The Men of "Reunion" Reunite at SCR

THE CAST:  Kevin Berntson, Tim Cummings and Michael Gladis

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It’s a bit of reunion in the rehearsal hall right now for actors Kevin Berntson, Tim Cummings and Michael Gladis—all three are veterans of South Coast Repertory. For two of the actors, it marks a return to Gregory S. Moss’ Reunion: Michael Gladis and Tim Cummings were cast in the play’s reading last year at the Pacific Playwrights Festival. Here’s more about the cast:

Kevin Berntson (Peter) has previously performed on stage at South Coast Repertory in Sideways Stories from Wayside School. At La Jolla Playhouse, he appeared in Boy and The School for Wives and at San Diego Repertory Theatre, he appeared in their production of A Christmas Carol. Berntson also has appeared in Teen Witch: The Musical, Spring Awakening and Love’s Labour’s Lost. His television credits include “2 Broke Girls,” “Kickin’ It,” “Inside Amy Schumer,” “Private Practice,” “Rules of Engagement,” a recurring role on “Hart of Dixie.” He has appeared in more than 25 commercials. He is an improv instructor at The Groundlings Theater in Los Angeles. Berntson performs improvisation regularly. His comedy short “Traffic Signals,” which he co-wrote and co-stars in, won Best Comedy Short at the LA Comedy Shorts Festival. Berntson studies acting at Steppenwolf West with Tom Irwin and holds an MFA from UC San Diego.

Tim Cummings (Mitch) returns to SCR after appearing in Eurydice last season. His recent credits: portrayed Ned Weeks in the four-month run of The Normal Heart at The Fountain (Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle and LA Weekly nomination for Best Lead Actor and Best Production, Broadway World and Eddon Awards winner for Best Lead Actor); The Phantom Tollbooth (Main Street Theater); The Firebird (Disney Hall); The New Electric Ballroom (Rogue Machine Theatre), for which Cummings won the LADCC, the LA Weekly and the StageSceneLA award for Best Supporting Actor; The Walworth Farce and WAR (Theatre Banshee); Camino Real and Tartuffe (The Theatre@ Boston Court); The Winter’s Tale and Hamlet (Theater 150); Slasher and The Last Schwartz (Zephyr Theatre); Only Say The Word (Ensemble Studio Theatre/LA); The Pursuit of Happiness (Laguna Playhouse); Burn This (Stages Theatre Center); and Closer (Hollywood Food Chain). In New York, he appeared in Frankie & Johnny in the Clair de Lune (Edie Falco and Stanley Tucci, director Joe Mantello) and The Guys (with Sigourney Weaver and Susan Sarandon, director Jim Simpson). His film and television credits include Spirited, Something Strange, “Criminal Minds,” “My Two Fans,” Presence, Exit Interview and The Box. He is a graduate of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. Cummings serves as associate director of the Youth Program at the Ojai Playwrights Conference.

Michael Gladis (Max) appeared at SCR previously in Princess Marjorie by Noah Haidle and the Pacific Playwrights Festival readings of Reunion and Kin. His New York theater credits include Fifth of July with the Signature Theater Company, Baal at The Flea Theater, The Main(e) Play and ‘Nami with Partial Comfort Productions, Dog Sees God at SoHo Playhouse, St. Crispin’s Day at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, and a national tour of Romeo & Juliet, among others. His film credits include the soon-to-be-released Devil’s Knot, Knights of Badassdom and In Security. He can also be seen in J. Edgar and K-19: The Widowmaker. On television, Gladis appeared on “The Mentalist,” “Justified,” “Eagleheart,” “How I Met Your Mother,” “House M.D.,” “The Good Wife,” and three seasons as Paul Kinsey on “Mad Men.” Also, he will soon be invading your home as Deputy Chief Holland Knox on the new CBS series, “Reckless.”

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You’re Invited To Our Open House: March 10

South Coast Repertory’s 50th Season celebration continues with an Open House on Monday, March 10, between 4-8 p.m. The afternoon and evening include tours, a special program, and a reception. The Open House is free and open to the public.

Sign up for a guided backstage tour, departing every 15 minutes from the lobby. See where the magic of theatre happens, including the scenic shop, the prop shop, the wig shop and more. Talk with the artisans who create SCR’s stagecraft. Don’t miss this rare opportunity!

