At the Old Place - Know Before You Go

KNOW BEFORE YOU GO

JULY 5 – 30

Heidi Armbruster Production Co-Sponsors:

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KNOW BEFORE YOU GO

We look forward to seeing you at La Jolla Playhouse at your upcoming performance of At the Old Place. Below is some additional information about the production and the venue to enhance your theater-going experience.

PARKING Parking is free for all subscribers. For all others parking is $2 (subject to change), Mon-Fri. Upon arrival to campus, please purchase your parking permit from one of the automated pay stations located next to the information kiosk. Simply park, note your space number, and pay $2 at the pay station. Pay stations accept Visa, MasterCard, American Express or cash ($1 and $5), and do not give change. You will not need to return to your car. Parking is free on the weekends.

ACCESSIBILITY A golf cart is available to assist patrons with accessibility issues to and from the parking lot. Please notify Patron Services prior to your performance if you are in need of this service; additionally, you may pull into the five minute parking in front of the theatre, and a La Jolla Playhouse greeter will assist you.

For more information about performances with ASL interpretation and audio description, please see page 6.

Children under the age of 6 are not permitted in the theatre during performances unless otherwise posted.

Unaccompanied minors ages 12 and under are not permitted in the theatre.

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DINING

James’ Place is the Theatre District’s on-site restaurant.

Developed by renowned Sushi Master James Holder, the menu includes his signature sushi, as well as delectable dishes created with Prime and Angus cuts of beef, locally and sustainably harvested seafood, along with seasonal dishes. A lighter fare menu is also served at the newly-redesigned sushi/cocktail bar, featuring craft beer and California wines.

For reservations, please call (858) 638-7778.

For menu and hours, please visit jamesplacesd.com.

We also recommend the following nearby restaurants:

Adobe El Restaurante and Mustangs & Burros at Estancia La Jolla Hotel & Spa 9700 N. Torrey Pines Road La Jolla, CA 92037 estancialajolla.com

Cusp Restaurant and Hiatus Poolside Lounge at Hotel La Jolla 7955 La Jolla Shores Drive La Jolla, CA 92037 cusprestaurant.com

Café la Rue and The Med at La Valencia Hotel 1132 Prospect Street La Jolla, CA 92037 lavalencia.com

Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar 8970 University Center Lane San Diego, CA 92122 flemingssteakhouse.com

Dolce Pane e Vino 16081 San Dieguito Road Rancho Santa Fe, CA 92067 dolcepaneevino.com

Giuseppe Restaurants & Fine Catering 700 Prospect Street San Diego, CA 92037 giuseppecatering.com

Pamplemousse Grille 514 Via de la Valle, Suite 100 Solana Beach, CA 92075 pgrille.com Piatti 2182 Avenida De La Playa La Jolla, Ca 92037 Phone: 858-454-1589 piatti.com/lajolla Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery Playhouse Patrons Get 20% Off 8980 Villa La Jolla Drive La Jolla, CA 92037 rockbottom.com

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A MESSAGE FROM THE

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

MISSION STATEMENT:

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a permanent safe harbor for the unsafe and surprising. The day will come when it will be essential to enter the La Jolla Playhouse village in order to get a glimpse of what is about to happen in American theatre.

Over the first seventeen years of my life, I lived in seventeen different places. Both of my parents were academics, constantly scrambling for new teaching positions or residencies.

For most of my childhood, especially after my parents got divorced, the start of a new school year coincided with our arrival in a new town: Ann Arbor, MI; Cortland, NY; Durham, NC; © Howard Lipin/U-T San Diego/ZUMA Wire a year in Portugal while my mother pursued a Fulbright fellowship.

I gained a lot from these travels – although my Portuguese is limited to embarrassingly out-of-date 1970s slang – but because of all that movement, I lacked a place to call “home.”

“

Even so, when Jaime Castañeda first gave me Rachel Bonds’ play At the Old Place, it struck a deeply resonant chord with me. A home need not be a location or a physical structure; my parents were the constant throughout our many geographical stops – they were my home.

For Angie, the play’s protagonist, that connection between parent and home is a blessing and a curse. For reasons we soon discover, she has not been to her childhood home in a very long time, until extreme circumstances force her back. The house she returns to is now only a shell, but the residue left behind evokes complicated memories of a relationship she’s suppressed for years. Through Angie’s interactions with Will and Jolene, two young people who have made her former yard their own sanctuary, we are reminded that home is created through our relationships.

