THE FOURTH PRODUCTION
OF ITS 36TH
SENSATIONAL
SEASON OF SHOWS!
MOONLIGHT
AND MAGNOLIAS
Written by Ron Hutchinson
Directed by Andrew Barnicle
Limited Engagement opens Saturday,
February 5 at The Colony Theatre in Burbank!
"Frankly, my dear, this is one
funny
play. Witty, pointed dialogue and hilarious situations. A rip-roaring
farce!"
New York Daily News
January
7, 2011...Burbank...The
Colony Theatre Company is excited to present the fourth production of
its 36th
season, MOONLIGHT AND MAGNOLIAS,
written
by Ron Hutchinson and directed by Andrew
Barnicle (Celadine, Gunmetal
Blues). MOONLIGHT AND MAGNOLIAS will preview on
Wednesday,
February 2; Thursday, February 3; and Friday, February 4 at 8:00pm and
will
open on Saturday, February 5 at 8:00pm and continue through Sunday,
March 6 at
The Colony Theatre, 555 North Third Street (at Cypress) adjacent to the
Burbank
Town Center.
Hollywood
1939. Famed producer David O. Selznick
is three weeks into filming his latest historical epic, Gone With
The Wind,
but the screenplay just isn't working. He hires script doctor Ben Hecht
to rewrite
the script in five days — but Hecht has never read the book! What's a
mogul to
do? Selznick pulls director Victor Fleming from The Wizard of Oz
and
with Hecht, the three men spend five days locked in the producer's
office
re-enacting Margaret Mitchell's bestseller to craft a screenplay that
will
become one of the most successful films of all time. Inspired by true
events, Moonlight
and Magnolias is a wildly funny and winning story that illuminates
the
behind-the-scenes business of movie-making — and the larger-than-life
egos —
during the Golden Age of Hollywood.
The
award-winning Colony Theatre Company was founded in 1975 as a 99-seat
Equity-waiver theatre in Silver Lake. Over the years the company
was so
successful artistically, and built such a large subscriber base, that
in 2000
it was able to move into a 270-seat theatre created for it by the City
of
Burbank, becoming one of only 5 mid-size professional theatres in the
LA area
that produce a year-round season of plays and musicals, and that employ
actors
under contract with Actors' Equity Association.
Since
the move to Burbank, The Colony was named one of "25 Notable U.S.
Theatre
Companies" by the Encyclopedia Britannica Almanac for 8 years in a row
and
voted "Best Live Theatre in LA" in The Daily News 2006 Readers'
Choice poll. The company's audience is so loyal that in an era
when
subscription is declining dramatically, and when the industry-wide
"gold
standard" renewal rate of 80% is considered unattainable, for the past
two
seasons The Colony has achieved a subscription renewal rate over 90%.
ABOUT THE
CREATIVE TEAM AND CAST
ANDREW
BARNICLE (Director) returns
to directing Moonlight
and
Magnolias following his acclaimed production of the same play for
The Laguna
Playhouse and McCoy Rigby Entertainment / La Mirada Theatre for the
Performing
Arts. At The Colony, Andrew has directed productions of Celadine,
Gunmetal
Blues, and Rounding Third. He was the artistic director of
The
Laguna Playhouse for 18 years, producing 120 Playhouse productions and
directing forty of them, including many world, U.S., west coast, and
Southern
California premieres. Recent directing projects there include
Michael
Hollinger's plays An Empty Plate at the Café du Grand Boeuf and
Red
Herring, the world premiere of Richard Dresser's The Pursuit of
Happiness, and the U.S. premiere of Bernard Farrell's Many
Happy
Returns. Andrew previously served as Head of Theatre at
United States
International University's School of Performing and Visual Arts in San
Diego,
and was the Associate Artistic Director of the North Coast Repertory
Theatre in
Solana Beach. He has also directed at San Diego's Theatre at Old Town,
Michigan's Meadow Brook Theatre, and most recently directed The
Foreigner
at San Jose Rep.
