RELEASE: April 17, 2008

BILL BROCHTRUP 'TAKING STEPS' AT SOUTH COAST REPERTORY

COSTA MESA, Calif. (April 17, 2008)—Bill Brochtrup (“NYPD Blue”) will be Taking Stepsat South Coast Repertoryin the classic farce by the prolific British playwright, Alan Ayckbourn.  Art Manke, winner of the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for his direction of last season’s Bach at Leipzig, returns to helm the lunacy and mayhem. Taking Steps will run from May 16 through June 15 on the Segerstrom Stage. Low-priced previews are available May 16-22. Opening night is May 23. Press night is Saturday, May 24 at 8:00 p.m. Tickets to Taking Steps may be purchased online at www.scr.org, by phone at (714) 708-5555 or in person at the SCR box office.

The lunacy takes place in a reputedly haunted Victorian house where a sale is about to be completed, depending upon which door opens next and what’s going on behind it. Hilarious complications ensue as men and women, attached and unattached, emerge from bedrooms above, mid-level and below, and along a very crowded hallway. Ayckbourn is one of the world’s most successful living playwrights and a South Coast Repertory audience favorite. Taking Steps is the ninth Ayckbourn play produced at SCR.

Rounding out the cast are Emily Eiden (Kitty), Louis Lotorto (Leslie), Kasey Mahaffy (Tristram), Rob Nagle (Roland) and Kirsten Potter (Elizabeth).

The creative team for Taking Steps includes Ralph Funicello (set design), Angela Balogh Calin (costume design), Geoff Korf (lighting design), Steven Cahill (Sound and Music), David Nevell (voice & dialect coach), Darin Anthony (assistant director) and Julie Haber (stage manager).

Bill Brochtrup returns to SCR as Mark in Taking Steps. He made his SCR debut as Henry in The Real Thing. He appeared Off-Broadway in David Marshall Grant’s Snakebit, and in Los Angeles has worked with The Antaeus Company (Tonight at 8:30, Pera Palas), The Black Dahlia Theatre (Jonathan Tolins' Secrets of the Trade, Richard Kramer's Theater District), The Odyssey Theatre Ensemble (Small Tragedy), L.A. Theatre Works (The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, The Great Tennessee Monkey Trial), Pasadena Playhouse (If Memory Serves), The Coast Playhouse (Snakebit), WordTheatre, and the Un-Cabaret Lab. He can be seen in the feature films Duck, Ravenous, Man of the Year, Space Marines and the upcoming He's Just Not That Into You, the television movies "Betrayed" and "Two Small Voices", and on TV shows as varied as "Without a Trace," "The Wild Thornberrys" and Bravo's "Celebrity Poker Showdown" (where he suffered a humiliating defeat). He is a frequent guest host of the PBS newsmagazine "In the Life" and has been a series regular on three Steven Bochco shows, the CBS sitcom "Public Morals," ABC drama "Total Security" and seven seasons as John Irvin on "NYPD Blue."

Art Manke received his fifth Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award (LADCC) for directing the west coast premiere of Bach at Leipzig at South Coast Repertory. Previously, he staged SCR's world premiere musical version of The Wind in the Willows, and choreographed numerous productions including the 1930s Hollywood-inspired Much Ado About Nothing (LADCC Award for Best Choreography). Manke has also directed The Constant Wife, Private Lives and the American premiere of Noel Coward's Star Quality for Pasadena Playhouse and the world premiere of The Ice-Breaker at Laguna Playhouse. Manke was a co-founder and artistic director (1991-2001) of A Noise Within where he directed the works of Shakespeare, Molière, Wilde, Coward and Sophocles. Upcoming productions include Bach at Leipzig for Shakespeare Santa Cruz and The Miracle Worker for the Denver Center Theatre Company.

Tom and Marilyn Sutton and Haskell & White LLP are the Honorary Producers of Taking Steps. Coast Magazine and KOCE-TV are the Media Partners.

Associated events during the run of Taking Steps include:

POST-SHOW DISCUSSIONS: Wednesday, May 28 and Tuesday, June 3
Discuss the play with members of Taking Steps cast during free post-show discussions led by South Coast Repertory’s literary team after the 7:30 p.m. performances on May 28 and June 3.

INSIDE THE SEASON: Taking Steps  
Saturday, June 7, 10:30am–12:30pm $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. Tickets are $12 each and can be purchased by calling the Box Office at (714) 708-5555. (Tickets to Taking Steps are sold separately.)

TICKETS to Taking Steps can be purchased online at www.scr.org, by phone at (714) 708-5555 or by visiting the box office located at 655 Town Center Drive in Costa Mesa. Performances begin on May 16 and continue through June 15. Ticket prices range from $20 to $62. Low-priced preview performances are available from May 16-22. Performance times: Previews: Friday, May 16 and Saturday, May 17 at 8:00 p.m., Sunday, May 18, Tuesday, May 20 and Wednesday, May 21 at 7:30 p.m., and Thursday, May 22 at 8:00pm. Regular Performances: Tuesday and Wednesday evenings at 7:30 p.m., Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings at 8:00 p.m., Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2:30 p.m., and Sunday evenings at 7:30 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, May 24 at 2:30 p.m. (Suggested Price: $10; $7 Minimum) and an ASL-interpreted performance on Saturday, June 14 at 2:30 p.m.