Given my nomadic upbringing, my last ten years in San Diego have provided me with a new perspective. La Jolla Playhouse has become a welcoming and nurturing artistic home not just for me, but for everyone who has a hand in helping create the work we do on every production. It means the world to me to be a part of this community, sharing new plays and musicals with an audience of equally curious and engaged neighbors.

Thank you for being my home.

La Jolla Playhouse has received the highest rating from Charity Navigator, the nation’s premier charity evaluator.

CHRISTOPHER ASHLEY

La Jolla Playhouse has received the highest rating from Charity Navigator, the nation’s premier charity evaluator.

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LA JOLLA PLAYHOUSE PRESENTS Michael S. Rosenberg Managing Director

Christopher Ashley Artistic Director

BY

RACHEL BONDS DIRECTED BY

JAIME CASTAÑEDA FEATURING

HEIDI ARMBRUSTER*, BRENNA COATES*, BENIM FOSTER*, MARCEL SPEARS* SCENIC DESIGNER COSTUME DESIGNER LIGHTING DESIGNER SOUND DESIGNER CASTING DRAMATURG STAGE MANAGER ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER PROJECT PRODUCTION MANAGER

LAUREN HELPERN DAVID ISRAEL REYNOSO LAP CHI CHU MELANIE CHEN TELSEY + COMPANY; KARYN CASL, C.S.A. GABRIEL GREENE KATRINA HERRMANN* MANDISA REED* BECCA DUHAIME

This play was originally developed by the Arden Theatre Company P5

THE CAST (in alphabetical order)

Angie..........................................................................................Heidi Armbruster Jolene............................................................................................Brenna Coates Harrison.............................................................................................Benim Foster Will.................................................................................................Marcel Spears Setting: Richmond, Virginia At the Old Place is performed without an intermission.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS `

ADDITIONAL ` STAFF Understudy for Jolene...................................................Claire Roberson ‡ Associate Costume Designer............................................Mary Rochon Costume Design Assistant...........................Desiree Hatfield-Buckley Scenic Design Assistant.....................................................Anne Sherer Fight Consultant.................................................................Jacob Bruce *

Arvin Abadilla Thomas Sapien Atlantic Theater Company

Members of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.

The theatre operates under an agreement between the League of Resident Theatres and Actors’ Equity Association.

This theatre operates under an agreement between the League of Resident Theatres and United Scenic Artists, Local USA-829 of the IATSE.

This theatre operates under an agreement between the League of Resident Theatres and the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, an independent national labor union.

La Jolla Playhouse is a member of the League of Resident Theatres (LORT) and a constituent of Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national service organization for the nonprofit professional theatre.

This theatre operates under an agreement between the League of Resident Theatres and the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees Local 122.

‡

UC San Diego M.F.A. Candidates in residence at La Jolla Playhouse.

AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT EVENTS: AT THE OLD PLACE INSIDER EVENTS

TALKBACK TUESDAYS

Sponsored in part by

Sponsored in part by

Join Playhouse staff for a special pre-performance presentation that gives an insider’s view of At the Old Place.

Participate in a lively discussion with At the Old Place actors and Playhouse staff members immediately following these performances.

Wednesday, July 26 at 6:45 pm Saturday, July 29 at 1:15 pm

Tuesday, July 11 after the 7:30 pm performance Tuesday, July 18 after the 7:30 pm performance

ACCESS PERFORMANCES

DISCOVERY SUNDAY

Sponsored in part by Seacrest Village Retirement Communities

On select performances, La Jolla Playhouse provides American Sign Language interpretation for audience members who are deaf or hard of hearing and audio description for patrons who are blind or have low vision.

Special guest speakers engage audience members in a moderated discussion exploring the issues and themes in the play.

Saturday, July 22 at 2:00 pm

Saturday, July 30 at 2:00 pm

MORE WAYS TO PLAY P6

FOODIE FRIDA FRIDAYS

SONIC C SATURDAYS SATURD

For more information, please visit LaJollaPlayhouse.org

THE COMPANY HEIDI ARMBRUSTER, Angie La Jolla Playhouse: Debut. Broadway: Time Stands Still.

Off-Broadway: Man from Nebraska, Disgraced, Poor Behavior, Boy, Hillary, Dov and Ali, Tea and Sympathy (Drama League nomination), Sea of Tranquility, The Fifth Column, Love Goes to Press, Duchess of Malfi, Good Morning Bill. Regional: Clarkston, Queens for a Year, The Dining Room, A Maze, The Great Gatsby, The Importance of Being Earnest, The Glass Menagerie. TV/Film: Younger, Divorce, Elementary, The Blacklist, House of Cards, Blue Bloods, 30 Rock, Law & Order: SVU, Louie. Education: M.F.A. from ACT. BRENNA COATES, Jolene is thrilled to be making her La Jolla Playhouse debut.

