The Happy Ones: A tale of tragedy and friendship in 1970s Orange County
COSTA MESA, Calif. (Aug. 29, 2008) — South Coast Repertory will present the world premiere of The Happy Ones, the story of an Orange County man who must rediscover his optimism in the wake of tragedy, on the Julianne Argyros Stage Sept. 27 – Oct. 18.
The play, set in Garden Grove in the mid-1970s, was commissioned by SCR and written by Julie Marie Myatt. It will be directed by Martin Benson, SCR’s artistic director. Raphael Sbarge plays Walter, an appliance-store owner who has the perfect life until fate intervenes. There to help in his time of need are his best friend, Gary (Geoffrey Lower), a not-very-good minister with a taste for alcohol; Mary-Ellen (Nike Doukas), Gary’s party-hearty new girlfriend; and Bao (Greg Watanabe), a Vietnamese refugee still haunted by his own troubled past.
“It’s a riveting play that deals with a shocking event and its aftermath through the reactions of immensely compelling characters, and at the same time, it’s very funny,” said Benson.
'Low-priced preview tickets to The Happy Ones are available Sept. 27 through Oct. 1. Opening night is Oct. 2. Press night is Saturday, Oct. 3, at 7:45 p.m. Tickets may be purchased online at www.scr.org, by phone at (714) 708-5555 or in person at the SCR box office.
The Happy Ones is Myatt’s second SCR production, after 2007’s My Wandering Boy. Myatt, a resident of Los Feliz, has enjoyed great success in recent years, most recently with well-received productions of Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and The Kennedy Center.
“Julie knows how to strike that delicate balance,” said Producing Artistic Director David Emmes. “She’s able to find the humor in a serious situation, and the serious in a seemingly comic situation.”
The Happy Ones’ creative team includes Oanh Nguyen (associate director), Ralph Funicello (set design), Angela Balogh Calin (costume design) Tom Ruzika (lighting design) Paul James Prendergast (sound design), John Glore (dramaturg) and Jennifer Ellen Butler (stage manager).
Mary Beth Adderley is the Honorary Producer of The Happy Ones, which is a recipient of an Edgerton Foundation New American Plays award. OC Metro is the media partner.
TICKETS can be purchased online at www.scr.org, by phone at (714) 708-5555 or by visiting the box office at 655 Town Center Drive in Costa Mesa. Performances begin on Sept. 27 and continue through Oct. 18. Ticket prices range from $20 to $65. Low-priced preview performances are available from Sept. 27-Oct. 1. Performance times: Previews: Sunday, Sept. 27 at 2 p.m., and Tuesday, Sept. 29, Wednesday, Sept. 30, and Thursday, Oct. 1 at 7:45 p.m. Regular Performances: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings at 7:45 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2 p.m. Discounts are available for full-time students, patrons 25 years of age and under, educators, seniors and groups of 15 or more. There will be a “Pay-What-You-Will” performance on Saturday, Oct. 3 at 2 p.m. ($10 minimum) and an ASL-interpreted performance on Saturday, Oct. 17 at 2 p.m.
POST-SHOW DISCUSSIONS: Tuesday, Oct. 6 & Wednesday, Oct. 7 Discuss the play with members of The Happy Ones cast during free post-show discussions led by South Coast Repertory’s literary team after the 7:45 p.m. performances on Oct. 6 and 7.
INSIDE THE SEASON: Saturday, Oct. 10, 10:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. $12 Inside the Season is a series of interactive classes that provide a comprehensive inside look at the theatrical production process. Each two-hour class is led by Literary and Education Associate Linda Sullivan Baity and features creative personnel from South Coast Repertory’s current production. Inside the Season is offered on select Saturday mornings from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Tickets are $12 each and can be purchased by calling the Box Office at (714) 708-5555. (Tickets to The Happy Ones are sold separately.)
LOCATION: South Coast Repertory is located at 655 Town Center Drive in Costa Mesa, at the Bristol Street/Avenue of the Arts exit off the San Diego (405) Freeway in the Folino Theater Center, part of the Segerstrom Center for the Arts. Parking is available off Anton Blvd. on Park Center Drive.
