work in developing this piece.
“The theatre’s special magic is to gather strangers at an appointed time and place and bring them together into an audience, a single community,” said Erna Finci Viterbi Artistic Director Barry Edelstein. “With our three beautiful venues in Balboa Park temporarily closed, we’re making theatre, or something very much like it, on digital platforms, and we’ve turned to our family of brilliant artists to lead the way. Bill Irwin is a superb actor, director, writer, and thinker, and of course, one of the greatest-ever clowns in the American theatre. Bill’s been thinking about how to adapt his unique art to this dizzying moment, and In-Zoom is what he’s found. It’s a huge treat, and I’m very grateful to Bill, Christopher Fitzgerald, and the crackerjack theatre makers of The Old Globe for bringing it to life.”
Bill Irwin (Playwright, Actor A) is an original member of San Francisco’s Pickle Family Circus, and of KRAKEN, directed by Herbert Blau. His original works include Fool Moon, Largely New York, The Harlequin Studies, Mr. Fox: A Rumination, The Happiness Lecture, Old Hats, and The Regard of Flight. His theatre credits include Endgame at American Conservatory Theater; Show Boat at San Francisco Opera; Roundabout Theatre Company’s revival of Waiting for Godot (2009 Drama Desk Award nomination); the Broadway and West End revivals of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (2005 Tony Award, Helen Hayes Award); The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?; Bye Bye Birdie; King Lear; Accidental Death of an Anarchist; 5-6-7-8… Dance!; Waiting for Godot at Lincoln Center Theater and Seattle Repertory Theatre; Scapin; The Tempest; Garden of Earthly Delights; Texts for Nothing; A Flea in Her Ear; The Seagull; A Man’s a Man; The Three Cuckolds; as well as being the 2003–/2004 Signature Theatre Playwright in Residence. Irwin’s television credits include Bill Irwin: Clown Prince for PBS’s “Great Performances,” “Third Rock from the Sun,” “Northern Exposure,” “Sesame Street,” Elmo’s World, The Regard of Flight for PBS, “Atlanta 1996 Olympic Games Closing Ceremony,” “The Cosby Show,” The Laramie Project, SUBWAYStories: Tales from the Underground, Bette Midler’s The Mondo Beyondo Show, “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” “Life on Mars,” “A Gifted Man,” “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” “The Good Wife,” “Lights Out,” “Monday Mornings,” “Blue Bloods,” “Elementary,” “Quarry,” and “Legion.” His film credits include Confirmation for HBO, Rachel Getting Married, Interstellar, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Higher Ground, Igby Goes Down, Lady in the Water, Dark Matter, Raving, Across the Universe, Popeye, Eight Men Out, Silent Tongue, Illuminata, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, My Blue Heaven, A New Life, Scenes from a Mall, and Stepping Out. Irwin also received the National Endowment for the Arts Choreographer’s Fellowship, Guggenheim Fellowship, Fulbright Fellowship, and MacArthur Fellowship.
Christopher Fitzgerald (Actor B) has appeared on Broadway in the most recent revival of Company, Waitress (Tony Award nomination, Outer Critics Circle and Drama Desk Awards), An Act of God, The Merchant of Venice, Finian’s Rainbow (Tony and OCC nominations, Drama Desk Award), Young Frankenstein (Tony, Drama Desk, and OCC nominations), Wicked, Amour (Drama Desk nomination), and Chicago. His other New York credits include The Winter’s Tale and The Cripple of Inishmaan (The Public Theater), Saturday Night (Second Stage Theater; Drama Desk nomination), Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme (Lincoln Center Theater), and Wise Guys (New York Theatre Workshop). His recent television and film credits include “Happy!” (series regular, SyFy), Godless (Netflix), “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” (recurring, Amazon), “Let Them All Talk” directed by Steven Soderbergh (upcoming, HBO), and Girl Most Likely.
The Old Globe believes that theatre matters, now more than ever, and is determined to continue to serve the public through theatre art. We consider it paramount that we continue to be a leader in programming for our community, and continue to support and maintain valued connections with those hungering for artistic content and continued personal growth. We continue to add free online programs and new dates for existing ones, all part of The Old Globe’s ongoing commitment to serve the public good by providing programs that make theatre matter to more people.
All Globe productions and events have been postponed until further notice; all dates are subject to change. Meantime, the Globe has developed and is presenting a wide array of free online programsto continue reaching out to the San Diego community. These include Edelstein‘s newly announced Thinking Shakespeare Live! and bimonthly Thinking Shakespeare Live: Sonnets! editions, a twice-weekly On Book: The Old Globe’s Shakespeare Reading Group, a free commissioned short plays project Play At Home, and outreach from familiar Globe artists in Act Breaks and Flashbacks. The indefatigable Arts Engagement team has pivoted several community-venue-based projects online, with weekly offerings of Community Voices; Behind the Curtain and its offshoots, the Spanish-language Detrás del Telón and advanced Behind the Curtain: Technical Assistance forum; and Word Up!; as well as our fifth annual Happy Birthday, Mr. Shakespeare! online party, and many other great community-based projects in the development pipeline.
Make sure to follow us on www.TheOldGlobe.org for schedules and updates!
Updated guide to free online theatre programs available here.
To watch videos, visit www.theoldglobe.org/edp-pages/2020/online-theatre-programs.
Please contact PR Director Susan Chicoine or PR Associate Lucia Serrano if you need to download high-res visuals for media usage, or go to www.dropbox.com/sh/jd37hdzqg2l6i39/AACPyV80Dm0gotFxGTHfLxjva.
PHOTO EDITORS: Digital images of The Old Globe’s productions are available at www.TheOldGlobe.org/Press-Room.
The Tony Award–winning The Old Globe is one of the country’s leading professional not-for-profit regional theatres. Now in its 85th year, the Globe is San Diego’s flagship performing arts institution, and it serves a vibrant community with theatre as a public good. Under the leadership of Erna Finci Viterbi Artistic Director Barry Edelstein and Managing Director Timothy J. Shields, The Old Globe produces a year-round season of 16 productions of classic, contemporary, and new works on its three Balboa Park stages, including its internationally renowned Shakespeare Festival. More than 250,000 people annually attend Globe productions and participate in the theatre’s artistic and arts engagement programs. Its nationally prominent Arts Engagement Department provides an array of participatory programs that make theatre matter to more people in neighborhoods throughout the region. Humanities programs at the Globe and around the city broaden the community’s understanding of theatre art in all its forms. The Globe also boasts a range of new play development programs with professional and community-based writers, as well as the renowned The Old Globe and University of San Diego Shiley Graduate Theatre Program. Numerous world premieres—such as 2014 Tony Award winner for Best Musical A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, Bright Star, The Full Monty, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels,and Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas!—have been developed at The Old Globe and have gone on to highly successful runs on Broadway and at regional theatres across the country.
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