presents the world premiere of safe in hell€¦ · ralph funicello nephelie andonyadis peter...

Safe In Hell • SOUTH COAST REPERTORY P1

40th Season • 389th ProductionSEGERSTROM STAGE / APRIL 2 - MAY 9, 2004

David Emmes Martin BensonPRODUCING ARTISTIC DIRECTOR ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

presents the world premiere of

SAFE IN HELLBY Amy Freed

SCENIC DESIGN COSTUME DESIGN LIGHTING DESIGN SOUND DESIGNRalph Funicello Nephelie Andonyadis Peter Maradudin David Budries

CHOREOGRAPHER DRAMATURGS PRODUCTION MANAGER STAGE MANAGERSylvia C. Turner Jennifer Kiger/Jerry Patch Jeff Gifford *Randall K. Lum

DIRECTED BY

David Emmes

SAFE IN HELL was commissioned by South Coast Repertory and originally developed with support from the NEA/TCG Theatre Residency Program for Playwrights.

This project is also supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.

CAST OF CHARACTERS(In order of appearance)

Increase Mather .......................................................... *Graeme MalcolmCotton Mather ...................................................................... *Robert SellaMrs. Doakes/Ensemble ..................................................... *Colette KilroyReverend Doakes ............................................................... *Simon BilligIndian Roger ................................................................... *Hal Landon Jr.Judge/Townsman/Ensemble .................................................. *Don TookAbigail/Ensemble .................................................... *Madison DunawayLittle Mary/Ensemble .................................................. *Elisa RichardsonMaggie Smurt/Ensemble ........................................... Suzanne JamiesonTituba/Ensemble ........................................................... *Tracey A. Leigh

SETTING 1691 and later. Boston, Salem and thereabouts.

LENGTHApproximately two hours and 15 minutes, including one 15-minute intermission.

PRODUCTION STAFFAssistant Stage Manager ................................................... *Scott HarrisonCasting Director ............................................................... Joanne DeNautCostume Design Assistant ........................................................ Julie KeenStage Management Intern ................................................. Jennifer ButlerAdditional Costume Staff ........... Valerie Bart, Merilee Ford, Tracy Gray

Amber Johnson, Stacey Nezda, Peggy Oquist, Cynthia Shaffer, Tara Tran

Deck Crew ......................................... David Gallo, James Ray, Joe Smith

Please refrain from unwrapping candy or making other noises that may disturb surrounding patrons.The use of cameras and recorders in the theatre is prohibited. Smoking is not permitted anywhere in the theatre.

Cellular phones, beepers and watch alarms should be turned off or set to non-audible mode during the performance.

* Member of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers.

P2 SOUTH COAST REPERTORY • Safe In Hell

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Increase Mather 1639-1723

Increase Mather was born in Dorchester, Massachusettsand died in Boston. He was the son of Richard Math-er and father to Cotton Mather. He received his B.A.

from Harvard in 1656 and his M.A. from Trinity College,Dublin in 1658. He preached in England and Guernseyuntil the Restoration. After returning to Massachusettsin 1661, he became a pastor of the North Church,Boston, and retained that position through hislife. During the Restoration, he was a bitteropponent of Edward Randolph and Sir Ed-mund Andros over the withdrawal of theMassachusetts charter and the conductof the royal government. In 1688 hewent to England to present thegrievances of Massachusetts and re-mained abroad for years, negotiatingthe renewal of the charter through theshifting scenes of the Glorious Revolu-tion. At the moment of his return toBoston, he was at the apex of his power.Thereafter his influence began to decline: manycitizens believed he had made too many concessions innegotiating the charter. But, even as his power wanedin his later years, he remained a commanding figure,maintaining the principles of the founders, and yet mov-ing with the times on important issues.

Cotton Mather 1663-1728

Cotton Mather’s very name is a proclamation of hisstanding in 17th-Century New England; the grandsonof Richard Mather, the first minister of Dorchester,

Cotton was born in the clerical purple. Educated athome by his very learned father, at the age of 12 he en-

tered Harvard, where it is said he wasbetter liked by his tutors than by

his fellow students. He tookhis M.A. in 1681 and wasordained the colleague ofhis father in 1685. It wasprincipally by his inde-fatigable writing that hebecame one of the mostcelebrated of all New

England Puritan ministers.He published some 500

books, tracts and pamphlets.

His Magnalia Christi Americana (1702) is a miscellanyof materials on the ecclesiastical history of New Eng-land, vaguely intended to show how the history of Mas-sachusetts demonstrated the working of God’s will.Today he is perhaps best known because of his partici-pation in the Salem witch trials of 1692. He helped tostir up a wave of hysterical fear with his MemorableProvidences Relating to Witchcraft and Possessions(1689). Later, he was disappointed in his hopes ofbeing president of Harvard, but was one of the moving

spirits behind the founding of Yale.

Liberally excerpted from The Puritans, Vol 1by Perry Miller and Thomas A. Johnson,Harper and Row (New York, 1963).

The Invisible WorldOur people went to America because that

was the place to go then. —Ernest Hemingway, 1935

The more I study religions the more I am convincedthat man never worshiped anything but himself.

