May 16 - June 15, 2008 Segerstrom Stage TAKING STEPS by Alan Ayckbourn directed by Art Manke Tom and Marilyn Sutton, Honorary Producers Corporate Producers KOCE TV - Segerstrom Stage Season Media Partner Coast Magazine - Media Partner Approximately two hours and 20 minutes, including one intermission.

Kasey Mahaffy (Tristram) and Rob Nagle (Roland) in Taking Steps. Photo by Henry DiRocco

If the night before was any indication, the morning after is going to be a whopper, as men and women, attached and unattached, emerge from bedrooms above, mid-level and below, along a very crowded hallway. In the Victorian house where this farcical lunacy takes place, a sale is about to be completed, depending upon which door opens next and what’s going on behind it.

Playwright:
One of the world’s preeminent dramatists, Sir Alan Ayckbourn is a prolific writer of comedy plays satirizing middle-class manners. His major plays include Relatively Speaking, Absurd Person Singular, The Norman Conquests, A Chorus of Disapproval, Woman In Mind, Man of the Moment, Things We Do for Love, Comic Potential and Private Fears in Public Places.

Recommendation and Resources:
All audiences, Junior High and up, will be be in stitches over this farcical delight, and if some characters emerge from the bedrooms scantily clad, they’ll be laughing too hard to take offense. The occasional cigarette and frequent drink will be laughed away as well. Strobe light effects are used during the performance.

OC Register - Cast to start 'Taking Steps' at South Coast Repertory
Alan Ayckbourn's 1970s farce explores the comic, theatrical and symbolic potential of staircases.

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