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Meteor Shower
An Adult Comedy
July 30 – September 18, 2016
(Opening Night: Sunday, August 7)
WORLD PREMIERE
Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre
Conrad Prebys Theatre Center
By Steve Martin
Directed by Gordon Edelstein
Co-Production with Long Wharf Theatre
Get ready for the unexpected when Norm and his wife Corky invite another couple to their Ojai backyard to watch a meteor shower in the night sky. As the stars come out and the conversation gets rolling, cocktails flow, tempers flare, and sparks fly—literally. Steve Martin’s surprising new comedy takes an offbeat and absurdist look at the comic anxiety lurking just beneath the surface of modern marriage.
Steve Martin (Playwright) began his career on “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour” (1967-1969), for which he earned his first Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing Achievement in Comedy, Variety or Music in 1969. In the mid-1970s, Mr. Martin shone as a stand-up on “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson” and NBC’s “Saturday Night Live.” Martin’s films are widely popular successes and are the kind of movies that are viewed again and again: The Jerk (1979), Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987), Roxanne (1987), Parenthood (1989), L.A. Story (1991), Father of the Bride (1991), and Bowfinger (1999). As an author, Martin’s work includes the novel An Object of Beauty; the play Picasso at the Lapin Agile; a collection of comic pieces, Pure Drivel; a bestselling novella, Shopgirl; and his memoir, Born Standing Up. His writing has also appeared in The New Yorker. Mr. Martin is an accomplished, Grammy Award-winning, boundary-pushing bluegrass banjoist and composer who has won three Grammys for performing and composing. He has earned numerous honors including an Academy Award, five Grammy Awards, an Emmy Award, the Mark Twain Prize, and the Kennedy Center Honor. Mr. Martin and Edie Brickell’s musical Bright Star premiered at The Old Globe in summer 2015, played a limited engagement at The Kennedy Center, and received acclaim in its Broadway run at the Cort Theatre. In addition to five Tony Award nominations, Bright Star received Outstanding New Broadway Musical and Outstanding New Score at the Outer Critics Circle Awards.
Gordon Edelstein (Director) is entering his 15th season as Artistic Director of Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut, where his recent productions include Disgraced, The Second Mrs. Wilson, Picasso at the Lapin Agile, Our Town, The Last Five Years, The Underpants, and Ride the Tiger. His New York credits include the award-winning Satchmo at the Waldorf (Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards for Outstanding Solo Performance) and My Name Is Asher Lev (Outer Critic Circle Award for Outstanding New Off-Broadway Play). Mr. Edelstein’s acclaimed Long Wharf Theatre production of The Glass Menagerie played Roundabout Theatre Company and Mark Taper Forum and was the recipient of the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Revival. He has a continued artistic association with Athol Fugard, directing the world premieres of his plays The Shadow of the Hummingbird (also starring Mr. Fugard), Have You Seen Us?, and Coming Home; the East Coast premiere of The Train Driver; and the Broadway production of The Road to Mecca. Last summer, Mr. Edelstein directed six-time Tony Award winner Audra McDonald in A Moon for the Misbegotten at Williamstown Theatre Festival. He has directed regionally, from Washington, DC’s Arena Stage to Alaska’s Perseverance Theatre, including such plays as Uncle Vanya (also adapted), Death of a Salesman, Mourning Becomes Electra, The Crucible, Betrayal, BFE, The Day the Bronx Died, A Doll’s House (also adapted), A New War, Anna Christie, and The Front Page. Before Long Wharf, Mr. Edelstein served for five years as Artistic Director of A Contemporary Theatre in Seattle.
