KNOW BEFORE YOU GO MAY 10 – JUNE 12, 2016
Production Sponsors
Brian & Silvija Devine
Dr. Howard & Barbara Milstein P1
BEFORE YOU GO
KNOW P2
We look forward to seeing you at La Jolla Playhouse at your upcoming performance of Hollywood. 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. AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT EVENTS The Playhouse offers unique opportunities for audience members with these special performance series options: Thirsty Thursdays: Every Thursday during the run of Hollywood, join us before your performance for complimentary beer tastings from Mike Hess Brewing. Presented by La Jolla Playhouse in partnership with James’ Place. - Every Thursday during Hollywood, starting at 7:00 pm Sonic Saturdays: Every Saturday evening during the run of Hollywood, enjoy lively “Django Reinhardt inspired gypsy jazz” by Trio Gadjo before the show, outside the Weiss Theatre. - Every Saturday evening during Hollywood, 6:45 pm – 7:45 pm Talkback Tuesdays: Participate in a lively discussion with actors and Playhouse staff members after the performance. - Tuesday, May 24 following the 7:30 pm performance - Tuesday, May 31 following the 7:30 pm performance Insider Events: Join Playhouse staff for a special pre-performance presentation that gives an insider’s view of the play. - Wednesday, June 1 at 6:45 pm - Saturday, June 11 at 1:15 pm Discovery Sunday: Special guest speakers engage audience members in a moderated discussion exploring the issues and themes in the play. - Sunday, June 5 following the 2:00 pm performance
Children under the age of 6 are not permitted in the theatre during performances unless otherwise posted.
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 friendly La Jolla Playhouse greeter will assist you. ACCESS PERFORMANCES Open Captioned Performance: This performance has open captioning for patrons who are deaf or hard of hearing. - Sunday, May 29 at 2:00 pm ACCESS (ASL Interpreted & Audio Described) Performance: This performance has American Sign Language interpretation for patrons who are deaf or hard of hearing, and audio description for patrons who are blind or have low vision. - Saturday, June 4 at 2:00 pm 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. James’ Place is open daily. 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 P3
A MESSAGE FROM THE
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
MISSION STATEMENT: La Jolla Playhouse advances theatre as an art form and as a vital social, moral and political platform by providing unfettered creative opportunities for the leading artists of today and tomorrow. With our youthful spirit and eclectic, artist-driven approach, we will continue to cultivate a local and national following with an insatiable appetite for audacious and diverse work. In the future, San Diego’s La Jolla Playhouse will be considered singularly indispensable to the worldwide theatre landscape, as we become 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.
Movies have power. Nothing is more central to our national character than our fascination with moving pictures, celebrity culture and the bubble of Hollywood. From the first moment heroes, heroines, cops, villains and cowboys appeared on film, America has had an insatiable appetite for everything to do with movie stars. In his new play Hollywood, playwright Joe DiPietro uncovers a riveting true © Howard Lipin/U-T San Diego/ZUMA Wire story ripped from the headlines of the silent film era. The 1922 murder of popular director William Desmond Taylor scandalized the nation and exposed Hollywood’s darker underbelly. At the same time, post-World War I America was at a cultural crossroads stemming from two opposing currents in America – one religious and ultra-conservative; the other pleasure-seeking and libertarian. A collision was inevitable, and the Taylor scandal was the flashpoint. There is great fun in a whodunit story, and Hollywood has an abundance of suspects. But Joe is interested in a larger canvas and uses the Taylor murder and scandal to ask questions that reverberate for the past and present: Why do Hollywood and its movie stars fascinate us? What do they mean to us? Do they allow us to reinvent ourselves? How do we inhabit the space between dreams and reality, illusion and delusion? Are the stories a true reflection of our moral compass? I’ve worked with Joe on both plays and musicals, including Memphis and Chasing the Song at the Playhouse. I admire how much he cares about creating an engaging and fulfilling experience for the audience. He has the unique ability to look at his work through the lens of an audience member and shape his stories with an emotional engine that drives his characters and storylines. During the rehearsal process of Hollywood, his probing questions deepened the arc of each character and added layers of intensity that raised the stakes of their journey through the play. Working on Hollywood, the design team and I were afforded the opportunity to take a deep dive into the history of silent film. We looked at the technology of early 20th century moving picture cameras and saw how light and speed shaped the images on the screen. We explored how the use of intertitles moved the storytelling forward, and learned that live music accompanied each film showing, all of which we’ve incorporated into our production. In crafting the show’s design, our greatest challenge was to have theatre meet film, and to develop a vocabulary that serves both. La Jolla Playhouse has its own longstanding connection with Hollywood. From its founding days with Gregory Peck, Dorothy McGuire and Mel Ferrer, the crème de la crème of Hollywood elite came to our shores to make theatre. With our world premiere of Hollywood, the Hollywood dream machine is once again center stage at the Playhouse.