—Sir Richard Francis Burton (1821-1890)

With or without religion you would have good peopledoing good things and evil people doing evil things. Butfor good people to do evil things, that takes religion.

—Steve Weinberg (1933-), quoted in The New York Times, April 20, 1999

The opposite of the religious fanatic is not the fanaticalatheist but the gentle cynic who cares not whether thereis a god or not.

—Eric Hoffer (1902-1983)

What is all history but the work of ideas, a record of theincomputable energy which his infinite aspirations infuseinto man? Has anything grand and lasting been done?Who did it? Plainly not any man, but all men: it was theprevalence and inundation of an idea. What brought thepilgrims here? One man says civil liberty; another, the de-sire of the founding church; and a third discovers that themotive force was plantation and trade. But if the Puritanscould rise from the dust they could not answer. It is to beseen in what they were, and not in what they designed.

—Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1841

Family Portrait: The Last American Puritans

The term “Puritan” firstbegan as a taunt or in-sult applied by tradi-

tional Anglicans to thosewho criticized or wished to“purify” the Church ofEngland. Although theword is often appliedloosely, “Puritan” refers totwo distinct groups: “sepa-rating” Puritans, such asthe Plymouth colonists,who believed that theChurch of England wascorrupt and that true Chris-tians must separate them-selves from it; and non-separating Puritans, suchas the colonists who set-tled the Massachusetts BayColony, who believed inreform but not separation.Most Massachusettscolonists were non-sepa-rating Puritans who wishedto reform the establishedchurch, largely Congrega-tionalists who believed informing churches through voluntary compacts. Theidea of compacts or covenants was central to the Puri-tans’ conception of social, political and religious orga-nizations.

Beliefs

Several beliefs differentiated Puritans from other Chris-tians. The first was their belief in predestination,

which held that belief in Jesus and participation in thesacraments could not alone effect one’s salvation; onecannot choose salvation, for that is the privilege of Godalone. All features of salvation are determined byGod’s sovereignty, including choosing those who willbe saved and those who will receive God’s irresistiblegrace. The Puritans distinguished between “justifica-tion,” or the gift of God’s grace given to the elect, and“sanctification,” the holy behavior that supposedly re-

sulted when an indi-vidual had beensaved.

The concept ofcovenant or contractbetween God andhis elect pervaded

Puritan theology and social relationships.They inherited Renaissance humanism justas they inherited the Reformation, and soheld a place for Reason in their overall be-liefs. The Puritan idea of “Covenent The-ology” describes how after the fall of man,God voluntarily drew up a contract orcovenant with man in which he laid downthe terms and conditions of salvation, andpledged Himself to abide by them. Thedoctrine was not so much one of prescrip-tion as it was of explanation: it reasonedwhy certain people were saved and others

were not, and it gave the conditionsagainst which one might measure upone’s soul.


Above, ‘The Wonders of the Invisible World’ on “opera-tions of the Devils,” by Cotton Mather, 1693. The Rev-erend John Cotton. Below right, St. Botolph’s Church,Boston, where John Cotton was vicar.

Total Depravity: Through Adam and Eve’sfall, every person is born sinful.

Unconditional Election: God saves thosehe wishes; only a few are selected for Sal-vation.

Limited Atonement: Jesus died for thechosen only, not for everyone.

Irresistible Grace: God’s grace is freelygiven, it cannot be earned or denied.

Perseverance of the “saints”: Thoseelected by God have fullpower to interpret the

will of God, and to liveuprightly. If anyone

rejects grace afterfeeling its power in

his life, he isgoing againstthe will of God.

Basic Puritan Beliefs

Puritans in New England

-(continued)

Social Organization

Covenants also provided a practical means of organizingchurches. Since the state did not control the church,

the Puritans reasoned, there must be an alternatemethod of establishing authority.For God’s Word to functionfreely, and for each member tofeel an integral part of thechurch’s operations, each congre-gation must be self-sufficient,containing within itself all the of-fices and powers necessary forself-regulation. New England’sofficial apologist, John Cotton,termed this form of church gov-ernment ‘Congregational,’ mean-ing that all authority would be lo-cated within particular congrega-tions.

Unlike Anglican andCatholic churches of the time, Pu-ritan churches did not hold thatall parish residents should be fullchurch members. A true church,they believed, consisted not ofeveryone but of the elect. As atest of election, many New Eng-land churches began to require applicants for churchmembership to testify to their personal experience ofGod in the form of autobiographi-cal conversion narratives.

The Revealed Word

For the Puritans, The Bible was theLord’s revealed word, and only

through it did He directly commu-nicate to human beings. The reli-gious agency for the individual Pu-ritan was then located in intenseintrospection, in the attempt tocome to an awareness of one’sown spiritual state. The world, his-tory—everything—for the Puritanbecame a text to be interpreted.One could not expect all of God’sactions to be limited by one’s ideasor reason and justice, but one atleast had a general sense, John Cot-ton’s “essentiall wisdome,” as guid-ance. And of course, one had thekey, the basis of spiritual under-standing, the foundational text andall-encompassing code, The Bible.

