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From: Arizona Theatre Company [mailto:aztheatreco@aztheatreco.pmailus.com]
Sent: Thursday, February 16, 2006 11:16 AM
Subject: Arizona Theatre Company Presents SHERLOCK HOLMES: THE FINAL
ADVENTURE
Sent by: Arizona Theatre Company
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<http://aztheatreco.pmailus.com/pmailweb/f?cide=AT8viULHoeM8tKSqcg>
For Immediate Release
February 16, 2006
Media Contact: April Brown, 520.884.8210 x 8205
"THE GAME IS AFOOT" IN ARIZONA THEATRE COMPANY'S WORLD PREMIERE, SHERLOCK
HOLMES: THE FINAL ADVENTURE
Before the crime-solving squads on "C.S.I." and "Law and Order," who was the
man who solved mind-boggling mysteries with almost psychic powers of keen
observation? Why, it's elementary-the one and only Sherlock Holmes! Visit
221b Baker Street with Arizona Theatre Company's Sherlock Holmes: The Final
Adventure. This world premiere by Steven Dietz, based on the original 1899
play by William Gillette and Arthur Conan Doyle, is directed by ATC Artistic
Director David Ira Goldstein and runs in Tucson from March 4 through 25 at
the Temple of Music and Art. The 2005-2006 season underwriters are I.
Michael and Beth Kasser.
Commissioned by ATC from one of America's leading playwrights, this new
Holmes adventure starts as Holmes and Watson investigate a chilling mystery
involving a kidnapped opera diva, a stack of scandalous letters from the
King of Bohemia and the seamy underworld of Victorian crime. Racing through
London and other European cities, Holmes matches wits with the brilliant,
alluring Irene Adler and comes face to face with the Napoleon of evil,
Professor Moriarity. Disguises are created, safes are cracked, and
subterfuge abounds as Holmes put his deductive genius to the ultimate test.
On adapting such a classic and familiar piece of literature, playwright
Steven Dietz commented, "This world is so rich, so varied, so wonderfully
complex and contradictory, that it makes for a very thrilling dramatic
palette to work from . . . It's my avid hope that I have done justice to
both Mr. Conan Doyle and his legion of admirers."
Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure is a co-production with Pasadena
Playhouse where it will run from May 9 - June 11.
Steven Dietz is the author of twenty-plus plays which have been seen at over
one hundred regional theatres in the United States, as well as off-Broadway.
International productions have been seen in England, Japan, Germany, France,
Australia, Sweden, Russia, Slovenia, Argentina, Peru, Singapore and South
Africa. His work has been translated into seven languages. This is the
sixth play by Mr. Dietz to premiere at ATC, following Private Eves, Rocket
Man, Inventing van Gogh, Dracula (adapted from Bram Stoker) and Over the
Moon (adapted from P.G. Wodehouse). Mr. Dietz received the 2002 Kennedy
Center Fund for New American Plays Award for his play Fiction, produced
off-Broadway by the Roundabout Theatre Company; the PEN USA West Award in
Drama for Lonely Planet; and the Yomuiri Shimbun Award (the Japanese
"Tony") for his adaptation of Shusaku Endo's novel, Silence. Other widely
produced plays include God's Country, The Nina Variations, Still Life with
Iris, Trust, Halcyon Days, Ten November, and Handing Down the Names. His
award-winning stage adaptations include Force of Nature (from Goethe), The
Rememberer (from Joyce Simmons Cheeka), Paragon Springs (from Ibsen) and,
with Allison Gregory, Go, Dog. Go! (from P.D. Eastman). His latest play,
the Pulitzer-nominated Last of the Boys, ran earlier this season at
Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago.
David Ira Goldstein is directing his eighth world premiere of a play by
Steven Dietz. (Painting it Red, God's Country, Dracula, Private Eyes, Rocket
Man, Inventing van Gogh, Over the Moon, Sherlock Holmes: The Final
Adventure). Mr. Goldstein has been artistic director of Arizona Theatre
Company since 1992, and he has directed over thirty mainstage productions
for ATC ranging from classics to new plays to musicals. As artistic
director, he has produced over 130 other mainstage plays, workshops and
presentations including two acclaimed appearances by the Royal National
Theatre of Great Britain.