Tour reservations are highly encouraged, as space is limited and past tours have filled up quickly. Go online to reserve your spot on one of the tours or call the Box Office at (714) 708-5555.

A New Twist For the Timeless English Fairy Tale: "Jack and the Giant Beanstalk"

Mercy Vasquez believes that young playgoers are often smarter than the plays written for them.

Vasquez, who directs the upcoming Junior Players production of Jack and the Giant Beanstalk, chose the script by Linda Daugherty because it doesn’t waste time with explanation.

“I don’t like playing down to children or using a narrator to to provide clarity.  Our script begins with an exciting moment, and we burst right into the action without having to explain what’s about to happen.”

The action in this case is a shipwreck.  In a clever twist on the old English fairy tale, Jack’s father is a swashbuckling, black-eyed sea captain, whose ship is—persumably—lost in a storm.  According to Vasquez, meeting Jack’s father in the beginning opens a window into the adventurous spirit that Jack’s character embodies.

No longer only a fairy tale, Jack and the Giant Beanstalk is now a coming of age story about a boy stepping into the role of father in order to become a man and support his mother.

“Jack wants to emulate his father who, for the most part, exists only in his fertile imagination, says Vasquez.  “In this way, he keeps the sea captain alive, for himself—and for his mother, who is neither crude nor ignorant as some versions of the story suggest.  In fact, she’s a woman of dignity and grace, who came from affluence and was swept away by the handsome ship’s captain.”

For all his promise, Jack is not yet so grown up that he makes wise decisions that change the story’s plot.  He still trades the old family cow for a handful of beans, still climbs the resulting beanstalk and encounters the giant’s (nervous) Wife, the (aggravated) Chicken and the (uncooperative) Guitar.

And, of course, there’s one more character, missing from other versions—a black-eyed man held captive by the Giant, whose identity the kids in the audience will pick up on—without any help from a narrator.

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A New Show Every Night with Impro Theatre

What is Improvisational Theatre?

Improvisational theatre —also known as Improv—is a form of theatre, in which the plot, characters and dialogue of a game, scene or story are made up in the moment. Often, for inspiration, improv performers will take suggestions from the audience, or draw on another source of inspiration to get started.

Inspired by Tennessee Williams, Impro Theatre blends Williams’ masterful storytelling and language with their own brand of hilarious improvised theatre in Tennessee Williams UnScripted. Each show is different and never the same; no pre-planning or prepared scenarios, just a single audience suggestion as inspiration gets the show started. From that, the ensemble of actors instantly bring characters and a plot to life in a completely improvised full-length play.

Impro Theatre is an improvisational theatre company that creates completely improvised, full-length plays in the styles of the world’s greatest playwrights, authors and composers, including Shakespeare, Tennessee Williams, Jane Austen, Anton Chekhov, Stephen Sondheim, Charles Dickens, and more. The performers immerse themselves in these styles, and in the moment, they write theatre as they perform it, combining verbal dexterity and dynamic physicality to bring character and plot to life in an instant.

Watch a clip from a previous Tennessee Williams UnScripted.



Studying the styles of literary greats, like Williams, Impro Theatre’s ensemble of performers expands on what these writers do, with the goal to capture their essence and honor their voice. Rather than parodying the writers, the ensemble plays for truth in the storytelling and allows the comedy to come from it. More over, Tennessee Williams UnScripted is not just a performance that is being improvised, but also the technical elements like the lighting design and music. The lighting designer and musicians watch the performances and improvise their work to match the mood of the story that is being created in front of them.

There are four chances to see Tennessee Williams UnScripted and four entirely different shows to experience. Impro Theatre brings their unique brand of theatre to South Coast Repertory as part of Studio SCR, Feb. 27-Mar. 2.

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Praise for Tennessee Williams UnScripted

Impro Theatre has received multiple Critics’ Picks in the Los Angeles Times, Back Stage West, and L.A. Weekly, and have performed sold-out shows around the world.  

