South Coast Repertory announces Direcotrs and Cast for 2011 Pacific Playwrights Festival

Apr 14, 2011
South Coast Repertory

Brothers will play brothers when Adam and Matthew Arkin take on the roles of Joey and Kevin Colletti in the reading of Steven Drukman's The Prince of Atlantis-just one of five exciting new works scheduled to be read at this year's 14th Annual Pacific Playwrights Festival (PPF) April 29 - May 1.

This is the first time that Adam Arkin (SCR's Brooklyn Boy, TV's "Sons of Anarchy") and Matthew Arkin (SCR's Our Mother's Brief Affair) have appeared onstage together. Adam Arkin plays older brother Joey, who finds himself in a minimum-security prison just as the son he gave up for adoption writes to say he'd like to meet him. Matthew Arkin is Kevin, the younger brother assigned to keep the son from discovering the truth. Dámaso Rodriguez will direct the play, which will also star Michael Weston ("House") and Amy Landecker (A Serious Man).

Shelley Butler (SCR's A Wrinkle in Time) will direct Catherine Trieschmann's How the World Began, with Kirsten Potter playing a teacher who ignites a controversy with an off-hand remark in biology class. Jarrett Sleeper is the student upset by her remark, and Joe Spano is his grandfather.

David Chambers (SCR's The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow) will direct THE DROLL {Or, a Stage-Play about the END of Theatre} by Meg Miroshnik, a graduate student at the Yale School of Drama. Set in a world reminiscent of Puritanical England, it imagines a theatrical troupe trying to mount a secret production of Hamlet. The players will include Tessa Auberjonois, Nathan Baesel, Matt McGrath and Laura Heisler, with other roles still to be cast.

Loretta Greco (SCR's Goldfish) will direct Annapurna, Sharr White's drama about a dying poet endeavoring to understand why his wife disappeared 20 years earlier-and why she's suddenly come back. Stay tuned for casting developments.

And Octavio Solis will direct a musical he's written with Adam Gwon entitled Cloudlands, in which an 18-year-old embarks on a dangerous path after she learns her mother is having an affair. Courtney Stokes plays the teenager; Heather Ayres is her mother. Daniel Guzman, Ethan Le Phong and Robert Mammana round out the cast.

Anchoring the 14th annual Pacific Playwrights Festival are productions of Lauren Gunderson's Silent Sky, a beautiful historical drama based on the life of turn-of-the-century astronomer Henrietta Leavitt, and Itamar Moses' Completeness, a romantic comedy about two graduate students who find that love is the most complicated algorithm of all.

Since its creation in 1998, PPF has grown into one of the leading festivals of new plays in the country, devoted to showcasing some of the best new work on SCR's radar, in hopes of generating lively conversation, future world premieres and subsequent productions for myriad playwrights. Over the years, the festival has helped launch some of the most prominent plays in the American theatre, including Donald Margulies' Shipwrecked! An Entertainment, Lynn Nottage's Intimate Apparel, Nilo Cruz's Anna in the Tropics, Rolin Jones' The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow and David Lindsay-Abaire's Pulitzer Prize-winning Rabbit Hole.

The Pacific Playwrights Festival is made possible with support from The Shubert Foundation, the Elizabeth George Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts and the Pacific Playwrights Festival Honorary Producers (Sophie and Larry Cripe, Yvonne and Damien Jordan, John and Sue Murphy, Thomas B. Rogers and Sarah J. Anderson, and Linda and Tod White). Special thanks to The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust and the Edgerton Foundation for supporting South Coast Repertory's development of new plays.

The Wyndham Orange County Hotel is the official hotel of the Pacific Playwrights Festival, and Coast Magazine is the media partner.

Ticket prices for the 14th Pacific Playwrights Festival are $12 per individual reading, and $31-$66 for Silent Sky and Completeness. The festival runs April 29-May 1. Tickets can be purchased online at www.scr.org, by phone at (714) 708-5555 or in person at the SCR box office.