Marin Theatre Company presents A Steady Rain Playbill Thank you to our advertisers: AT&T American Conservatory Theater Aurora Theatre Company Bellam Self Storage and Boxes Body Kinetics CellMark The Club at Harbor Point Eileen Fisher Image Flow La Ginestra Lark Theater Luxton Optical M&M team Marin IJ Marin Magazine The Marin School Marin Symphony Nourish at Harbor Point Perotti and Carrade Piazza D'Angelo Rims & Goggles SF Playhouse Town Center Villa Marin Coming up next at MTC: Othello, the Moor of Venice by William Shakespeare Directed by Jasson Minadakis Runs Mach 29 to April 22 Experience the Bard's timeless, tragic tale of love, deceit, jealousy and murder with two of the best actors in the Bay Area - Aldo Billingslea and Craig Marker. Part 1: Program West Coast premiere of A Steady Rain by Keith Huff directed by Meredith McDonough+ Scenic Designer: Andrew Boyce** Lighting Designer: Lucas Krech Costume Designer: Maggie Whitaker Sound Designer: Chris Houston Dialect Coach: Lynne Soffer Production Stage Manager: Jonathan Templeton* Stage Manager: Jennifer Gadda* Properties Artisan: Seren Helday Casting Director: Meg Pearson Dramaturg: Margot Melcon Featuring: Khris Lewin* and Kevin Rolston* + denotes member, Stage Directors and Choreographers Society * denotes member, Actors' Equity Association ** denotes member, United Scenic Artists Local 829 A STEADY RAIN is presented by special arrangement with SAMUEL FRENCH, INC. Cast of Characters in speaking order Denny: Khris Lewin* Joey: Kevin Rolston* Place: Chicago Time: The not-too-distant past. There is no intermission. Please remember to turn off all cell phones or any other devices that could make a noise and be distracting to people around you. Photographs and recordings of any kind are strictly prohibited. This production of A Steady Rain is generously underwritten by the following: MTC PARTNERS The Bellebyron Foundation N.J. "Sky" Cooper The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation National Endowment for the Arts Gage Schubert Christopher B. & Jeannie Meg Smith SEASON PARTNERS Marin Community Foundation The Shubert Foundation H. Hugh Vincent, MD & Joan Watson VIP PARTNERS Autodesk Carl & Linden Berry Tracy & Brian Haughton Lori Lerner & Terry Berkemeier Melanie & Peter Maier Russell Pratt & Janet Brown James & Beth Wintersteen EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS Susan & Russell Holdstein Shirley LoubŽ Michael & Kiki Pescatello PRODUCERS Michael & Joyce Axelrod PATRON EVENT SPONSORS Elizabeth Spencer Wines Graff Family Vineyards Nourish at Harbor Point Stacy Scott Catering WITH ADDITIONAL SUPPORT FROM National Endowment for the Arts The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation AT&T Yellow Pages Marin Community Foundation Marin Independent Journal National Endowment for the Arts presents Shakespeare in American Communities The Shubert Foundation, Inc. Taproot Foundation Yelp Autodesk The Bernard Osher Foundation National New Play Network Peter J. Owens Fund Part 2: Letter from the Artistic Director Who doesn't love a great cops and robbers thriller? Let's admit it: whether in the theater, at the movies, on TV or in a novel, we all love to watch the good guy, sidekick in tow, pursue the bad guys to try to make the streets a safer place for all. We love to see justice prevail. Starsky and Hutch, Joe Friday and Bill Gannon, Cagney and Lacey, Lt. Mike Stone and Steve Keller, Riggs and Murtaugh. These are just a few of the popular teams of police officers who we've cheered as they hunt down those who would do us ill. These partners make us feel like we have some power against crime. They give us hope that there are avengers who look out for us out there. But then, there's the good cop gone bad, the dirty police officer protected by the badge, by the fraternity, by perverting the law that he is supposed to uphold. This subversive archetype makes you think about how the power to enforce the law can be turned so easily into a force that can wreak havoc with near impunity. Playwright Keith Huff has taken these two classic genres, smashed them together and pushed them into a whole new neighborhood in A Steady Rain. When I first read the play, the pulse-pounding rhythm of the story amazed me. Keith has a knack for ramping up tension through suspenseful storytelling, alternating scenes and monologues and disguising the truth in perspective. I first heard about A Steady Rain from Russ Tutterow, director of the world premiere production at Chicago Dramatists, where he is the artistic director and one of Chicago's most influential new play developers. The play premiered in Chicago Dramatists' 99-seat space and ran there for extension after extension. When I brought the script to our artistic team here at MTC, we all knew we had a play that needed to be seen in Marin. But before we could land the play, well-known movie actor (and lesser-known stage actor) Daniel Craig read the script and decided he needed to do the play. So he and his good friend Hugh Jackman took the play to Broadway where it played a sold-out run. Now, four years later, A Steady Rain makes its West Coast premiere. It is not often that a play makes this kind of crazy journey, but we're thrilled to be a part of it. I am delighted to welcome director