COMING UP: Saturn Returns (10/23-11/22), Junie B. Jones and a Little Monkey Business (11/6-22), A Christmas Carol (11/28-12/26).
Tony Award-winning South Coast Repertory, under the artistic direction of David Emmes and Martin Benson, is widely recognized as one of the leading professional theaters in the United States. Founded in 1964, SCR is committed to theater that illuminates the compelling personal and social issues of our time, not only on its stages but through its education and outreach programs. While its productions represent a balance of classic and modern theater, SCR is renowned for its extensive new play development program, including the Pacific Playwrights Festival. Of SCR’s more than 435 productions, 112 have been world premieres with subsequent stagings achieving enormous success across America and around the world. SCR-developed works have garnered eight Pulitzer Prize nominations with Margaret Edson’s Wit winning the prize in 1999 and David Lindsay-Abaire’s Rabbit Hole in 2007. Located in Costa Mesa, California, in 2002 SCR opened the Folino Theater Center, an expanded three-theater complex that includes the 507-seat Segerstrom Stage, the 336-seat Julianne Argyros Stage and the 94-seat Nicholas Studio.
Biographies
JULIE MARIE MYATT (Playwright) Myatt’s My Wandering Boy premiered at SCR in the 2007 and was part of Pacific Playwrights Festival. It was also produced in New York as part of the 2007 Summer Play Festival. Her play Someday premiered as part of Cornerstone Theatre Company’s Justice Cycle in 2008. Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter has been playing at small theatres across the country after premiering at Oregon Shakespeare Festival; a tour of that production went to the Kennedy Center as part of the Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays. Boats On a River premiered at the Guthrie Theater, was a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, and was recorded for the LA Theatre Works radio play series, “The Play’s The Thing.” Her 10-minute play, Mr. and Mrs., premiered at the 2007 Humana Festival. Other work includes The Sex Habits of American Women, which was produced by the Guthrie Theater and Signature Theatre in Arlington, VA, among others, and premiered at the Magic Theatre in San Francisco. Her work has been developed or seen at Actors Theatre of Louisville, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Cherry Lane Theatre, A.S.K. Theatre Projects, LAByrinth Theater Company, Denver Center Theatre Company, among others. She received a Walt Disney Studios Screenwriting Fellowship, a Jerome Fellowship at the Playwrights’ Center, and a McKnight Advancement Grant. She is currently working on commissions for ACT Seattle, Roundabout Theatre and Yale Repertory. She is a resident member of New Dramatists.
MARTIN BENSON (Director), co-founder of SCR, has directed more than one-quarter of its plays. In May 2008, he and David Emmes received the Margo Jones Award for their lifetime commitment to theatre excellence and to fostering the art and craft of American playwriting. He has distinguished himself in the staging of contemporary work, including William Nicholson’s The Retreat from Moscow, the world premiere of Horton Foote’s Getting Frankie Married – and Afterwards, and the critically acclaimed California premiere of Nicholson’s Shadowlands. He has won accolades for his direction of five major works by George Bernard Shaw, including the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle (LADCC) Award-winners Major Barbara, Misalliance and Heartbreak House. Among his numerous world premieres is Margaret Edson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Wit, which he also directed at Seattle Repertory Theatre and the Alley Theatre in Houston. He has directed American classics including Ah! Wilderness, A Streetcar Named Desire, A Delicate Balance and A View from the Bridge. Benson has received the LADCC Distinguished Achievement in Directing awards an unparalleled seven times for the three Shaw productions, John Millington Synge’s Playboy of the Western World, Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, Sally Nemeth’s Holy Days and Wit. He also directed the film version of Holy Days using the original SCR cast. Along with Emmes, he accepted SCR’s 1998 Tony Award for Outstanding Resident Professional Theatre and won the 1995 Theatre LA Ovation Award for Lifetime Achievement. Benson received his BA in Theatre from San Francisco State University.
