Grace Productions presents

Written by Sharon SharthDirected by Lee Costello

StarringTodd Babcock*, Pamela Dunlap*, Lily Knight*,

Jeff LeBeau*, Christopher Pennock, Sharon Sharth**Denotes member, Actors’ Equity Association

Produced by Racquel Lehrman, Theatre Planners

Set Designer Lighting Designer Sound DesignerPete Hickok Donny Jackson David B. Marling

Costume Designer Assistant Stage Manager Graphic Designer Michael Mullen Trevor Alkazian Linda Burrows

Graphics Press Photographer PublicistAFK Design Ed Krieger Lucy Pollak &

Susan Gordon

Stage ManagerJennifer Palumbo*

Setting: Manhattan, Los Angeles, Western New York,and various locations therein

The Time: Then and Now

This performance will run approximately 120 minutes.There will be an intermission.

There is no recording or photography allowed during the performance.

A NOTE from the PLAYWRIGHT

For one human being to love another: that is perhaps the most difficult of all our tasks, the ultimate, the last test and proof, the work for which all

other work is preparation.-Rainer Maria Rilke

The longest journey is the journey inwards.-Dag Hammarskjold

My given name is Sharon Schlaerth (shlarth). In the delivery room, the nurse scolded my mother, “You can’t name a child Sharon Schlaerth.” My mom laughed and said, “She’ll be married by the time she’s eighteen.”That didn’t happen. Born of the ’60s, a feminist, I didn’t need a man to make me whole.

I’ve always been fascinated by what goes on between men and women. The misunderstandings, the cruelties - often not meant but deeply felt, the kindnesses rebuffed, ignored, or magnified, the overwhelming desire to be seen, accepted, and loved by a creature so unlike oneself. How can such disparate beings create relationship and then how can that relationship possibly be sustained?

It comes back to me. Acceptance of all that I am along with an acknowledgment that I don’t know, that I’m not sure, that I might be wrong, that I’m afraid and lonely and silly and dumb sometimes, and that it’s all fine. Acceptance of myself allows acceptance of the other.

WAITING FOR GRACE is one woman’s journey through the treacherous terrain of intimate relationships. Ultimately a love story, the play tackles the sexual politics between men and women in all its absurdity as well as in its delicacies. Our protagonist discovers that what she wants may not be what she needs - no matter how desperate her desire.

A NOTE from the DIRECTOR

The artifice of womanhood is fascinating to most girls. We watch our mothers and older sisters get ready for nights out. We follow the ritual

of making ourselves pretty for presentation. We get the obligatory compliments on clothing and hair styles. But, then we grow into actual women and find that being female can mean entering into a labyrinth of

emotions and expectations. It can be a daunting thing to figure out which path is the right one for us. Where do we fit on the spectrum of femininity? And how does that reconcile our sense of feeling strong with our sense of

feeling needy? How do we blend our lives with another’s and remain true to our own nature? Can we lose ourselves in love, and not lose our sense of

who we are?

CAST(in order of appearance)

Sharon Sharth*…………………..……………...…………….....GraceJeff LeBeau*..….......Joe, Joe 2, Joe 3, Joe 5, Joe 7, and Doctor 3Christopher Pennock…….....Doctor, Dad, Joe 4, Joe 6, and Joe 8Lily Knight*................................Mary, Mary 2, Doctor 2, and NursePamela Dunlap*.....................................................Mom and CoachTodd Babcock*........................................................................David

CAST BIOS

TODD BABCOCK* (David) Todd is an LA theater veteran of 20 years with roles including Alkibiades in Rock of Abandon with Fierce Backbone, Ryan in Lewis Black’s One Slight Hitch at the Falcon as well as Spuds Idaho in The Tangled Snarl/ Murder Me Once at the Fremont Centre Theater. Notable film credits include “Gods and Monsters” and “A Time to Remember” (China) with Leslie Cheung. Television appearances include “Frasier”, “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Grey’s Anatomy” among others. He currently teaches film acting classes in Los Angeles, Pasadena and Colorado. @www.babcockstudios.com.