• Los Angeles Times Critics Pick! “Simultaneously funny, moving and absolutely in keeping with Williams’ thematics. Impro Theatre’s considerable agility and its infectious sense of play makes you want to go back again to see what else this group can conjure next out of Williams’ high humidity.”—LA Times 

• “GO!” “Lingers somewhere between satire and homage. Impro avoids making a glib mockery of Williams’ drawling explications and the sometimes ham-fisted poetry. It’s a very smart choice.”—LA Weekly 

• “Drink up: It’s Tennessee Williams at his most ridiculous, sucked dry by several very funny actors pulling out all their improv stops. Although the evening is remarkably smooth, the unscripted construction is the draw here, and we like it when the seams show. Quite entertaining, prompting plenty of laughs!”—Backstage

Going by the Book: An Excerpt from "James and the Giant Peach"

This excerpt from James and the Giant Peach begins just after James, berated by his aunts, meets a strange old man. The old man gives him a package of magic, thousands of tiny, wiggly little green glowing things and tells him to drink it, then disappears. James hurries away to follow instructions, but trips and falls, spilling the contents of the bag.

Roald Dahl’s 1961 first edition of James and the Giant Peach.

James felt like crying. He would never get them back now—they were lost, lost, lost forever.

But where had they gone to? And why in the world had they been so eager to push down into the earth like that? What were they after? There was nothing down there. Nothing except the roots of the old peach tree…and a whole lot of earthworms and centipedes and insects living in the soil.

But what was it the old man had said? Whoever they meet first, be it bug, insect, animal, or tree, that will be the one who gets the full power of their magic!

Good heavens, thought James. What is going to happen in that case if they do meet an earthworm? Or a centipede? Or a spider? And what if they do go into the roots of the peach tree?

“Get up at once, you lazy little beast!” a voice was suddenly shouting in James’s ear. James glanced up and saw Aunt Spiker standing over him, grim and tall and bony, glaring at him through her steel-rimmed spectacles. “Get back over there immediately and finish chopping those logs!” she ordered.

Aunt Sponge, fat and pulpy as a jellyfish, came waddling up behind her sister to see what was going on. “Why don’t we just lower the boy down the well in a bucket and leave him there for the night?” she suggested. “That ought to teach him not to laze around like this the whole day long.”

“That’s a very good wheeze, my dear Sponge. But let’s make him finish chopping up the wood first. Be off with you at once, you hideous brat, and do some work!”

Slowly, sadly, poor James got up off the ground and went back to the woodpile. Oh, if only he hadn’t slipped and fallen and dropped that precious bag. All hope of a happier life had gone completely now. Today and tomorrow and the next day and all the other days as well would be nothing but punishment and pain, unhappiness and despair.

He picked up the chopper and was just about to start chopping away again when he heard a shout behind him that made him stop and turn.

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The "Genius" of Luis Alfaro

Award-winning and critically acclaimed theatre artist Luis Alfaro is one of America's most sought-after playwrights and solo performers. SCR is ecstatic to present his one-man show, St. Jude—“one of his most personal and powerful creations,” says St. Jude director Robert Egan. 

Alfaro’s works have been seen around the world including Mexico, Europe, across the United States and here at SCR. In many respects, he is a one-of-a-kind playwright, and he's the only artist to have won two awards in the same year from The Kennedy Center's Fund for New American Plays. More of Alfaro’s accolades include awards from the National Endowment of the Arts and Theatre Communications Group. He is the recipient of the MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, awarded to those who "show exceptional merit and promise for continued and enhanced creative work;" it is also known as the “genius grant.” Currently, Alfaro is Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s first Playwright-in-Residence and a professor at the University of Southern California School of Dramatic Arts.

Alfaro returns to the art of solo performance with St. Jude after focusing on playwrighting for the past few years. His recent plays include Oedipus el Rey at Theatre @ Boston Court and Electricidad at the Mark Taper Forum. Alfaro told LA Stage Times that returning to solo performance “feels good, it feels like a return to form.”

“This is a rare opportunity to see this accomplished artist perform,” says Egan. St. Jude is a “poignant and a profoundly human play…about love and family.” Listen and sing along as Alfaro lets you in to his culture, art and family when St. Jude run Feb. 13-16 in Studio SCR.