La Jolla Playhouse has received La Jolla Playhouse has received the the highest rating from Charity highest rating from Charity Navigator, Navigator, the nation’s premier the nation’s premier charity evaluator. charity evaluator. P4 PERFORMANCES MAGAZINE P4
CHRISTOPHER ASHLEY
LA JOLLA PLAYHOUSE PRESENTS Michael S. Rosenberg Managing Director
Christopher Ashley Artistic Director
BY
JOE DiPIETRO DIRECTED BY
CHRISTOPHER ASHLEY FEATURING
MATTHEW AMENDT*, WAYNE BARKER, JACOB BRUCE*, SCOTT DRUMMOND*, SHAUN T. EVANS*, HARRIET HARRIS*, PATRICK KERR*, KATHERINE KO ‡, JEFF MARLOW*, MARTIN MECCOURI ‡, TALENE MONAHON*, KATE ROCKWELL*, LEE SELLARS*, CAROLINE SIEWERT ‡, TERRANCE WHITE ‡ SCENIC DESIGNER COSTUME DESIGNER LIGHTING DESIGNER SOUND DESIGNER PROJECTION DESIGNER COMPOSER FIGHT DIRECTOR WIG DESIGNER VOICE AND SPEECH COACH DRAMATURG CASTING LOCAL CASTING STAGE MANAGER ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER PRODUCTION MANAGER
WILSON CHIN PAUL TAZEWELL HOWELL BINKLEY CHRIS LUESSMANN TARA KNIGHT WAYNE BARKER STEVE RANKIN CHARLES G. LaPOINTE EVA BARNES SHIRLEY FISHMAN TELSEY + COMPANY; WILLIAM CANTLER, C.S.A; KAREN CASL, C.S.A. TERESA SAPIEN ARTURO E. PORAZZI* JENNIFER KOZUMPLIK* AUDREY HOO P5
THE CAST (in order of appearance)
Will Hays...................................................................................................................Patrick Kerr Mabel Normand................................................................................................... Kate Rockwell Mary Miles Minter........................................................................................... Talene Monahon William Desmond Taylor..................................................................................Scott Drummond Piano Player......................................................................................................... Wayne Barker Charlotte Shelby....................................................................................................Harriet Harris James Kirkwood and others...................................................................................Jacob Bruce Charles Eyton............................................................................................................. Lee Sellars Dorothy Palmer and others.............................................................................. Caroline Siewert Henry Peavey and others.................................................................................... Shaun T. Evans Faith Maclean, First Dancer and others ����������������������������������������������������������������Katherine Ko D.A. Woolwine......................................................................................................... Jeff Marlow Jimmy Dale.....................................................................................................Matthew Amendt Officer Jerry and others..................................................................................... Terrance White Alfonso and others...........................................................................................Martin Meccouri Setting: Hollywood, 1922. Hollywood is performed with a 15-minute intermission.
ADDITIONAL STAFF Assistant Director....................................................Meg DeBoard Associate Lighting Designer.................................. Amanda Zieve Associate Wig & Hair Designer........................................Liz Printz Assistant Scenic Designer........................................Charlie Jicha Assistant Costume Designer...............Desiree Hatfield-Buckley Assistant Lighting Designer..............................Sherrice Mojgani
Assistant Projections/Programmer.................. Anthony Jannuzzi Dance Consultant...................................................Javier Velasco Production Assistant.............................................. Marie Jahelka Stage Management Assistant..................................... Chiquita Lu ‡ Second Assistant Lighting Designer......................... Chao-Yu Tsai ‡
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 4Wall Entertainment • Goodspeed Costume Collection & Rental Western Costume Company • Warner Brothers Studios WorldStage Event Services
* 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 the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, an independent national labor union.
P6
This theatre operates under an agreement between the League of Resident Theatres and United Scenic Artists, Local USA-829 of the IATSE. 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. ‡ UC San Diego M.F.A. Candidates in residence at La Jolla Playhouse.
THE COMPANY MATTHEW AMENDT, Jimmy Dale La Jolla Playhouse: Debut. Off-Broadway: 'Tis Pity She's a Whore (Red Bull, Lortel Nomination for Best Revival); Tamburlaine, Much Ado About Nothing (Theatre for a New Audience); Henry in Henry V (The Acting Company, New Victory Theater, Guthrie); The Subject Was Roses, The Misanthrope (Pearl Theatre). Regional: 12 productions at the Guthrie, including world premiere of The Great Gatsby as Nick Carraway, Peer Gynt with Mark Rylance, and Henry V. Prince Hal in Henry IV (Shakespeare Theatre Co.), Syracuse Stage, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Hudson Valley Shakespeare, Arden Theatre, Westport Country Playhouse, Chautauqua and others. Mr. Amendt is an Ivey Award winner for writing/performing in The Comedian’s Tragedy; Emery Battis Award for Acting from the Shakespeare Theatre Co. Education: B.F.A. Guthrie/U of Minnesota. JACOB BRUCE, James Kirkwood and