ANDAK STAGE COMPANY
presents
the WORLD PREMIERE of
�LIBERTY INN: THE MUSICAL�
Book and Lyrics by Dakin Matthews with Music by B. T. Ryback
Opening March 13 at 8pm & March 14, 2010 with receptions to follow
Running Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00pm and Saturdays and Sundays at 2:00pm
No performances Easter weekend April 2-4, 2010
Los Angeles, CA � The Andak Stage Company announces a seventh world premiere to open its fourth season. LIBERTY INN: THE MUSICAL is a full-length musical adapted from Goldoni�s comic masterpiece La locandiera (The Landlady) by Dakin Matthews (book and lyrics) and B. T. Ryback (music). This collaboration is the result of a meeting while the two were performing together in The History Boys at the Ahmanson Theatre. They wrote this musical, mostly in cyberspace, while Mr. Ryback was working in Los Angeles and New York, and Mr. Matthews was touring the world with Sam Mendes� Bridge Project.
Associate Artistic Director Anne McNaughton directs the world premiere of this tuneful and rollicking courtship comedy with strong feminist themes, transferred from 18th Century Italy into a time in the early days of the new American republic. Deborah May and Norman Snow star as the wily American innkeeper and the misogynistic Hessian Captain in an intriguing �battle of the sexes� waged in her fashionable inn in post-colonial Liberty, New York. The show will play for seven weeks at Andak�s NewPlace Studio Theatre in the NoHo Arts District.
Dakin Matthews (Book & Lyrics, Co-Producer) is the Artistic Director of Andak Stage Company and a multiple award-winning playwright, who has produced five of his scripts at Andak: three originals (The Prince of L.A., A Magic Christmas, and The Savannah Option) and two translations (Spite for Spite and Don Juan the Trickster of Seville). Other scripts: The Liar and The Proof of the Promise, verse translations from the Spanish, were produced by the Antaeus Company and toured to the international Siglo de Oro Festival in El Paso; Uncommon Players was produced at the Old Globe Theatre and Shakespeare on the Beach, and The Great Fugue at ACT in San Francisco; his single play adaptation of Shakespeare�s Henry IV has been produced across the country, including a Tony Award winning production at Lincoln Center Theater, for which he won a special Drama Desk Award. He is also a busy actor, teacher, dramaturge, and Shakespeare scholar, and was the Founding Artistic Director of the Antaeus Company.
LIBERTY INN: THE MUSICAL opens Saturday, March 13 at 8:00pm and Sunday March 14, 2010 at 2:00pm. It will run through Sunday April 25, 2010, with no performances Easter weekend April 2-4. Performances are Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00pm and Saturdays and Sundays at 2:00pm at NewPlace Studio Theatre, 10950 Peach Grove Street, North Hollywood, CA 91601. All tickets are $25, with discounts for previews, seniors, students, industry professionals, and groups. For tickets call (866) 811-4111 or visit www.Andak.org.
B.T. RYBACK (Music, Musical Director, and Accompanist) won the 2007 Tennessee Williams One-Act Competition for his play We�rd. His play A Roz By Any Other Name was the winner of the 2007 Henrico County Theatre One-Act Competition. He is an actor, playwright, and composer. Mr. Ryback�s additional works include I, Abraham (UCLA commission), Quit India (Finalist, 2007 Richard Rodgers Award), the book for Darling (PACE New Musicals 2009), and the music for the movie-musical Shoulder Pads. He is a regular composer for Milwaukee�s Skylight Opera Theatre�s Education program, Kidswrites, which pairs the uncorrected writing of inner-city grade school students with professional actors and composers. He also served for five years as the composer/lyricist for Next Act Theatre�s Next Actors Summer Theatre for Youth, during which time he composed music and lyrics for five original musical theatre pieces in collaboration with Milwaukee�s inner-city youth. Currently B.T. Ryback is completing the book, music, and lyrics to The Tavern Keeper’s Daughter. This season he will be appearing in The 25th annual Putnam County Spelling Bee at La Mirada Theatre and in Dr. Cerberus at South Coast Repertory Theatre.
