THE COLONY THEATRE PRESENTS THE FIRST PRODUCTION
OF ITS 40th ANNIVERSARY SEASON
CHRISTINA PICKLES & BRUCE
WEITZ
starring in
THE WORLD PREMIERE OF
FAMILY PLANNING
Written by Michelle Kholos
Brooks
Directed by Cameron Watson
Limited Engagement
opens Saturday, July 12
at The Colony
Theatre in Burbank!
June 20, 2014...Burbank...The Colony Theatre is thrilled to
present the first production of its historic 40th Anniversary
season, the World Premiere of
FAMILY PLANNING by
Michelle Kholos Brooks. The production stars Christina Pickles and Bruce Weitz,
who between them have a combined total of 14 Emmy nominations, and is directed
by Cameron Watson, who has been heralded as "one of our finest
contemporary directors" by
The Los Angeles Times, while
The Wall Street Journal declared his work "the best in the
country."
FAMILY PLANNING
will preview on Wednesday, July 9;
Thursday, July 10; and Friday, July 11 at 8:00pm. It will open on Saturday, July
12 at 8:00pm and continue through Sunday, August 10 at The Colony Theatre, 555
N. Third Street in Burbank.
First comes love. Then comes marriage. Then your parents
move in. Larry is a New Age Jewish Buddhist. Diane is a narcissistic Auntie Mame
wannabe. They have been divorced since forever. When they lose their second
spouses and most of their finances, both move in with their daughter and
son-in-law. What could possibly go wrong? A captivating exploration of the
comedy and the drama that ensue when relatives are packed into the same small
space and actually forced to behave like a functional family.
The Colony has long been a vibrant
center of L.A.'s theatre life. Its subscribers renew at an astounding rate of
90%, and in 2012 the theatre received nine Ovation Award nominations, including
the coveted one for Best Season. From its beginnings in 1975 as a 99-seat
Equity-waiver theatre in Silver Lake, the company became so successful
artistically, and built such a large subscriber base, that in 2000 it was able
to move into a 270-seat state-of-the-art theatre created for it by the City of
Burbank. As such, it became one of only a handful of mid-sized professional
theatres in the L.A. area that produce a year-round season of plays and
musicals, and that employ actors under contract with Actors' Equity
Association.
ABOUT THE CREATIVE TEAM
MICHELLE KHOLOS BROOKS (Playwright) was most recently a
Finalist for the 2014 Riva Shiner Comedy Award, Bloomington Playwrights Project,
for
Family Planning. Her play
Kalamazoo, co-written with Kelly Younger, was the Winner of
the 2014 Riva Shiner Comedy Award and will be produced Fall, 2014, at
Bloomington Playwrights Project and Pacific Resident Theatre. Brooks' play,
Chair, is currently a semi-finalist for the Firehouse
Theatre's Festival of New American Plays. Other select works for the stage
include:
Two Parents, Two Weddings, Two Years,
(Wings Theatre, New York City, Laurelgrove Theatre Company, Los Angeles);
See How We Are (Laurelgrove Theatre Company);
Love and Other Allergies (Vox Humana Theatre Ensemble); and
Famous in Luxembourg (Rogue Machine, Around-the-Clock Short
Play Festival), among others. Additional staged readings of various works have
been produced at Snapshots, a benefit to raise funds for the Susan G. Komen
Foundation; Venue 9 Theatre, San Francisco; The Barrow Group, New York; and the
Bay Street Theatre, Sag Harbor, New York. Brooks earned a B.A. from Emerson
College and an M.F.A. in Fiction from Otis College of Art and Design. She is a
member of The Dramatists Guild of America and Pacific Resident Theatre in
Venice, CA. She currently lives in her hometown of Los Angeles with her husband
and son.
CAMERON WATSON (Director)
recently directed the smash-hit revival of Caryl Churchill's
Top
Girls at The Antaeus Company. Cameron's memorable productions at The
Colony Theatre include
The Savannah Disputation, On Golden Pond, Grace
& Glorie, Educating Rita and the legendary west coast premiere of
Trying starring Alan Mandell and Rebecca Mozo, which broke
box office records and swept the awards circuit that season. Cameron directed
the critically-acclaimed, multi-racial production of Arthur Miller's
All My Sons at The Matrix Theatre Company,
I
Never Sang For My Father at The New American Theatre,
I
Capture the Castle and
A Midsummer Night's Dream
at The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey,
Rolling With
Laughter at The El Portal in Los Angeles, The Edinburgh Festival, and
in London's West End. A regular guest artist at the USC School of Dramatic Art,
Cameron directed
Our Town as part of the MFA Repertory. He
wrote and directed the Miramax feature film
Our Very Own
starring Allison Janney in an Independent Spirit Award-nominated performance. He
created the upcoming web series
Break A Hip starring
Christina Pickles along with Allison Janney, Peri Gilpin, and Octavia Spencer.
