Red Dog Squadron kicks off 2011 with West Coast premiere of "greedy"

Five people struggle with greed, hope, desire and integrity in the wake of an emailed plea for money that promises big returns. Is it a scam or a golden opportunity? RED DOG SQUADRON presents the West Coast premiere of greedy by Karl Gajdusek. RED DOG SQUADRON co-artistic director James Roday directs a cast that includes Amanda Detmer, Kurt Fuller, Peter Mackenzie, Ivana Milicevic, Brad Raider and Roday's co-star on the USA series psych, Maggie Lawson. The limited four-week engagement takes place at the El Centro Theatre, January 8-29.

"I'm fascinated by Nigerian scam letters and, even more, by the psychology of the victims," explains Gajdusek, who has done some significant rewriting since the play's Off Broadway premiere and is collaborating closely with Roday and co-artistic director Brad Raider on this production. "These people who've lost everything in these schemes. What causes them to engage in the first place? Sure, money, but that's just the entry point. What's going on in their hearts once they realize they've been taken, but are incapable of admitting it to themselves and so keep getting in deeper? Greed seems to be the last remaining value we share as a culture, and we will go through incredible contortions to chase a pile of money, or to feel that we are doing something 'large' with our lives - what I call a kind of 'greed of the spirit.' "

"Is there such a thing as a truly unselfish act?" asks Roday, who is best known to TV audiences for his role as Shawn Spencer in the USA Network original series psych, and to theater audiences for his performance as 'Finn' opposite Michael Weston in last season's Extinction. "You might think you know the score - who's greedy and who's not. But this play looks at living in the gray area. You might be wrong."

greedy follows on the heels of RED DOG SQUADRON's wildly successful world premiere production of Extinction, which transferred from the Elephant Space in Hollywood to the Cherry Lane Theatre in New York.

"After Extinction, we wanted to find something equally exciting for our next production," says Raider. "When we came across greedy, we immediately recognized richly drawn characters, complex themes, and a dark, subversive humor to which we're both naturally drawn."

greedy was the first recipient of the Clubbed Thumb Biennual Playwright Commission, part of the four-time OBIE Award-winning company's mission to commission, develop, and produce "funny, strange, and provocative new plays by living American writers." The play received a four-week workshop production as part of the company's 12th annual Summerworks festival of new plays. Variety wrote, "Production (and [prize-winning] dough) were fairly earned for show's nose-thumbing attitude toward greedy buyers and selfish sellers of dubious commodities... there's a certain nasty fun in watching these victims squirm... the playwright scores with highly theatrical moments."