ANNE McNAUGHTON (Director, Co-Producer) is the Associate Artistic Director of Andak Stage Company and directed its previous productions of The Letters, Spite for Spite and The Bay At Nice, as well as the world premieres of The Prince of L.A., The Savannah Option, A Magic Christmas, Don Juan The Trickster of Seville, and her own Moli�re update, San Fran Scapin. Anne was the Artistic Director of the Valley Shakespeare Festival in Saratoga and a founding member of both the Antaeus Company and John Houseman’s Acting Company, for which she directed U.S.A. off-Broadway. She was a Resident Director at San Jose Rep, California Actors Theatre, Berkeley Stage Company, and Berkeley Shakespeare Festival, and taught and directed in the American Conservatory Theatre’s advanced training program. She is a member of the first graduating class of the Juilliard Drama Division and holds a graduate degree in directing from Stanford University. Her award-winning productions in the San Francisco Bay Area include Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Richard III, Artichoke, and Letters Home. Most recently, she directed The Prince of L.A. and Collected Stories at the Old Globe, and The Liar, The Proof of the Promise, Trial By Jury, and The Will for the Antaeus Company.
THE ENSEMBLE
DEBORAH MAY (Mirandolina) is an Associate Artist of the Old Globe, where she has appeared in ten productions. She also spent eight years at ACT in San Francisco, appearing in over 25 productions, and nine summers at PCPA in Santa Maria, appearing in over 20 productions. She has also worked on and off Broadway and at The Mark Taper Forum, Seattle Rep, Louisville Actors Theatre, the Guthrie Theatre, and the Huntington Theatre. Her TV credits include E.R., The Larry Sanders Show, Murder One, St. Elsewhere, and Guiding Light.
NORMAN SNOW (Captain) has appeared on Broadway in The School for Scandal, The Beggar�s Opera, Macbeth, Inherit the Wind, The Robber Bridegroom, Edward II, The Three Sisters, Scenes and Revelations, The Time of You Life, Measure for Measure, and Next Time I�ll Sing For You. Off-Broadway, he was seen in One Crack Out, The Lower Depths, The Fantod, Timon of Athens, and Cymbeline. He has appeared regionally at the Goodman Theatre (Richard III, Holiday, Lone Canoe), Great Lakes Theatre (Man and Superman, Hamlet), Annenberg Theatre (The Power and the Glory), The Old Globe (Art, Henry V, Hamlet, A Midsummer Night�s Dream), Pasadena Playhouse (David�s Mother), Yale Rep (Major Barbara), Long Wharf Theatre (Reclaimed), Mark Taper Forum (Richard II), South Coast Rep (The Company of Heaven), Matrix Theatre (Habeas Corpus), and the Globe West Hollywood (If Only). At Andak Norman appeared in the critically acclaimed productions of Martin Crimp�s The Misanthrope, John Lowell�s The Letters, and Bernard Pomerance�s The Elephant Man. His films include The Europeans, Hard Choices, The Last Starfighter, and Manhunter. On TV he has appeared in many series and soaps, including Law and Order, L.A. Law, Quantum Leap, Star Trek, Days of Our Lives, and The Young and the Restless. Mr. Snow graduated from Juilliard as part of the first drama class (Group One), and was a founding member of John Houseman�s The Acting Company and of The Antaeus Company. He was also a member of the renowned choir at St. Charles Borromeo in L.A. under maestro Paul Salumunivich, with whom he sang on numerous picture soundtracks as well as with the L.A. Master Chorale and the L.A. Philharmonic in Stravinsky�s Oedipus Rex.
JOHN DeMITA (Marquis) has appeared extensively on regional stages. His credits include work at the The Antaeus Company, the Geffen Playhouse, Pacific Resident Theatre, ACT, Seattle�s Intiman Theater, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and the Williamstown Theater Festival. In addition, he was a series regular on Comedy Central’s The Clinic, and has guest-starred in numerous films, and television shows (most recently CSI and Eyes). As a voice actor he was the voice of action star Jet Li in 11 movies. John directed the acclaimed Andak productions of Betrayal, The Misanthrope, and The Elephant Man, and acted in A Magic Christmas.
JOHN C. COMBS (Count) was a familiar face on New York stages before relocating to Los Angeles. Locally he has worked as a member of Circle X Theatre Company in Louis Slotin Sonata, Eurydice, and the critically acclaimed The Brothers Karamazov, in which John played a total of ten characters. He has also appeared as a member of The Antaeus Company in the award-winning revival of Arthur Miller�s The Man Who Had All The Luck, as well as Gilbert & Sullivan�s Trial By Jury, The Will, A Penny For A Song, Making Hay (a new musical based on Molliere�s Georges Dandin), and others. With Theatre 40, John has been seen in The Real Inspector Hound as Birdboot, in Twelfth Night as The Duke and Toby Belch, and as Mortimer in The Constant Wife. On TV, John has worked on Law and Order, The District, Family Law, Judging Amy, Dragnet, The Guardian, and Crossing Jordan. He appeared in the Andak production of David Hare�s The Bay At Nice, which opened the company�s new theatre on Peach Grove Street. John is a longtime member of the Antaeus Company.