Michael Yeargan (Scenic Design) returns to The Old Globe where he previously designed Pentecost and Compleat Female Stage Beauty. His Broadway and Off Broadway credits include designs for The Ritz, Bad Habits, Seascape, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Happy Days, Dinah Was, the world premiere of Athol Fugard’s A Lesson from Aloes, The Light in the Piazza (Tony and Drama Desk Awards), Awake and Sing! (Drama Desk Award), Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, South Pacific (Tony and Drama Desk Awards), Blood and Gifts, Golden Boy, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Cymbeline, The Bridges of Madison County, The King and I, and the current revival of Fiddler on the Roof. Mr. Yeargan has designedextensively for America’s regional theatres, and Meteor Shower is a continuation of his long collaboration with Gordon Edelstein and Long Wharf Theatre. Mr. Yeargan’s opera credits are equally extensive; he has designed the world premieres of A Streetcar Named Desire and Dead Man Walking (San Francisco Opera), The Great Gatsby (The Metropolitan Opera), and Cold Sassy Tree (Houston Grand Opera), among others. Heis a professor of stage design and co-chair of theDesign Department at Yale School of Drama.
Jess Goldstein (Costume Design) designed last year’s Globe production of In Your Arms as well as Compleat Female Stage Beauty (Craig Noel and Garland Awards). He has designed, among many others, On the Town, Jersey Boys, Newsies, The Rivals (2005 Tony Award), The Merchant of Venice with Al Pacino (Tony Award nomination), Henry IV with Kevin Kline (Tony Award nomination), The Apple Tree with Kristin Chenoweth, Orphans with Alec Baldwin, Buried Child, Proof, Take Me Out, Love! Valour! Compassion!, How I Learned to Drive, Dinner with Friends, The Mineola Twins (Lucille Lortel and Henry Hewes Design Awards), Il Trittico for Metropolitan Opera, and Tony Goldwyn’s film A Walk on the Moon. Mr. Goldstein is a graduate of the Yale University School of Drama and has taught design there since 1990. He was the 2015 recipient of the Irene Sharaff Lifetime Achievement Award. jess-goldstein.com.
Donald Holder (Lighting Design) previously designed the Globe’s Sense and Sensibility, In Your Arms and The Times They Are A-Changin’. His Broadway credits include The Lion King and South Pacific (Tony Awards), The King and I, The Bridges of Madison County, Golden Boy, Ragtime, Movin’ Out, Gem of the Ocean, A Streetcar Named Desire, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, and Juan Darien (all Tony-nominated), Fiddler on the Roof, She Loves Me, The Father, On the Twentieth Century, You Can’t Take It With You, Bullets Over Broadway, Cyrano De Bergerac, Thoroughly Modern Millie,and The Boy from Oz, among others. His regional credits include La Jolla Playhouse, South Coast Repertory, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Mark Taper Forum, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Goodman Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Denver Center Theatre Company, Center Stage, Hartford Stage, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Long Wharf Theatre, Huntington Theatre Company, Alley Theatre, and many others. He also designed the NBC television series “Smash.”
John Gromada (Original Music and Sound Design) has composed scores and designed sound for more than 35 Broadway productions, including The Elephant Man with Bradley Cooper, The Trip to Bountiful (Tony Award nomination), Gore Vidal’s The Best Man (Drama Desk Award), Clybourne Park, Seminar, The Columnist, Next Fall, A Bronx Tale, Prelude to a Kiss, Proof, Rabbit Hole, A Streetcar Named Desire, Twelve Angry Men, and A Few Good Men. His other New York credits include Dada Woof Papa Hot, Incident at Vichy, Ripcord, Old Hats, My Name Is Asher Lev, Measure for Measure at the Delacorte Theater, The Orphans’ Home Cycle (Drama Desk and Henry Hewes Design Awards), Shipwrecked! An Entertainment (Lucille Lortel Award), Julius Caesar, The Skriker (Drama Desk Award), Machinal (Obie Award), and many more. His television and film credits include a score for the Emmy Award-nominated The Trip to Bountiful as well as Showing Roots. johngromada.com.
