Announcing: Jane Kaczmarek and Herbert Siguenza Set To Host 2012 LA Stage Alliance Ovation Awards

JANE KACZMAREK AND HERBERT SIGUENZA
SET TO HOST LA STAGE ALLIANCE
2012 OVATION AWARDS CEREMONY
AT HISTORIC LOS ANGELES THEATRE IN DOWNTOWN LA
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 12, AT 7:30PM

Television and stage star Jane Kaczmarek and Culture Clash co-founder/actor/writer Herbert Siguenza will host the 2012 LA STAGE Alliance Ovation Awards Ceremony on Monday, November 12, at the historic Los Angeles Theatre in downtown LA. The curtain will rise at 7:30pm.

Jane Kaczmarek is well known for her work on stage, and on television. She starred for seven seasons on Fox TV’s Malcolm in the Middle, earning seven consecutive Emmy Award nominations along the way. Other television work includes Raising the Bar, The Middle, Whitney, Wilfred, Felicity, Equal Justice, Paper Chase: The Second Year, Party of Five, Frasier, The Practice, St. Elsewhere, and Hill Street Blues. On stage, Kaczmarek most recently starred in David Lindsay-Abaire’s Good People at The Geffen Playhouse, for which she is an Ovation Award nominee this year. She starred in Dinner With Friends and Raised in Captivity at South Coast Rep, and won an Ovation Award for her performance in Kindertransport at the Tiffany Theater in West Hollywood. Kaczmarek has appeared on Broadway, as well as in plays at the Manhattan Theatre Club, The Public Theater, Second Stage, Long Wharf, and the Berkshire and Williamstown Theatre Festivals, among others.

Herbert Siguenza is a founding member of Culture Clash, the most produced Latino Theatre Company in the United States. Founded in San Francisco in 1984 by Richard Montoya, Ric Salinas, and Siguenza, Culture Clash has stormed the stages of America’s top regional theatres, including, the Mark Taper Forum, The Kennedy Center, Arena Stage, Alley Theatre, Berkeley Rep, Yale Rep, and Syracuse Stage, along with countless colleges and universities. Siguenza has co-written and/or performed in American Night, Palestine New Mexico, Peace, Water and Power, Chavez Ravine, Zorro in Hell!, Radio Mambo, A Bowl of Beings, The Mission, and others.

This year’s presenters will include many local performers, city officials, union reps, artistic and executive directors, stage managers and publicists. Scheduled to participate (in alphabetical order) are Patrick J. Adams, LJ Benet, Seamus Dever, Elizabeth Doran, Kristy Edmunds, Robert Foxworth, Davis Gaines, Glenne Headly, Nikki Hyde, Leslie Ito, Young Ji, Christine Lakin, Dawnn Lewis, Sarah Lyding, Lesli Margherita, Gates McFadden, Laura Penn, Assembly Speaker John Perez, Bill Rauch, Allison Rawlings, Mark Roberts, Kirsten Vangsness, Ken Werther, and Charlayne Woodard.

Producers Kappy Kilburn and Malcolm Darrell will lead this year’s production team, with technical direction by Joe Hamlin. The production design is by Rachel Myers, lighting design is by Jared Sayeg, and sound design is by Cricket S. Myers. Musical direction will once again be by the Ovation Award-winning David O, and the voices of the Ovations are Bernadette Sullivan and Robert Yacko. Adeena Bell serves as production stage manager, and the Ovation statues will be presented by students from the MFA and BFA graduating programs at Cal State University, Long Beach.

Voters are Los Angeles theatre professionals who are chosen each season, through an application process, by the Ovation Awards Review Committee. The list of nominees is determined by a tabulation of scores conducted by the entertainment accounting firm Green Hasson Janks. This year’s Ovation Award eligibility period ran from September 1, 2011 through August 28, 2012.

LA STAGE Alliance programs are sponsored, in part, by Actors Equity, The Angell Foundation, Arts Council for Long Beach, The Biller Family Foundation, California ArtsCouncil, California Community Foundation, City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs,City of Pasadena Cultural Affairs Division, City of Santa Monica Cultural Affairs Division, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, ELS, Goldstar, James Irvine Foundation, Andrew Mellon Foundation, Los Angeles County Supervisors through the LA County Arts Commission, MusiCares/Grammy Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Ralph M. Parsons Foundation, The Shubert Foundation, Sky Events & Productions, and Sony Pictures Entertainment.

The 2012 Ovation Awards ceremony will take place on Monday, November 12, at the historic Los Angeles Theatre, 615 South Broadway, in downtown Los Angeles. The curtain goes up at 7:30pm. For information, to become a volunteer or a sponsor, and to purchase tickets, visit www.LASTAGEOvations.com.

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10-31-12

Announcing: The Pasadena Playhouse Announces First Four Productions of HOTHOUSE at the Playhouse 2012-2013 Season

THE PASADENA PLAYHOUSE ANNOUNCES
FIRST FOUR PRODUCTIONS OF
HOTHOUSE AT THE PLAYHOUSE
2012 – 2013 SEASON

THE STAGED READING SERIES FEATURES THE
WORLD PREMIERE OF LEE BLESSING’S A VIEW OF THE
MOUNTAINS STARRING JANE KACZMAREK AND BETSY BRANDT,
MARSHA MASON IN A NEW COMEDY,
MATTHEW LILLARD IN A NEW DRAMA
AND A NEW PLAY DIRECTED BY MICHAEL ARABIAN

PASADENA, CA (October 16, 2012) – The Pasadena Playhouse (Sheldon Epps, Artistic Director and Elizabeth Doran, Executive Director) announced the first four productions of the 2012 – 2013 season of its HOTHOUSE at The Playhouse new play development, staged reading series. The season will feature the world premiere reading of Lee Blessing’s (A Walk in the Woods) A View of the Mountains starring Jane Kaczmarek and Betsy Brandt, Marsha Mason as the title role in Aunt Stossie’s Coming for Five Days and Michael Arabian (Ovation nominee, Waiting for Godot) directing a new work supported by the Armenian Dramatic Arts Alliance.