Salem Witchcraft

It was because the Puritan mode of in-terpretivity could reach such extremes

that the Salem witch trials broke out.Of course, no one generally questionedthe belief in witches—Puritan or other-wise—and even as late as the close of

the seventeenth century scientists of repute in Englandaccepted certain phenomena due to witchcraft. But the

Puritan cosmology held a relent-less imaginative power, espe-cially demonstrated in narrativeswhere Providence was shown towork through nature and amonghuman beings.

Cotton Mather’s Memo-rable Providences, Relating toWitchcrafts and Possessions(1689) helped generate an un-balanced fascination withwitchcraft. This would proveboth fire and tinder for SalemVillage, so that by September,20 people and two dogs hadbeen executed as witches andhundreds more were eitherjailed or accused.

Excerpted from Donna M. Campbell’s“Puritanism in New England.” Liter-ary Movements 5 March 2003.http://www.gonzaga.edu/faculty/cam-pbell/ and “Pilgrims and Puritans” inContexts and Developments Feb. 2004.http://xroads.virginia.edu/~CAP/Puri-tan/


Above, the Salem Witch Trials: A GirlBewitched. Cotton Mather’s publication,left, supporting witchcraft trials andbelow, a page from the Book of Exodusin ‘The Holy Bible’ (Genevan version,1611) showing the moral precepts whichthe Puritans followed to the letter.


*SIMON BILLIG (Reverend Doakes)appeared at SCR in Lobby Hero, En-tertaining Mr. Sloane, Tom Walker,All My Sons and the world premieresof Howard Korder’s The HollowLands and Amy Freed’s Freedom-land. He made his SCR debut inDeath of a Salesman. His other the-atre credits include Sleuth at CapitalRep, Richard III at The ShakespeareTheatre, Arms and the Man at theAlley Theatre, Shakespeare FestivalL.A.’s production of Othello, Love’sLabour’s Lost at the New JerseyShakespeare Festival, Forty FourSycamore and King Lear at theAsolo Theatre and The Public The-ater/ New York Shakespeare Festi-val’s The Comedy of Errors. He is amember of The Actor’s CompanyTheatre in New York, with whomhe has appeared in numerous pro-ductions, most recently as Luke inLook Homeward Angel. Mr. Billig’sfilm credits include The Thin Red

Line, Tripwire, Bad City Blues andDean Quixote. His television creditsinclude the role of Hogan on “StarTrek: Voyager”; recurring roles on“Babylon 5” and “Silk Stalkings”;and guest appearances on “DarkSkies,” “Cybill,” “JAG,” “Time Cop,”“Seven Days,” “VIP,” “All My Chil-dren,” television specials with JasonAlexander and the cast of “Frasier”and the movie-of-the-week TheElian Gonzales Story. Mr. Billig hasa BA from Duke University and wastrained at The Juilliard School.

*MADISON DUNAWAY (Abigail/Ensemble) makes her SCR debutafter recently playing a young Britisharistocrat in the upcoming filmPrincess Diaries II with Julie An-drews and Anne Hathaway. Hermost recent theatre credits includeAnnelle in Steel Magnolias at the Fal-con Theatre and Agnes in Agnes ofGod at the International City Theatre

for which she received nominationsfrom the LA Stage Alliance OvationAwards, the Los Angeles Drama Crit-ics Circle Awards and the RobbieAwards for Best Lead Actress in aPlay. Before arriving in Los Angeles,she was a company member of thecritically acclaimed Denver CivicTheatre where she performed vari-ous roles such as Helen in Machi-nal and Juliet in Measure for Mea-sure. Other favorite theatre creditsinclude Erin in the world premiereof Robert Vaughn’s Praying for Rainwith the Curious Theatre Company,Laura in The Glass Menagerie,Deirdre in I Hate Hamlet, Phoebe inAs You Like It, Margaret in LittleWomen and Beatrice in Much Adoabout Nothing. Current film andtelevision projects include the filmThink Again which is presently mak-ing the independent circuit rounds,One Minute Soap Operas, Heart ofthe Possible and The Drummer.

Artist Biographies

MADISON DUNAWAY

Abigail/EnsembleSUZANNE JAMIESON

Maggie Smurt/EnsembleSIMON BILLIG

Reverend Doakes


SUZANNE JAMIESON (MaggieSmurt/Ensemble) is making her SCRdebut. Theatre credits include NotSo Tall Tales at Theatre District atthe Cast, A Day in Hollywood, ANight in the Ukraine with ArtsTrust,Sweet Charity at Syracuse University,How I Learned to Drive at the Con-temporary Theatre of Syracuse,Coming Attractions at SyracuseStage and her own cabaret, Achiev-ing Queendom. Ms. Jamieson re-ceived her BFA in Musical Theatrefrom Syracuse University. Thanksto her family and Brian for all theirsupport.

