FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The Harriet & Charles Luckman
Fine Arts Complex
Contact: Diane Turner
Phone: (323) 343-6616
Fax: (323) 343-6423
Date: March 10, 1997
THE ACTING COMPANY PERFORMS AT LUCKMAN THEATRE ON APRIL 4, 5 AND 6
Some of America's Most Gifted Young Actors Offer Robustly Inventive
Performances in The Glass Menagerie, As You Like It and the
West Coast Premiere of Mud, River, Stone
The Acting Company (Margot Harley, producing director), America's foremost professional touring repertory theater dedicated to presenting the classics and new works, will perform Mud, River, Stone, a new play by Lynn Nottage on Friday, April 4 at 8 p.m.; William Shakespeare's As You Like It on Saturday, April 5 at 8 p.m.; and Tennessee Williams' American masterpiece, The Glass Menagerie on Sunday, April 6 at 2 p.m. at Cal State L.A.'s Luckman Theatre. Tickets are $25 and $20 for general admission and $12 for seniors over 65-years-old and students. For tickets call TicketMaster at (213) 365-3500 or (714) 740-7878, or the Luckman box office at (323) 343-6600.
Luckman Theatre is the only California venue on The Acting Company's 1996-97 tour.
Commissioned by The Acting Company for its diverse ensemble of young actors, Mud, River, Stone dramatically examines a young African-American couple's rethinking of their identity and heritage. This new play by Lynn Nottage is a co-production of The Acting Company and Studio Arena Theatre of Buffalo, N.Y. Seret Scott, the award-winning actress and director, in her third collaboration with Nottage, directed this world premiere production. In addition to its accomplished playwright and director, the production boasts sets by Hugh Landwehr, Martha Hally's costumes and Dennis Parichy's lighting design.
Set in Africa, Mud, River, Stone is the politically-charged drama of an African-American couple who embark on their second honeymoon in an attempt to return to their ancestral roots. Lost in the bush, the couple are forced by crisis to re-evaluate their politics, their marriage and their identities. The action of Mud, River, Stone centers around the true nature of who "owns" and who "belongs in" Africa.
Directed and designed by the world-renowned Liviu Ciulei for The Acting Company, As You Like It is a wry and rollicking comedy about love, madness and social convention. One of Shakespeare's most popular plays and written in 1599, As You Like It deftly balances the inconstant advantages of court society against the pastoral joys of rural life.
Ciulei's visual concept is based upon the works of Magritte, the French surrealist painter whose sense of fantasy Ciulei has distilled into an elegant and striking panorama. Costumes are by Smaranda Branescu, inspired in part by Art Nouveau, and lighting is by Dennis Parichy. Scott Killian has composed original music; songs have been composed by Theodore Grigoriu.
The treasured American classic by Tennessee Williams, The Glass Menagerie, is the powerful story of the playwright's own troubled youth. Moving and poetic in its imagery, The Glass Menagerie offers a commanding portrait of a struggling American family in Depression-era St. Louis.
The Glass Menagerie is a co-production of The Acting Company and the George Street Playhouse in New Brunswick, N.J. It is directed by George Street's Artistic Director, Gregory S. Hurst, with set design by Hugh Landwehr, costume design by Teresa Snider-Stein and lighting design by Dennis Parichy.
Founded in 1972 by Margot Harley and the late John Houseman. The Acting Company is the only professional theatre company of its kind in America. It provides young and highly talented actors, of all cultural and ethnic backgrounds from the best professional actor training institutions around the country, with an opportunity to develop their craft further by touring in a repertory of classic and contemporary plays. Their 200 alumni include Patti LuPone, Keith David, Frances Conroy, Kevin Kline, Harriet Harris, David Ogden Stiers, Gerald Gutierrez, David Schramm and Jeffrey Wright.
Luckman Theatre, part of the Harriet & Charles Luckman Fine Arts Complex, is located on the campus of Cal State L.A. at the Eastern Avenue exit of the San Bernardino (I-10) freeway near the interchange of the I-10 and I-710 (Long Beach) freeways. For updates and scheduling click on Luckman Fine Arts Complex on the Cal State L.A. home page </sites/default/files/>_or call (323) 343-6610._