Tuesday, October 07, 2014

ARIZONA THEATRE COMPANY presents "Wait Until Dark"

 

From: scarr51@gmail.com [mailto:scarr51@gmail.com] On Behalf Of Steve Carr
Sent: Tuesday, October 7, 2014 4:13 PM
Subject: "Wait Until Dark" Will Keep Audiences on the Edge of Their Seats, Oct. 18-Nov 8 at Temple of Music and Art

 

NEWS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Media Contact:

Steve Carr, 602-317-3040, scarr@fastq.com

 ARIZONA THEATRE COMPANY KEEPS AUDIENCES ON THE EDGE OF THEIR SEATS WITH "WAIT UNTIL DARK", ONE OF THE GREATEST THRILLERS WRITTEN FOR THE STAGE 

TUCSON, Ariz. (Oct. 7, 2014):  Wait Until Dark is a roller-coaster for the stage, a chilling edge-of-your-seat thriller pitting a deeply sinister con man against an unsuspecting but sharp-witted young blind woman. Written by Frederick Knott, newly adapted by Jeffrey Hatcher, and directed by Arizona Theatre Company (ATC) Artistic Director David Ira Goldstein, Wait Until Dark comes to the Temple of Music and Art, 330 S. Scott Ave., from Oct. 18-Nov. 8.

Wait Until Dark, a 1966 Broadway hit and 1967 Oscar-nominated movie classic starring Audrey Hepburn and Alan Arkin, is a classic tale of mystery, terror and suspense. A Greenwich Village apartment becomes the setting of a suspenseful game of cat and mouse when a group of thuggish con men manipulate and terrorize the recently blinded Susan over a mysterious doll hidden inside, waiting until dark to play out this classic stage thriller's chilling conclusion. Can the vulnerable Susan muster her resources to outmaneuver her tormentors, turn her disability to advantage and survive?

The newly adapted script moves the action from the mid-1960's to 1944 as America fought in World War II, heightening the stakes for all the characters and placing the story in a world that reflects associations with the terse, lean language of the period and the play of light and shadows of film noir.  "It resonates onstage in a nefarious and chilling shadowland of light and dark, good and evil," wrote the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle of this ATC co-production with Geva Theatre Center, where it recently ran to rave reviews and standing ovations.

 "Alfred Hitchcock made the film of Frederick Knott's other major play, Dial M for Murder. In Wait Until Dark we have a woman in peril (Susan), the sudden importance of a mundane prop (the refrigerator) and the use of a McGuffin (the doll…!), all Hitchcockian tropes that work on us in a psychologically insinuating way," Goldstein said.  "The play is about darkness and light – about the hidden and the seen – qualities we strongly associate with film noir and the classic Hollywood movies of that era. It gave my marvelous design team and actors wonderful opportunities. But Jeffrey has done much more than simply move the time period by inserting 1940's references. He has also boiled down the language into the terse, lean dialogue of the period films. And, being Jeffrey, he has added a healthy dose of wit to the play."

Wait Until Dark is designed with noirish flair by returning ATC designers Vicki Smith (Sets), Marcia Dixcy Jory (Costumes), Don Darnutzer (lights) and Brian Jerome Peterson (Sound). The fight director is Adriano Gatto, original music is by Jonathan Snipes, dramaturg is Jean Gordon Ryon and the stage manager is Timothy Toothman.

Making their Arizona Theatre Company debuts in Wait Until Dark are Craig Bockhorn (Broadway's On Golden Pond, Prelude to a Kiss and TV's Law & Order, The Michael J. Fox Show and Boardwalk Empire) as Carlino; Ted Koch (Broadway's The Pillowman, Death of a Salesman with Brian Dennehy, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and TV's The Good Wife and Gossip Girl) as Roat; Brooke Parks (Yale Repertory Theatre's Hamlet with Paul Giannani and several seasons at Oregon Shakespeare Festival) as Susan; Peter Rini (Broadway productions of Proposals, A View from the Bridge, TV's Orange is the New Black, Blue Bloods and SMASH!) as Mike, and Lauren Schaffel (feature films Revenge of the Green Dragons, Admission and CBS's Still Standing) as Gloria. Remi Sandri (ATC's productions of Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Suicide Club, The Kite Runner, The Great Gatsby, and Pride and Prejudice) returns to ATC as Susan's husband, Sam.

The 2014-15 season is sponsored by I. Michael and Beth Kasser.

ATC follows Wait Until Dark with Murder for Two, Nov. 29-Dec. 20; the world premiere of Five Presidents, Jan. 10-31; Romeo and Juliet, Feb. 28 to March 21; and A Weekend with Pablo Picasso, April 4-26.

For more information, visit www.arizonatheatre.org.  For tickets call (520) 622-2823.