*COLETTE KILROY (Mrs. Doakes/ En-semble) appeared at SCR in the Pa-cific Playwrights Festival reading ofSafe in Hell and the production ofThe Homecoming. Prior to that sheappeared in Tom Walker, DimlyPerceived Threats to the System, Tri-umph of Love and Night and HerStars. Other West Coast credits in-clude Two Headed at the JohnAnson Ford Theatre (best actressnomination LA Weekly), Quills at theGeffen Playhouse, The Real Thing atthe Pasadena Playhouse, Life Dur-ing Wartime at La Jolla Playhouseand Life is a Dream at Los AngelesTheatre Center. She appeared asPortia in Julius Caesar at The

Joseph Papp Public Theater/NewYork Shakespeare Festival. OtherEast Coast credits include perfor-mances at the American Place The-atre, Center Stage, Yale RepertoryTheatre, Williamstown Theatre Festi-val and New Jersey ShakespeareFestival. Film and television creditsinclude The Place We Call Earth,Ang Lee’s The Ice Storm, BetweenBrothers, “Without a Trace,” “Judg-ing Amy,” “Ally McBeal,” “In theLine of Duty: Standoff at Marion”and “The Profiler.” She receivedher MFA from the Yale School ofDrama.

*HAL LANDON JR. (Indian Roger) isan SCR Founding Artist who recent-ly appeared in Antigone, The Draw-er Boy (LADCC Award nomination),Two Gentlemen of Verona, MajorBarbara, Getting Frankie Married—and Afterwards, The School forWives, Much Ado about Nothing,Entertaining Mr. Sloane, The HollowLands, True West, Play Strindberg,Tartuffe and Ah, Wilderness! Othercredits include Arcadia, Our Town,Sidney Bechet Killed a Man, BAFO,Six Degrees of Separation, An IdealHusband, A Mess of Plays by ChrisDurang , The Things You Don’tKnow, Faith Healer, Ghost in theMachine, Green Icebergs, Morning’s

at Seven, Dancing at Lughnasa, TheMiser, Our Country’s Good andWaiting for Godot. He created therole of Ebenezer Scrooge in SCR’s AChristmas Carol, and has performedit in all 24 annual productions. Heappeared in Leander Stillwell at theMark Taper Forum and in Henry Vat The Old Globe in San Diego.Other resident theatre roles includeSalieri in Amadeus, Malvolio inTwelfth Night and Gordon Miller inRoom Service. Among his film cred-its are Trespass, Pacific Heights, Al-most an Angel, Bill and Ted’s Excel-lent Adventure and Playing byHeart. Television credits include arecent episode of “Frasier.”

*TRACEY A. LEIGH (Tituba) is mak-ing her SCR debut. Theatre creditsinclude the national tour of TheVagina Monologues and the Off-Broadway productions of Attemptson Her Life at Soho Repertory, Krisitat Primary Stages, Up Against theWind at the New York TheatreWorkshop, A Lesson Before Dying atthe Signature Theatre and LeMenage at La MaMa. Regional the-atre credits include DrowningCrow/The Seagull at Baltimore Cen-ter Stage; Oak & Ivy at Arena Stage;Stonewall Jackson’s House, Blues foran Alabama Sky and A Christmas

HAL LANDON JR.Indian Roger

TRACEY A. LEIGH

Tituba/EnsembleCOLETTE KILROY

Mrs. Doakes/Ensemble


Carol at ACT; Exhibit #9 at TheatreOutrageous; Homelife of Polar Bearsat the O’Neill Festival; The CherryOrchard and Twelfth Night at LaJolla Playhouse; Romeo and Juliet atIndiana Repertory Theatre; and JoeTurner’s Come and Gone, From theMississippi Delta, Love’s Labour’sLost, All in the Timing, Ghosts andGoodnight Desdemona, Good Morn-ing Juliet at Milwaukee RepertoryTheatre. Television credits include“Strong Medicine,” “Law and Order,”“Under Suspicion,” “Charmed” and“Under One Roof.”

*GRAEME MALCOLM (IncreaseMather) is making his SCR debut.He has appeared on Broadway inAida (Pharaoh) and The King and I(Cpt. Orton/Sir Edward Ramsey) andthe national tour of M. Butterfly(Gallimard). Off-Broadway appear-ances include Curtains at the JohnHouseman Theatre, Waste at Theatrefor a New Audience, Hapgood atLincoln Center, Aristocrats and Prinat Manhattan Theatre Club, PerfectCrime at Theatre Four, EducatingRita at the Phoenix Theatre, RoughCrossing at the New Theatre ofBrooklyn, K at the American JewishTheatre and Rough for Theatre at theDrama League. He has appeared atregional theatres nationwide includ-

ing Paper Mill, Actors Theatre ofLouisville, Yale Repertory, HartfordStage, Portland Stage, Theatre Vir-ginia and the McCarter Theatre.Film and television credits includeNational Treasure, Death by Com-mittee, Nadezda, Endsville, Every-thing’s Jake, The Eden Myth, The Ad-ventures of Sebastian Cole, TheBreak, “Whoopi,” “Law & Order:Criminal Intent,” “All My Children,”“Darwin,” “Law & Order,” “Againstthe Law,” “As the World Turns,”“One Life to Live” and “GuidingLight.”

