From: Steve Carr [mailto:scarr51@gmail.com] On Behalf Of Steve Carr
Sent: Tuesday, January 7, 2014 8:18 AM
Subject: "Other Desert Cities:" Family Bonds and Explosive Secrets Best Left Unsaid; ATC Presents Arizona Premiere
ATC PRESENTS ARIZONA PREMIERE OF “OTHER DESERT CITIES”: FAMILY BONDS AND
EXPLOSIVE SECRETS BEST LEFT UNSAID, JAN. 24-FEB. 8
TUCSON, Ariz. (Jan. 7, 2014) – Arizona Theatre Company presents the Arizona premiere of the 2012 Pulitzer Prize in Drama finalist and Broadway hit Other Desert Cities, a story of family relationships and deep, dark secrets meant to stay buried, at the Temple of Music and Art, 330 S. Scott Ave., from January 24 to February 8.
Other Desert Cities tells the story of the Wyeths, a seemingly perfect upper middle class family with wealth, political influence and A-list connections living the dream in Palm Springs until daughter Brooke comes home for the holidays after a six-year absence.
Her gift to the family – father, Lyman; mother, Polly; brother, Trip and Aunt Slida– is news of the impending publication of her tell-all memoir that includes a pivotal and tragic event in the family’s history. It’s a wound they’d rather not reopen.
Directed by American writer, playwright and director James Still, Other Desert Cities is a multi-award winning play by Jon Robin Baitz. Ben Brantley described the play in The New York Times as “the best new play on Broadway” and The Hollywood Reporter said it fine tuned the balance between “comedy and intense family drama … in richly satisfying ways.”
Other Desert Cities played to sold-out houses and was named Outstanding New Off-Broadway Play by the Outer Critics Circle during its limited engagement at Lincoln Center in 2012. It then moved to Broadway for a long run, earning five Tony Award nominations and won the Drama League award for Distinguished Play. The Production Underwriter for Other Desert Cities is Shirley Estes. ATC season sponsors are I. Michael and Beth Kasser and opening night in Tucson is sponsored by Downtown Kitchen + Cocktails.
Other Desert Cities stars a cast of outstanding actors including stage, screen and film actor Lawrence Pressman (Criminal Minds, Doogie Howser, MD, Mad Men), Paige Lindsey White (Shameless, Days of Our Lives) and Anne Allgood (Broadway: Carousel, Beauty and the Beast, Sound of Music). Also performing are Utah Shakespeare Festival veteran Will Mobley and stage and screen actor Robin Moseley.
“From its opening scene through to the riveting climax, Other Desert Cities is a powerful, funny and ultimately transformative play,” said David Ira Goldstein, ATC’s artistic director. “It is in the tradition of American family plays, but playwright Jon Robin Baitz has a voice and a message that is particularly pertinent to our divided and polarized times. As the Wyeth’s wrestle with their differences and their family ties, we are gripped and entertained, but ultimately I think we are deeply moved by its outcome.”
Other Desert Cities is a co-production with Indiana Repertory Theatre where it will play from March 12 to April 5 following the ATC run.
Jon Robin Baitz (Playwright) is the author of many plays, including The Film Society, The Substance of Fire, The End of the Day, Three Hotels, A Fair Country (1996 Pulitzer Prize finalist), Mizlansky/Zilinsky, Ten Unknowns, and The Paris Letter, as well as a version of Hedda Gabler (Broadway 2001). He created Brothers & Sisters, the TV series which ran for five seasons until 2011. Other TV work includes the PBS version of Three Hotels, for which he won the Humanitas Award, and episodes of The West Wing and Alias. Other Desert Cities won the Outer Critics Circle Award in 2011 and was nominated for several Tony Awards including Best Play.
James Still (Director) has recently directed God of Carnage, Becky’s New Car, Mary’s Wedding, Doubt, Rabbit Hole and his own play I Love to Eat. As a playwright, his plays have been produced throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe, Australia, South Africa, China and Japan. Recent productions include the award-winning The House That Jack Built (Indiana Repertory Theatre); Illegal Use of Hands (American Blues Theater in Chicago); and I Love to Eat (Portland Center Stage). Mr. Still is a three-time Pulitzer Prize nominee, an elected member of the National Theatre Conference in New York and the College of Fellows of the American Theatre at the Kennedy Center, as well as a five-time Emmy nominee for his work in television. He is a recipient of the Otis Guernsey New Voices Award from the William Inge Festival and the Todd McNerney New Play Prize from the Spoleto Festival. He is the Playwright-in-Residence at Indiana Repertory Theatre.