Off-Broadway: Originated the role of #7 in The Wolves (Obie & Drama Desk winner for Outstanding Ensemble, The Playwrights Realm at The Duke, New York Stage & Film). Other recent stage credits: Messages (The Loft); Night of the Assassins (Playwrights Horizons Theater School). Film: Ice Girls (Family Channel), Shebang (InsideOut and HollyShorts Film Festivals). Education: B.F.A. from NYU Tisch School of Performing Arts.

BENIM FOSTER, Harrison La Jolla Playhouse: Debut. Broadway: Disgraced, Barefoot in the Park. National tour: Twelve Angry Men (Roundabout). Off Broadway: If I Forget (Roundabout), Neil LeBute’s The Way We Get By (Second Stage); Forever Dusty (New World Stages); Becky Shaw (Second Stage); Henry V (Public Theater); world premiere of Last Train to Nibroc. Regional favorites include: Disgraced (Huntington, Long Wharf and American Theatre Co., world premiere); Talley’s Folly (MRT, 2015 IRNE Award nom. for Best Actor); Shylock in The Merchant of Venice; Men of Tortuga; Sleuth; Duplex (Best Actor from NYC’s MIT Festival).

Film: Golden Boy (also co-producer); Stags (Best Actor Award nom. from NYC’s Visionfest Film Festival); The Flying Scissors; Analyze This; Broadway Damage; IFC’s The Undeserved; and the award-winning short Imperfection. Television: Fringe, Ugly Betty, the Law & Orders and the soaps. Education: NCSA. MARCEL SPEARS, Will La Jolla Playhouse: Debut. Mr. Spears was most recently featured as Schmendiman in Picasso at the Lapin Agile (The Old Globe). Other credits include Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (Two River Theater, directed by Ruben Santiago-Hudson Jr.); Trouble in Mind (Guthrie Theater); Othello, Mother Courage, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Classic Stage Company). Mr. Spears starred Off-Broadway opposite Deirdre O’Connell in Page 73’s production of Judy by Max Posner, directed by Ken Rus Schmoll; Light (dir. Brian Kulick), The Threepenny Opera, The Emperor Jones and The Maids (Columbia University/Columbia Stages). Awards and Education: 2015 Rosemarie Tichler Fund Grant recipient; M.F.A. Columbia University.

RACHEL BONDS, Playwright Rachel Bonds’ plays have been developed or produced by South Coast Rep, Ars Nova, Manhattan Theatre Club, McCarter Theatre, Roundabout Underground, Atlantic Theater Company, Studio Theatre, New Georges, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, SPACE on Ryder Farm, Williamstown Theatre Festival and New York Stage & Film, among others. Her plays include: Curve of Departure (upcoming South Coast Rep, Studio Theatre); Five Mile Lake (South Coast Rep, McCarter, Weissberger Award); The Wolfe Twins (Studio Theatre, Kilroys List 2015); Swimmers (Marin Theatre Co., Sky Cooper Prize, Kilroys List 2014); Sundown, Yellow Moon (Ars Nova/WP); Alma (Atlantic Theatre Company commission); Firecracker (Kilroys List 2016); At the Old Place (La Jolla Playhouse, Arden); Michael & Edie (New York Times Critic’s Pick, 2010); Winter Games (Actors Theatre of Louisville, Heideman Award) and Anniversary (EST, Sam French OOB Festival Winner). She is an alumna of EST’s Youngblood, Ars Nova’s Play Group and SPACE on Ryder Farm’s Working Farm Writers’ Group.

She was the 2016 Tow Foundation Playwright in Residence at Ars Nova. Current commissions include The Geffen and McCarter. Ms. Bonds is a graduate of Brown University.

JAIME CASTAÑEDA, Director joined the Playhouse in 2014 as the Associate Artistic Director, where he has directed Tiger Style! by Mike Lew and Guards at the Taj by Rajiv Joseph. He has directed productions for Dallas Theater Center, Atlantic Theater Company, Cleveland Play House, The Old Globe, Perseverance Theatre, Kitchen Dog and American Theater Company.

He has also developed new plays with the O’Neill, Rattlestick Theater, Portland Center Stage, Denver Center Theater, The Kennedy Center and the Atlantic Theater Company, where he spent five seasons as Artistic Associate. He is a Drama League fellow and has received the Princess Grace Award and the TCG New Generations Grant. M.F.A. in Directing from University of Texas at Austin.