others La Jolla Playhouse: Debut. San Diego: Honky (San Diego REPertory Theatre); The Underpants (North Coast Rep); Yellowface, 26 Miles, Milvotchkee Visconsin (Mo’olelo). Los Angeles: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (McMurphy), The Valliant, The Eight: Reindeer Monologues (Knightbridge Theatre); Before the Revolution (PST Arts Festival); Fearless Follies (Theatre Unlimited). Chicago: All in the Timing (Circle Theatre); As You Like It (Orlando); The Crucible, Playing with Fire (Borealis Theater). Film: The Rig, Night of the Dog, Donut Run, Prairie Fever. TV: OnStage in America: Honky, Key & Peele, The Young and the Restless (recurring), Las Vegas, Standoff, ER, Crossing Jordan (recurring), American Dreams, Roswell (recurring). Mr. Bruce graduated from the University of Illinois Theatre Department and is currently adjunct faculty at the University of San Diego - Theatre Arts. SCOTT DRUMMOND, William Desmond Taylor is thrilled to be back at La Jolla Playhouse, where he was previously seen in Mother Courage and where he received his M.F.A. Broadway: Machinal (Roundabout). Off-Broadway: A Perfect Future (Cherry Lane), Hamlet (TFANA). Other New York: Labyrinth, The New Group, New York Theatre Workshop, The Play Company. Regional: Buyer and Cellar (Seattle Repertory Theatre); Bedroom Farce (Westport Country Playhouse); Other Desert Cities, Well (Arena Stage); One Slight Hitch, Twelve Angry Men (George Street Playhouse); Pride and Prejudice (South Coast Rep); Absurd Person Singular (Two River Theatre); Williamstown Theatre Festival; Barrington Stage Company; Eugene O’Neill Theater Center (6 seasons). Film: Sisters with Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, Not Fade Away. TV: Divorce (HBO, upcoming), Unforgettable (CBS), Boardwalk Empire (HBO), Black Jack (pilot, Comedy Central), All My Children. Training: M.F.A., UC San Diego/La Jolla Playhouse; B.F.A., SMU. SHAUN T. EVANS, Henry Peavey and others La Jolla Playhouse: originated the role of "Mr. Lopez” in the 2007 POP Tour, Honey Bo and the Goldmine. Regional: “Jim” in Big River (Western Stage, Willows Theatre, Moonlight Stage Productions). San Diego: "Walter Lee” in A Raisin in the Sun (ion Theatre); Joseph (Moonlight Stage Productions); Aida, The Roar of the Greasepaint – The Smell of the Crowd (Starlight); "Master Harold" and the boys (Living Light Productions); Festival of Christmas, Cyrano de Bergerac (Lamb’s Players); Ragtime, Little Shop of Horrors, Les Misérables, RENT (California Youth Conservatory Theatre, Mr. Evans’ own production company). Mr. Evans is an avid pilot and lives in San Diego with his wife, Berna, and children, Shaun Jr., Dahani and Natalie.
HARRIET HARRIS, Charlotte Shelby La Jolla Playhouse: Unusual Acts of Devotion, Cry-Baby, Thoroughly Modern Millie. Broadway: It Shoulda Been You, Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella, Present Laughter, Cry-Baby: The Musical, Old Acquaintance, Thoroughly Modern Millie (2002 Tony and Drama Desk Awards for Featured Actress in a Musical), The Man Who Came to Dinner. OffBroadway: Standing on Ceremony, Yeast Nation, Jeffrey (Drama Desk nomination), Bella, Belle of Byelorussia (Drama Desk nomination). San Francisco Opera: Show Boat. Film: Love Is Strange, Memento, Nurse Betty, Addams Family Values. TV: Desperate Housewives, Frasier. PATRICK KERR, Will Hays La Jolla Playhouse: His Girl Friday, Mother Courage and Her Children. Broadway: You Can't Take It with You, The Ritz. OffBroadway: Stage Kiss, The Devils, Jeffrey (with Harriet Harris and directed by Christopher Ashley). Regional: Yale Rep, The Old Globe, Mark Taper, Geffen, Berkeley Rep, Guthrie and others. TV: Recurring roles on Frasier and Curb Your Enthusiasm. KATHERINE KO, Faith Maclean, First Dancer and others La Jolla Playhouse: Debut. UC San Diego credits: The Burial at Thebes, Venus, Borealis, Angels in America: Millennium Approaches, Rhinoceros and The Venetian Twins. Commercial and print credits: Converse, Disney, Cartoon Network, IHOP and US Bank. Back dancer and choreographer for Shakira's Did It Again song tour appearing on Dancing with the Stars, XFactor London and Saturday Night Live. Education: Current M.F.A. Acting Candidate at UC San Diego. JEFF MARLOW, D.A. Woolwine La Jolla Playhouse: Glengarry Glen Ross, Sideways. Regional: Hamlet, Nothing Sacred (South Coast Repertory); Moonlight and Magnolias, An Empty Plate in the Café du Grand Boeuf, And the Winner Is, The Sleeper (Laguna Playhouse); You Can’t Take It with You, The Power of Duff (Geffen Playhouse); Handle with Care, Around the World in 80 Days (Colony Theatre). As a member of the Reduced Shakespeare Company: tours of the U.S., Europe and Asia in The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) [revised], The Complete History of America (abridged), Completely Hollywood (abridged). Film: Stevie D, Akeelah and the Bee, The Hebrew Hammer. Television: Heartbeat, Dr. Ken, Angie Tribeca, Brooklyn NineNine, The Player, Mistresses, Rizzoli & Isles, Rake, The Thundermans, NCIS, Grey’s Anatomy, Without a Trace, Pushing Daisies. MARTIN MECCOURI, Officer and others La Jolla Playhouse: Debut. New York credits include Rope, Well, Archimedes Principle, The Eight: Reindeer Monologues and Foreign Wars. Regional: Jesus Christ Superstar (Academy of Music Theatre); The Tempest (New Orleans Fringe). San Diego credits: The Cherry Orchard, Angels in America: Millennium Approaches, Borealis, Mr. Burns, a post-electric play and Golden Boy. Mr. Meccouri is currently entering his third and final year in UC San Diego’s M.F.A. Acting program.