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Light Shines in the Piazza and at the Party

There was a gorgeous luminescence in the air on January 31, First Night of The Light in the Piazza.  It filled the stage and still shone brightly at the Cast Party, co-sponsored by Antonello Ristorante, where artists and underwriters were bathed in its glow.

And the underwriters spoke for everyone in their praise…

Honorary Producer Laurie Smits Staude:  "The Light in the Piazza magically had the audience leaving the theater with a smile and with a lighter heart. SCR's production is as beautiful as it gets.  The skill of the actors and the fine tuning of the direction, sound, and lights as well as the beauty of the set and the fun of the 80 costumes make SCR's production a JOY.”

Honorary Producers Joan and Andy Fimiano:  “Fabulous musical arrangements, great casting and high energy performances … A moving story we can all relate to. and for non-Italian speakers, the actors conveyed the words through body language and emotion. We and our four guests loved every minute!”

Honorary Corporate Producer Haskell & White LLP, Partner-in-Charge, Audit and Business Advisory Services Group, Rick Smetaka: “We had a wonderful time and the production—as usual—was simply terrific! The combination of masterful singing, a brilliant chamber orchestra and playful costuming and staging made for a thoroughly enjoyable experience. Congratulations on another great production!”



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A Conversation With Playwright Craig Lucas

Playwright Craig Lucas

Craig Lucas during rehearsals of Reckless.

Playwright Craig Lucas has a long association with South Coast Repertory, and he remains an associate artist with the company. SCR’s Associate Artistic Director John Glore recently checked in with Lucas to talk about playwriting, collaboration, inspiration and The Light in the Piazza.

John was there in the beginning, for SCR’s first Lucas play, Reckless (1984-85), and all the ones that followed—Blue Window (1985-86), Three Postcards (1986-87), Prelude to a Kiss (1987-88) and Marry Me A Little (1987-88).  Music played a big role in Blue Window and Three Postcards, and Marry Me A Little was a musical without dialogue assembled from various songs by Stephen Sondeim that had not been performed in any New York show at that time. Here are two photos of Craig, taken during those early days.

Craig during rehearsals of Blue Window

JG: Music has been important in your work as a playwright since the beginning; why is that? What does music allow you to do that makes it an important tool for your work as a writer?

CL: Music achieves its effects without words—like color and shape and movement, it has no inherent meaning, but rather associative meanings. Often that meaning is in relationship to itself, one part of the sound in concert with another. Auden called it "pure contraption." There was music in my home from an early age. I played the piano and sang, my parents loved music, my dad was an opera fan, I was taken to musicals, I performed in musicals as a kid and then into adulthood when I came to New York. Something about what the music can do above and beyond and in tandem with words and dialogue and dramatic sequences seemed and continues to seem to me inherently natural. Dialogue can have rhythm and pitch and tempo, so it's musical in that sense, but the notion of pitch and accompaniment along with those other factors moves things into a higher realm, one that gets at emotional states that are very hard to invoke by a reasonable or rational approach: ideas may lead into the upper realms, certainly mathematics can, but music leaps there, passing through the various boundaries of the perceivable world by noumenal means maybe, something beyond what can be understood through the senses alone?

You’ve become one of the busiest librettist/book writers in theatre lately. Did that start with The Light in the Piazza? Is it something you have actively sought? Or if it’s more a matter of people coming to you with projects, what do you think it is in your work that makes you sought after for such projects? 


I had nothing to do with it! I was kind of washed up—my house was on the market, I could not get a good enough set of reviews from the New York Drama Critics to engender work that would yield any income, the independent movie world was transformed, I was no longer viable there either, and I began to read philosophy and theology to find another way to live, not knowing what I would do. I had written a lot of very dark work—starting with God's Heart through The Dying Gaul, Stranger, Small Tragedy, Prayer For My Enemy, The Singing Forest—and as you know, a lot of theaters around the country showed resistance to this work. I was asked to write an opera with Nico Muhly for the Metropolitan Opera, then I was asked to write the book for King Kong, and suddenly, I was asked in quick succession to write the books for a brand new imagining for the stage of the Gershwins’ An American in Paris (with Christopher Wheeldon directing and choreographing), Invisible Man (with Adam Guettel writing music and lyrics), a musical of Amélie (with songwriters Dan Messe and Nathan Tysen), The Outsiders (with lyricist Bernie Taupin, for director Kristen Hanggi) and there's another new one I'm not allowed to talk about until the producer is ready to announce it!