PAMELA DUNLAP* (Mom and Coach) NY theatre: Recently created the role of Agnes in A.R. Gurney’s play Love and Money at Signature Theatre. Created the role of Lana in The Early Girl off Broadway and Marjorie Baverstock in The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940 on Broadway. Other NY credits, Lincoln Center, Circle Repertory, New York Theatre Workshop, New York Stage and Film, Joyce Theatre, New Georges, Boomerang etc. Regional: Pittsburgh Public, South Coast Repertory, Mark Taper Forum, Arena Stage, Hartford Stage, St Louis Rep, Pioneer Theatre, LA Theatre Works, Fountain Theatre, Theatre Raleigh. Film: the upcoming “Wetlands” opposite Adawale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, “Changeling” ,“War of the Roses”, “ I Am Sam”, “ The Holiday”, “Nick of Time”. TV: “Mad Men”, “Girls”, “Maron”,“Blue Bloods”, “Doll and Em”, “Castle”, “Major Crimes” “Law and Order”...Graduate of the Neighborhood Playhouse where she studied with Sanford Meisner. OOBR award, three time Dramalogue Award, New York Drama League Honoree, Member of Circle Repertory Acting Company.

LILY KNIGHT* (Mary, Mary 2, Doctor 2, and Nurse) Lily Knight has appeared in feature films (among them, “Sky,” “The Artist,” “Touch,” “Changeling,” “The Secretary,” “Dahmer,” “AI”), on over 50 television shows (most recently, “Bosch,” “How to Get Away with Murder,” “Once Upon a Time,” “American Crime,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Castle,” “American Horror Story,” “True Blood,” “Rizzoli & Isles,” and “Medium,” to name a few) and on Broadway (Agnes of God, As Is, The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940) and off Broadway (The Holy Terror, The Early Girl, The Fiery Furnace, among many others) and regionally, at Arena Stage, ATL, Boston Shakespeare

Company, Baltimore’s Center Stage, Berkshire and Williamstown Theatre Festivals, and more. LA theatre includes Inland Empress, A Small Fire at The Echo Theatre, where she is a company member, A Delicate Balance at the Odyssey, as well as The Crucible, Peace in Our Time, and The Autumn Garden at Antaeus, where she is a company member. Lily tours with Ensemble Galilei in First Person: Seeing America, Universe of Dreams, and Anna’s Garden and is currently co-creating EG’s next show: The Starry Messengers.

JEFF LEBEAU* (Joe, Joe 2, Joe 3, Joe 5, Joe 7, and Doctor 3) Jeff LeBeau is a member of The Open Fist, The Road, and Skylight Theatre Companies, as well as Detroit Street Films Production Company. His recent stage work includes the role of Gary in Murray Mednick’s The Gary Plays, with Open Fist and Paudua Playrights, The Skylight Theatre Company’s Years To The Day (LA Weekly- Best Actor Nomination) performed in LA, Paris, NYC, Edinburgh, KC, SF, and Conner McPherson’s The Seafarer (Schoolhouse Theatre, NY). Other Stage work in includes, the one person show Burning In China, directed by 8-time Oscar-nominee Caleb Deschanel, and HurlyBurly written and directed by David Rabe at The Geffen Theatre Los Angeles. Jeff’s recent TV and film work includes a stint on “Masters Of Sex”, as well as voicing projects for Dreamworks, Discovery, U of Miami-“The Great Storm”, for which he won an Emmy Award, and No on Prop 8. Jeff is an Alumnus of Cal Arts.

CHRISTOPHER PENNOCK (Doctor, Dad, Joe 4, Joe 6, and Joe 8) Broadway: The Rose Tattoo, A Patriot for Me, Marat/Sade, Abelard and Heloise. Regional Theater: MacBeth, Lion in Winter, Winters Tale, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Rosencrantz n Guildenstern are Dead. LA Theater: Third, The Dresser, White People Christmas, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Dance of Death, Lady Chatterly’s Lover, The Session, 69 Below, King Lear, Hamlet, Word Theater’s Dead Interviews, LATC Opening Season It’s a Man’s World with Mabou Mines directed by David Shweitzer. Film: “Frances”, “Savages”, “Dr. Mabuse-Etiopomar”, “California Suite”, “Caged in Paradiso”, “The Great Texas Dynamite Chase”, “Lost on Purpose”, “Journey to a Journey”, “Descent”, “18 Minutes”, “Legacy”, “Night of Dark Shadows”, “Basic Training”, “Posey”, “Running Woman”. TV: “Dark Shadows”, “Theatre Fantastique”, “Another World Somerset”, “General Hospital”, “The Guiding Light”, “The Women’s Room”, George Clooney’s “Unscripted”, “Court Martial of George Armstrong Custer”, “Silk Stalkings”, “Baywatch”, “Melrose Place”, “Knott’s Landing”, “Simon and Simon”, “Hotel”, “High Mountain Rangers”, “Riptide”, “Dynasty”, “The A Team”, “Cagney and Lacey”, “Tucker’s Witch”, “Strike Force”, “The Love Boat”, “Cannon”. Lifetime Member of the Actors Studio.