Meredith McDonough and her team of designers to MTC. They have done a wonderful job bringing this intense, powerful story to life. Now, get ready: actors Kevin Rolston and Khris Lewin are about to take you on a ride you will not soon forget. Enjoy the show, Jasson Minadakis LETTER END Part 3: Dramaturgy Article - Two cops, one beat; two sides, one story: An interview with A Steady Rain playwright Keith Huff Given the gritty detail that Keith Huff writes into A Steady Rain's drenched story of two morally questionable Chicago police officers, it is no surprise to learn he is from that city and knows its character intimately. For years, Huff worked to some success in Chicago's storefront theaters, but his playwriting career never really launched. That all changed with the 2007 premiere production of A Steady Rain. After workshops and a small production did extremely well, the play transferred to a sold-out commercial run in Chicago and, less than two years later, opened on Broadway with a cast featuring two of Hollywood's biggest stars - Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig. From the beginning, the wild success of the show is rooted in the depth of detail, complexity of character and care with which Huff wrote this humid, unrelenting story into life. In an interview with dramaturg Margot Melcon just before MTC's rehearsals began, playwright Keith Huff discussed the story told by Denny and Joey in A Steady Rain. Margot Melcon: What was your inspiration when writing A Steady Rain? Keith Huff: My father-in-law was a police commander in Chicago and a dear, dear friend. He told me countless stories of the moral quandaries faced by Chicago cops. I wanted to tell some of these stories on stage, so I fictionalized an incident similar to one I'd read about in the New York Times about two policemen in Milwaukee who were in court fighting to get their jobs back. They had been discharged from service for making a wrong decision when investigating a call, which led to an unspeakably brutal and senseless crime. How odd, though, to see two cops essentially on trial before the perpetrator of the actual crime himself made it to court. So I set the play in Chicago and the structure is essentially the two men on trial, compelled to tell us their stories because they have to justify the questionable choices they made. As I had them justify those choices, I started to think about the other choices they had to make in their lives with regard to family, friends, career. The story just spun out from there. Melcon: Do you think our society has realistic expectations of police officers and their sense of right and wrong? Huff: Not really, no. I think we have the same unrealistic expectations of police officers that we have for doctors - we expect them never to make a mistake. We create laws to establish order, laws we need because people, when left on their own, are, arguably, lawless. For better or worse, we employ people to enforce the law, individuals who have the same flaws and failings we all have. Not an easy job. Police officers are put in very extreme situations, expected to put themselves on the line and, if anything goes wrong, the scrutiny is intense because the stakes are so high. I imagine everyone can remember being caught doing something wrong, a parent asking, 'What did you do?' and making up a story to get yourself off the hook. It's childish behavior. Unfortunately, instead of growing out of it as adults, it seems to have become endemic to our culture. People, sadly, have less regard for the truth and more regard for controlling the narrative. This is particularly true in American politics. Melcon: The idea of truth and subjectivity is really interesting. Do you have a sense from having watched audiences watch the play whether they take sides? Huff: Inevitably, halfway through the play, people are certain Denny is the bad cop. Then Joey and Denny tell two equally plausible versions of the same story. Someone is lying. This is when audience members have to take sides. But really there's nothing in the play that tips it and says that Denny's version is true or Joey's version is true. They could both be lying. From a philosophical standpoint, that plurality of narrative and the way that two versions of the truth can coexist in the world we live in seems a really intriguing thing for us to wrestle with in the modern day. When there is a plurality of truth, I think we have to question the nature of truth itself. Are we making it up as we go along? And, if we are, it's tremendously liberating, but there is a great responsibility there. I don't really think of myself as a moralistic writer, but I think when I articulate that argument, there is a moral edge to it. Melcon: Neither one of these guys is 100-percent good or 100-percent bad. It's interesting to see how they play along that continuum throughout the course of the play. Huff: There's a real solid argument to make that Denny is the hero. For Denny, there are at least half a dozen instances where he helped someone or saved someone and his actions are heroic. For Joey, there are probably half a dozen instances where he could have stopped the downward slide of Denny and chose to do nothing. Because he did nothing, he precipitated it. Joey says