So, the last five years have involved a lot of slow, patient, deliberate and thrilling work on these various projects with these wonderful colleagues. They don't pay very much for development, but I have not had to sell my house, and though the New York Times didn't much care for The Light in the Piazza in New York, and it ran but one year, it seems to have a certain amount of impact among theater people. Writers in other disciplines seemed to respond strongly to it—Denis Johnson, whom I revere—spoke to me glowingly of the piece. And suddenly I realized that I'd grown up with musicals and I'd been befriended early on and mentored by Stephen Sondheim, whose works from the 1970s had opened many doors in my perceptions regarding what's possible onstage, and it is only now that I can call upon so much of that knowledge and experience and be someone with a renewed and deeper passion for the possibilities—along with what the Zen folks call “Beginner's Mind.”

When you’re working on a musical or opera, how do you and the composer decide what is to be sung vs. what is to be spoken? Or is it different from project to project?

I never make that decision, because I don't think it falls within my province. The composer/lyricists know, and I then aim to serve that need, insight, development.
 


Adam Guettel originated this particular project [The Light in the Piazza] and then came to you to write the book after he had already written some of the songs. Did that make your job harder or easier, building the book around songs that already existed?

Oh, it was much easier being able to hear some of the songs, including a few lyrics, plus the narrative had built-in wonder and structure, because of Spencer's novella, a marvel of 20th-century American fiction.
 


Was Elizabeth Spencer involved in the creative process in any way? Did you consult with her as you were working on the book?

Oh yes, she came to Seattle when we were in previews (I was also directing that first production) and she had good ideas. Her new book of stories is incredible, I recommend it highly. She just keeps on truckin'.
 


It’s been more than ten years since The Light in the Piazza premiered at the Intiman Theatre. What do you think about the show now, as you look back on it?

I'm going to admit to a character failing. I don't look back. I don't go to see other (new) productions of old plays or musicals I've written, I only look at what I'm writing now, what's new. I did get involved in a revival or two, and I found the process not so very interesting or pleasant, so as much as I might love to collaborate on a new production of an old work, I tend to keep my eye on the next one.



You and Richard Greenberg were two of SCR’s original Associate Artists, in recognition of the important place each of you has in SCR’s artistic life and history. I wonder if you’re aware that The Light in the Piazza is one of Richard’s favorite musicals and that he saw it 13 times when it played in New York?

Richard Greenberg is one of my favorite people in the world, he always makes me laugh and makes me happy at the same time. When Piazza closed in New York, he sent me an email saying, "This day shall live in infamy." He's the best.

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A Peach of a Production

Set design for James and the Giant Peach by Francois-Pierre Couture

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The hero of our story is James Henry Trotter—a lonely nine-year-old orphan who has lived with his ghastly aunts, Sponge and Spiker, ever since his parents met their fate in the mouth of a rampaging rhinoceros. These crotchety old crones make poor James slave for them and never let him play with other children. One day, a mysterious stranger presents him with a bag of glowing green crocodile tongues—the strongest magic the world has ever known. When he accidentally spills them on the ground near the barren peach tree in his yard, the most marvelous things start to happen.

Centipede costume design by Angela Balogh Calin.

First, a luscious ripe peach suddenly appears on the shriveled-up tree and starts growing and growing till it’s as big as a house. Then, just as James is trying to sneak a quick bite, he finds his way into the center of the fruit, where he encounters a cadre of kid-sized insects who become his instant friends: cocky Centipede, grumpy Earthworm, musical Grasshopper, fashionable Ladybird, and industrious Spider. To escape his evil aunts, they snip the stem and the giant peach starts rolling away on a fantastic voyage across the Atlantic Ocean. Along the way, James finds his voice and becomes the head of the motley crew. All of his friends have special talents and James learns how to become a true leader—inspiring each of them to draw upon their strengths and function as a team. 