LAUREN HELPERN, Scenic Design La Jolla Playhouse: Tiger Style!. Selected NYC credits: Rachel Bonds’ Sundown, Yellow Moon (Ars Nova & WP), Halley Feiffer’s A Funny Thing…

(MCC, upcoming at the Geffen), 4000 Miles (Lincoln Center, Lortel Award), Bad Jews (Roundabout), BUG (Barrow Street, Obie Award), also Atlantic, Playwrights Horizons, MTC, Primary Stages, Second Stage, La Mama, and on Broadway. Selected Regional: Blue Man Group/Live at Luxor (Eddy Award, also Boston and Chicago), An Act of God (Arizona Theatre Company), The Old Globe, Guthrie Theater, Cleveland Play House, Syracuse Stage, Portland Center Stage, Huntington and Anchorage Opera. Web series: Janice Gunter: Ghost Hunter.

DAVID ISRAEL REYNOSO, Costume Design is the Obie Award-winning costume designer for the Off-Broadway runaway hit Sleep No More (Punchdrunk/Emursive). La Jolla Playhouse: Tiger Style! directed by Jaime Castañeda, Healing Wars. His other regional scenic and costume design credits include returning collaborations at The Old Globe (Tokyo Fish Story, Constellations, Arms and the Man, Time and the Conways, among others), American Repertory Theater, Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, Lyric Stage and Gloucester Stage, among many others. David is also the recipient of the Elliot Norton Award in Costume Design and a multiple nominee for the IRNE and BroadwayWorld awards. He is also a 2016/17 San Diego Foundation Creative Catalyst grant recipient. His other work includes Amanda Palmer’s Down Under tour and Juan Son’s Mermaid Sashimi tour, as well as a variety of music video production and costume designs.

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THE COMPANY LAP CHI CHU, Lighting Design La Jolla Playhouse: Blueprints to Freedom, The Orphan of Zhao, Ruined.

Recent works include world premieres of Sarah DeLappe’s The Wolves (Playwrights Realm); Rajiv Joseph’s Archduke (Mark Taper Forum) and Suzan-Lori Parks’ Father Comes Home From the Wars (Public Theater).

Other lighting designs: New York Theatre Workshop, Signature Theatre, Geffen Playhouse, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Goodman Theatre, The Shakespeare Theater (Washington DC).

Awards: Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Angstrom Award for Career Achievement in Lighting Design, Ovation Award, multiple Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Awards, a “Drammy” for best lighting. Education: lighting design faculty at California Institute of the Arts.

MELANIE CHEN, Sound Design La Jolla Playhouse: #SuperShinySara (POP Tour). Ms. Chen is a San Diegobased freelance sound designer. This past winter, she worked in Beijing on a large-scale immersive installation of Peter Pan with Broadway Asia.

Recent credits: The Imaginary Invalid (The Old Globe); Having Our Say, Awake and Sing, An Iliad (New Village Arts); Travels with My Aunt, The Illusion, Marjorie Prime, Laughter on the 23rd Floor, The Cocktail Hour (North Coast Repertory Theatre); Well, 2.5 Minute Ride (Diversionary Theatre); Seven Guitars, King Hedley II (Cygnet Theatre). Melanie holds an M.F.A. in Theatre & Dance from UC San Diego. www.melaniesound.com TELSEY + COMPANY, Casting La Jolla Playhouse: Escape to Margaritaville, Hollywood, Guards at the Taj, Blueprints to Freedom, Come From Away, Chasing the Song, Hands on a Hardbody, Blood and Gifts, Glengarry Glen Ross, Milk Like Sugar, Little Miss Sunshine, Limelight, Bonnie & Clyde, 33 Variations and Memphis, among others. Broadway/Tours: Paramour, Tuck Everlasting, Waitress, American Psycho, Fiddler on the Roof, The Color Purple, On Your Feet!, Hamilton, Something Rotten!, An American in Paris, Finding Neverland, The King and I, Kinky Boots, Wicked, If/Then, The Sound of Music, Newsies, Motown, Rock of Ages. Off-Broadway: Atlantic, MCC, Signature. Regional: Alliance, Goodman, Hartford Stage, Long Wharf, New York Stage and Film, The Old Globe, Paper Mill, Williamstown.

Film: Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, Tallulah, The Intern, Into the Woods.

TV: The Family, Grease Live! The Wiz Live!, Flesh and Bone, commercials.