Playing the inimitable Sherlock Holmes is Mark Capri, who was last seen at
ATC as Morrell in Candida. Recent credits include Henry Higgins in My Fair
Lady (McCoy Rigby Entertainment), Sleuth (Falcon Theatre), and A Perfect
Wedding (Kirk Douglas Theatre). Other credits include Arcadia and Terra Nova
(Japanese Tour) for the Mark Taper Forum, Light up the Sky and Equus
(Pasadena Playhouse), Die! Mommy! Die! (Coast Playhouse), Titanic (South Bay
C.L.O.), An Enemy of the People and On Approval (Theatre World Award)
(Roundabout Theatre Company), The Play's The Thing (Intiman Theatre), Henry
V (The Old Globe), Noises Off (Marine's Memorial), Private Lives and Woman
in Mind (McCarter Theatre Center), Cyrano in Cyrano de Bergerac (Pioneer
Theatre), Cymbeline and Undiscovered Country (Hartford Stage), An Ideal
Husband (Seattle and Berkeley Repertory Theatres and South Coast Repertory),
M Butterfly and Present Laughter (TheatreWorks), Chee Chee (Actors Theatre
of Louisville), and Man and Superman with The Royal Shakespeare Company,
London.
Holmes' companion and chronicler, Doctor John Watson, is played by Victor
Talmadge, an actor, playwright and director whose roles have ranged from
Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing to Scar in the Los Angeles production of
The Lion King and The King in the Broadway National tour of The King and I.
Mr. Talmadge boasts extensive film and television credits. He has worked
with such notable directors as Francis Ford Coppola, William Friedkin, David
Fincher, Michael Apted and Chantal Ackerman, among others. His play, The
Gate of Heaven, was awarded The Nakashima Peace Prize and has been produced
at The U.S. Holocaust Memorial, The Old Globe, Ford's Theater, and The
Annenberg Center, and other venues around the country. Mr. Talmadge was the
artistic director of The Victory Project, a collaborative event with the NYC
school system, Columbia University graduate theater students, and
professional theater artists, created as a response to the tragedy of 9/11.
Returning to ATC is Laurence Ballard (Professor Moriarty), who was last seen
at ATC as Jaques in As You Like It. His other ATC credits include M.
Butterfly, Shadowlands, and The Old Matador. Nationally, he has worked at
ACT Theatre, Arena Stage, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, The Empty Space
Theatre, Eureka Theatre, Intiman Theatre, Joyce Theatre, Milwaukee Repertory
Theater, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Portland Center Stage, San Jose
Repertory Theatre, Seattle Repertory Theatre, StageWest, and The Group,
among others; and Roberto Guajardo (Sid Prince) who most recently appeared
at ATC in Macbeth. Other ATC productions include Steven Dietz' Over the
Moon, Much Ado About Nothing, Wit, As You Like It, Picasso at the Lapin
Agile, Two Gentlemen of Verona, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Shadowlands, One
Crazy Day, The Tempest, You Can't Take It With You and The Matchmaker.
Making their ATC debuts are Erin Bennett (Madge Larrabee) who recently
appeared in the world premiere of Open Window at Pasadena Playhouse,
directed by Eric Simonson. Other Los Angeles theatre credits include the US
Premiere of Noel Coward's Star Quality (Pasadena Playhouse), The School for
Wives (A Noise Within), Snoopy!!! (Falcon Theatre), and The Real Thing at
International City Theatre; Preston Maybank (King of Bohemia) who most
recently appeared in the world premiere of The Further Adventures of Hedda
Gabbler at South Coast Repertory where other productions include Much Ado
About Nothing, Two Gentleman of Verona, Terra Nova, Cyrano de Bergerac, The
Little Prince and The Hoboken Chicken Emergency; Kenneth Merckx, Jr. (James
Larrabee) whose credits include Brick in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at
Contemporary American Theatre Company, House of Yes at the Magic Theatre, A
Midsummer Night's Dream at Portland Center Stage, Romeo in Romeo and Juliet
for A Noise Within, D'Artagnan in Three Musketeers at Pacific Conservatory
of the Performing Arts Theaterfest and Bus Stop at the Illinois Repertory
Theatre; Libby West (Irene Adler) whose favorite roles include Roxane in
Cyrano, Cathy in Wuthering Heights, Tourvel in Dangerous Liaisons, Madge in
Picnic, and Lady Macbeth. Off-Broadway she has appeared at The Promenade
Theatre and The Public Theater. Regionally, she has appeared at the Mark
Taper Forum, American Conservatory Theater, Denver Center Theatre Company,
The Old Globe, The Shakespeare Theatre, Intiman Theatre, Actors Theatre of
Louisville, among others; and H. Michael Croner and Jonathan Hicks
(Ensemble).