at the end - I don't want to call it a tragic realization because we talk about his arc being essentially comic - he does say, I should have stopped him. That he's aware of it makes him more culpable. And that he's aware and articulates it at a place where he can now do nothing about it but will benefit from it is even, I think, more reprehensible and is going to be difficult for him to live with. Melcon: How was it to write the two very different character arcs of Denny and Joey into the same story? Huff: This was actually the artistic challenge I set for myself in writing the play. Beckett made the dubious proclamation that pure tragedy is no longer possible in our modern world, not in the same way it was a viable and cathartic dramatic form for the Greeks. Just as pure tragedy is no longer a viable theatrical form for modern audiences, he argued, neither is pure comedy. I assume this has to do with modern day individualism, the loss of the spirit of being a part of a community that is greater than the sum of its individual members and the acknowledgement of the absurdities and brutalities of the human condition. The most authentic representation of the human condition a contemporary dramatist can achieve, again according to Beckett, is a synthesis of tragedy and comedy, which he called the grotesque. So, as a contemporary writer, I thought it would be a fascinating artistic challenge - and a unique theatrical experience for the audience - to chronicle a tragedy and a comedy simultaneously. To do this, I drew a big X on a piece of paper: one line signifying the dramatic trajectory of Denny and the other of Joey. Denny starts at the top of his game and hits bottom. His character arc is essentially tragic. Joey starts at the bottom of his game and gets, just about, everything he wants (a comic character arc). Not only are a tragedy and a comedy chronicled simultaneously, but also they are causally linked. Every move Denny makes down his trajectory is caused by an upward movement on Joey's trajectory and vice versa. In other words, one man's tragedy is another man's comedy. That's the formal structure. I think it makes the experience quite unique. Melcon: Why did you write the play in monologue rather than conversation? Huff: Economy primarily. I wanted to tell a big story, but getting theaters to produce large plays is extraordinarily difficult. I wanted to write a play that could tackle spectacle imaginatively without spending thousands and thousands on scenery to create plastic representations of things we can easily and readily imagine. Is there a reason why Chicago felt right for this story? I've lived in Chicago most of my life. I like to think I know my way around. I really enjoy the music of how cops talk in Chicago, how people in Chicago talk. I know the city well. I wanted people to be viscerally engaged in the storytelling, to create pictures in their heads, to truly participate in the theatrical event. I believe that writing as specifically and as concretely as I can is the best way to get to the universal. Melcon: What are you most proud of about this play? Huff: That every audience member has a unique experience at A Steady Rain. You cannot simply watch the play. You have to listen. Listen carefully. You have to weigh and consider every fact, judge the storytellers, make moral assessments. The two cops are not just telling you a story - they are vying for your allegiance. In this sense, the audience is judge and jury. You have to decide what you are told is true, and what is a lie. Above all, you have to participate. I'm especially proud of the fact that individuals who see the play, when they recount what they experienced, often tell me radically different things. That's real theater. ARTICLE END Part 4: Who's Who Section A: Artistic Staff Biographies Keith Huff (Playwright) is currently writing the film adaptation of A Steady Rain for Barbara Broccoli (EON Productions), an original screenplay Kill Switch for Alexandra Milchan (EMJAG Films) and the cable series Why We Fight for Steven Spielberg/Dreamworks TV and AMC. He just completed a stint as writer/co-producer for Season 4 of AMC's Emmy and Golden Globe Award-winning series Mad Men, for which he won a 2011 Writers Guild Award (Best Drama Series). Huff is also currently a writer/producer for the upcoming NetFlix series House of Cards featuring Kevin Spacey. His recent theatrical productions include The Detective's Wife at Writer's Theater, A Steady Rain featuring Daniel Craig and Hugh Jackman on Broadway and Pursued By Happiness and The Bird and Mr. Banks at Road Theater. Huff's most recent stage plays include A Ride on the Wheel, which is in development with Chicago's Regional Tony Award-winning Lookingglass Theater, and Tell Us of the Night, which was selected for the 2011 National Playwrights Conference. A Steady Rain is currently being produced across the US and around the world, most recently in Paris, Buenos Aires, Mexico City, Spain and Hungary. Huff has an MFA from the University of Iowa's Playwright's Workshop, is a long-time Resident Playwright at Chicago Dramatists and is the recipient of a Joseph Jefferson Award, the Cunningham Prize, the John Gassner Award, the Berrilla Kerr Award and three Illinois Arts Council Playwriting