NIKE DOUKAS (Mary-Ellen Hughes) returns to SCR after appearing in last season’s Dead Man’s Cell Phone. Additional SCR credits include Ridiculous Fraud, Cyrano de Bergerac, Major Barbara, Much Ado About Nothing, Everett Beekin, The Beard of Avon, Pygmalion, How the Other Half Loves, Arms and the Man, Blithe Spirit, Green Icebergs, The Company of Heaven and Loot. Recent regional theatre credits include An Ideal Husband at the Pittsburgh Irish & Classical Theatre, Betrayal at New Place and Sea of Tranquility at The Old Globe. She has also performed at A Contemporary Theatre (Seattle), Pasadena Playhouse, Mark Taper Forum, Shakespeare Festival/LA, Doolittle Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, American Conservatory Theater, Shakespeare Santa Cruz and Berkeley Shakespeare Festival. Television and film credits include “Shark,” “Numb3rs,” a recurring role on “Desperate Housewives,” “Without a Trace,” “Criminal Minds,” “Boston Legal,” “Malcolm in the Middle,” a recurring role on “Almost Perfect” and the film Seven Girlfriends. Doukas has an MFA from American Conservatory Theater and is a member of the The Antaeus Company, where she appeared most recently in Tonight at 8:30. GEOFFREY LOWER (Minister Gary Stuart) is making his debut at SCR. Recently he appeared as Tilden in Buried Child at Ensemble Theatre Company Santa Barbara, Michael in Fiction at Pacific Stages and Petruchio in Taming of the Shrew at Shakespeare Festival/LA. Other Southern California credits include Lucy for L.A. Theatre Works, Betrayal for Ensemble Theatre Co., Twelfth Night, Much Ado About Nothing and Merry Wives of Windsor for Shakespeare Fest LA, Orgasms at the Canon Theatre Beverly Hills, The Merchant of Venice at The Old Globe, The Marrieds at the Whitmore Lundley, What Doesn’t Kill Us at the McCadden Place Theatre and There’s One In Every Marriage at Pacific Resident Theatre Ensemble. Regionally he has worked at The Shakespeare Company in D.C. for two seasons, Bristol Riverside Theatre with Marian Seldes in Happy Ending, written and directed by the late Garson Kanin, The Hartford Stage Co., The Colorado, Idaho and New York Shakespeare Festivals. In New York he has performed at Lincoln Center, the Pendragon Theatre Co. and for Joeseph Papp at the Public Theatre. He has done two national tours of The Great Tennessee Monkey Trial with Ed Asner and recorded plays for radio for LA Theatre Works. Among his many film and television credits he played a minister (who drank substantially less than this one) for six seasons on “Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman.” Mr. Lower is a Juilliard School graduate who lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two boys. RAPHAEL SBARGE (Walter Wells) returns to SCR after appearing in the NewSCRipts reading of The Happy Ones and Skitaletz and the Pacific Playwrights Festival readings of Getting Frankie Married — and Afterwards and The Mechanics. Broadway credits include Ah! Wilderness (with Jason Robards and Colleen Dewhurst), Curse of an Aching Heart, The Shadow Box, Twilight of the Golds (originating at Pasadena Playhouse) and Voices in the Dark. Additional theatre credits include The Cherry Orchard and The Wood Demon at Mark Taper Forum; Picnic at Williamstown Theatre Festival; Booth (with Frank Langella) at Long Wharf Theatre; Hamlet at The Public Theater; Henry IV at the Delacourt Theater; Ibsen’s Ghosts at the Roundabout Theatre Company; The Birthday Party, Dangerous Corner and Mad Forest at The Matrix Theatre Company; Death of a Salesman and The Iceman Cometh (with Al Pacino) at Falcon Theatre; and The Glass Menagerie at Pasadena Playhouse. Television credits include “Nip/Tuck,” “Cold Case,” “CSI,” “Big Love,” “The Mentalist,” “24,” “Prison Break,” “Bones,” “Heroes,” three seasons on “The Guardian,” and many more. He has appeared in numerous films, including Pearl Harbor, Independence Day, My Science Project, Vision Quest and Risky Business, to name a few. Mr. Sbarge is a Founding Member of The Antaeus Company. GREG WATANABE (Bao Ngo) previously appeared at SCR in The Summer Moon and Our Town. Additional theatre credits include Ballad of Yachiyo at The Public Theater, Seattle Repertory Theatre and Berkeley Repertory Theatre; The Summer Moon at A Contemporary Theatre; Death of a Salesman at Singapore Repertory Theatre; The Square at Mark Taper Forum’s Taper Too; As You Like it and Rashomon at TheatreWorks; and The Winchester House and The Winter People at Theatre @ Boston Court. Film and television credits include Only the Brave, True Love & Mimosa Tea, “Criminal Minds,” “Watch Over Me,” “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” “Reno 911!” and “JAG.”