GABRIEL GREENE, Dramaturg joined La Jolla Playhouse’s artistic staff in 2007 and currently serves as their Director of New Play Development. In addition to curating and producing the annual DNA New Work Series, he has dramaturged over twenty new plays and musicals for the Playhouse, including Escape to Margaritaville, Miss You Like Hell, JUNK, The Last Tiger in Haiti, Blueprints to Freedom, Up Here, The Darrell Hammond Project, Milk Like Sugar (also Off-Broadway; Obie Award) and Memphis (also Broadway and London; four Tony Awards). Goosebumps Alive, his immersive adaptation of R.L. Stine’s best-selling novels (co-written and directed by Tom Salamon) recently premiered at The Vaults (London). With Alex Levy, he co-wrote Safe at Home, which was developed as part of the 2016 DNA Series and received its world premiere at Mixed Blood Theatre in 2017. B.A.: University of Michigan. M.Phil: Trinity College, Dublin. B.F.F.: Mia Fiorella. gabrielgreene.com KATRINA HERRMANN, Stage Manager La Jolla Playhouse: Debut. Off Broadway: The Flick (Barrow Street Theatre); The Flick, The Whale, The Big Meal, Completeness, The Shaggs: Philosophy of the World, Kin, The Burnt Part Boys, Circle Mirror Transformation (Playwrights Horizons); Close Up Space (Manhattan Theatre Club); In the Wake (The Public Theater). Regional credits: Twisted Melodies (Baltimore Center Stage); Cabaret (Theatre at the Center); The Hundred Dresses, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane (Chicago Children’s Theatre); Mary Page Marlowe (Steppenwolf Theatre Company); The Royale (American Theater Company). During the holidays, she works for Santa Claus at Macy’s in New York City.

MANDISA REED, Assistant Stage Manager La Jolla Playhouse: The Bitter Game, Tiger Style! (SM Asst.). Regional: Skeleton Crew (The Old Globe; Tour PA), The Comedy of Errors (The Old Globe; SM Intern). Opera: The Bartered Bride and Second Nature (Music Academy of the West). UC San Diego: Native Son (PSM), La Bête (PSM), The Cherry Orchard (ASM), Widower (PSM), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (ASM). Education: M.F.A. in Stage Management from UC San Diego, B.A. in Theatre Technology from Dillard University.

PATRON SERVICES PATRON SERVICES is located in the lobby or courtyard of each theatre. A volunteer is available to distribute assisted listening devices and answer questions.

LATE SEATING Should you arrive late for any performance or need to leave your seat during the performance, please expect to be held until an appropriate moment. To minimize any disturbance to actors or other patrons, you may stand or be sat in the first available location by House Management even if not your assigned location. Please be advised that some performances may not allow for late seating or return to your assigned seat.

PARKING is free for subscribers; $2 for the general public on weekdays (free on weekends). Upon arrival to campus, please enter your parking space number and pay the automated paystations located in the parking lot. Spaces that are not paid for are subject to citations by UC San Diego Parking Enforcement.

PHOTOGRAPHY, CAMERAS AND RECORDING DEVICES Photography and video or audio recording of performances is strictly prohibited.

PLEASE SILENCE or turn off all electronic devices, including cell phones and watches, before the performance.

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ACCESSIBILITY

La Jolla Playhouse provides wheelchair-accessible seating and parking. Wheelchair seat locations are available for wheelchair users and a companion at all performances; be sure to advise the reservationist that you require a wheelchair location. Additionally, a golf cart is available to assist patrons with accessibility needs to and from the parking lot. Please notify Patron Services prior to your performance if you are in need of this service; additionally, you may pull into the five minute parking, and a La Jolla Playhouse greeter will assist you.The Playhouse also provides assisted listening devices for patrons who are hard of hearing. Devices are available, free of charge, at the Patron Services desk prior to performances (subject to availability).

Listening Devices Provided in Part by

SAFETY IN THE THEATRE DISTRICT La Jolla Playhouse is constantly working with UC San Diego Police Department and Transportation and Parking Services to maintain a safe and secure environment in the parking lots.

Patrons are welcome to use the UC San Diego escort service by contacting UC San Diego Community Service Officers (CSOs) at (858) 534-9255 (WALK). Further questions regarding security, please contact UC San Diego Police at (858) 534-4357 (HELP).

DOCTORS AND PARENTS expecting calls during the performance should leave their names and seat numbers with the House Manager before the show. Leave the following number with your service: (858) 550-1030.

CONCESSIONS AND RESTAURANT

BABES IN ARMS Out of respect for fellow audience members and the performers, babes in arms are not permitted in the theatre during performances.