Director Casey Stangl is approaching David Wood’s adaptation in a way that emphasizes the humanity in the story. Angela Calin’s costumes anthropomorphize the insects, retaining a sense of the human actor beneath them to evoke the characters bug characteristics rather than literally displaying them. Francois-Pierre Couture’s set will feature the giant peach in all its glory, accompanied by Tom Ruzika’s lighting design and Peter Bayne’s sound design and additional compositions. The poems found within Dahl’s original are present and set to music by Josh Schmidt, with musical direction by Deborah Wicks La Puma. Director Stangl has also assembled a fantastic cast of SCR veterans—that happens to include two married couples! You can read more about the cast here.

Roald Dahl

Inspired by Dahl

The name Roald Dahl inspires fans from small children to their parents and grandparents. Many people have affectionate memories of squirreling away with a story or two, reveling in the magic and quirky fun.

Dahl’s work sometimes can be challenging for parents. He was never afraid to tackle dark subjects, often with children facing difficult (if not impossible) circumstances. Many of his protagonists lack caring parents (James is an orphan) and the adults charged with caring for them are antagonistic, if not downright horrible.

Many of Dahl’s stories have inspired adaptations in film, musicals, and even opera—much like this stage version of James and the Giant Peach—often with celebrities involved. Though Dahl declined many offers during his lifetime to have a film version of James and the Giant Peach produced, his widow, Liccy Dahl, approved an offer to have a film adaptation produced in conjunction with Disney in the mid-1990s, which was directed by Henry Selick and produced by Denise Di Novi and Tim Burton. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory has been given the film treatment several times—the first in 1971 with Gene Wilder and again in 2005 with Johnny Depp. The Witches was adapted in 1990 (the year Dahl passed away) starring Anjelica Huston.

The long list continues—and these are just the highlights! There’s a musical adaptation of Matilda that premiered in London in 2010 and is currently enjoying a successful run on Broadway. It’s actually the second time Matilda has been given musical treatment; the first was in 1990 and toured the UK. The Witches was adapted into an opera by Norwegian composer Marcus Paus. Fantastic Mr. Fox has been adapted into an Academy Award nominated film by director Wes Anderson. It was made using stop-motion animation and features the voices of George Clooney as Mr. Fox, Meryl Streep as Mrs. Fox, and Bill Murray as Badger. Tobias Picker adapted Fantastic Mr. Fox into an opera (the only adaptation with origins in the US) which had its world premiere at the Los Angeles Opera in 1998.

Roald Dahl continues to inspire artists today and there are several new projects in the works. Dustin Hoffman and Dame Judi Dench have been announced as starring in a BBC adaptation of Esio Trot. DreamWorks has announced that they’ve purchased the rights to adapt The BFG.

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Healing Through Storytelling

Photo credit: Craig Schwartz

When St. Jude comes to South Coast Repertory, Luis Alfaro will confront his father's terminal illness and begin a journey towards healing. St. Jude is in the Nicholas Studio for performances Feb. 13-16 as part of Studio SCR.

Alfaro's one-man show finds him bearing his soul, conjuring memories starting from his youth and ending with his family dealing with his father’s final illness. In St. Jude, he takes the audience on a journey retelling major events of his life as a hand drawn map of Highway 99 is being projected from an old-school overhead projector.

This past fall, Alfaro talked extensively about the play with LA Weekly. He calls this a journey he "paid for" with his heart. During his final two years, Alfaro's father endured multiple blood draws a day, every three hours. In St. Jude, Alfaro memorializes that when he pricks his own finger during the course of St. Jude to add a drop of blood on the map, next to the name of cities in which he spent time; he does this 10 times throughout the show.

Performing St. Jude has helped Alfaro come to terms with the death of his father and hopes with St. Jude “we can talk about it and not be afraid of it.” Alfaro's own Facebook posts created the core of St. Jude. “This piece is really about relationships and who I was and what I am now, with the loss of my father,” Alfaro says in an interview with LA Stage Times.

Ultimately, St. Jude is an homage to Alfaro’s father, filled with laughter as he finds humor throughout his journey and celebrates life and family. Alfaro stays sincere and intimate with audiences, even engaging them with church songs. L.A. Reviews Online called Alfaro “gifted with a beautiful singing voice.”

Alfaro performs St. Jude in four shows, Feb. 13-16; Thursday at 7:00 p.m., Friday and Saturday at 8:00 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday at 3:00 p.m.

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