SHARON SHARTH* (Grace) Sharon Sharth has starred on and off-Broadway, as well as in leading roles in film and on television. She was a member and principal actress with the renowned Circle Repertory Company in New York City, where she worked on new plays, and originated leading roles for playwrights Lanford Wilson, Aaron Sorkin, Shirley Lauro, and ten others. A lifetime member of Actor’s Studio, she has performed at Circle Rep, Manhattan Theatre Club, Broadway’s Cort Theatre, Promenade Theatre, Geffen Playhouse, Mark Taper Forum, Old Globe Theatre, Rubicon Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville Humana Festival, Yale Rep, the Eugene O’Neill Playwright’s Conference, and she has toured internationally. Recent stage work includes Woman in Mind (Aykbourn), A Perfect Ganesh (McNally), The Snake Can (Graf), Switzerland (Murray-Smith), and See Rock City (Hutton). She has been nominated for Broadway World’s Best Leading Actress in a Play Award, for Outstanding Actress in a Drama by Desert Theatre League, and won the Scenie Award for Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role. Television and film work includes “ER” (George Clooney), “Deader than a Doorman” (Bradley Whitford), “Murder Between Friends” (Stephen Lang), “A Taste for Justice” (Louis Gossett, Jr.), “Eat and Run” (Ron Silver), “Age isn’t Everything” (Jonathan Silverman), and “The Nick Kroll Show” on Comedy Central. She is a proud member of her unions, AEA and SAG-AFTRA.

PRODUCTION TEAM

SHARON SHARTH* (Playwright) Waiting for Grace won the Best New American Play Award from the Firehouse Theatre Project, a Collaboration Award from the New York Coalition of Professional Women in the Arts and Media, and was part of NYC’s Primary Stages Prime Time Reading series. Her play, Dates and Nuts, was produced in NYC at the American Globe Theatre. Other plays include, Truly, Truly, LA Waves, and The Statue Plays: Penelope Rex, Monumental Chaos, and Hollywood Haven. An award-winning author, Sharon has written sixteen children’s books for major publishers. Her novel, WILD MIND, was the winner of the Young Adult Fiction Award from the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. Her short story, “Most Quiet,” was published in the literary journal, Lines in the Sand. She has written articles for aspiring writers and is a regular speaker at schools, libraries, and author fairs. She has long participated in the Screen Actors Guild BookPals and We, the Children Programs. She works with an international organization to provide books and other support for orphans and vulnerable children in sub-Saharan Africa. She’s a member of the Dramatists Guild, the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, and the Los Angeles Female Playwrights Initiative.

LEE COSTELLO (Director) Lee Costello has directed numerous productions in New York, as well as regional theatre. She is a member of Ensemble Studio Theatre and Ensemble Studio Theatre, LA. While living in NY she was a member of The Circle Rep Lab, The Women’s Project and Productions, and was a teaching artist for The Lincoln Center Institute. Her New York credits include “Extensions” by Murray Schisgal and “The Portable Dorothy Parker” at Ensemble Studio Theatre, “Cowboy Girl” at New York Theatre Workshop, “Heads” at La Mama, “The Adventures of She-Man” at The Westbank Theatre Bar, and “Did I Vote For You?”, an original play with music which received a special performance grant from the Franklin Furnace. Lee wrote and directed “The NOW Show”, (a multimedia send-up of the late night talk shows) which sold out for its entire run at Dixon Place. A short play of Lee’s “Hearts, Flowers, and Jell-O”, was featured at the 10th anniversary of “The 52nd Street Project” at Lincoln Center. Lee now resides in Los Angeles where she has directed for The Ensemble Studio Theatre LA, Theatre of NOTE, Highways, The Second City, The Hollywood Fringe Festival, The Blank Theatre, and REDCAT at the Disney Concert Hall. Currently she is the Executive Director of Mob Rule, Incorporated, a non-profit community outreach project.