RON
HUTCHINSON (Playwright) is
an acclaimed Emmy-winning writer
and also the winner of the George Devine and John Whiting new writing
awards. He has written dozens of stage plays including The
Irish Play,
Flight, and the acclaimed West-End hit Rat in the
Skull,
and he was the Royal Shakespeare Theatre's writer-in-residence from
1980-81. More recently, he has become a prolific screenwriter
and script
doctor, and his work has received multiple Emmy and Golden Globe
Awards. His screenplays include Murders Among Us: The Simon
Wiesenthal Story,
The
Burning Season (directed by John Frankenheimer), The Josephine
Baker
Story, Fatherland, The Tuskegee Airmen (with
Laurence
Fishburne), the miniseries Traffic, The Ten Commandments,
and Marco
Polo, among many others.
ROY
ABRAMSOHN (David O.
Selznick) returns to The Colony after receiving critical
acclaim in last year's smash-hit run of 2 Pianos 4 Hands. Roy
originated one of the leads in the two-man, Pulitzer-nominated
drama
Old Wicked Songs at the historic Walnut Street Theatre, where
he also
played the dual role of Chico and Harpo Marx in Groucho: A Life in
Revue
with the original Broadway cast. Groucho was taped live
at the
Westport Country Playhouse in Connecticut and has aired on PBS. Other
stage
credits include two years at the Oregon Shakespearean Festival in
Ashland, Dirty Blonde
at Portland Center Stage, the West Coast Premiere of Israel Horovitz's Lebensraum
at The Fountain Theatre, Gunmetal Blues and Who's
Afraid of
Virginia Woolf? at San Jose Stage, Trumbo with Joe Mantegna
at The
Falcon Theatre, Taking Sides and A Chorus of Disapproval
at
The Odyssey Theatre, The Last Schwartz at The Zephyr Theatre,
and Leaving
Iowa at The Laguna Playhouse. Last year he originated a
role in the world premiere of Hijacking the Northern Star
with
an international cast at the Shouson Theatre in Hong
Kong,
China. Originally from Pennsylvania, he attended Oberlin College and
Conservatory of Music. He hosted a Young People's Concert on Romantic
Music
with the New York Philharmonic in Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center,
New York
City and played piano with the orchestra. He has appeared in over
100
television commercials and guest-starring roles
including Without
A Trace, American Dream, The Parkers and Medium.
Feature
films include The Dukes with Chazz Palminteri and starring
roles in
Creepshow 3 and the upcoming feature Escape From Tomorrow.
EMILY
EIDEN (Miss Poppenghul) returns to the role that earned her
accolades
at The
Laguna Playhouse and McCoy Rigby Entertainment / La Mirada Theatre for
the
Performing Arts. Other theatre appearances include South Coast
Repertory's Taking
Steps, A Year with Frog and Toad, and Pookie Goes
Grenading (NewSCRipts
Series); Don't Talk to the Actors at The Laguna
Playhouse; Tonight
@ 8:30 and Mother Courage and Her Children at
The
Antaeus Company; The Crucible and A Christmas
Carol at
International City Theatre; multiple TYA shows at Mainstreet
Theater Co.
including Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse and Charlotte's
Web; and The Cradle Will Rock and Twelfth
Night at Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum. Emily
narrates
three young adult audiobook series (Paranormalcy, Viola in Reel
Life, and The
Amanda Project) and currently narrates Griffith
Observatory's
planetarium shows. Her film and TV credits include: Scab, The
Velvet
Box, and Campus Ladies.
BRENDAN
FORD (Victor Fleming) reprises his Moonlight and Magnolias
role, which
he performed to great acclaim at The Laguna Playhouse and McCoy Rigby
Entertainment / La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts. He has
performed in many productions throughout southern California including Many
Happy Returns and Red Herring at The Laguna Playhouse, Amy's
View
and Rabbit Hole at North Coast Rep, One Slight Hitch at
The
Falcon Theatre, Long Day's Journey into Night at The Lyceum, Ernest
in Love at The Fremont Theatre, Arthur in Camelot at
Fullerton CLO,
The Captain in Anything Goes for Reprise!,
Secret
Garden at South Bay
CLO, the world premiere of Break of
Day at The Lillian Theatre, A Doll's House at L.A. Rep.,
the world
premiere of Florinda at The Freud Playhouse, and The Hostage
at
LATC. In New York, he has appeared in multiple productions at the
National Shakespeare Company, Westbeth Theatre Center, Columbia
Shakespeare
Festival, and Westside Rep. Brendan's film and TV credits include
Clear
and Present Danger, The Net, George of the Jungle, If
These Walls
Could Talk, CSI: Miami, Numbers, Notes from the
Underbelly
the pilot of Hot Properties, The District, The Pretender,
V.I.P.,
Beverly Hills 90210, Chicago Hope, Babylon 5, Silk Stalkings
and
recurring roles on Weekends at the D.L. on Comedy Central, Pauly
and The Young and the Restless. He is currently recurring
in the
role of Senator Corvellis in this season of Big Love.
