‘Becky Shaw:’ Bad Date, Great Play
COSTA MESA, Calif. (Sept. 30, 2010) — A newly married couple finds their own relationship on the rocks after they set up their friends on a date from hell in Gina Gionfriddo’s wicked comedy Becky Shaw, a West Coast premiere that will run Oct. 22 through Nov. 21 at South Coast Repertory.
In Becky Shaw’s sold-out Off-Broadway debut last year, the New York Times dubbed it “a corker of a new playa tangled tale of love, sex and ethics [that] is as engrossing as it is ferociously funny.”
Angela Goethals plays Becky, a needy, down-on-her-luck college dropout whose one date with mean-spirited Max (Brian Avers) sets off shockwaves in the lives of her colleague Andrew (Graham Michael Hamilton) and his bride, Suzanna (Tessa Auberjonois). Further complicating matters is Suzanna’s say-anything mother, Susan (Barbara Tarbuck), who may be dating a con artist.
“This play really excites me in that it deals with a lot of taboos,” said director Pam MacKinnon. “It’s a play you can talk about.”
MacKinnon, who calls herself a Gionfriddo “repeat offender” because this is the fourth time she has directed one of her plays, says she saw the New York production of Becky Shaw and was struck by the way it affected the people around her: “It was wonderful to be in a room where you could really feel the audience keep switching their allegiances.”
The Becky Shaw creative team includes Daniel Ostling (set design), Sarah Ryung Clement (costume design), Lap Chi Chu (lighting design), Michael K. Hooker (original music and sound design), Chrissy Church(stage manager) and Jamie A. Tucker (assistant stage manager).
Haskell White LLP is the Corporate Honorary Producer. The Segerstrom Stage season media partner is KOCE-TV and the media partners for Becky Shaw are KCRW 89 and Coast Magazine.
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 Oct. 22 and continue through Nov. 21. Ticket prices range from $20 to $66. Low-priced preview performances are available Oct. 22 - 28. Opening night is Friday, Oct. 29, and press night is Saturday, Oct. 30, at 8 p.m.
TIMES: Previews are Friday and Saturday, Oct. 22 - 23, at 8 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 24, at 7:30 p.m., Tuesday and Wednesday, Oct. 26 - 27, at 7:30 p.m., and Thursday, Oct. 28, at 8 p.m. Regular performances are Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday evenings at 7:30 p.m., and Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings at 8 p.m., with Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2:30 p.m. Discounts are available for full-time students, patrons 25 years of age and under, educators, seniors and groups of 10 or more. There will be an ASL-interpreted performance on Saturday, Nov. 20, at 2:30 p.m.
POST-SHOW DISCUSSIONS: Wednesday, Nov. 3, Tuesday, Nov. 9: Discuss the play with members of the Becky Shaw cast during free post-show discussions led by South Coast Repertory’s literary team.
INSIDE THE SEASON: Saturday, Nov. 6, 10:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.: Inside the Season is a series of interactive seminars that provide a comprehensive inside look at the theatrical production process. Each two-hour session features a set tour and a question-and-answer period with creative personnel working on the 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 online at www.scr.org, by phone at (714) 708-5555 or at the Box Office. (Tickets to Becky Shaw 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: Sideways Stories from Wayside School (Nov. 5 - 21), NewSCRipts Reading (Nov. 8), A Christmas Carol (Nov. 27 - Dec. 26).
ABOUT SCR: 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 445 productions, 117 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
Gina Gionfriddo(Playwright) has received the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, the Helen Merrill Award for Emerging Playwrights, a Lucille Lortel Fellowship and a Rhode Island State Council on the Arts Fellowship. Her work includes After Ashley, Safe, Trepidation Nation, U.S. Drag (published in Women Playwrights: The Best Plays of 2002) and Guinevere. After Ashley and U.S. Drag are published by Dramatists Play Service, Inc.
Pam MacKinnon(Director) is a Lilly and Obie Award winning director based in New York. Her most recent productions include world premieres of Bruce Norris’ Clybourne Park (Playwrights Horizons), Rachel Axler’s Smudge (Women’s Project Productions), Cusi Cram’s A Lifetime Burning (Primary Stages), Richard Greenberg’s Our Mother’s Brief Affair (SCR), Itamar Moses’ The Four of Us (The Old Globe and Manhattan Theatre Club) and Bach at Leipzig (Milwaukee Repertory Theater and New York Theatre Workshop). She is a frequent interpreter of the plays of Edward Albee, having directed premieres of Peter and Jerry (Hartford Stage Co. and Second Stage Theatre) and Occupant (Signature Theatre) as well as The Goat or, Who is Sylvia? (Alley Theatre and The Vienna Theatre Company), Play About the Baby (Philadelphia Theatre Co. and Goodman Theatre), A Delicate Balance (Arena Stage) and the upcoming Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Steppenwolf Theatre Co. and Arena Stage). She is an alumna of the Drama League and the Lincoln Center Theater Directors’ Lab. She also sits on the board of Clubbed Thumb, a NYC company devoted to new American plays.