RACQUEL LEHRMAN, THEATRE PLANNERS (Producer) Racquel is the founder and managing director of Theatre Planners, her own theatre production firm which has been serving the Los Angeles theatre scene for almost ten years. She graduated from NYU-Tisch School of the Arts and lived in NY for many years producing theatre. Theatre Planners has since developed into a very busy and successful outlet for actors, writers, producers and theatre companies. Doing everything from producing, consulting, marketing and more. Racquel loves to make productions a reality and help to keep the theatre scene in LA alive and strong. Racquel is also the owner of the Lounge Theatres in Hollywood on Theatre Row. To learn more about Racquel and Theatre Planners, go to www.theatreplanners.com

PETE HICKOK (Set Designer) Pete Hickok is a scenic designer, production designer, and sculptor based out of Los Angeles. His most recent scenic design projects include Drama Queens From Hell, Grand Hotel, Blood From a Stone, The Cause My Soul, Weapons, My Sister, Father Son and the Holy Coach, Marriage of Figaro, Awake and Sing!, and Rio. He was also recently production designer for “Medicare Mermaids” among his other ventures curating and exhibiting in the contemporary art world.

MICHAEL MULLEN (Costume Designer) is happy to be working on this show! He has costumed such shows as Fugue (Ovation and Broadway World nominations), Sweeney Todd (Stage Raw nomination), American Idiot (TicketHolder Award), When Stars Align (Broadway World nomination), Dorian’s Descent (Broadway World nomination), Moon Over Buffalo (Broadway World nomination), God’s Gypsy (Broadway World nomination), Dreamgirls (Ovation Award, Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award, N.A.A.C.P. Theatre Award, L.A. Weekly Theatre Award, Broadway World Award). He has received such Stage SceneLA Awards as 2015-2016 Costume Designer Of The Year, 2014-2015 Costume Designer Extraordinaire, 2013-2014 Costume Design Of The Year (Individual Production) for Dorian’s Descent, and 2012-2013 Costume Designer Of The Year. He would like to thank everyone involved with this show, his friends and family, and you for coming to see it, mmmkay! :)

DONNY JACKSON (Lighting Designer) Design highlights include the West Coast premiere of In the Heights (Casa 0101 Theatre), Heartbreak Hotel (The Coast Playhouse), Spring Awakening (Long Beach Playhouse), the NY premiere of Four Clowns (La Mama Experimental Theatre), and the workshop production of When God Looked Away, starring Al Pacino and Judith Light (Macha Theatre). Recent productions include A Singular They (The Blank Theatre), The Archer From Malis (Getty Villa), Sweeney Todd (Long Beach Playhouse) and Old Man in a Big Car, directed by Dan Castellaneta (Fanatic Salon). Other work includes Blood From a Stone(Electric Lodge), Drama Queens from Hell (Odyssey Theatre), Blood (Complex Theatre), Phenomenal, written and directed by Macy Gray (Ramon Cortines Performing Arts), A Chorus Line (Freud Playhouse), Sublimity (Lyric-Hyperion Theatre), Marat/Sade, The Glass Menagerie, Fiddler on the Roof, Raisin in the Sun and Death of a Salesman (Long Beach Playhouse). He is a theatre instructor at Cypress College and holds an MFA in Lighting from UCLA. www.DonnyJackson.com

DAVID B. MARLING (Sound Designer) over the past 26 years has added his sound character in many live productions and independent films. In my Award Winning work, I have created multi-layered audio environments such as the entire Australia Outback, a busy city street, the inside of a massive prison and an old Victorian theater with sounds above and below the audience to name a few. I love creating soundscapes of all sizes and love to be challenged by a production to come up with sounds that fit the action. To achieve this, I use sound effects, tones/drones even music under the scene to set a tone to complete the experience and make you “FEEL”. I am also a Professor of Sound Design at Pepperdine University. 818-370-8556 WebSite is WavMagicAudio.com

TREVOR ALKAZIAN (Assistant Stage Manager) This is Trevor Alkazian’s third show with Theatre Planners and couldn’t be more thrilled. Trevor has done ASM work for about five years in both community and professional theatre. He is an aspiring actor who knows his way around backstage and wants to be immersed in the whole professional theater lifestyle. Trevor would like to thank both Theater Planners and the wonderful cast and crew of this great show for this wonderful opportunity!