James’ Place provides bar and concessions at each theatre lobby or courtyard. To avoid lines at intermission, you can preorder drinks and food. The restaurant (James’ Place) is open Tuesday – Friday 4:00 pm until close and Saturday – Sunday 3:00 pm until close. Please call (858) 638-7778 for reservations or visit jamesplacesd.com.

CHILDREN under the age of 6 are not permitted in the theatre during performances unless otherwise posted.

Unaccompanied minors ages 12 and under are not permitted in the theatre.

THEATRE TOURS Tour the stages and production shops of the Playhouse facilities and learn more about the history of La Jolla Playhouse and the role that it plays in the community. Contact (858) 550-1070 x101.

PLAYHOUSE LEADERSHIP CHRISTOPHER ASHLEY, Artistic Director has served as La Jolla Playhouse’s Artistic Director since October, 2007. During his tenure, he has helmed the Playhouse’s productions of Hollywood, The Darrell Hammond Project, Chasing the Song, His Girl Friday, Glengarry Glen Ross, A Dram of Drummhicit, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Restoration and the acclaimed musicals Xanadu, Memphis, which won four 2010 Tony Awards including Best Musical, and Come From Away, for which he won the 2017 Tony Award for Best Director of a Musical. He also spearheaded the Playhouse’s Without Walls (WoW) series and the Resident Theatre program. Prior to joining the Playhouse, he directed the Broadway productions of Xanadu (Drama Desk nomination), All Shook Up and The Rocky Horror Show (Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Award nominations), as well as the Kennedy Center Sondheim Celebration productions of Sweeney Todd and Merrily We Roll Along. Other New York credits include: Blown Sideways Through Life, Jeffrey (Lucille Lortel and Obie Awards), The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told, Valhalla, Regrets Only, Wonder of the World, Communicating Doors, Bunny Bunny, The Night Hank Williams Died and Fires in the Mirror (Lucille Lortel Award), among others. Mr. Ashley also directed the feature films Jeffrey and Lucky Stiff, as well as the American Playhouse production of Blown Sideways Through Life for PBS. Mr. Ashley is the recipient of the Princess Grace Award, the Drama League Director Fellowship and an NEA/TCG Director Fellowship.

DEBBY BUCHHOLZ, General Manager has served as general manager of La Jolla Playhouse since 2002. She is a Vice President of the League of Resident Theaters (LORT) and a member of its Executive Committee.

In 2009, she received a San Diego Women Who Mean Business Award from The San Diego Business Journal.

Previously she served as Counsel to The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C. She was a faculty member of the Smithsonian Institution’s program on Legal Problems of Museum Administration. Prior to The Kennedy Center, she served as a corporate attorney in New York City and Washington, D.C. She is a graduate of UC San Diego and Harvard Law School. Ms. Buchholz and her husband, noted author and White House economic policy advisor Todd Buchholz, live in Solana Beach and are the proud parents of Victoria, Katherine and Alexia.

MICHAEL S. ROSENBERG, Managing Director has served as the Managing Director of La Jolla Playhouse since April, 2009. Working in partnership with Artistic Director Christopher Ashley, he has developed and produced new work by Ayad Akhtar, Trey Anastasio, Amanda Green, Kirsten Greenidge, Quiara Alegría Hudes, John Leguizamo, Herbert Siguenza, Basil Twist, Doug Wright and The Flaming Lips. Playhouse collaborations have included projects with UC San Diego, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, The New Children’s Museum, San Diego Rep, Tectonic Theatre Project, the I.D.E.A. District and the cities of Escondido and Chula Vista. Previously, Mr. Rosenberg was Co-Founder and Executive Director of Drama Dept., a New York non-profit theatre company, where he produced new works by the likes of Douglas Carter Beane, Warren Leight, Isaac Mizrahi, Paul Rudnick and David & Amy Sedaris. His early work included stints at the Kennedy Center and the National Dance Institute. Mr. Rosenberg serves on the Boards of the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce, The San Diego Tourism Authority and the Theatre Communications Group, where he is on the Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Committee and chairs the Global Theatre Initiative Community.

Follow him on Twitter: @MrMikeRosenberg DES McANUFF, Director Emeritus served as La Jolla Playhouse’s Artistic Director from 1983 through 1994, and from 2001 through April, 2007. Under his leadership, the Playhouse garnered more than 300 awards, including the Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre. Playhouse to Broadway credits: Jersey Boys (four Tony Awards); Billy Crystal’s 700 Sundays (Tony Award); How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (five Tony nominations); director and co-author with Pete Townshend on The Who’s Tommy (Tony and Olivier Awards for Best Director) and Big River (seven Tony Awards), among others. Film credits: Quills, The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle, The Iron Giant (9 Animation Society awards) and Cousin Bette. Recipient of the Drama League’s 2006 Julia Hansen Award, Mr. McAnuff served as Artistic Director at Canada’s Stratford Festival from 2007 through 2012.