Starring in Other Desert Cities are Lawrence Pressman (Lyman Wyeth) who previously appeared at ATC as James Tyrone in Long Day’s Journey Into Night. His Broadway credits include Woody Allen’s Play It Again, Sam and Man in the Glass Booth (London and Broadway, both directed by Harold Pinter), and Show People (Second Stage). Regional credits include No Man’s Land (The Odyssey Theatre); Of Equal Measure (CTG’s Kirk Douglas Theatre); the premiere of The Paris Letter; Wood Demon, Richard III, A Month in the Country, and a leading role in the final workshop of Perestroika (Mark Taper Forum); Chekhov X 4 and Tonight at 8:30 (Antaeus); and performances at La Jolla Playhouse and The Ahmanson Theatre. He has more than 150 television and film credits, including Doogie Howser, M.D.; Hart of Dixie; Criminal Minds; and Mad Men; Anne Allgood (Polly Wyeth) makes her ATC debut with Other Desert Cities. Broadway credits include The Most Happy Fella, Carousel, Beauty and the Beast, The Sound of Music and Imaginary Friends. Regional credits include Geva Theatre Center, La Jolla Playhouse, ACT Theatre, Seattle Repertory Theatre and The 5th Avenue Theatre. Most recently Ms. Allgood appeared at ACT Theatre in the North American premiere of Sugar Daddies, written and directed by Sir Alan Ayckbourn; and Robin Moseley (Silda Grauman) has worked on and Off-Broadway, and at more than 15 regional theatres across the county. She was a company member of the Alley Theatre in Houston for six years, and spent two years with the Denver Center Theatre Company. She most recently appeared
as Lady Saltburn in Present Laughter at Two Rivers Theater Company.
Also starring are Paige Lindsey White (Brooke Wyeth), who most recently, she portrayed five characters in a three-person adaptation of Shakespeare’s Richard II called R II at The Theatre @ Boston Court in LA; Walking the Tightrope at 24th St. Theatre (2 Ovation Nominations – Best Actress & Best Ensemble); and
Ghost-Writer at International City Theatre. She is a member of Ensemble Studio Theatre LA, Los Angeles Theater Ensemble and The Actors’ Gang, with whom she internationally toured with The Trial of the Catonsville Nine. Television credits include Shameless, Days of Our Lives and TV Funhouse; and Will Mobley (Trip Wyeth), whose credits include numerous leading roles at American Players Theatre, Utah Shakespeare Festival, and Artists Repertory Theatre. Mr. Mobley is a graduate of The Savannah
College of Art and Design.
The creative team for Other Desert Cities includes Ann Sheffield, scenic designer; Kish Finnegan, costume designer; Jesse Klug, lighting designer; Irwin Appel, composer and sound designer; and Glenn Bruner, production stage manager.
Tickets for Other Desert Cities start at $37, are subject to change depending on time, date and section, and are available at www.arizonatheatre.org or by calling the box office in Tucson at (520) 622-2823. Discounts are available for seniors and active military. A $10 student ticket pricing is now available for all performances. Half-price rush tickets are available for balcony seating for all performances one hour prior to curtain at the ATC box office (subject to availability). In Tucson, Pay What You Can is January 21 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets for this performance are available for a suggested $10 donation and must be purchased starting one hour prior to curtain. Seating is first-come, first. Cash only. (Two tickets maximum per person.) For discounts for groups of 10 or more, call (602)-622-2823.
Arizona Theatre Company offers accessibility services for patrons with disabilities for select performances. Audio Description provides patrons with vision loss a running audio description of the movement and activities onstage through an infrared broadcast system. Audio-Described performances are offered on Thursday, February 6 at 2 pm. Interested patrons with vision loss may request a tactile tour one hour prior to curtain. American Sign Language Interpretation is presented by professional, theatrically trained ASL-interpreters for people who have deafness or hearing impairment. An ASL-interpreted performance is offered in Tucson on Thursday, February 6 at 7:30 p.m. Open-captioning allows patrons to read the play's dialogue on an LED screen as the play progresses. An open-captioned performance is offered in Tucson on Thursday, February 6 at 2 p.m. For open-captioned or ASL-interpreted performances, patrons should request seats best suited to ASL interpretation or captioning when purchasing tickets. Large print and Braille playbills and infrared listening amplification devices are also available at every ATC performance with reservation. TTY access for the box office is available in Tucson at (520) 884-9723 or via Arizona Relay at (800) 367-8939 (TTY/ASCII).
About Arizona Theatre Company:
Touching lives through the power of theatre, Arizona Theatre Company (ATC), is the preeminent fully professional theatre in the state of Arizona. Boasting the largest seasonal subscriber base in the performing arts in Arizona, ATC is the only resident company in the US that is fully based in two cities providing its wide array of programming and community outreach across the region. Now in its 47th season, more than 130,000 people a year attend our performances at the historic Temple of Music and Art in Tucson, and the elegant Herberger Theater Center in downtown Phoenix. Each season of home-grown productions reflects the rich variety of world drama—from classics to contemporary plays, from musicals to new works—along with a wide array of community outreach programs, educational opportunities, access initiatives and new play programs. Designated The State Theatre of Arizona, ATC is led by Artistic Director David Ira Goldstein, Managing Director Jessica L. Andrews and a dedicated Board of Trustees.
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