JENNIFER PALUMBO* (Stage Manager) Jennifer enjoys freelancing around LA, and is happy to return to the Odyssey Theatre with this original production. Selected credits: The Mountaintop (Matrix Theatre), Awake and Sing! (Odyssey Theatre), Blood From A Stone (Electric Lodge), A Steady Rain (Alliance Theatre ATL & Odyssey Theatre), Julia (Pacific Resident Theatre), Mad Forest (Open Fist Theatre), Women On Time (Working Stage Theatre), Broadway Bound, Day Drinkers, Ivanov, Kingdom of Earth, Margo Veil, Tales From Hollywood, What The Butler Saw (Odyssey Theatre), Women Are Crazy Because Men Are A**holes (MACHA Theatre), Finding the Burnett Heart (Missing Piece Theatre), Land of the Tigers (Burglars of Hamm/Sacred Fools Theatre).

Kathy & Jeff VlamingJohn B. Schlaerth M.D. AMC

– Pacific Gynocologic SpecialistsJane Fleiss-BroggerLaurie Irish-JonesJane Kaczmarek

Paul Livadary and Marina DayThe Solomon Family

Conrad SteinhartMark Bryan-“The Artist’s Way” Kathy Baker & Steve Robman

Michael O’NeillJohn Haller

Tony Randall Theatrical FundHoyt Hilsman & Nancy Turner

Bill KahlJoe & Linda Hart

Bill Moser Linda Kahl

Claire & Gary Bernstein Dan Wingard

Megan McCrackenJames Freydberg

John & Andrea Schlaerth Roy & Pat Schlaerth

Brad & Connie SpencerDallas Travers-Sage Creative Inc.

Brandon Ho Estelle Campbell Lynnanne Zager

John BeggsFrank MaynardDavid Solomon

Zane LaskyHarley Jane Kozak

Lizi MosesRicia Quintana

John & Barbara TschamlerJody Fasanella

Tom and Carol BaumJane Potelle Kathryn Graf

Anna NicholasJoel Polis

Lynn Serotte SteinhartJill Marmion

Tamara LaskyMakinzie Provost

Deborah Pearl Leslie Fleming-Mitchell

Kathryn KatesArlene Hutton

Libby & Alan TakagakiMorely WinogradJanie Solomon

Hope & Rick McLaughlinMichele Parrish

Sara KrasCraig Volk

Thomas AndoloraJack Davidson

Bill Brown & Kevin MoranDan Shapiro

Munson HicksRobert Sandstrom

Thank you to all those who have so generously contributed to make this production of WAITING FOR GRACE possible:

Tom JusticeHeather RandallLinda BurrowsMichael MertonBen SieglerHoyt HilsmanJane PotelleAlexandra JohnsonKelly ConnellDanny Connell and his trioLynda McNamaraAmber BruegelVictoria WatsonAlexandra FernandezAngela MatemotjaDr. Pat AllenTom ZitoThomas Miklusak, MD, PhDLois WilsonJohn FitzgeraldKristin StoneHyperion Arts ComplexZephyr Theatre

My Girls:Linda Jones KahlClaire Carlson BernsteinLaurie Irish-JonesJill Pozarny MarmionLynn Serotte SteinhartAmy Siegfried Quinn

Dedicated to the memory of my mother

Sally Gallagher Schlaerth

THANK YOU

In honor of my grandmothers – Katherine Fitzgerald Schlaerth and Eleanor Curriden Gallagher

All the actors who have donated their time and talent to this play’s development, including: Adam Arkin Jack Davidson Gregory Harrison Brian Kerwin Jay O. Sanders Dick Van Patten Deborah Offner Robert Pine Kevin Kilner John DeMita Gina Hecht Bruce French Lindsey Ginter Adam Lazarre-White Pamela Dunlap Lily Knight