P7
THE COMPANY TALENE MONAHON, Mary Miles Minter La Jolla Playhouse: Debut. Off-Broadway: Jeanie in Robert Askins’ Permission (MCC), Mae in The Wild Party! (Encores!), Blanche in Widower’s Houses (TACT/Gingold). Other New York credits include Here’s Hoover! (Les Freres Corbusier) and The Chocolate Show (47th St Theater). Regional: Darlene in Confederacy of Dunces (Huntington); Masha in The Seagull (Peterborough Players); Cecily in The Importance of Being Earnest (Northern Stage); Emily in Our Town and Julie Jordan in Carousel (New London Barn Playhouse). Ms. Monahon’s solo show, All in Good Fun, was a bestseller at the United Solo Festival and has been produced across New England. B.A. from Dartmouth College.
JOE DiPIETRO, Playwright was most recently at the Playhouse in 2014 with the Page To Stage musical Chasing the Song. His first production at the Playhouse, Memphis, went on to win four Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Best Book and Best Score. Last season, his historical drama The Second Mrs. Wilson debuted at Long Wharf Theatre and George Street Playhouse. Broadway: Nice Work If You Can Get It (Drama Desk Award, Tony nomination – Best Book) All Shook Up, Living on Love. Off-Broadway: Clever Little Lies; The Toxic Avenger; The Thing About Men; Over the River and Through the Woods; I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change. He sits on the board of Only Make Believe, a charity dedicated to bringing interactive, therapeutic theatre to chronically ill children.
KATE ROCKWELL, Mabel Normand La Jolla Playhouse: Debut. Broadway: Margot in Legally Blonde, Hair, Skylar in the original Broadway cast of Bring It On: The Musical and Sherrie in Rock of Ages. First National Tours: Bring It On, Legally Blonde, Hair. Other regional credits include Tarzan and Beauty and the Beast (The Muny), Phantom (Westchester Broadway Theater), High School Musical (North Shore Music Theatre). Television: Deadbeat, You're the One That I Want. Her solo show, Back to My Roots, premiered in NYC in 2015.
CHRISTOPHER ASHLEY, Director/Playhouse Artistic Director has served as La Jolla Playhouse’s Artistic Director since October, 2007. During his tenure, he has helmed the Playhouse’s acclaimed productions of Come From Away, 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 and Memphis, which won four 2010 Tony Awards including Best 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.
LEE SELLARS, Charles Eyton La Jolla Playhouse: Ether Dome. Broadway: A Time to Kill, West Side Story, Talk Radio. Off-Broadway: Iow@ (Playwrights Horizons); A Small Melodramatic Story (LAByrinth Theatre); The Eelwax Jesus 3D Pop Music Show. Regional: Chimerica (Studio Theatre DC); On Clover Road, The Full Catastrophe (CATF); Our Town (George Street Playhouse); Tales from Hollywood (Guthrie Theatre); A Few Good Men, The Hollow (The Alley); Private Eyes, The Pavilion (Actors Theatre Louisville); I Am a Man (Goodman Theatre, Arena Stage); Black Starline (Goodman Theatre); Inventing Van Gogh (City Theatre, Pittsburgh). CAROLINE SIEWERT, Dorothy Palmer and others La Jolla Playhouse: Debut. UC San Diego Theatre and Dance: Sam in Movers + Shakers, Lyubov in The Cherry Orchard, Ophelia in Hamlet and R in Three Women in Four Chairs. Other credits include Rabbi/Hannah in Angels in America: Millennium Approaches (UCSD Studio Project), as well as Susan in bobrauschenbergamerica and Ellida in The Lady from the Sea, both with The Brewing Dept. in New York. She is a second-year M.F.A. actor at UC San Diego with a B.F.A. from NYU/Tisch. Many many thanks to the wonderful Hollywood team for sharing their time and talent. TERRANCE WHITE, Officer Jerry and others is from Los Angeles, CA and is a current second year M.F.A. actor at UC San Diego. La Jolla Playhouse: Debut. UC San Diego: Burial at Thebes, Hamlet, Borealis, The Cherry Orchard and The Venetian Twins. The Brothers Size, Waiting for Lefty, Dance of the Holy Ghost (Ubuntu Theatre Project). Education: B.A. in Theatre Arts from Clark Atlanta University.
P8
WILSON CHIN, Scenic Designer La Jolla Playhouse: Debut. The Old Globe: Seven shows including Baskerville, Othello, The Winter’s Tale, Anna Christie. Broadway: Next Fall. World premieres: Julia Cho’s Aubergine (Berkeley Rep); Samuel D. Hunter’s Lewiston (Long Wharf); Elizabeth Irwin’s My Mañana Comes (Playwrights Realm); Meghan Kennedy’s Too Much, Too Much (Roundabout); Mike Lew’s Tiger Style! (Alliance Theatre); Terrence McNally’s Mothers and Sons (Bucks County Playhouse); Conor McPherson’s The Birds (Guthrie Theatre); Sharyn Rothstein’s By the Water (Manhattan Theatre Club). Opera: Lucia di Lammermoor (Lyric Opera of Chicago); Eine Florentinische Tragodie and Gianni Schicchi (Canadian Opera). Education: B.A. from UC Berkeley, M.F.A. from Yale. www.wilsonchin.com PAUL TAZEWELL, Costume Designer La Jolla Playhouse: Chasing the Song, Side Show, His Girl Friday, Memphis, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Jesus Christ Superstar, The Wiz, Palm Beach. Broadway: Hamilton, Side Show, Memphis (Tony nom), A Streetcar Named Desire (Tony nom), Jesus Christ Superstar, In the Heights (Tony nom), Guys and Dolls, The Color Purple (Tony nom), Elaine Stritch at Liberty, Caroline or Change and Bring in ’da Noise, Bring in ’da Funk (Tony nom). TV: NBC's The Wiz Live!, HBO's Lakawanna Blues. Opera: Faust for The Met and English National Opera, Porgy and Bess and Showboat for Washington National Opera, Magdelena for Théâtre du Châtelet, Margaret Garner for Michigan Opera Theatre and Little Women for New York City Opera.