Fact Sheet
The Happy Ones By Julie Marie Myatt Directed by Martin Benson
CREATIVE TEAM: Oanh Nguyen (associate director), Ralph Funicello (set design), Angela Balogh Calin (costume design) Tom Ruzika (lighting design) Paul James Prendergast (sound design), John Glore (dramaturg) and Jennifer Ellen Butler (stage manager).
CAST: Raphael Sbarge (Walter Wells), Greg Watanabe (Bao Ngo), Geoffrey Lower (Minister Gary Stuart), Nike Doukas (Mary-Ellen Hughes)
HONORARY PRODUCER: Mary Beth Adderley
MEDIA PARTNERS: OC Metro
SYNOPSIS: Orange County, 1975. The happiest place on earth for family man Walter Wells. Until fate intervenes.
TICKETS: $20-$46 previews; $28-$65 regular performances.
BOX OFFICE WINDOW HOURS: 10am to showtime Tuesdays through Saturdays; noon to showtime Sundays; 10am to 6 pm Mondays and non-performance days. American Express, VISA and MasterCard accepted. (714) 708-5555.
LOCATION: Folino Theatre Center, 655 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa CA 92626. One block east of South Coast Plaza at the Bristol Street/Avenue of the Arts exit off the San Diego (405) Freeway.
PHOTOS: Digital images of South Coast Repertory productions are available at www.scr.org/press.
PRESS CONTACTS: Soyia Ellison 714-708-5561 soyia@scr.org Madeline Porter 714-708-5562 mad@scr.org
RUNS: Sept. 27 – Oct. 18, 2009
PREVIEWS: Sept 27 SUN at 2 p.m. Sept 29 TUES at 7:45 p.m. Sept 30 WED at 7:45 p.m. Oct. 1 THURS at 7:45 p.m. OPENING NIGHT: Oct. 2 FRI at 7:45pm REGULAR PERFORMANCES: Oct. 3 SAT at 2 p.m. (Pay-What-You-Will) Oct. 3 SAT at 7:45 p.m. (Press Night) Oct. 4 SUN at 2 p.m. Oct. 4 SUN at 7:45 p.m. Oct. 6 TUE at 7:45 p.m. (Post Show Discussion) Oct 7 WED at 7:45 p.m. (Post-Show Discussion) Oct 8 THU at 7:45 p.m. Oct 9 FRI at 7:45 p.m. Oct 10 SAT at 2 p.m. (Inside the Season) Oct 10 SAT at 7:45 p.m. Oct 11 SUN at 2 p.m. Oct 11 SUN at 7:45 p.m. Oct 13 TUE at 7:45 p.m. Oct 14 WED at 7:45 p.m. Oct 15 THU at 7:45 p.m. Oct 16 FRI at 7:45 p.m. Oct 17 SAT at 2 p.m. (ASL-interpreted) Oct 17 SAT at 7:45 p.m. Oct 18 SUN at 2 p.m. Oct 18 SUN at 7:45 p.m.
POST SHOW DISCUSSIONS: Tuesday, Oct. 6 and Wednesday, Oct. 7 Discuss the play with members of the cast following the performance. Free.
INSIDE THE SEASON: The Happy Ones Saturday, Oct. 10, 10:30 a.m. –12:30 p.m. A 2-hour comprehensive class featuring creative personnel from the current production. Tickets: $12.
