SCR/Party Play with Ann Conway

Playwright Nilo Cruz, Director Kate Whoriskey, Honorary Producers Jean and Tim Weiss

American Airlines' Carolyn Davis, actor Daniel Breaker, American Airlines' Alice Kikuchi

LIFE IS A DREAM CASTS SPELL
By Ann Conway

If First Nighters felt like they had just emerged from a trance after watching the opening night performance on Feb. 9 of the Nilo Cruz-translated and Kate Whoriskey-directed Spanish classic, Life is a Dream on Segerstrom Stage, then the bash that followed was their wakeup call.

Eye-popping decor ablaze with the vibrant reds and oranges used in the futuristic production's avante-garde stage-scape lit up the spacious lobby of the Deloitte Building, where partygoers not only got to rub elbows with members of the cast —  with John de Lancie, Daniel Breaker and Richard Doyle among them — but the Pulitzer Prize-winning Cruz (for "Anna and the Tropics," which had its West Coast premiere at SCR) and Whoriskey, the theatre world's hot young director.

No chance for dreaming here (the mouthwatering chicken crepes alone were enough to keep play-goers pinching themselves). The SRO crowd roared with joviality and excitement.

The 17th-Century masterpiece by Spain's answer to Shakespeare, Pedro Calderón de la Barca, weaves a tale about a banished prince, Segismundo (Breaker), who is brought home by his father, the fearful King Basilio (de Lancie), only to be found wanting and is sent away again, convinced that his homecoming was all a dream. The play's honorary producers are Tim and Jean Weiss and American Airlines.

No doubt, the production's theme about whether life is just a dream and all of us dreamers had guests pondering and re-pondering that eternal question. But the jolting energy of the First Nighters' party pedaled the philosophy expressed by Segismundo in his closing soliloquy: "So, let us dream!"

Indeed.

Among guests:  Vina Williams and Tom Slattery, David and Izzy Hirson, Paula Joubert-Greene, George and Diane Dorman, Paulette Kolbenschlag and Don and DeeDee Sodaro.

U.S. Bank's Bill Cave, Christy Cave and actor Richard Doyle	Bette and Wylie Aitken, Elaine Weinberg
Bart and Laurie Brown, Margi and John Murray	Playwright Nilo Cruz, Kim and Nancy Kelley
Kae Ewing, Laurie Brown, actor Jason Manuel Olazabal (right) and guest	S.L. and Betty Huang, actor Jennifer Chu, Connie and Peter Spenuzza
Literary Manager Megan Monaghan with NewSCRipts (Incendiary) playwright Adam Szymkowicz and director Shelley Butler	Nola Schneer, center, with her daughter Erica, left, and Lisa Clarke
Director Kate Whoriskey (center) with Monica and Richard Watson	Linda and Tod White, Toby and Darci Schriber, Ary Katz, Laurie Smits Staude, Luis Vega
Jack and Kay Schoellerman, Joanne and Dennis Keith	Wylie Aitken and Elaine Weinberg
Futuristic Party Setting	Food Display

Actor John de Lancie and Paula Tomei	Party Table	Nola Schneer, John de Lancie