LA JOLLA PLAYHOUSE LEADERSHIP HOWELL BINKLEY, Lighting Designer La Jolla Playhouse: Come From Away, Chasing the Song, Jesus Christ Superstar, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Memphis, Xanadu, Cry-Baby, Zhivago, The Wiz, Private Fittings, Palm Beach, Jersey Boys, The Farnsworth Invention, Dracula, Eden Lane and How to Succeed... starring Matthew Broderick. Broadway: Hamilton, After Midnight (2014 Tony nomination), How to Succeed... starring Daniel Radcliffe (2011 Tony nomination), West Side Story (2009 Tony nomination), Gypsy starring Patti LuPone, In the Heights (2008 Tony nomination), Avenue Q, The Full Monty, Parade, Kiss of the Spider Woman (1993 Tony nomination). Extensive Regional and dance works include The Joffrey Ballet’s Billboards, Co-Founder and Resident Lighting Designer for Parsons Dance. Proud recipient of the 1993 Sir Laurence Olivier Award and Canadian Dora Award for Kiss of the Spider Woman and the 2006 Henry Hewes Design Award, Outer Critics Circle and Tony Awards for Jersey Boys.
STEVE RANKIN, Fight Director La Jolla Playhouse: Guards at the Taj; The Hunchback of Notre Dame; Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots; Bonnie & Clyde; Memphis; The Farnsworth Invention; The Wiz; Zhivago; Palm Beach; Jersey Boys; Dracula, The Musical; The Who’s Tommy; Elmer Gantry; The Collected Works of Billy the Kid. Broadway: Doctor Zhivago; Memphis; Bonnie & Clyde; Guys and Dolls; The Farnsworth Invention; Jersey Boys; Dracula; Henry IV, Parts I and II; The Who’s Tommy; Twelfth Night; Two Shakespearean Actors; Getting Away with Murder; Anna Christie. OffBroadway: The Third Story, Pig Farm, The Real Inspector Hound, The Night Hank Williams Died and Below the Belt. Stratford Shakespeare Festival: Romeo and Juliet, Caesar and Cleopatra, Macbeth and Henry V. Metropolitan Opera: Rodelinda, Boris Godenov, Faust and Iphegenie at Tauride. Hartford Stage: Rear Window. Mr. Rankin plays mandolin with the New Folk Artist Susie Glaze and the HiLonesome Band.
CHRIS LUESSMANN, Sound Designer Favorite sound designs include: Billy Crystal's 700 Sundays, The Darrell Hammond Project and Alice Chan (La Jolla Playhouse); The Third Story (MCC Theatre); The Rocky Horror Show (Cygnet Theatre); Invierno (PCPA Theatrefest); Long Story Short (San Diego Rep); Dracula and A Christmas Carol, for which he won Patte Awards, Baby, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Jaques Brel Is Alive and Well..., The Tempest, Educating Rita, Henry IV Part I and Voice of the Prairie (North Coast Rep); Das Barbecü, Too Old for the Chorus and Forbidden Broadway SVU (Theater in Old Town); Sweeney Todd, My Fair Lady, The Wizard of Oz (SD Critics Circle Award), Les Misérables, Little Shop of Horrors, Shrek The Musical (Moonlight Stage Productions); South Pacific (Lamb's Players). Education: B.A. in Theatre from UCLA and an M.F.A. in Theatre from UC San Diego.
CHARLES G. LaPOINTE, Wig Designer La Jolla Playhouse: Blueprints to Freedom, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Chasing the Song, Side Show, Sideways, His Girl Friday, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, A Dram of Drummhicit, Peer Gynt, Bonnie & Clyde and Memphis. Over 50 Broadway shows including The Wiz Live!, On Your Feet, Doctor Zhivago, Hamilton, Spongebob The Musical, The Color Purple 2016 Revival, Anastasia, Of Mice and Men, Violet, Side Show, Elephant Man, The Radio City Spring Spectacular, After Midnight, Beautiful, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, Motown, Jekyll and Hyde, Clybourne Park, Bring It On, Newsies, The Mountaintop, Memphis, Lombardi, Fences, Miracle Worker, Superior Donuts, 33 Variations, In the Heights, Jersey Boys, The Color Purple and A Raisin in the Sun.