CHARLOTTE DI GREGORIO (Sofia) DiGregorio also appeared in The Bay at Nice at Andak and has been seen as Carmen in The Balcony, Rosalind in As You Like It, Adriana in A Comedy of Errors, Rizzo in Grease, Kate in The Pirates of Penzance, and Plutone in the opera Orfeo. She holds a BFA in acting from Cal/Arts.
MARK DOERR (Aide) Doerr played the title role in Andak�s world premiere of Don Juan, The Trickster of Seville, both in North Hollywood and on tour to the Chamizal Theatre Festival in El Paso. He is a graduate of The Juilliard School and a founding member of the award-winning Oasis Theatre Company.
BILL MENDIETA (Faber, u/s Aide) appeared in the Andak world premiere production of The Prince of L.A. He is also a member of the The Antaeus Company where he has been seen in The Dickens Project, The Man Who Had All The Luck, and several Classic Fest�s. Bill is currently finishing up his run as Orsino in the Chrysalis Stage production of Twelfth Night.
The versatile DEAN CAMERON (Sets & Costumes) has been designing sets and costumes for thirty years at venues all over the Southwest, including the Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities, the California Institute of the Arts, The Nevada Shakespeare Festival, and the Pasadena Shakespeare-in the-Park Festival. He has served several times as Prop Master at the Fountain Theater in Hollywood, as has worked as a costume sketch artist for the Crystal Cathedral’s production of Creation and for the 1998-99 Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus. His forthcoming costume illustration book, Character Croquis, will be edited by the end of this year. This is his tenth show designing for Andak Stage Company.
DAVID McNAUGHTON (Assistant Set Designer) co-designed and built additional set pieces for Liberty Inn. He designed and built numerous productions for the Califia Ballet Company and School, which he runs with his wife Shelley Scott. Among the productions he has designed, there and elsewhere, are The Nutcracker (four times), A Midsummer Night�s Dream (twice), Tom Sawyer, Gypsy, Thumbelina, Sonoma Seasons, and The Firebird. He studied ballet at an early age with the San Francisco Ballet, and went on to a professional career as a pricipal dancer with the Oakland, San Francisco, and New York City Ballets. He is also an accomplished sculptor, painter, composer, and custom home builder. This is his first work with Andak Stage Company.
WHAT: �LIBERTY INN: THE MUSICAL�
Book and Lyrics by: Dakin Matthews
Music by: B. T. Ryback
Directed by: Anne McNaughton
Produced by: Dakin Matthews & Anne McNaughton
Presented by: Andak Stage Company
WHERE:
NewPlace Studio Theatre
10950 Peach Grove Street
North Hollywood, California 91601
(1 block north of the Camarillo, Vineland, Lankershim intersection in the NoHo Arts District)
Amenities: ADA accessible. Gated lot and street parking. Excellent restaurants nearby
HOW:
For tickets call: (866) 811-4111 or visit www.Andak.org
WHEN: Previews 3/5, 3/6, 3/12 at 8pm; 3/6, 3/7, 3/13 at 2pm.
Opening Saturday, March 13 and Sunday March 14, 2010 (receptions to follow Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon performances on opening weekend)
Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00 pm
Saturdays and Sundays at 2:00pm
Closing performance: April 25, 2010
No performances Easter weekend April 2-4, 2010
HOW MUCH:
All Seats are $ 25.00 (discount rates for previews, industry, students, and seniors)
Group discounts: 10 or more contact (818) 506-8462
Description: Liberty Inn: The Musical is a world premiere full-length musical comedy about a Hessian Captain who hates women, and a wily landlady who tries to tame him. The play, set in post-colonial America, features a book and lyrics by multi-award winner Dakin Matthews (based on a Goldoni farce) and twenty-two original songs by award-winning composer B.T. Ryback.
Press Contact:
Judith Borne (310) 305-7888 or judith@borneidentities.com