*ELISA RICHARDSON (LittleMary/Ensemble) is making her SCRdebut. She holds an MFA from Rut-gers University under the directionof William Esper. Theatre credits in-clude A Midsummer Night’s Dreamand Lysistrata the Musical at the WillGeer Theatricum Botanicum; Rutgerson Broadway at the Majestic The-atre; Maggie, A Girl of the Streets atthe Pacific Repertory Theatre; andFoul Ball at The Old Globe. Ms.Richarson’s favorite past roles in-clude Juliet in Romeo and Juliet,Ophelia in Hamlet, Daisy Mae in Li’lAbner and Emily Webb in OurTown. Film and television creditsinclude Fox Searchlab’s Delusion,The Trumpeter, Life after Death,

“Days of Our Lives” and “GuidingLight.” She would like to thank hermom for all her love and support.

*ROBERT SELLA (Cotton Mather) ismaking his SCR debut. Broadwaycredits include Cabaret (Emcee),Sideman (Clifford) and My FairLady (Freddie). Off-Broadway heappeared in Boys and Girls (Play-wrights Horizons) Kit Marlowe (ThePublic Theater), Home of the Brave(Jewish Repertory Theatre) and TheWater Children (Playwrights Hori-zons). He toured in Angels inAmerica (Prior, first national tour)and My Fair Lady (Freddie). Resi-dent theatre credits include TheGlass Menagerie (Tom) and BlackCoffee (Richard) at Alley Theatre,Don Carlos (Carlos) and MourningBecomes Electra (Orin) at Shake-speare Theatre, and The Night Gov-erness (Gerald) at McCarter Theatre,among others. Film and televisioncredits include Sleepy Hollow, TheAstronaut’s Wife, “Third Watch,”“Law and Order” and “Diary of aCity Priest.” Mr. Sella is a Fox Foun-dation Fellow and a graduate of TheJuilliard School.

*DON TOOK (Judge/Townsman/ En-semble) is an SCR Founding Artistwho recently appeared in A Christ-

ROBERT SELLA

Cotton MatherGRAEME MALCOLM

Increase MatherELISA RICHARDSON

Little Mary/Ensemble

mas Carol, Two Gentlemen ofVerona, The School for Wives, TheBeard of Avon, Much Ado aboutNothing and The Countess. In previ-ous seasons, he was seen in TheHollow Lands, The Philanderer, PlayStrindberg, Tartuffe, Ah, Wilderness!,Pygmalion, Our Town, Arcadia,BAFO (for which he won a Drama-Logue Award), She Stoops to Folly,Three Viewings, A Streetcar NamedDesire, The Misanthrope and Ptero-dactyls. He also appeared in theworld premiere of Hospitality Suiteand the revival of The PhiladelphiaStory. Mr. Took is proud to be anSCR Founding Artist with 40 years ofexperience in a wide variety ofroles. He enjoyed playing the roleof Greg in a record-breaking run ofA.R. Gurney’s Sylvia at the LagunaPlayhouse. Television credits in-clude appearances on “Roseanne,”

“Cheers,” “General Hospital,” “ER”;and he recently had a recurring roleas the evil Agent Grey in the ABCspy series, “Alias.”

PLAYWRIGHT,DIRECTOR & DESIGNERS

AMY FREED (Playwright) is the au-thor of The Beard of Avon whichwas commissioned and premieredby SCR and has been produced bythe Goodman Theatre, ACT, SeattleRepertory and New York TheatreWorkshop among others. Her playFreedomland, also commissionedand premiered by SCR, was aPulitzer finalist in 1998, with subse-quent productions at Woolly Mam-moth and Playwrights Horizons.The Psychic Life of Savages was the1995 recipient of the Joseph Kessel-ring Award, a national award pre-sented each year by the New YorkArts Club to an outstanding newplay. Psychic Life was also namedthe winner of the prestigious CharlesMcArthur Award for OutstandingNew Play at the annual Helen HayesAwards in Washington, DC. Theplay had an extended run after asuccessful premiere at the WoollyMammoth. An earlier version of theplay was first developed and per-formed in San Francisco under thetitle Poetomachia where it receiveda Bay Area Critic’s Circle Outstand-ing Achievement Award for an Orig-inal Script. In its earlier version, itwas also a finalist for the SusanSmith Blackburn Prize in 1994. Anative New Yorker and former ac-

tress, Freed lives in San Francisco.She has worked as an acting teacherand director for the various trainingprograms of the American Conserva-tory Theatre, VITA Shakespeare Fes-tival, and California ShakespeareFestival, as well as conducting play-writing workshops for A.C.T. andSan Francisco State University. Shehas a BFA from Southern MethodistUniversity, and a MFA from Ameri-can Conservatory Theatre.

DAVID EMMES (Director/ProducingArtistic Director) is co-founder ofSCR, one of the largest professionalresident theatres in California. Hehas received numerous awards forproductions he has directed duringSCR’s 39-year history, including a1999 Los Angeles Drama Critics Cir-cle Award for the direction ofGeorge Bernard Shaw’s The Philan-derer. He directed the world pre-mieres of Amy Freed’s The Beard ofAvon and Freedomland, ThomasBabe’s Great Day in the Morning,Keith Reddin’s Rum and Coke andBut Not for Me and Neal Bell’s ColdSweat; the American premiere ofTerry Johnson’s Unsuitable forAdults; the West Coast premieres ofC.P. Taylor’s Good and Harry Kon-doleon’s Christmas on Mars; and theSouthland premiere of Top Girls (atSCR and the Westwood Playhouse).Other productions include the WestCoast premieres of Three Viewingsby Jeffrey Hatcher, The Secret Rap-ture by David Hare and New Eng-land by Richard Nelson; and Arca-dia by Tom Stoppard, Six Degrees of


Call (714) 708-5555or buy online at www.scr.org

World

Premiere

by Noah Haidle

April 25 - May 16 | Argyros StageA smartly inventive look at the games people play, seen throughthe eyes of a four-year-old with a vivid imagination. Her make-believe companion may be too busy at work, but he plans to carveout time for that promised vacation in the Yucatán.