He recently directed the hit productions of Sideways, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots and Jesus Christ Superstar at the Playhouse.

LA JOLLA PLAYHOUSE EDUCATION & OUTREACH PROGRAMS Lead Supporters: The Hearst Foundations | The William Hall Tippett and Ruth Rathell Tippett Foundation | Qualcomm Foundation Arts Academy pairs a classroom teacher with a Playhouse artist instructor. Through collaboration, they work together to incorporate advanced theatre activities and exercises into existing curriculum.

Girl Scouts Empowerment Theatre is a collaboration between Girl Scouts San Diego and La Jolla Playhouse. This program prepares young women, through the acquisition and application of theatre skills, to confidently tackle challenges and opportunities faced in life as empowered leaders.

This program is made possible through funding from the Favrot Fund.

In-School Residencies – In partnership with San Diego County and City Visual and Performing Arts Departments, Playhouse artist instructors teach theatre skills in classrooms across the county, ensuring theatre becomes an integral part of the education of all San Diego children while fostering a relationship with the Playhouse that will continue as they grow into adulthood.

InterACTion allows Playhouse artist instructors to work in partnership with City of San Diego Police Department’s STAR/PAL Program to create interactive lessons that teach adolescents the importance of self-respect, community and the law.

Performance Outreach Program (POP) Tour Each year, the Playhouse commissions a new play that addresses real concerns of today’s youth and brings a professional production to schools and community centers across San Diego County. School performances are integrated into the classroom curriculum through pre-show visits by Playhouse artist instructors.

Student Matinees – Special student matinees of selected mainstage productions are offered throughout the school year. Study guides, preperformance and staff development workshops and post-show talkbacks are available to prepare students for these productions.

YP@LJP – Young Performers at La Jolla Playhouse offers exciting summer programs for kids: Young Performers’ Workshop (YPW), an exploration of theatre arts in a fun, creative way; Young Performers’ Academy (YPA), where students build upon the skills they learned in YPW; Young Performers’ Conservatory (YPC), a 5-week intensive that prepares actors for serious college theatre programs; and Tech Theatre, a class which introduces young people to the various aspects of technical theatre. Supported by the Sidney E. Frank Foundation, the Jordan Ressler Endowment Fund, David C. Copley Foundation and the Roberto Quiñones, Jr. Scholarship Fund.

For more information on Education & Outreach programs at La Jolla Playhouse, please contact Steve McCormick at (858) 550-1070 x102

Homeward bound A conversation between At the Old Place playwright Rachel Bonds and Director of New Play Development Gabriel Greene.

PLAYWRIGHT RACHEL BONDS

GG: What provided the inspiration to write At the Old Place?

RB: Part of it is that my grandmother passed away in 2011. She lived in Richmond, Virginia, and we went through this long process of dealing with her house and her things – it was complicated.

I spent a lot of time there as a child and sadly not as much time as an adult. When I did go back, there were all these vestiges of childhood memories, but it also looked so different to me – it was both very old and very new at the same time. That’s where a lot of the play came from, that setting.

GG: In the play, Angie returns to her childhood home in an attempt to become unstuck from choices she’s made. I’m struck by your decision to make Angie a professor of poetry because, of course, the idea of “home” is such fertile ground for poets.

RB: Yes. GG: Robert Frost – who we’ll return to later – once wrote, “Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in.” Do you feel a similar sense of push-pull in your own recollections of home?

GG: Now that you live in New York, do you still get back there often?

RB: My dad passed away, so he’s no longer there, and I don’t get to go very often. I recently had a son, so I’m hoping to bring him there when he’s a little bit older to visit the cemetery and show him where I grew up. But I’m going to wait until he’s a little more of a conscious being.

GG: The relationship between Angie and her mother casts a long shadow over At the Old Place. Now that you’ve recently become a mother, how has this play – and maybe your conception of home – evolved?

RB: I’m thinking a lot about the idea of “home” now that we have a baby. I grew up in a one-stoplight town in the mountains of Tennessee, and my kid is going to be a New Yorker [laughs]. That is so weird to me. My sense of home and his sense of home are going to be…I mean, New York is very much a home to me too, but I have a whole other place that means home to me that he won’t ever have, which is very strange.