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.

CALENDAR: What They Have (4/4-5/4), The Injured Party (4/20-5/11), Pacific Playwrights Festival (5/2-4), Taking Steps (5/16-6/15), Imagine (5/30-6/15).

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, 104 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 Julianne Argyros Stage, the 336-seat Julianne Argyros Stage and the 94-seat Nicholas Studio.

BIOGRAPHIES

BILL BROCHTRUP (Mark) made his SCR debut as Henry in The Real Thing. He appeared Off-Broadway in David Marshall Grant's Snakebit, and in Los Angeles has worked with The Antaeus Company (Tonight at 8:30, Pera Palas), The Black Dahlia Theatre (Jonathan Tolins' Secrets of the Trade, Richard Kramer's Theater District), The Odyssey Theatre Ensemble (Small Tragedy), L.A. Theatre Works (The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, The Great Tennessee Monkey Trial), Pasadena Playhouse (If Memory Serves), The Coast Playhouse (Snakebit), WordTheatre, and the Un-Cabaret Lab. He can be seen in the feature films Duck, Ravenous, Man of the Year, Space Marines and the upcoming He's Just Not That Into You, the television movies "Betrayed" and "Two Small Voices", and on TV shows as varied as "Without a Trace," "The Wild Thornberrys" and Bravo's "Celebrity Poker Showdown" (where he suffered a humiliating defeat). He is a frequent guest host of the PBS newsmagazine "In the Life" and has been a series regular on three Steven Bochco shows, the CBS sitcom "Public Morals," ABC drama "Total Security" and seven seasons as John Irvin on "NYPD Blue."

EMILY EIDEN (Kitty) is making her SCR debut. Favorite theater credits include Tonight @ 8:30 and Mother Courage and Her Children at The Antaeus Company; The Crucible and A Christmas Carol at International City Theatre; Charlotte’s Web and Miss Nelson is Missing at Main Street Theater; and The Cradle Will Rock and Twelfth Night at Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum. Emily earned a B.A. in History from Pomona College and currently narrates Griffith Observatory’s planetarium show, Centered in the Universe.

LOUIS LOTORTO (Leslie) has previously appeared at SCR in Hamlet and Cyrano de Bergerac. Los Angeles theater credits include the Royal National Theatre touring production of An Enemy of the People with Sir Ian McKellen at the Ahmanson Theatre, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, International City Theatre, Mark Taper Forum's Taper Too, Odyssey Theatre Ensemble, six seasons with A Noise Within, most recently earning a Los Angeles Stage Alliance Ovation Award nomination for his portrayal of Camille in A Flea in Her Ear, as well as appearing as Berowne in Love’s Labour’s Lost, Pericles in Pericles, Prince of Tyre, both Dromios in The Comedy of Errors, and Vince in Buried Child (Garland Award for Best Ensemble). Lotorto is a company member and on the artistic advisory board of The Colony Theatre Company, he has appeared there as Dr. Watson in Sherlock’s Last Case, Tom in The Glass Menagerie, Simon inthe award-winning Young Lady from Rwanda and most recently as several characters in the west coast premiere of Almost, Maine. Regional theater credits include two seasons in Ashland at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, The Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C. (Helen Hayes Award Nominee), four seasons at the California Shakespeare Festival, San Jose Repertory Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Portland Center Stage, Portland Repertory Theatre, Artists Repertory Theatre, Contemporary American Theater Festival and A Contemporary Theatre in Seattle. Film and television credits include Fire in the Sky, Nowhere Man, Under Suspicion, Body Language, Fade to Black and The Marla Hanson Story, as well as numerous commercials, voice overs and industrial films.

KASEY MAHAFFY (Tristram) is making his SCR debut. Theater credits include Out Late at The Old Globe; The Violet Hour at Ensemble Theatre Company; Metamorphoses at Pioneer Theatre Company; Little Women at Kansas City Repertory; The Miracle Worker and Assassins at Berkshire Theatre Festival; Tartuffe and Much Ado about Nothing at Sonnet Repertory Theatre; The Merchant of Venice at Portland Center Stage; Life is a Dream and Trip to Bountiful at Oregon Shakespeare Festival; The Laramie Project, The Last Night of Ballyhoo, The Winter’s Tale and The Servant of Two Masters at Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts; Snow White and the Several Dweebs and Something’s Afoot at Oregon Cabaret Theatre; Kiss Me Kate, Evita, South Pacific and My Fair Lady at Rogue Music Theatre. Film and television credits include Oceans 13, “Medium,” “Girlfriends,” “Veronica Mars,” “Crossing Jordan” and “Joey.”