TARA KNIGHT, Projection Designer La Jolla Playhouse: A Dram of Drummhicit, Our Star Will Die Alone (2013 Without Walls Festival). Dance: The Floating World (San Diego Museum of Art, Emmy Award); Camera Dances (Co-Director, Best Experimental Film, Amsterdam Film Festival); Right Here (Co-Director, Screenings: Finland, Portugal, Brazil). Animation: Hedwig and the Angry Inch (Animation Assistant). High Tide (Director, Best Animation, Amsterdam Film Festival); Mikumentary Series (Director, Screenings: Discovery Channel, South by Southwest Interactive, Time Warner “Future of Storytelling,” Mori Art Museum in Tokyo). Tours: 2014 Hatsune Miku Expo (Hammerstein Ballroom, Late Night with David Letterman, Nokia Theatre). Associate Professor of Digital Media, UC San Diego. WAYNE BARKER, Composer/Piano Player La Jolla Playhouse: Peter and the Starcatchers, A Midsummer Night's Dream (orchestrations). Broadway: Peter and the Starcatcher (Tony nomination, Drama Desk Award), Dame Edna: Back with a Vengeance. Off-Broadway: Parallel Exit's I Love Bob, Basil Twist's Sisters’ Follies. Regional: The Great Gatsby, The Primrose Path (Guthrie); Twelfth Night, The Three Musketeers (Seattle Rep); Laugh (Studio Theatre). Songs heard in: HBO Family's A Little Curious, 2006 Commonwealth Games, 75th Royal Command Performance and Dame Edna's Farewell Tours. Recent performance credits include A Confederacy of Dunces (Huntington); Souvenir (Portland Stage). Toured with Barry Humphries 2000-2006; performed 1988-1994 with Chicago City Limits in NYC.
EVA BARNES, Voice and Speech Coach La Jolla Playhouse: Ether Dome, Chasing the Song, Sideways, His Girl Friday, A Dram of Drummhicit, Jersey Boys, Xanadu, Carmen, Restoration, Zhivago, Palm Beach, The Third Story, The Scottish Play, The Love of Three Oranges, Tartuffe, The Adoration of the Old Woman, The Model Apartment and Our Town. Other theatres: Mark Taper, Ahmanson Theatre (Romeo and Juliet, directed by Sir Peter Hall), Arena Stage, Shakespeare Theatre, D.C., McCarter Theatre, Public Theater and San Diego Rep. She also coached Anna Deavere Smith’s House Arrest and Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 (Broadway and PBS film). Film: Big Night. Ms. Barnes is on the Acting Faculty at UC San Diego. SHIRLEY FISHMAN, Dramaturg During fifteen years at La Jolla Playhouse, Ms. Fishman has worked on such plays and musicals as Indecent, Healing Wars, Come From Away, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Chasing the Song, Ether Dome, Side Show, Sideways, Glengarry Glen Ross, An Iliad, Hands on a Hardbody, American Night, 2016 POP Tour Alice Chan and other projects in development. During her five years at the Joseph Papp Public Theater she dramaturged such projects as Jessica Hagedorn’s Dogeaters, Two Sisters and a Piano by Nilo Cruz and Tina Landau’s Space, among others, and was co-curator of the New Work Now! annual new play festival. She serves as a Playwright’s Dramaturg for UC San Diego’s Wagner New Play Festival and has been a dramaturg at Sundance Theatre Lab, Denver Theatre Center, Magic Theatre, Native Voices at the Autry and Playwrights Project, among others. She is an M.F.A. graduate of Columbia University’s Theatre Theory/Criticism/Dramaturgy program.
(Continued on page 14)
P9
In 1892, Thomas Edison invented the Kinetoscope, the first moving picture camera in the U.S., and very soon America became obsessed with movies. In the early days of its technology, film lengths were under a minute long and without sound. As cameras became more sophisticated, a reel of film ran 5-8 minutes; eventually five-reels became a feature film. By the early 1900s, special effects, continuity of action over successive shots and close-ups had been introduced. As films became longer, writers were employed to simplify stories from novels or plays into scenarios. In 1905, nickelodeons were the first venues to show “moving pictures.” For the price of a nickel, audiences saw the new invention; they were hungry for more. Soon films were being made all over the U.S., with the center of filmmaking being New York City and its environs. Most films were shot outdoors in daylight, but with the lack of light during the harsh East Coast winters, the number of films that could be made was limited. In 1908, Thomas Edison established the Patent Trust Company, whose members included the largest film companies, which made production and distribution difficult for budding filmmakers. They began to look to set up shop in other cities. With guaranteed sunshine 350 days a year, Los Angeles – with its cheap property, non-union labor and varied landscapes – beckoned. By 1915, film production in the Los Angeles/Hollywood area accounted for over 60% of all American filmmaking; five major film studios, established by Jewish immigrants from Europe, generated hundreds of films every year. Motion picture people in Hollywood were known by the locals as “movies.” With their high spirits and free-andeasy manner, the newcomers horrified many of the more P10
staid residents who believed they were harming their community. Others welcomed the “movies” because they provided work for the locals. People began to gather at shooting locations, hoping to be chosen to appear in a film as an extra for a dollar a day. The earliest studios were simply vacant lots with posts around them and sheets of canvas to keep out the sun. When buildings were eventually constructed on the lots, there was no roof so that existing light could be monitored. If it was raining, cameras would roll; the film would be saved to use in other motion pictures. If a crew was filming in a neighborhood and a fire broke out, it would be filmed. Actors would sometimes be thrown into the shot and later scenarios would be written to suit the action. Producers would spot people on the street or in shops and offer them jobs. By week’s end, a film would be completed and sent on its way to an eagerly waiting public. During World War I, the demand for films as escapist entertainment increased. Audiences clamored for more complicated plots, multi-reel films, and information about the actors. By 1910, actors began to receive screen credit for their roles and news about them was in even more demand. Photoplay, the first true movie fan magazine, debuted in 1912 and contained interviews and gossip about the stars’ careers and personal lives. All the articles were controlled by the studios. Celebrity culture and the studio star system had begun. By the 1920s, Hollywood was shaping into a cultural icon set apart from the rest of the country, a glamorous landscape that attracted hopeful actors and actresses, dazzled by a new American dream: film stardom and all its accoutrements.