 

Wait Until Dark

By Frederick Knott

Adapted by Jeffrey Hatcher

Directed by David Ira Goldstein

Oct. 18 to Nov. 8, 2014

 

Tickets for Wait Until Dark start at $37 and are subject to change depending on time, date and section, and are available at www.arizonatheatre.org or by calling the box office 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).  Pay What You Can is Tuesday, Oct. 21 at 7:30 p.m.  Tickets for this performance are available for a suggested $10 donation. (Tickets must be purchased at the Temple of Music and Art starting one hour prior to curtain. Tickets are first-come first served.  Cash only. Two tickets maximum per person.) For discounts for groups of 10 or more, call (520) 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.  An Audio-Described performance is offered on Thursday, Nov. 6 at 2 p.m.  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 on Thursday, Nov. 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 on Thursday, Nov. 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).

 

Fact Sheet:
Wait Until Dark

By Frederick Knott

Adapted by Jeffrey Hatcher

Directed by David Ira Goldstein

 
Venue:
The Tempe of Music and Art

330 S. Scott Avenue

Tucson, AZ 85701

 

TUCSON:
Previews Begin:
Saturday, Oct. 18 at 8 p.m.
Opening Night: Friday, Oct. 24 at 7:30 p.m.
Closing Performance: Saturday, Nov. 8 at 8 p.m.
 
Cast (in alphabetical order):

Craig Bockhorn (Carlino)

Ted Koch (Roat)

Brooke Parks (Susan)

Peter Rini (Mike)

Remi Sandri (Sam)

Lauren Schaffel (Gloria)

 

Creative Team
Playwright: Frederick Knott

Adapter: Jeffrey Hatcher

Director:  David Ira Goldstein

Set Designer: Vicki Smith

Costume Designer: Marica Dixcy Jory

Lighting Designer: Don Darnutzer

Sound Designer: Brian Jerome Peterson

Fight Director: Adriano Gatto

Dramaturg: Jean Gordon Ryon

Stage Manager: Timothy Toothman

Co-Producer: Geva Theatre Center

 

Biographies:

Frederick Knott (Playwright) was born to English missionaries in Hankow, China, in 1916. He was educated at Oundle School from 1929 to 1934 and later gained a law degree from Cambridge University. He is the author of the BBC television production and stage play, Dial M for Murder, which premiered at the Westminster Theatre in Victoria, London, in 1952, and wrote the screenplay for the 1954 Hitchcock film of the same name. In 1960, Knott wrote the stage thriller Write Me a Murder,. Wait Until Dark was produced on Broadway at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre in 1966, directed by Arthur Penn and starring Lee Remick, who won a Tony Award nomination for her performance, and Robert Duvall. The film version, also titled Wait Until Dark, was released in 1967 and starred Audrey Hepburn and Alan Arkin in the leading roles. Knott passed away in 2002.

 

Jeffrey Hatcher (Adapter) is the author of Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of The Suicide

Club, Ten Chimneys, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Ella and co-author of Work Song: Three Views of Frank Lloyd Wright and Tuesdays with Morrie – all of which have been seen on Arizona Theatre Company's stages. Mr. Hatcher authored the book for the Broadway musical, Never Gonna Dance. Off-Broadway, he has had several pays produced, including Three Viewings and A Picasso at Manhattan Theatre Club, Scotland Road and The Turn of the Screw at Primary Stages, Tuesdays with Morrie (with Mitch Albom) at Minetta Lane Theatre, and Murder by Poe and The Turn of the Screw with The Acting Company. Other plays/ theatres include Compleat Female Stage Beauty, Mrs. Mannerly, Murderers, Mercy of a Storm, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Intiman Theatre, Florida Stage, The Empty Space, Illusion Theater, Denver Center Theatre Company, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Milwaukee Repertory Theater, The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Philadelphia Theatre Company, City Theatre, and dozens more in the U.S. and abroad. Mr. Hatcher wrote the screenplays for Stage Beauty, The Duchess and Casanova, as well as authoring episodes of the Peter Falk series, Columbo.

 

David Ira Goldstein, Director

David Ira Goldstein celebrates his 23nd season as Artistic Director of Arizona Theatre Company. In more than two decades, he has produced over 200 mainstage plays, workshops and presentations. He received the Governor's Arts Award as Individual Artist for his contributions to the arts in Arizona.  He has directed over 40 mainstage productions for ATC ranging from classics to new plays to musicals, as well as many world premieres including The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure (winner of the Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America), Inventing van Gogh, Rocket Man, Private Eyes, Over the Moon and Dracula by Steven Dietz, and Ten Chimneys, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of The Suicide Club by Jeffrey Hatcher. Mr. Goldstein has been a guest director at theatres all across the country including Arizona Opera, The Pasadena Playhouse, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Florida Stage, Center Repertory Theatre, Kansas City Repertory Theatre, Northlight Theatre, San Jose Repertory Theatre, Village Theatre, Geva Theatre Center, Laguna Playhouse, The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Mixed Blood Theatre, The Children's Theatre Company in Minneapolis and Illusion Theatre.