ROB NAGLE (Roland) is making his SCR debut. Recent theater credits include James Joyce’s The Dead, Beautiful City and The Time of Your Life at Open Fist Theatre Company; The Last Days of Judas Iscariot and Angry at Black Dahlia Theatre; Bug at Lost Angels Theatre Company; Where’s Poppa? at Falcon Theatre; Moonlight and Magnolias at Odyssey Theatre Ensemble; Romance at Mark Taper Forum; Loot at Theatre East. Other credits with Baltimore’s CENTERSTAGE, San Jose Repertory, Shakespeare Festival/L.A, Connecticut Repertory Theatre, The Old Globe and Washington DC’s Shakespeare Theatre Company. Film appearances include The Soloist, Inside, Fun with Dick and Jane, Cellular and American Wedding. Television credits include recurring roles on “Eli Stone” and “Dawson’s Creek” and guest starring roles on “Cold Case,” “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip,” “Without a Trace,” “Everwood,” “The Guardian” and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.”

KIRSTEN POTTER (Elizabeth) is making her SCR debut. Theater credits include Major Barbara, The Living Room, Top Girls and Ride Down Mount Morgan at L.A. Theatre Works; As You Like It at A Noise Within, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at the Geffen Playhouse; Honour, for which she was nominated for a Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award and Bold Girls, for which she earned a Garland Award Honorable Mention at Matrix Theatre Company; Sex Parasite atMark Taper Forum's Taper Too; Red Herring and The Constant Wife at Laguna Playhouse; while a company member with Milwaukee Repertory Theater, she premiered Work Song by Jeffrey Hatcher and Eric Simonson, Steven Dietz’ Paragon Springs and Force of Nature, and performed in over 20 productions there including Twelfth Night, Amadeus, The Mai, An Ideal Husband, Inventing Van Gogh, Collected Stories, The Weir, The Glass Menagerie, Rocket Man, Dracula, and Mill on the Floss. Potter has performed at theaters across the country including Seattle Repertory Theatre, Arizona Theatre Company, Huntington Theatre Company, Arena Stage, Geva Theatre Center, American Contemporary Theater, American Conservatory Theater and The Utah, California, Nebraska, and Santa Fe Shakespeare Festivals. Film and television credits include “Medium,” “Judging Amy,” “Bones” and “The Eyes Have It.”

FACT SHEET

TAKING STEPS
By Alan Ayckbourn
Directed by Art Manke

CREATIVE TEAM: Ralph Funicello (set design), Angela Balogh Calin (costume design), Geoff Korf (lighting design), Steven Cahill (Sound and Music), David Nevell (voice & dialect coach), Darin Anthony (assistant director) and Julie Haber (stage manager).

CAST: Bill Brochtrup (Mark), Emily Eiden (Kitty), Louis Lotorto (Leslie), Kasey Mahaffy (Tristram), Rob Nagle (Roland) and Kirsten Potter (Elizabeth).

SYNOPSIS: Farcical lunacy takes place in a haunted Victorian house, where a pending sale depends on which door opens next – and what’s going on behind it!

HONORARY PRODUCERS: Tom and Marilyn Sutton and Haskell & White LLP
MEDIA PARTNERS: Coast Magazine and KOCE-TV

TICKETS: $20-$52 previews; $28-$62 regular performances.

RUNS: May 16 –June 15, 2008

PREVIEWS:
May 16 FRI at 8:00pm
May 17 SAT at 8:00pm
May 18 SUN at 7:30pm
May 20 TUE at 7:30pm
May 21 WED at 7:30pm
May 22 THU at 8:00pm
OPENING NIGHT: May 23 FRI at 8:00pm
REGULAR PERFORMANCES:
May 24 SAT at 2:30pm (Pay-What-You-Will)
May 24 SAT at 8:00pm (Press Night)
May 25 SUN at 2:30pm
May 25 SUN at 7:30pm
May 27 TUE at 7:30pm
May 28 WED at 7:30pm (Post-Show Discussion)
May 29 THU at 8:00pm (Ovation Club)
May 30 FRI at 8:00pm
May 31 SAT at 2:30pm
May 31 SAT at 8:00pm
June 1 SUN at 2:30pm
June 1 SUN at 7:30pm
June 3 TUE at 7:30pm (Post-Show Discussion)
June 4 WED at 7:30pm
June 5 THU at 8:00pm
June 6 FRI at 8:00pm
June 7 SAT at 2:30pm (Inside the Season)
June 7 SAT at 8:00pm
June 8 SUN at 2:30pm
June 8 SUN at 7:30pm
June 10 TUE at 7:30pm
June 11 WED at 7:30pm
June 12 THU at 8:00pm
June 13 FRI at 8:00pm
June 14 SAT at 2:30pm (ASL interpreted)
June 14 SAT at 8:00pm
June 15 SUN at 2:30pm
June 15 SUN at 7:30pm

POST SHOW DISCUSSIONS:
Wednesday, May 28 and Tuesday, June 3
Discuss the play with members of the cast following the performance.

INSIDE THE SEASON: Taking Steps
Saturday, June 7, 10:30am–12:30pm
A 2-hour comprehensive class featuring creative personnel from the current production. Tickets: $12.

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. www.scr.org.

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.