Tessa Auberjonois (Suzanna Slater) appeared at SCR previously in Crimes of the Heart, A Wrinkle in Time, Lobby Hero, Hold Please and Everett Beekin. She has appeared Off-Broadway in Trainspotting, Uncommon Women and Others, How to Build a Better Tulip, Killers and Other Family and The Vortex. Regionally she has worked at The Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington D.C., Yale Repertory Theatre, The Wilma Theatre, Westport Country Playhouse, The Empty Space Theatre and Utah Shakesperean Festival. Ms. Auberjonois’ film and television roles include the upcoming Touchback as well as Birth, I’m Not Rappaport, Stay, “Numb3rs,” “ER,” “Boston Legal,” “Law Order: SVU,” “Jonny Zero” and “Law Order.” Her voice can be heard in many national commercials and several videogames. She is a graduate of the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts and the Yale School of Drama.
Brian Avers (Max Garrett) is making his SCR debut. Broadway credits include Tom Stoppard’s Rock ‘N’ Roll and Martin McDonagh’s Lieutenant of Inishmore. Off-Broadway and regionally he has appeared in King Lear at The Public Theater (Edgar) and in Art, The Violet Hour and Black Comedy at Barrington Stage Company. Film appearances include Julie Julia and Gigantic. Television appearances include “NCIS,” “The Closer,” “Medium,” “Law Order,” “Castle” and the recurring role of Mike Renko on “NCIS: Los Angeles.” He received his MFA at NYU. He is a recipient of The A.V. Global Fellowship in the Arts.
Angela Goethals (Becky Shaw) appeared at SCR previously in Nothing Sacred, the NewSCRipts readings of Bob, Thomas Repair, Futura, Reborning and the Pacific Playwrights Festival reading of Bossa Nova. Other theater work includes The Zero Hour (13P), Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Rubicon Theatre Company), The House of Blue Leaves (Mark Taper Forum), Be Aggressive (La Jolla Playhouse), Blur (Manhattan Theatre Club), The Mandrake Root (Long Wharf Theatre), As You Like It (The Public Theater), True History and Real Adventures (Vineyard Theatre), Picnic (Roundabout Theatre Co.), Four Baboons Adoring the Sun (Lincoln Center Theater), The Good Times are Killing Me (Obie Award, Drama Desk nomination), Approaching Zanzibar (Second Stage Theatre) and Coastal Disturbances (Circle in the Square). Film work includes Behind the Mask, Spanglish, Changing Lanes, Storytelling, Jerry Maguire, Home Alone and Rocket Gibraltar. Television appearances include “Grey’s Anatomy,” “24,” “The Brotherhood of Poland, New Hampshire,” “Do Over,” “Boston Public,” “Without a Trace,” “The Education of Max Bickford,” “Phenom,” “The Tracey Ullman Show,” Stealing Christmas (USA Network) and Porn N’ Chicken (Comedy Central).
Graham Michael Hamilton (Andrew Potter) appeared at SCR previously in Saturn Returns and Hamlet. After portraying Hamlet at the Folger Shakespeare Library this spring, Mr. Hamilton performed alongside Brian Cox and David Cross with WordTheatre at the Latitude Festival in the U.K. He has appeared Off-Broadway in The Two Noble Kinsmen (The Public Theater) and Hamlet (Theatre for a New Audience). Regional productions include All’s Well That Ends Well, Romeo Juliet, Titus Andronicus, Othello, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Vincent in Brixton, Antony Cleopatra (The Old Globe); Romeo Juliet (Folger Shakespeare Library); Third (Huntington Theatre Company); Two Gentlemen of Verona (Shakespeare Festival/LA); The Man Who Had All the Luck (L.A. Theatre Works); and Mozart (Walt Disney Concert Hall). Television credits include “NCIS: Los Angeles,” “Big Love,” “Ugly Betty,” “Lincoln Heights,” “Cold Case” and “Guiding Light.” He received his BFA from The Juilliard School.
Barbara Tarbuck (Susan Slater) has appeared previously in many SCR productions, including The Beginning of August, Sidney Bechet Killed a Man, If We are Women, Blue Window, Going for Gold and Boundary Waters. She starred on Broadway in David Mamet’s The Water Engine, Harold Pinter’s Landscape Silence at Lincoln Center Theater, Neil Simon’s Brighton Beach Memoirs and the national tours of Broadway Bound and America Hurrah. Off-Broadway she appeared at the Signature Theatre Company in Enter the Night and at the Sheridan Square Playhouse in An Evening with Sylvia Plath. Her extensive regional credits include Arena Stage, Williamstown Theatre Festival, McCarter Theatre Center, Geffen Playhouse, San Diego Repertory Theatre and Seattle Repertory Theatre. Her film credits include the Rock’s mother in Walking Tall, Ma Fender in Peter Greenway’s The Moab Story and Rose in John Lavachielli’s Wednesday Again. Favorite television guest-starring roles include “Journeyman,” “CSI,” “Cold Case,” “Medium,” “ER,” “Without a Trace” as well as the continuing role of Jane Jax on “General Hospital.”
