South Coast Repertory Adds Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa’s Doctor Cerberus to 2009-10 Season
'World Premiere to be part of SCR’s 13th Annual Pacific Playwrights Festival
COSTA MESA, Calif. (June 17, 2009) — South Coast Repertory’s Artistic Directors David Emmes and Martin Benson have announced that Doctor Cerberus, a new play by HBO’s “Big Love” and Marvel Comics’ “Spiderman” writer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, will receive its World Premiere during the 2009-10 Season. The SCR-commissioned play will fill the final slot on the Julianne Argyros Stage and be part of the 13th Annual Pacific Playwrights Festival (PPF).
Aguirre-Sacasa’s tale of a boy who finds solace in horror movies received a staged reading at this spring’s PPF, to a rousing audience response. Bart DeLorenzo, who helmed the reading, returns to direct the production. Doctor Cerberus will run from April 11 – May 2, 2010 on the Julianne Argyros Stage. Low-priced previews are available from April 11 through April 15. Opening night is April 16. Press night is Saturday, April 17 at 7:45 p.m. Tickets are currently available by subscription only and may be purchased online at www.scr.org, by phone at (714) 708-5555 or in person at the SCR box office. Single tickets go on sale August 10.
According to Emmes, “We’re very excited to add this SCR-commissioned play to our 2009-10 Season. Aguirre-Sacasa is one of America’s most talented young writers, as imaginative as anyone in theater today, and his originality is well demonstrated in Doctor Cerberus.”
A coming-of-age comedy with a twist of terror, Doctor Cerberus is set in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. in the mid-1980s. Thirteen-year-old Franklin Robertson is trying to survive. His parents don’t understand him. His older brother torments him, and he would rather write stories than go out with friends. His great comfort comes from the horror movies he watches on a black-and-white TV set in his basement during “Nightmare Theatre,” introduced by the enigmatic Doctor Cerberus. In fact, Franklin feels certain that Doctor Cerberus can save his misfit life—if only he can get on the show.
Aguirre-Sacasa’s play King of Shadows was featured as a NewSCRipts reading at SCR in 2007. His other plays include Good Boys and True, Based on a Totally True Story, The Mystery Plays and Dark Matters. For Marvel Comics, he is the Harvey Award-winning author of The Stand. Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa is currently writing a new book to the classic Charles Strouse/Lee Adams musical It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane, It’s SUPERMAN! andalso writes for the HBO series “Big Love.” He is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama.
Doctor Cerberus is one of two World Premieres that will receive full productions during SCR’s nationally renowned Pacific Playwrights Festival which will take place April 23 through April 25, 2010. An additional World Premiere production will be presented on the Segerstrom Stage from March 26 – April 25. Besides the two fully-produced plays, the weekend Festival showcases five new plays, many commissioned by South Coast Repertory, in readings and workshops and attracts audiences and theater professionals from across the country.
Honorary Producer for Doctor Cerberus is Laurie Smits Staude.
2009-10 SEASON:
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: The Secret Garden (8/8-9 and 8/15-16), presented by the SCR Theatre Conservatory’s Summer Players.
PHOTO EDITORS: Digital images of South Coast Repertory productions are available at http://www.scr.org/press.
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 400 productions, over 100 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 winning 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.