MATT
GOTTLIEB (Ben Hecht) received a 2009 Ovation
Award nomination as Best Leading Actor for Who Lives? (Pico
Playhouse)
and has also performed in Nine Armenians at The Mark Taper
Forum, Awake
& Sing! and Fedunn (LADCC Best Supporting Actor
nominations for
both) at The Odyssey Theatre, Indiscretions (Garland Award for
Best
Supporting Actor), Happy End (LADCC Award for Best Revival) at
Pacific
Resident Theatre, and Sonia Flew at The Laguna Playhouse. His
regional
theatre performances include the title role in Julius Caesar
for
Shakespeare Santa Cruz; Merv Kant in The Sisters Rosensweig for
San Jose
Rep; Mazzini in Shaw's Heartbreak House at Berkeley Rep and
Aaronow in Glengarry
Glen Ross at A.C.T. (both directed by Les Waters); and the title
role in The
Puppetmaster of Lodz and the Rev. Morrell in Candida, both
for Marin
Theater Company. Theatres in New York include The NY Shakespeare
Festival, The Long Wharf, Circle Rep, Soho Rep and The
Musical-Comedy
Murders of 1940 on Broadway. L.A. directing credits include
the L.A.
premiere of A Question of Mercy at Pacific Resident Theatre and
Pinter's
The Caretaker at the Zephyr Theater (LA Weekly Award nomination
and
Ovation Award nomination for Best Director). Films include Philip
Bosco's
son in Frank D. Gilroy's The Luckiest Man in the World, and TV
credits
include guest starring roles on Without A Trace, Still
Standing, Boston
Public, The Practice, JAG, Nash Bridges,
and Wings.
MOONLIGHT AND MAGNOLIAS has
assembled an award-winning design team. The Scenic Design is by
Bruce
Goodrich. The Lighting Design is by Paulie Jenkins. The Costume
Design is
by Julie McKeen. The Sound Design is by Julie Ferrin.
ABOUT THE
SCHEDULE
AND PRICING
MOONLIGHT AND MAGNOLIAS will
open on Saturday, February 5 at
8:00pm and continue through Sunday, March 6. Performances for MOONLIGHT
AND MAGNOLIAS are Thursdays & Fridays at 8:00pm;
Saturdays at 3:00pm & 8:00pm; and Sundays at 2:00pm. Ticket prices
range
from $20.00 - $42.00 (student, senior and group discounts are
available). MOONLIGHT
AND MAGNOLIAS will
preview on Wednesday,
February 2; Thursday, February 3; and Friday, February 4 at 8:00pm.
Opening
night performance with reception -
all tickets $50.00. There
are question-and-answer talkbacks after
the performances on Friday, February 11, and Thursday, February 24.
For tickets, call the Colony Theatre Box Office at 818/558-7000 ext. 15
or
online at www.colonytheatre.org.
For
more information, press interviews, photos or for press comps,
please contact David Elzer/DEMAND PR at 818/508-1754 or at ELZERD@aol.com or
visit www.demandpr.com.
The
award-winning Colony Theatre Company is Burbank's premiere professional
theatre. It was voted "Best Live Theatre in L.A." in The Daily News
2006 Readers' Choice poll, and has been named one of "25 Notable U.S.
Theatre Companies" by Encyclopedia Britannica Almanac for 6 years in a
row.
The
Colony Theatre Company is a 36-year old organization dedicated
to bringing the finest-quality theatrical productions to Los Angeles.
The theatre is located at 555 North Third Street, at the corner of
Cypress, in the heart of Downtown Burbank. For further information,
call (818) 558-7000. Fax: (818) 558-7110. E-mail:
colonytheatre@colonytheatre.org. Or visit our website at www.colonytheatre.org