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Announcing: Katherine Helmond to Star in West Coast Premiere of The Little Flower of East Orange

TONY AWARD NOMINEE AND SEVEN-TIME EMMY AWARD NOMINEE
KATHERINE HELMOND SET TO STAR
IN WEST COAST PREMIERE OF
THE LITTLE FLOWER OF EAST ORANGE
BY STEPHEN ADLY GUIRGIS
DIRECTED BY DAVID FOFI

FINAL PLAY OF ELEPHANT THEATRE COMPANY’S 2010 SEASON
OPENS NOVEMBER 6 AT THE LILLIAN THEATRE

Following the much acclaimed west coast premiere production of Parasite Drag by Mark Roberts,  the Elephant Theatre Company concludes its 14th season with the west coast premiere of The Little Flower of East Orange by Stephen Adly Guirgis, directed by Elephant artistic director David Fofi.  Performances begin Thursday, November 4, and opening night is set for Saturday, November 6.  The Little Flower of East Orange will play a strictly limited engagement through December 19.

The cast of The Little Flower of East Orange will feature Katherine Helmond and Michael Friedman, along with (in alphabetical order) LeShay Tomlinson Boyce, Kim Estes, Alejandro Furth, Kate Huffman, Timothy McNeil, Marisa O’Brien, Mark Adair-Rios, Tom Stanczyk, and Tim Starks. The production design is by Joel Daavid, costume design is by Louis Douglas Jacobs, and sound design is by Matt Richter.  Shannon Simonds is the production stage manager, and Little Flower is being produced for the Elephant by Lindsay Allbaugh and Tara Norris.

Katherine Helmond received a Tony Award nomination in 1973 for her performance in Eugene O’Neill’s The Great God Brown.  She then gained international recognition with her portrayal of the ditzy Jessica Tate on 1977’s most controversial sitcom, the much celebrated Soap.  Ms. Helmond received four Emmy Award nominations for her performance, one for each season  the  program was on the air.  She  went on to co-star with Judith Light and Tony Danza in Who’s the Boss? for eight seasons, receiving two more Emmy nominations along the way.  She starred in the ABC sitcom Coach for three seasons, and then from 1996-2004, she had a recurring role as Ray’s mother-in-law on Everybody Loves Raymond, picking up her seventh Emmy nomination.

The Little Flower of East Orange is part of the recently announced Elephant Theatre Company/LAByrinth Theater Company partnership. The Little Flower tale begins as Therese Marie (Helmond) arrives in the emergency room of a small hospital in the Bronx. The nurses and doctors assume she is just another faceless charity case; abandoned, elderly and unable to even tell them her name. But Therese Marie’s dementia is not all that it seems and when her prodigal son Danny returns to New York, Therese Marie must fight to maintain her dignity as he imposes upon her the ugly secrets of their past.  In this inter-generational ghost story, we observe a searing portrait of a mother and son who must face a long family legacy of abuse in order to find the true meaning of grace. Stephen Adly Guirgis is the co-artistic director of the LAByrinth Theater Company in NYC. His plays have been produced on five continents and throughout the United States.  Guirgis is the author of such plays as Our Lady of 121st Street, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, and In Arabia We’d All Be Kings, which was produced by the Elephant in association with VS. Theatre Company in 2008. That production won four LADCC Awards, two Back Stage Garland Awards, and received two LA Weekly Award nominations.

There will be two lower-priced preview performances of The Little Flower of East Orange on Thursday, November 4 and Friday, November 5 at 8pm, and opening night is set for Saturday, November 6 at 8:00. THE MEDIA IS INVITED AND ENCOURAGED TO ATTEND THE OPENING NIGHT PERFORMANCE ON SATURDAY 11/6, BUT IS ALSO WELCOME AT ANY OTHER PERFORMANCE AFTER THAT DATE.  Opening night seats are available to the public for $40, which includes a reception with the cast following the performance. The regular running schedule is Friday and Saturday at 8pm and Sunday at 7pm through December 19 only.  All tickets for regular performances are $25 and $30 (previews are $15). To purchase tickets, call (877) 369-9112 or reserve online: www.elephanttheatrecompany.com. Also, visit the Elephant on Facebook and follow us on twitter @ElephantTheatre.

The Lillian Theatre is located at 1076 N. Lillian Way (one block west of Vine, just off Santa Monica Boulevard), in Hollywood.   Street parking is available.

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10-22-10