 

Craig Bockhorn (Carlino) has appeared on Broadway in On Golden Pond,

The Lonesome West and Prelude to a Kiss. Off-Broadway and New York

credits include The Seagull (Delacorte Theatre); King Lear, The Cripple of

Inishmaan and Kit Marlowe (The Public Theater); The Hope Zone and The

Truth-Teller (Circle Repertory Company). Mr. Bockhorn has appeared at

regional theatres all over the country. Film and television credits include

Big Year, TransAmerica, Law & Order (SVU and Criminal Intent), The

Michael J. Fox Show, Person of Interest, Boardwalk Empire, Cupid,

Kidnapped, Ed and As the World Turns.

 

Ted Koch (Roat) has appeared on Broadway in The Pillowman, Death of

a Salesman and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. National tours include Frost/Nixon

and Death of a Salesman. Regional theatre credits include The Seagull

(Huntington Theatre Company); Scott and Hem (Barrington Stage);

Strange Interlude (Shakespeare Theatre Company); Donnybrook! (Irish

Repertory Theatre); Born Yesterday and God of Carnage (Pittsburgh

Public Theater); and Snow Falling on Cedars (Hartford Stage). Film credits

include Cold Souls, Hannibal, Englishman in New York, Love to Leenya,

Autumn in New York and Dinner Rush. Television credits include The

Americans, Person of Interest, The Good Wife, Gossip Girl, The Sopranos,

The West Wing, Law & Order and Ed.

 

Brooke Parks (Susan) has played Ophelia in Hamlet (Yale Repertory

Theatre); the Princess of France in Love's Labour's Lost and Katrin in

Mother Courage (Shakespeare and Company); and numerous roles at the

Oregon Shakespeare Festival including Katherine in Henry V, Helen of Troy

in Troilus and Cressida, Mariana in Measure for Measure, Caroline Bingley

in Pride and Prejudice and Viola in Twelfth Night. She has performed

with the California classical repertory company A Noise Within for

various productions including A Midsummer Night's Dream, Macbeth

and Coriolanus. Ms. Parks is a graduate of Yale School of Drama.

 

Peter Rini (Mike) originated the role of Vinnie Bavasi in Neil Simon's Proposals;

Marco in the Tony Award-winning revival of A View from the Bridge; and

Agent Loyal in Tartuffe: Born Again. He also played Commander Harbison

on the first national tour of South Pacific. Selected off-Broadway credits

include The Talls (Second Stage Uptown); The Old Boy (Keen Company);

and Feather: A Musical Portrait (New York Musical Theatre Festival).

Regional highlights include Richard Roma in Glengarry Glen Ross (Dallas

Theater Center); Don Pedro in Much Ado about Nothing (Hartford Stage/

The Shakespeare Theatre); Constant in The Provok'd Wife

(American Repertory Theater); and Joseph Tumulty in the world premiere of

Edith (Berkshire Theatre Festival). Television and film credits include Jason

Figueroa on Orange is the New Black, Blue Bloods, SMASH!, and all the Law and

Order franchises.

.

 

Remi Sandri (Sam) returns to ATC where he appeared in The Great

Gatsby, Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of The Suicide Club, Much

Ado about Nothing, Pride and Prejudice and The Kite Runner. Mr. Sandri

has worked at theatres throughout the country, including Geva Theatre

Center (A Chorus Line, Twelve Angry Men); ACT Theatre (Arcadia, Othello);

Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park (The Mystery of Irma Vep, The

Foreigner, The Underpants); Berkeley Repertory Theatre (Macbeth, The

Caucasian Chalk Circle, Journey to the West); The Repertory Theatre of

St. Louis (Art, Tuesdays with Morrie); San Jose Repertory Theatre (A Flea

in Her Ear, Three Days of Rain, Iphigenia at Aulis); TheatreWorks

(The North Pool, Violet, Someone Who'll Watch Over Me) and six seasons

with Oregon Shakespeare Festival. His television appearances include

Law & Order, Conviction and Deadline.

 

Lauren Schaffel (Gloria) has previously appeared in Basket Weaver in

the Samuel French OOB Festival (Playwrights Horizons); the world

premiere of Gloria; and in Summer and Smoke, The Glass Menagerie,

Battle of Angels and Camino Real as part of the Tennessee Williams

Project. Ms. Schaffel most recently appeared in the upcoming feature film

Revenge of the Green Dragons, My Dead Boyfriend (directed by Anthony

Edwards), and Admission (starring Tina Fey). Notable television roles

include Becca on the hit CBS show Still Standing and the voice of Lucy in

A Charlie Brown Valentine and Lucy Must Be Traded.

 

Ticket Info:

Ticket prices currently start at $36 and are available in-person at the Temple of Music and Art box office, via phone at (520) 622-2823 or online at www.arizonatheatre.org.
 
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 U.S. that is fully based in two cities providing its wide array of programming and community outreach across the region. Now in its 48th 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, Interim Managing Director Matt Lehrman, Managing Director Emeritus Jessica L. Andrews, and a dedicated Board of Trustees. 

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