The designers of this globe-spanning production are Bill Forrester (Scenic
Designer), who designed ATC's productions of The Pirates of Penzance, Oh
Coward!, Much Ado About Nothing, My Fair Lady, Art, Picasso at the Lapin
Agile, Valley Song, Two Gentlemen of Verona, A Midsummer's Night Dream, The
Convict's Return, Dracula and Shadowlands as well as designs at ACT Theatre,
Northlight Theatre, Geva Theatre, The Empty Space Theatre, Denver Center
Theatre Company, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Intiman Theatre, Portland Center
Stage, Tacoma Actors Guild, Colorado Shakespeare Festival, Alabama
Shakespeare Festival, Honolulu Theatre for Youth, Yale Repertory Theatre,
Utah Festival Opera and Utah Shakespearean Festival; David Kay Mickelsen
(Costume Designer), who is designing his 44th production at ATC, his first
being Journey's End in the 1982-83 season. Last season he designed Macbeth,
For Better or Worse and The Immigrant. He has designed over 200 productions
in regional theatres across the country; Dennis Parichy (Lighting Designer),
who returns to ATC having designed lighting most recently for Talley's
Folly, A Streetcar Named Desire, and A Moon for the Misbegotten. Mr.
Parichy's Broadway credits include Talley's Folly (Tony Nomination),
Crimes of the Heart, As Is, Burn This, Penn & Teller: The Refrigerator Tour,
Redwood Curtain (Tony Nomination), Coastal Disturbances, The Water Engine,
and Fifth of July (Tony Nomination); Roberta Carlson (Composer), whose
extensive composing credits at ATC include Macbeth, Over the Moon, Much Ado
About Nothing, Inventing van Gogh, The Mystery of Irma Vep, Two Gentlemen of
Verona and Dracula, and as musical director for Dirty Blonde and Scapin;
Brian Jerome Peterson (Resident Sound Designer), who celebrates his 20th
season and 49th sound design for ATC; and Glenn Bruner (Production Stage
Manager).
Tickets range from $26 - $44 depending on date and section choice and are
available at www.arizontheatre.org
<http://aztheatreco.pmailus.com/pmailweb/ct?d=BfPdiAA8AAEAAC9OAACUdQ> or by
calling the ATC box office at (520) 622-2823. Discounts are available for
students, seniors and active military. Half-price student rush tickets are
available for balcony seating for all performances one hour prior to curtain
(subject to availability; must show ID). For discounts on groups of eight or
more, call (520) 884-8210 ext 8204.
ATC will offer a Pay What You Can performance in Tucson on March 7 at 7:30
PM. A limited number of tickets will go on sale at the Temple of Music and
Art box office at 11 AM that day. Purchases are limited to two tickets per
order with a suggested donation of $5 per ticket and are sold on a first
come, first served basis. The tickets must be purchased in person and with
cash only.
ATC offers audio-described performances for patrons who have low vision or
are blind on March 22 and 23 at 2 PM. Interested patrons may request a
tactile tour one hour prior to curtain. Braille and large-print playbills
are available upon request from the house manager. An American Sign
Language-interpreted performance is offered on March 18 at 8 PM. Patrons who
are deaf or hard of hearing will receive a biography of the interpreters, a
description of the play and name signs of each character. An open-captioned
performance is offered on March 23 at 2 PM. As the play progresses, those in
open-captioned seating will be able to read the play's dialogue in large
green letters on an LED. The service is for patrons with mild to severe
hearing loss who may not be ASL-literate. Tickets for all performances are
available through the ATC box office at (520) 622-2823. TTY access for the
box office is available via Arizona Relay at (800) 367-8939 (TTY/ASCII).
For ticket information for the Phoenix run of Sherlock Holmes: The Final
Adventure, call (602) 256-6995 or visit www.arizonatheatre.org
<http://aztheatreco.pmailus.com/pmailweb/ct?d=BfPdiAA8AAEAADeKAACUdQ> .
***
Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure Fact Sheet
For more detailed information about Arizona Theatre Company's Sherlock
Holmes: The Final Adventure, please check out the Fact Sheet.
Click here to be directed to the Sherlock Holmes fact sheet
<http://aztheatreco.pmailus.com/pmailweb/ct?d=BfPdiAA9AAH-----AACUdQ>
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