William Desmond Taylor and cast in Captain Alvarez (1914)
It was not all glamour. Stars were employees of the studio and bound to them by contracts. After a screen test, promising and attractive young actors would be signed by a studio and transformed into stars by building an image around them. In order to maintain those images, the studios controlled what type of films they appeared in and included morality clauses in their contracts. Actors often felt ‘owned’ by the studios and frustrated that they did not have the ability to choose their own work or live freely without the specter of the studio in their lives. In 1919, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, D.W. Griffith and Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. created their own studio, United Artists, in order to have more creative and financial control over their careers. The cultural shift that ushered in the Jazz Age was in sharp contrast to the post-World War I issues that gripped America: economic depression, prohibition laws, racial violence, immigration, religion and morality. Forty million Americans were going to the movies each week to escape from the stress of their daily lives. They flocked to see the likes of Greta Garbo and Rudolph Valentino in steamy, sexy love stories, flappers in short dresses and bobbed hair dancing across the screen, Douglas Fairbanks swashbuckling his way through adventures, dazzling spectacles like Cecil B. DeMille’s Ten Commandments with a cast of thousands, and Fatty Arbuckle, Mabel Normand, Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd and Buster Keaton in slapstick comedies.
Fatty Arbuckle and Mabel Normand
was nephritis, but the newspapers insinuated suicide, drug addiction and sexual impropriety. Fatty Arbuckle was arrested in September, 1921 for the murder of a young actress in his San Francisco hotel room during a night of alleged debauchery. On February 1, 1922, director William Desmond Taylor was murdered in his Hollywood home, setting off a media frenzy. The ensuing public outcry, fueled by conservative civic, religious, women’s groups, newspapers and tabloids, shed a glaring light on Hollywood from which it would not recover for decades. The glitter of Hollywood has waxed and waned over the years, but the dream factory continues to seduce as new generations of filmmakers create their own films, fans make their own stars and, as millions before them, enter into the realm of illusion and wonder that is the movies.
D. W. Griffith (1915)
Charlie Chaplin with Jackie Coogan in The Kid (1921)
Behind the scenes, a spate of troubling events would shake Hollywood to its core. In September 1920, popular actress Olive Thomas, wife of actor Jack Pickford (brother of America’s sweetheart Mary Pickford), died after mistakenly swallowing poisonous tablets prescribed for her husband’s medical condition. The official cause of death P11
Charlotte Shelby, William Desmond Taylor
W
WHO WAS
William
illiam Desmond Taylor was murdered on February 1, 1922 in an enclave of Spanish-style bungalows in the fashionable West Lake Park District of Los Angeles, where many affluent silent film artists lived. Coming on the heels of several scandals involving movie stars – comic silent film star Fatty Arbuckle’s arrest in connection with the death of a young actress in his San Francisco hotel suite had occurred just five months earlier – the veil of Hollywood glamour lifted and the seamier side of its rich and famous was exposed. Taylor’s murder unleashed a media frenzy that fed the appetites of film fans and foes for years to come.
Desmond
Taylor?
Taylor was born William Cunningham Deane Tanner on April 26, 1872 in Carlow, Ireland, grew up in Dublin and traveled to the U.S. in 1890. He changed his name and embarked on a number of adventurous occupations – rancher in Kansas, New York antique dealer, gold prospector in California and the Yukon, and actor with a touring stage troupe. At the invitation of Hollywood filmmaker Thomas Ince, who saw him on stage in San Francisco, he arrived in Los Angeles in December 1912 to appear in Ince’s westerns. Taylor soon became part of the nascent silent film world, appearing in 27 films, most notably Captain Alvarez and The Kiss, both in 1914. That same year he was offered a chance to direct his first film, The Awakening. With his wealth of knowledge of art and literature, he soon became the leading director of the Famous Players-Lasky (Paramount) Studio. Between 1914 and 1922, Taylor directed more than 50 films, including How Could You, Jean? starring Mary Pickford (1918) and Huckleberry Finn (1920). He was a three-term President of the Motion Picture Directors Association, working diligently to remove drugs
William Desmond Taylor with Mary Miles Minter, Dick Jones
from the movie industry. With a brief hiatus during World War I, he left Hollywood to serve in the Canadian army, returning to his busy directing career in 1919 with Mary Miles Minter in Anne of Green Gables.
Taylor was a well-liked and respected member of the movie industry. With his intelligence, sophistication and gentlemanly manners, he was a sought-after guest at Hollywood social gatherings. As news of the murder became known, facts about Taylor’s hidden past began to emerge, one being that he abandoned his wife and daughter after an affair with a married woman. Lies, innuendo and rumors about the case became indistinguishable from fact, and all manner of fair reporting fell away. The public vilified Hollywood’s immoral lifestyle, calling for regulation of the industry. At the same time, it developed an insatiable appetite for news about the case and its famous suspects – Mary Miles Minter, Minter’s mother, Charlotte Shelby, and Taylor’s friend Mabel Normand. By the end of March, 1922, more than three hundred people had confessed to Taylor’s murder. With a crime scene contaminated by police blunders, interference by Paramount studio heads, lack of evidence and no viable suspect, the case was officially closed in the summer of 1938.
