Go Figure:The Randy Gardner Story Headed to LA, Vegas and Boston
GO FIGURE! Productions, LLC is thrilled to announce the world premiere of GO FIGURE! THE RANDY GARDNER STORY, starring Olympic Champion Figure Skater Randy Gardner and written & directed by Josh Ravetch (the co-creator and director of Carrie Fisher's Wishful Drinking, Dick Van Dyke's, Step In Time, and long distance swimmer, Diana Nyad's, ONWARD!). GO FIGURE! will preview on Thursday, May 14 at 8:00pm and will open on Friday, May 15 at 8:00pm and will run through Sunday, June 14th before moving on to West Hollywood, Las Vegas and Boston where it will appear in concert with the 2016 Ice Skating World Championships. Opening Weekend Special Guest Artists will be World Champion Ice Skating Royalty Dorothy Hamill & Tai Bablilonia, with other special guests to be announced during the run of this production.
Funny, touching, and utterly irreverent, GO FIGURE! navigates the astonishing world of the sport watched by more viewers than any other event at The Winter Olympics.
Olympic champion Randy Gardner breaks the ice and the silence in his first ever one-man show and reveals the rough and tumble world behind the beauty and elegance of Olympic ice skating. He also takes us down the path of his own shocking and surprising story on his way to winning the World Championships in pairs ice skating.
Experience this exciting world as never revealed before by those who actually lived it. From Moscow during the Cold War through the jaw-dropping scandals of the 1990's to the present, GO FIGURE! impales the sacred-ice-skating-cows without reverence, while taking us back to the glory days of the Olympics. Nothing is off limits in this raucous, tell-all, where at every turn of the blade, and for the first time in history, "The skates come off and the truth comes out!"
Opening weekend, Randy will be joined live on stage by ice skating legends Dorothy Hamill & Tai Babilonia.
May not be appropriate for children under 13.
ABOUT THE CREATIVE TEAM:
RANDY GARDNER is a legend of American figure skating, he has achieved multiple successes both with his longtime Pairs skating partner Tai Babilonia, and as a director/ choreographer and event producer.
Tai and Randy were five-time gold medalists at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships and won gold at the 1979 World Figure Skating Championships and are two-time Olympians. They went on to win a gold medal at the World Professional Championships. The Pair was inducted into the United States Figure Skating Hall of Fame in 1992 and still hold the distinction of being the last U.S. team to have won a World Championship in Pair skating.
Through his long career in directing and choreography, Randy has worked with almost every major skating star and many celebrities.
A few highlights include: Choreographing and staging special appearances for Olympic Champion Evan Lycacek and U.S. National Champions Ryan Bradley and Alisa Czisny for the multi-media event, "RISE". Directing and staging Opening Night Ceremonies for the 2009 World Figure Skating Championships in Los Angeles. Directing choreographing "Footloose on Ice", starring Nancy Kerrigan and Scott Davis - which was hailed as "Perfection on Ice." Choreography and consulting for iconic television shows from "Beverly Hills 90210" and "Ally McBeal" to "Skating With The Stars," "A Salute To The Ladies Of the Ice"(NBC) as well as for "On Thin Ice", based on the life of Tai Babilonia. As a sought-after coach, Randy just completed the fifth year at the Dorothy Hamill Figure Skating Fantasy Camp, where he serves as one of the on-staff coaches.
He also served as the President for the Pro Skating Historical Foundation, an organization to help preserve the history of professional figure skating through collecting artifacts, media and education and sharing that knowledge with the general public.
JOSHUA RAVETCH (Director/Adaptation) is an American Writer/Director born in Los Angeles, California and is no stranger to the theatrical art form which he calls, "Live Autobiograhy." Ravetch co-created Carrie Fisher's one-woman show Wishful Drinking, and directed it to Broadway success. He also cowrote and directed, Step in Time: A Musical Memoir, starring stage and screen icon, Dick Van Dyke - both World Premieres at The Geffen Playhouse. More recently, he adapted world championship swimmer, Diana Nyad's story, Onward: The Diana Nyad Story. That play opened in Key West one mile from where Nyad made land after swimming 111 miles from Cuba to Florida. A graduate of the Stella Adler Conservatory in Manhattan, took over Ms. Adler's signature script-interpretation classes before assuming the post as artistic director at the Stella Adler Conservatory West.
In the past two years, Ravetch has debuted the World Premiere of two new plays, LIghtbulb and One November Yankee which starred Loretta Swit and Harry Hamlin playing the tour de force parts in the two-hander that actually featured a full scale Piper Cub crashed on stage. Both shows opened at The NoHo Arts Center Theatre.
Ravetch's play, The Astronomer, was performed at The Pasadena Playhouse with Academy Award winner, Shirley Jones in the title role of "The Astronomer" and received a workshop production also with Jones at the NoHo Arts Center. The play came on the heels of the whimsical project Ravetch co-wrote with stage and screen icon, Dick Van Dyke, "A Step in Time - a Musical Memoir." [1] Ravetch directed the world premiere production of the play at The Geffen Playhouse with Van Dyke starring. The play opened in December 2010. More recently, Ravetch directed and adapted the "Onward: Diana Nyad Story" for the stage. It opened in Key West Florida earlier this year only a mile from where Nyad completed her historic 111 mile swim from Cuba to Florida. The play starred Nyad in her first ever one woman show and began its workshop productions at The NoHo Arts Center Theatre.
Also at The Geffen Playhouse, Ravetch wrote and directed a workshop production of his play, "Writer's Cramp" with Academy nom, Robert Forster, Emmy winner Holland Taylor and Tony nominated Douglas Sills. His other directorial credits include Clifford Odets', The Big Knife, Thomas Babe's, Prayer For My Daughter, John Patrick's, Hasty Heart and Ira Levin's, Deathtrap which garnered five Drama Logue Awards including awards for Director and Production.
Ravetch's playwrighting credits also include the award winning play, Girders which launched the 1996 season at Los Angeles' Coast Playhouse starring Academy Award Nom, Robert Forster. Forster also starred in his play, Off Sides with Olympia Dukakis and the play, Beacon with Brooke Shields. His other plays include, The Light Bulb with Stefanie Powers, at the NoHo Arts Center in 2014, and he co-wrote, "One From the Hart" Stefanie Powers one woman show, which opened at the Orange County Performing Arts Centre.
Also at The Coast Playhouse, Ravetch directed Bart Baker's play, "Love Acts" with actress/supermodel, Beverly Johnson. She was nominated for the NAACP Image award for her performance.
Ravetch's Television credits include CBS', Joan of Arcadia, Titan for TNT, Horseshoe Bay for Warner Brothers, "Yesterday" for Laura Ziskin Productions and Miramax purchased his play Off Sides as a feature film.
Ravetch is deeply grateful to Kevin Baily and James Mellon and the NoHo Arts Center Theatre. In the past few years, the trio of collaborated on seven projects. A writer needs a stage, and The NoHo Arts Center Theatre has been that stage.
GO FIGURE: THE RANDY GARDNER STORY will preview on Thursday, May 14th at 8pm and will open on Friday, May 15 at 8:00pm and run through Sunday, June 14 at the NoHo Arts Center, 11136 Magnolia Blvd. in North Hollywood. Performances are Fridays; Saturdays & Sunday Evenings at 8pm. Ticket prices are $30 for all Performances. Special VIP tickets are $100.00 and will include: Preferred seating; A signed photograph of the Olympic Ice Skaters; Post show reception with the skaters and picture taking opportunities; Dorothy & Tai are only guaranteed opening weekend only! For tickets, call 818-508-7101 #6 or visit www.nohoace.com.