ADULT CONTENT AND LANGUAGE

DON TOOK

Judge/Townsman/Ensemble


Separation by John Guare, The Im-portance of Being Earnest by OscarWilde, Ayckbourn’s Woman inMind and Relatively Speaking andYou Never Can Tell by GeorgeBernard Shaw, which he restagedfor the Singapore Festival of Arts.His producing responsibilities in-volve the overall coordination ofSCR’s programs and projects. Hehas served as a consultant to the Or-ange County Performing Arts Centerand as a theatre panelist and onsiteevaluator for the National Endow-ment for the Arts. He has served onthe Executive Committee of theLeague of Resident Theatres, and asa panelist for the California ArtsCouncil. After attending OrangeCoast College, he received his BAand MA from California State Univer-sity, San Francisco, and his PhD intheatre and film from USC.

RALPH FUNICELLO (Scenic Design) isback at SCR for his 20th season.Among his SCR credits are the de-signs for Major Barbara, The Circle,The Education of Randy Newman,The Piano Lesson, Tartuffe, PrivateLives, Old Times, Death of a Sales-man, Six Degrees of Separation, SheStoops to Folly, The Misanthrope,Dancing at Lughnasa, HeddaGabler, The Miser, Twelfth Night,Happy End, Kiss of the SpiderWoman, Speed-The-Plow, Going forGold, Misalliance, Highest Standardof Living, Buried Child, Good andDa. His work has been seen Onand Off-Broadway, and at many res-ident theatres including Lincoln Cen-

ter, Intiman Theatre, Seattle Reperto-ry Theatre, Denver Center Theatre,Berkeley Repertory Theatre, GuthrieTheater, McCarter Theater Center,The Oregon Shakespeare Festival,Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, Strat-ford Shakespearean Festival of Cana-da and The Old Globe, where he isan Associate Artist. He has had along association with the MarkTaper Forum and worked for 30years with San Francisco’s AmericanConservatory Theatre, where he wasDirector of Design. Mr. Funicellodesigned the scenery for the ac-claimed production of La Rondinefor New York City Opera and TheTaming of the Shrew for PBS. Heserved on the National Endowmentfor the Arts theatre panel, and hiswork is featured in the book Ameri-can Set Design. He is currently thePowell Chair in Set Design at SanDiego University.

NEPHELIE ANDONYADIS (CostumeDesign) is delighted to return toSCR, where she designed the setsand costumes for Relatively Speak-ing, costumes for The Dazzle andDimly Perceived Threats to the Sys-tem, scenery for The Summer Moonand costumes for the first two sea-sons of the Pacific Playwrights Festi-val. Recent designs in Southern Cal-ifornia include costumes for LilyPlants A Garden for the Taper’sP.L.A.Y. tour, costumes for Corner-stone Theater’s Order My Steps andthe set for Sid Arthur, a collabora-tion of Cornerstone Theater Compa-ny and the community of Watts. Re-

gionally, she has designed sceneryand/or costumes for many theatresincluding the Guthrie Lab in Min-neapolis, Court Theatre, ChicagoChildren’s Theatre, Great Lakes The-atre Festival, The Acting Company,Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble,Shakespeare Santa Cruz, IdahoShakespeare Festival, Berkshire The-atre Festival and Yale RepertoryTheatre. Ms. Andonyadis teachesdesign in the theatre department atthe University of Redlands. She is agraduate of the Yale School ofDrama and Cornell University andthe recipient of an NEA/TCG designfellowship.

PETER MARADUDIN (LightingDesign) is pleased to return to SouthCoast Repertory, where he has de-signed over 30 productions includ-ing The Piano Lesson, Hurrah atLast, Great Day in the Morning andPrelude to a Kiss. On Broadway hedesigned the lighting for MaRainey’s Black Bottom and thePulitzer Prize-winning The KentuckyCycle, and Off-Broadway Hurrah atLast, Ballad of Yachiyo and Bounc-ers. Mr. Maradudin has designedover 300 regional theatre produc-tions for such companies as TheKennedy Center, The Guthrie The-ater, American Conservatory The-ater, Berkeley Repertory Theatre,Mark Taper Forum, La Jolla Play-house, Seattle Repertory Theatre,The Old Globe, Huntington TheatreCompany, Actors Theatre ofLouisville, Steppenwolf and the Ore-gon Shakespeare Festival. He is a

THE 7TH ANNUAL

SCR invites adventurous audiences to this national forum dedicated to developing and producing new plays.