Caparelliotis Casting (Casting) has cast the Globe productions of tokyo fish story, Constellations, The Last Match, Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, Ken Ludwig’s Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery, Rich Girl, Arms and the Man, Buyer & Cellar, The White Snake, The Twenty-seventh Man, The Royale, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, Water by the Spoonful, Time and the Conways, Bethany, The Winter’s Tale, The Few, Double Indemnity, The Rainmaker, Other Desert Cities, Be a Good Little Widow, A Doll’s House, The Brothers Size, Pygmalion, and Good People. Their Broadway casting credits include The Father, Blackbird, An Act of God, Airline Highway, Fish in the Dark, It’s Only a Play, Disgraced, The Country House, Holler If Ya Hear Me, Casa Valentina, The Snow Geese, Lyle Kessler’s Orphans, The Trip to Bountiful, Grace, Dead Accounts, The Other Place, Seminar, The Columnist, Stick Fly, Good People, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, The House of Blue Leaves, Fences, Lend Me a Tenor, and The Royal Family. They also cast for Manhattan Theatre Club, Second Stage Theatre, Atlantic Theater Company, LCT3, Ars Nova, Goodman Theatre, McCarter Theatre Center, Arena Stage, and three seasons with Williamstown Theatre Festival. Their recent film and television credits include HairBrained with Brendan Fraser, “American Odyssey” (NBC), “How to Get Away with Murder” (ABC pilot), “Ironside” (NBC), and Steel Magnolias (Sony for Lifetime).
Kathy Snyder (Production Stage Manager) is thrilled to be making her Globe debut with Meteor Shower. Her New York credits include Women Without Men, The New Morality, and A Picture of Autumn (Mint Theater Company), Wolfpit and The Lifeblood (Phoenix Theatre Ensemble), Belize and Delicious Rivers (Talking Band at La MaMa), and others. Her regional credits include 4000 Miles, brownsville song (b-side for tray), and Love Letters (Long Wharf Theatre). She has worked 11 seasons with The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey on 23 productions, including The Alchemist, The Guardsman, No Man’s Land, Hamlet, The Bald Soprano, and the world premiere of A Most Dangerous Woman. Ms. Snyder’s other credits include the national tour of ‘Art’ and Romeo and Juliet, as well as Party Time at the Napoli Scena Internationale Festival in Naples, Italy.
Annette Elena Nixon (Stage Manager – August 30 to September 11) served as stage manager for The Old Globe productions of Macbeth, Constellations, Full Gallop, Ken Ludwig’s Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery, Arms and the Man, The Royale, Quartet, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, The Few, Pygmalion, God of Carnage, Anna Christie, Groundswell, and the 2010 production of Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas! Her other Globe credits include A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (2011-2014), Boeing-Boeing, The First Wives Club, Opus, Dancing in the Dark, Hay Fever, and the Summer Shakespeare Festivals 2008 and 2010-2013.
Long Wharf Theatre (Co-Producer) was founded in 1965 by Jon Jory and Harlan Kleiman and is currently led by Artistic Director Gordon Edelstein and Managing Director Joshua Borenstein. Long Wharf Theatre is an organization of international renown and has been a leader in American theatre, producing fresh and imaginative revivals of classic and modern plays, rediscoveries of neglected works, and a variety of world and American premieres. Under the artistic leadership of Arvin Brown for over 30 years, Long Wharf Theatre established itself as an important force in the regional theatre movement. Following Brown’s leadership, Doug Hughes served as Artistic Director for four seasons. Throughout its history, Long Wharf Theatre has created a unique home in New Haven for theatre artists from around the world, resulting in the transfer of over 30 productions to Broadway or Off Broadway, including Satchmo at the Waldorf, My Name is Asher Lev, The Glass Menagerie, Durango, BFE, Sixteen Wounded, Wit (Pulitzer Prize), Hughie, American Buffalo, Requiem for a Heavyweight, Quartermaine’s Terms (Obie Award for Best Play), The Gin Game (Pulitzer Prize), The Shadow Box (Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award for Best Play), The Changing Room, The Contractor (New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best Play), and Streamers, among many others now in the American theatre canon. In 1978, Long Wharf Theatre was honored with a Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre. Currently in its 51st season, Long Wharf Theatre produces an annual season of six plays on its two stages, along with children’s programming, new play workshops, and a variety of special events.