RB: Oh, absolutely. I’m from a college town in rural Tennessee, which was a very beautiful place to grow up.

It’s very small, though, so I always felt a really strong push-pull about it. It was a wonderful, safe and nurturing place to grow up, but I often felt the confines of it. I still miss it a great deal but I also know I could never live there [laughs]. I always felt a strong resistance to staying there, but at the same time when I go back, there’s something so comfortable about it. There’s a part of myself I can only really be when I’m there.

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THE CAST OF AT THE OLD PLACE: (L-R) BRENNA COATES, BENIM FOSTER, MARCEL SPEARS AND HEIDI ARMBRUSTER. PHOTO BY JIM CARMODY.

GG: Earlier, you said when you went back to Tennessee you were able to access a “you” that only existed there. Can you elaborate on that?

RB: There’s a whole history; my whole past is there, so I can be there and be both my past and my present. A few years ago, Ivo van Hove directed an adaptation of Scenes from a Marriage in New York. He did this really brilliant thing where the audience rotated through different scenes, and you’d see different actors playing the same married couple at different ages. The set was designed so that sometimes the older version of the woman could look through the glass and see the younger version of herself playing a scene.

Past and present could exist at the same time. That’s how I feel when I’m there.

GG: There’s a sense of self that lies frozen in a very crucial – but also limited – developmental time span; it’s like an ossified version of yourself gets tied to that location.

RB: Another big thing is that a lot of the people there knew my dad. He died when I was nineteen; he was such a big part of my life and a really important relationship, and almost nobody in my current life knows him. My husband never met him, my child obviously won’t meet him… And so I think a big part of feeling at home is everybody in town knew him and can so easily access and undestand that whole part of my life.

GG: Are there other writers, poets or otherwise, whose work is a touchstone for you?

RB: Geez, I mean yes. But I’m gonna now blank on everyone that I like. Uhhhh okay...Sharon Olds, Frank O’Hara (obviously), Chekhov, Melissa James Gibson, Jennifer Egan, Caryl Churchill, Elizabeth Strout, George Saunders, Nicole Krauss, Junot Díaz, Anne Enright.

The novel Stoner by John Williams is probably a perfect book. It’s a quiet story about a quiet man’s life and (ultimately) his death.

Beautifully written and observed.

GG: You’ve previously worked on this play with Jaime Castañeda during his tenure at Atlantic Theater Company.

What do you enjoy about him as a collaborator?

RB: He’s so energetic and enthusiastic, and he’s also deeply intelligent. He has a real interest in digging into the themes of this play, into issues of race and class. He has a really smart perspective on it all and I trust him to tackle the themes at play with sensitivity and grace.

GG: Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” plays a prominent role in At the Old Place. What attracted you to that poem?

RB: The really simple answer is it was one of the poems I had to memorize in fifth grade. I still have it memorized.

GG: Given the rather limited audience for poetry, it’s remarkable how prevalent that poem is in our culture.

RB: I know.

GG: David Orr, in his 2015 book, argues that, as popular as the poem is, we’ve largely misinterpreted what it’s trying to say; that it’s not a celebration of independence and selfdeterminism so much as it is, in his words, “a commentary on the self-deception we practice when constructing the story of our own lives.”

RB: That makes so much sense to me. That idea of “That has made all the difference” – there’s a lot of sadness in it, a lot of regret.

GG: Angie references another poet, Frank O’Hara, whose work she describes as seemingly “perfectly mundane” until there’s this moment when real life breaks in and you realize, “Oh, this isn’t mundane at all. This is actually enormous.” How true do you feel that is about your own work as a playwright?

DIRECTOR JAIME CASTAÑEDA; PHOTO BY JIM CARMODY.

GG: I know from reading your previous interviews that you don’t enjoy the question “What do you hope audiences take from this play?” But… RB: It’s not up to me. It’s up to them. I can craft the thing in a way that interests me and satisfies me, but in the end, it’s their experience. I don’t want to tell them to think. But that’s part of the joy of going to a play. It’s that you get to leave having a completely different interpretation or experience than the person next to you.

That’s the beauty of theatre.

RB: I mean, I didn’t initially try to describe my own work… [laughs] But I suppose it’s a fairly good description of what I try to do. I tend to write plays about small, human situations and the change that occurs is usually very small. But I hope that it has really enormous reverberations. I think most changes in our lives are actually very small things. You know, if you decide, “I’m going to call my mom once a week,” that’s actually a really small decision, but it can have an enormous impact on the relationship.

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