MAY

7 –

9,2

004 Staged Readings $10

VESUVIUSby Lucinda Coxon

Friday May 7, 1:00 pm

SOUTH COAST REPERTORY PRESENTS

THE CLEAN HOUSEby Sarah Ruhl

Friday May 7, 3:30 pm

THE SINGING FORESTby Craig Lucas

Saturday May 8,10:30 am

A play to be announced by Richard Greenberg

Sunday May 9, 11:00 am


founding principal of Light andTruth, a lighting design consultancyfor architecture and themed environ-ments, and is the author of the mu-sicals The Count of Monte Cristo, TheShadow and The Body Snatcher andthe plays Eugene Onegin and TheWoman in White.

DAVID BUDRIES (Sound Design) isdelighted to return to SCR where hisprevious sound designs include theworld premiere of Rolin Jones’ TheIntelligent Design of Jenny Chow,Going for Gold by Louise Page, theworld premiere of Howard Korder’sSearch and Destroy, the SecondStage productions of Kiss of the Spi-der Woman by Manuel Puig andPlayland by Athol Fugard. Budrieshas created sound scores for manyAmerican regional theatres, Broad-way and Off-Broadway, including 75productions for the Hartford StageCompany. He owns Sound Situa-tion, an independent music produc-tion studio specializing in the cre-ation of sound scores and music forthe performing arts, broadcast mediaand museums. He chairs the SoundDesign program at the Yale Schoolof Drama and is the Resident SoundDesigner for Yale Repertory Theatre.

SYLVIA C. TURNER (Choreographer)is an award-winning choreographerand educator who has been activein professional theatre, concertdance and arts organizations formany years. She has performedprofessionally in the United Statesand Japan, and has conducted dance

research in Europe, West Africa, andthe Caribbean. Her work has beenseen in more than fifteen SCR pro-ductions, including Twelfth Night,Cherry Orchard, The Birds with Cul-ture Clash, Arcadia, Dancing atLughnasa, and many EducationalTouring Productions. Other creditsinclude “The Lion King Parade andStreet Show” at Disneyland, an ani-mated film for the Luxor Hotel, LasVegas, Bridge to Angel Island forBallet Pacifica, and a collaborativework Bullwhip Days based on slavenarratives, in addition to her manyconcert works. She choreographsfor nationally competitive skaters,and has written on ice skatingchoreography for Dance Magazine.Ms. Turner adjudicates choreogra-phy, serves as a panelist for privateand public arts granting agencies,and sits on state review boards inarts education. Ms. Turner is cur-rently Director of Fine and Perform-ing Arts at Santa Ana College.

JENNIFER KIGER (Dramaturg) joinedthe SCR staff in 1999 and becameLiterary Manager in 2000. In that ca-pacity she screens scripts for devel-opment and production and servesas dramaturg on half of SCR’s work-shops and productions each season.She is also the associate director ofthe Pacific Playwrights Festival. Re-cent projects include Nilo Cruz’sAnna in the Tropics, the world pre-mieres of The Intelligent Design ofJenny Chow by Rolin Jones, LucindaCoxon’s Nostalgia, Amy Freed’s TheBeard of Avon and the site-specific

California Scenarios, directed byJuliette Carrillo. Previously, sheserved as dramaturg at the AmericanRepertory Theatre in Cambridge, MAfor several productions, including Inthe Jungle of Cities directed byRobert Woodruff, Phaedra directedby Liz Diamond, the world pre-mieres of Robert Coover’s Charlie inthe House of Rue and Mac Wellman’sHypatia directed by Bob McGrath,and Robert Brustein’s adaptation ofThe Master Builder directed by KateWhoriskey. She completed her pro-fessional training as a dramaturg atthe ART Institute at Harvard andtaught acting and dramatic arts atHarvard University.

JERRY PATCH (Dramaturg) has beenaffiliated with South Coast Repertorysince 1967. He has served as dra-maturg on nearly 150 new playsseen here since 1980, including theworld premieres of Abundance,Freedomland, Golden Child, Searchand Destroy, Sight Unseen, ThreeDays of Rain and Wit. His dramaticwriting has been produced at SCRand other theatres and on television.He co-conceived The Education ofRandy Newman with Michael Rothand Mr. Newman (SCR, 2000). Forseven years he was Artistic Directorof the theatre program of the Sun-dance Institute. He serves as con-sulting dramaturg for the Round-about Theatre Company in NewYork.

*RANDALL K. LUM (Stage Manager)is pleased to be part of SCR’s 40th

SCR’S JUNIOR PLAYERS PRESENT THEATRE FOR KIDS – BY KIDS

Adapted for the stage by Jim Leonard, Jr.From a story by Barry LopezMusic by John Luther AdamsDirected by Hisa Takakuwa

This adaptation of a Native American tale is set in mythical times when the world was still new. Two young Animal Peopletravel north from their village toward The Land Where Dreaming Begins. The journey takes them across rivers, throughforests of talking trees, to the the edge of the Arctic Circle and beyond—into a world where dreams and reality collide.

In the Nicholas Studio

May 15 - 16 1 & 4 p.m.

May 22 - 23 1 & 4 p.m.