Photo of Mabel Normand on William Desmond Taylor’s desk
P12
ill Harrison Hays was born into a strict, conservative Republican family in Sullivan, Indiana, on November 5, 1879. He grew up to be a non-smoking, non-drinking Elder of the Presbyterian Church whose sense of moral purpose stemmed from his small town values and deep pride in Indiana’s pioneer origins. After graduating from Wabash College in 1900, where he was recognized for his exceptional oratory and public relations skills, Hays was admitted to the bar, joined his father’s law firm and soon after began his career in Republican politics. He rapidly rose through the ranks of the Party to become Republican National Chairman. His abilities brought him to the attention of presidential candidate Warren G. Harding. Hays was named Campaign Manager and became a political star, raising enough money to finance the campaign, deftly crafting Harding’s public image with savvy use of the media, and coalescing the deeply-divided Republican Party into a historic landslide victory. In 1921, Hays was named Postmaster General, but within a year he would leave the hotbed of Washington politics for that of Hollywood. With morality a divisive issue during the 1920s, a focal point of controversy was Hollywood and its movies. Religious, civic and political groups attacked the industry for what they considered their films' sordid content. By 1922, the federal government and 36 states were considering enacting censorship laws to reign in the studios. The media frenzy over several scandals involving film stars was affecting box office, and banks began to rescind their credit lines to the studios. Nervous about the growing backlash, the industry decided to regulate itself and searched for someone to assuage its adversaries and oversee the process. On January 14, 1922, Hays became President of the newly-formed Motion Picture Producers and Directors Association (MPPDA) at a salary of $100,000 a year.
Will H. Hays and the MPPDA came to an informal agreement in 1922 on thirteen elements to be avoided on screen, namely films that:
1. Dealt with sex in an improper manner; 2. Were based on white slavery; 3. Made vice attractive; 4. Exhibited nakedness; 5. Had prolonged passionate love scenes; 6. Were predominantly concerned with the underworld; 7. Made gambling and drunkenness attractive; 8. Might instruct the weak in methods of committing crime; 9. Ridiculed public officials; 10. Offended religious beliefs; 11. Emphasized violence; 12. Portrayed vulgar postures and gestures; and 13. Used salacious subtitles and advertising. Operating on the principle that “no picture shall be produced which will lower the moral standards of those who see it,” the Hays Office drafted The Production Code of 1930, that expanded on the above stipulations. The code was agreed to by the MPPDA in 1934, and it set the moral guidelines for the motion picture industry until 1967, when it was abandoned as unenforceable.
Within three months of taking office, Hays demonstrated his organizational and public relations acumen by establishing relationships with major banks, which resumed giving loans to the film industry. He persuaded influential critics of the industry to drop their calls for censorship, and organized the protesting religious, education and political groups into committees that had input regarding film content. Intent on improving Hollywood’s public image, morals clauses began to appear in actors' contracts, giving studios power to terminate contracts if actors were involved in scandals. By 1930 the Hays Office had created the Production Code, which set forth what was morally acceptable on screen. If a movie did not meet the code, it was not released. Rather than face censorship, the movie industry accepted the code. As the Great Depression took hold in the 1930s, attendance at films again began to decline. In order to attract audiences, the studios began to take liberties with the code, prompting a new backlash. Hays continued to keep a vigilant eye on the film industry, mediating between the studios and the public, until his retirement in 1945. He died of heart failure on March 7, 1954, in his hometown of Sullivan, Indiana.
Cartoon from the Sacramento Bee, February 1922
P13
THE COMPANY TELSEY & COMPANY, Casting La Jolla Playhouse: 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.
ARTURO E. PORAZZI, Stage Manager La Jolla Playhouse: Chasing the Song. Broadway: The Illusionists, First Date, Memphis (2010 Tony Award for Best Musical), Xanadu, Chita Rivera: The Dancer’s Life, Dessa Rose, Marie Christine, Triumph of Love, Victor/ Victoria, The Best Little Whorehouse Goes Public, Jelly’s Last Jam, Me and My Girl, Singin’ in the Rain, The Three Musketeers, Zorba, Marilyn, an American Fable, 42nd Street (original 1980 production and 2001 revival), Angel, My Old Friends and Shenandoah. Other credits include corporate communications and special events and television events for ABC-TV, NBC-TV, NBC Universal, PBS, CBS-TV, Telemundo, FOX-TV and ESPN. JENNIFER KOZUMPLIK, Assistant Stage Manager La Jolla Playhouse: Miss You Like Hell DNA New Work Series workshop, Come From Away, His Girl Friday, Blueprints to Freedom DNA Workshop. Cygnet Theatre: Hay Fever, The Vortex, My Fair Lady, A Christmas Carol, The Motherf**ker with the Hat, Maple and Vine, Travesties, The Importance of Being Earnest, Gem of the Ocean, Man of la Mancha, Dirty Blonde. San Diego REPertory Theatre: A Hammer, a Bell and a Song to Sing; In the Wake; Superior Donuts; Culture Clash in AmeriCCA. She received her B.A. in Theatre Arts from San Diego State University.
PLAYHOUSE LEADERSHIP CHRISTOPHER ASHLEY, Playhouse Artistic Director Please see Mr. Ashley’s bio on page 6.
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. Mike serves on the Boards of the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce, NBC 7 San Diego Community Advisory Board 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.
P14
DEBBY BUCHHOLZ, General Manager has served as general manager of La Jolla Playhouse since 2002. She is the Secretary 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. 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.