“It is a pleasure and privilege to look forward to this season of HOTHOUSE at The Playhouse and see authors and actors returning to us having had rewarding prior experiences – work that has started at HOTHOUSE, had life on our Mainstage, going on tour after successful Tony-nominated Broadway productions and the brand new authors that are just starting out,” said Courtney Harper, HOTHOUSE at The Playhouse Producer, Outreach & Education Manager / Artistic Associate for The Pasadena Playhouse. “It’s a time for sustainable growth for us at HOTHOUSE and we could not be more thrilled about the four readings we are announcing today and the other additional works we are considering to include in the upcoming season.”

“We also want to thank our supporters for their continued attendance this past season at HOTHOUSE,” Harper added. “We presented a record-breaking nine staged readings since September 2011, and a wide and exciting variety of work – from a world premiere musical, to an adaptation of a New York Times bestselling book, to a play that could have been ripped from the headlines. We are proud of our accomplishments and so thoroughly enjoyed sharing the experience with each and everyone who joined us. Like the Mainstage season at The Playhouse, we are feeling “better than ever!”

The 2012 – 2013 season of HOTHOUSE at The Playhouse will feature:

A View of the Mountains
By Lee Blessing (A Walk in the Woods)
Directed by Brian Shnipper
Starring (in alphabetical order): Betsy Brandt, John Getz, Jane Kaczmarek, Josey
Montana McCoy and Chris McGarry
Tuesday & Wednesday, October 30 & 31 at 8:00 p.m. in the Carrie Hamilton Theatre

As enormous forces close in around them, a prominent family is split down the middle in America’s liberal-conservative dogfight. “For keeps” politics dominates in this unsparing look at what we’re willing to do for our beliefs.

Aunt Stossie’s Coming for Five Days
By Ellen Simon
Directed by Jon Mascone
Starring Marsha Mason as “Aunt Stossie”
Tuesday & Wednesday, January 8 & 9 at 8:00 p.m. in the Carrie Hamilton Theatre

A comedic drama about what happens when the uninvited enters your life. Set in a
Central California beach town, three generations of women and two surfer boys navigate the entanglements of sex, health and family after a tsunami warning sign goes up in their neighborhood.

Title-TBA
An exciting new play supported by the Armenian Dramatic Arts Alliance
Directed by Ovation Award Nominee, Michael Arabian
Tuesday & Wednesday, February 12 & 13 at 8pm in the Carrie Hamilton Theatre

Dear Galileo
By Claire Willett
Starring Matthew Lillard and Danielle Soibelman (The Playhouse’s Under My Skin)
Directed by Courtney Harper
Tuesday & Wednesday, March 12 & 13 at 8:00 p.m. in the Carrie Hamilton Theatre

Three women wrestle with their identity, the conflict between science and religion, and their fathers’ legacies. As their stories move towards a point of convergence, the destinies of each become inextricably bound with the others, linked through time by love, family, grief, faith, the search for identity and the wonder of the stars.

To RSVP for any of the HOTHOUSE at The Playhouse staged readings, visit http://
www.pasadenaplayhouse.org/outreach-and-education/hothouse.html or call The Pasadena Playhouse box office at 626-356-7529.

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Support HOTHOUSE at The Playhouse

In order to keep bringing our audiences the next great American play or musical, The
Pasadena Playhouse needs your support. This staged reading series is produced and
presented as a complimentary Playhouse program so HOTHOUSE relies on the contributions of patrons who see the importance of supporting art in its youth and
nurturing the artists who are growing their work. Donations made to HOTHOUSE allow
the program to continue to develop new work and revise and reinvigorate classics. With patron support, HOTHOUSE has a vibrant life and will continue to enrich our culture, society and art form at large for many years to come.

To make a donation please visit our website at www.pasadenaplayhouse.org and click
“Donate Now” or contact The Playhouse Development Office at
blewis@pasadenaplayhouse.org or 626-921-1156.

The Pasadena Playhouse was established in 1917 and was designated the State Theatre of California for bringing national and international renown to the state as a center for dramatic art in 1937. Built on a tradition of innovation and excellence, The Pasadena Playhouse is committed to continue to be the premiere theatrical experience in Southern California showcasing the most exciting theatrical entertainment in the state and being an amazing forum for launching new work onto the national stage. Broadway productions that originated at The Pasadena Playhouse (as well as previous HOTHOUSE seasons) include: Sister Act, Baby It’s You!, Looped and Mail. Unchain My Heart, The Ray Charles Musical, which premiered at The Playhouse, is scheduled to open on Broadway in the 2012-13 Season. Looped has also recently announced a US Tour, starring Valerie Harper, beginning January 2013. The Pasadena Playhouse is the recipient of the Los Angeles Times 2012 Reader’s Choice Award for “Best Dramatic Theatre,” the Pasadena Star-News’ “San Gabriel Valley’s Best Live Theatre” 2012 Reader’s Choice Award and the Pasadena Weekly’s 2012 “Best of Pasadena” Award for Best Live Theatre and Best Historical Landmark.

For more information on The Pasadena Playhouse visit www.PasadenaPlayhouse.org.