GENERAL ADMISSION: $7 Call (714) 708-5555 Or visit www.scr.org


Season and well into his 14th yearwith the company. This season hehas worked on Antigone, The LastNight of Ballyhoo and Terra Nova.Last season he stage managedMajor Barbara, Proof and IntimateApparel. Two seasons ago he hadthe pleasure of working on GettingFrankie Married—and Afterwards,The School for Wives, The Home-coming and The Circle. During hislong association as one of SCR’s res-ident stage managers he hasworked on more than a dozenworld premieres and has been asso-ciated with over 65 productions. In1997, Mr. Lum stage managed theAIDS Benefit Help is on the Way IIIat the Palace of Fine Arts in SanFrancisco. Other stage managementcredits include the American Con-servatory Theatre in San Francisco,The Old Globe in San Diego, Berke-ley Repertory Theatre, San JoseCivic Light Opera, VITA Shake-speare Festival, Pacific Conservatoryof the Performing Arts, Long BeachBallet, San Francisco ConventionBureau and Kawasaki Motorcycles.He would like everyone to take amoment to remember all those whohave lost the battle and all thosestill suffering and fighting the AIDSepidemic.

*SCOTT HARRISON (Assistant StageManager) has been with SCR forfourteen seasons and most recentlyassisted on Antigone. As part of hiscontinuous support and acknowl-edgement of his friends and col-leagues who are battling the fight ofHIV/AIDS, Mr. Harrison has beenbusy spending his free time, alongwith Jamie A. Tucker, training andseeking donations for an AIDSfundraising/cycling tour of Hawaii(www.paradiseridehawaii. com) thissummer.

MARTIN BENSON (Artistic Director)shares co-founder credit and artisticleadership of SCR with his col-league David Emmes. As one ofSCR’s chief directors, Mr. Bensonhas directed nearly one third of theplays produced here in the last 39years. He has distinguished himselfin the staging of contemporarywork, including Horton Foote’s TheCarpetbagger’s Children and theworld premiere of Foote’s GettingFrankie Married—and Afterwards,the critically acclaimed Californiapremiere of William Nicholson’sShadowlands, Athol Fugard’s Play-land , Brian Friel’s Dancing atLughnasa, David Mamet’s Oleanna,Harold Pinter’s The Homecoming,David Hare’s Skylight and the WestCoast premieres of Peter Hedges’Good As New and Martin McDon-agh’s The Lonesome West. He haswon accolades for his direction offive major works by GeorgeBernard Shaw, including the LosAngeles Drama Critics Circle(LADCC) Award-winners MajorBarbara, Misalliance and Heart-break House. Among the numer-ous world premieres he has direct-ed are Tom Strelich’s BAFO andMargaret Edson’s Pulitzer Prize-win-ning Wit, which he also directed atSeattle Repertory Theatre and theAlley Theatre in Houston. He hasdirected American classics includ-ing Ah, Wilderness!, A StreetcarNamed Desire, A Delicate Balanceand All My Sons. Mr. Benson hasbeen honored with the Drama-Logue Award for his direction of 21productions and received LADCCDistinguished Achievement in Di-recting awards an unparalleledseven times for the three Shaw pro-ductions, John Millington Synge’sPlayboy of the Western World ,Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, Sally

Nemeth’s Holy Days and Wit. Healso directed the film version ofHoly Days using the original SCRcast. Along with David Emmes, heaccepted SCR’s 1988 Tony Awardfor Outstanding Resident Profes-sional Theatre and won the 1995Theatre LA Ovation Award for Life-time Achievement. Mr. Benson re-ceived his BA in Theatre from Cali-fornia State University, San Francis-co.

PAULA TOMEI (Managing Director)is responsible for the overall ad-ministration of South Coast Reper-tory and has been Managing Direc-tor since 1994. A member of theSCR staff since 1979, she has servedin a number of administrative ca-pacities including SubscriptionsManager, Business Manager andGeneral Manager. She currentlyserves as President of the TheatreCommunications Group (TCG), thenational service organization for theprofessional not-for-profit theatre.In addition, she has served as Trea-surer of TCG, Vice President of theLeague of Resident Theatres(LORT) and has been a member ofthe LORT Negotiating Committeefor industry-wide union agree-ments. She represents SCR at na-tional conferences of TCG andLORT; is a theatre panelist and sitevisitor for the National Endowmentfor the Arts and the California ArtsCouncil; served on the AdvisoryCommittee for the Arts Administra-tion Certificate Program at the Uni-versity of California, Irvine; and hasbeen a guest lecturer in the gradu-ate school of business at Stanford.She graduated from the Universityof California, Irvine with a degreein Economics and pursued an addi-tional course of study in theatreand dance.

The Actors and Stage Managers em-ployed in this production are membersof Actors’ Equity Association, the Unionof Professional Actors and Stage Man-agers in the United States.

The Scenic, Costume, Lighting andSound Designers in LORT theatresare represented by United ScenicArtists Local USA-829, IATSE.

The Director is a member of the Soci-ety of Stage Directors and Choreogra-phers, Inc., an independent nationallabor union.

presents the world premiere of safe in hell€¦ · ralph funicello nephelie andonyadis peter...

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