ABOUT THE CAST AND DESIGN
TEAM
CHRISTINA PICKLES (Diane)
was born into an English theatrical family and trained at The Royal Academy of
Dramatic Art. She had an extensive Broadway and Off-Broadway career before being
cast in
Saint Elsewhere, which launched her television
career. She received five Emmy nominations for her role as Nurse Helen
Rosenthal. Christina continued to appear in many television shows including
Friends, for which she received an Emmy nomination as Ross
and Monica's dysfunctional mother. Her recent television credits include Comedy
Central's
Children's Hospital, Growing Up Fisher,
and
Wild and Precious. Christina received Los
Angeles Critics' Awards for
Cloud Nine,
Undiscovered Country, and
The Letters of Janet
Flanner. She appeared in Antaeus' production of
Tonight at
Eight Thirty, The West Coast premiere of
Dead Man's Cell
Phone, and at The Colony Theatre she starred in
On
Golden Pond. Her films include
Grace
of My Heart,
Legends of the Fall, Baz Luhrmann's
Romeo + Juliet, and
The Wedding
Singer.
Christina's voiceover career
includes numerous commercial campaigns and NPR recordings. She recently ventured
into webseries including
Robin Banks and the Bank Robbers
and stars in the upcoming
Break a Hip.
BRUCE WEITZ (Larry) has
appeared in over 70 Broadway, Off-Broadway, and regional theatre productions. He
has also appeared in 21 feature films and over 100 television shows. He has been
nominated eight times for Emmys: one time for the mini-series
Baby
M, one time for the series
Midnight Caller and
six times for
Hill Street Blues, winning the Emmy in 1984
for his portrayal of Mick Belker in that show. He is a graduate of Carnegie
Mellon University with a master's degree in theatre.
DEE ANN NEWKIRK (Sidney) is
doubly excited to be returning to The Colony, where she first appeared as
multiple characters in
Almost, Maine, as well as to once
again be under the wonderful direction of Cameron Watson, who originally
directed her as daughter Alice, opposite Philip Baker Hall, in Robert Anderson's
I Never Sang For My Father at The New American
Theatre
. Dee Ann recently played Frankie in
Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune and Tekla in August
Strindberg's
The Creditors at Santa Barbara Ensemble. Other
recent LA Theatre credits include Beth in
Dinner With
Friends at Theatre 40 and Carol in Michael O'Malley's
Diverting Devotion. On Broadway, she understudied in the
Roundabout Theatre's production of
A Month in the Country
with Helen Mirren, F. Murray Abraham, and Jennifer Garner,
and has
performed in numerous Off- and
Off-Off-Broadway plays, including various roles at The Barrow Group. Regionally,
she has appeared on various stages across the country including
One
Foot on the Floor (World Premiere, Denver Center Theatre Company),
The Nerd (Colonial Theatre), and
Machinal
(Two Rivers Theatre Co.).
JACK SUNDMACHER (Michael)
is excited to be making his debut at The Colony Theatre. He most recently
appeared in
The Car Plays at the Radar LA Festival. Other
LA theatre credits include: Paul in
Loose Ends, Andrei in
Three Sisters, Haemon
in Antigone, all
at the Odyssey Theatre. NY stage credits
include: Malcolm in
Macbeth (Pulse Theatre), Feste in
Twelfth Night
(Kraine Theatre), Treplev in
The Seagull (The
Studio Theatre), Dorilant in
The Country Wife, and Borgheim
in
Little Eyolf (both at The Westside Repertory Theatre).
Recently, he wrote, produced and acted in the short film,
Captain, which was accepted in numerous festivals,
receiving the Audience Award at the West Virginia Film Festival. He is a
graduate of the William Esper Studio and The New Actors Workshop in New York
City.
FAMILY PLANNING
features an award-winning design team. Scenic Design is by David
Potts (Emmy Award – HBO's
Deadwood). The Costume Design is
by Kate Bergh (LA Stage Scene - Costume Designer of the Year, 2011 and 2012).
The Lighting Design is by Jared A. Sayeg (Ovation nominations,
Trying
and
Kiss Me, Kate). The Sound Design is by
Steven Cahill (Ovation nominations,
Defying Gravity, Driving Miss
Daisy, and
A Streetcar Named Desire). Props
Design and Set Dressing is by Colony Theatre resident designer John McElveney.
FAMILY PLANNING will open on Saturday,
July 12 at 8:00pm and continue through Sunday, August 10. Performances for
FAMILY PLANNING
are Thursdays & Fridays at
8:00pm; Saturdays at 3:00pm & 8:00pm; and Sundays at 2:00pm. Ticket prices
range from $20.00 - $49.00 (group discounts are available). FAMILY
PLANNING will preview will preview on Wednesday, July 9; Thursday, July
10; and Friday, July 11 at 8:00pm at The Colony Theatre, 555 N. Third Street (at
Cypress) adjacent to the Burbank Town Center Mall.
Opening night performance with reception - all tickets
$55.00. There are question-and-answer talkbacks after the performances on
Friday, July 18 and Thursday, July 31. For tickets, call the Colony
Theatre Box Office at 818/558-7000 ext. 15 or online at www.ColonyTheatre.org.
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.For more information, press interviews, photos, or for press comps,
please
contact David Elzer/DEMAND PR at 818/508-1754 or at DavidElzer@me.com or
visit
www.demandpr.com.
The theatre is located at 555 North Third
Street, at the corner of Cypress, in the heart of the Burbank Media
Center. For further information, call (818) 558-7000. Fax number: (818)
558-7110. E-mail: boxoffice@colonytheatre.org.
Or visit our website at www.colonytheatre.