Fellowships. Meredith McDonough (Director) has directed the New Works Series reading of Silent Sky at MTC. She is the director of New Works at TheatreWorks in Palo Alto, where she directed the world premiere of Auctioning the Ainsleys, as well as Now Circa Then, [title of show] and Opus, which won the San Francisco Bay Area Critics Circle Awards for Best Director and Best Production. Her other Bay Area credits include The Lily's Revenge at Magic Theatre and numerous readings with Bay Area Playwrights Foundation. Before moving to the Bay Area, McDonough was a freelance director in New York City, where she worked with the Atlantic Theatre Company, Keen Company, Ars Nova and the Women's Project. Regionally, she directed the premieres of Fair Use at Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Sarah Ruhl's Eurydice at Williamstown Theatre Festival, Hazard County at Actors Express in Atlanta and the Washington DC premiere of the musical Summer of '42. She has also directed numerous premieres in the Humana Festival at Actors Theatre of Louisville, where she was a resident director and teacher for three seasons. She has also served as the associate artistic director of the Orchard Project, the New Works director of the National Alliance for Musical Theatre, a Drama League Fellow and a Kesselring Award Panelist. Section B Cast Biographies Khris Lewin (Denny) makes his MTC debut in A Steady Rain. His work in New York includes the Drama Desk-nominated Ftes de la Nuit by Charles Mee at the Ohio Theatre, Deb Margolin's Time Is the Mercy of Eternity at the West End Theatre, Talking to Terrorists at Culture Project, Private Life of the Master Race at Walkerspace, a trapeze version of Richard II at the Tank and appearances at Symphony Space on NPR's Selected Shorts and Bloomsday on Broadway. Other recent work includes the revival of My One and Only at the Goodspeed Opera House, The Music Man at the Ogunquit Playhouse and the title role in Macbeth at Nebraska Shakespeare. Lewin's film work includes The Eyes Have It, Isn't She and Jim Cramer on CBS's WallStrip. He has a BA from Duke University and an MFA from the National Theatre Conservatory. Kevin Rolston (Joey) has appeared at MTC in the West Coast premiere of Happy Now?, world premiere of Sunlight and a revival of What the Butler Saw. Most recently, he was seen in Once in a Lifetime at A.C.T. His other regional credits include 'Tis Pity She's a Whore at A.C.T, Opus and Snow Falling on Cedars at TheatreWorks, Doubt and Noises Off at Center REP and The Glass Menagerie and Enrico IV at The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey. His theater work also includes three world premieres at Magic Theatre, including Rebecca Gilman's The Crowd You're In With, two tours with the San Francisco Mime Troupe and productions with New Federal Theatre, Pulse Ensemble Theatre, Word for Word, foolsFURY Theater Company, PCPA Theaterfest and SF Playhouse. Section C: Production Staff Biographies Jonathan Templeton (Stage Manager) has stage-managed MTC's productions of The Glass Menagerie and Seven Guitars. He has worked in Chicago on Good Boys and True, Art and four seasons of First Look Repertory of New Work at Steppenwolf Theatre Company; Trust, Fedra, Argonautika, The Brothers Karamazov, Great Men of Science, The Shaggs, 1984, The Old Curiosity Shop, Black Diamond and Around the World in 80 Days at Lookingglass Theatre Company, where he is a production affiliate; Loving Repeating, Execution of Justice and Wedding Play at About Face Theatre; and Orpheus Descending at American Theatre Company. He also spent two summers with Weston Playhouse in Vermont. Templeton is a graduate of Northwestern University. Andrew Boyce (Scenic Designer) makes his MTC debut with A Steady Rain. Based in Brooklyn, New York, he is a scenic and production designer who works in theater, opera and film. His recent Bay Area credits include Annapurna and The Lily's Revenge at Magic Theatre. His recent New York credits include Dreams of Flying, Dreams of Falling at Atlantic Theatre Company, The Judy Show at Daryl Roth 2, The Sporting Life at Studio 42, Danny and the Deep Blue Sea at Gene Frankel and Whore and The Ones That Flutter at Summer Play Festival, Anspacher Theatre. Regionally, Boyce has worked at Westport Country Playhouse, the Wilma Theatre, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Yale Repertory Theatre, American Players Theatre, Asolo Rep, University of Rochester, Hamptons Shakespeare Festival and Burning Coal Theatre, among others. He is a member of the Wingspace Design Collective and a graduate of Yale School of Drama, where he is currently on faculty in the design department. Lucas Benjaminh Krech (Lighting Designer) has designed lighting for MTC's production of Lovers and Executioners. He is a multi-media artist working in light, video and code. He has designed over 300 operas, dances, plays and performance pieces across the US, as well as in Romania and the UK. His work has been nominated for New York Innovative Theater and San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Awards. Krech is the recipient of a Dancers' Group 2011 Lighting Artists in Dance Award. His design work has been featured in American Theatre Magazine and his writing on aesthetics and performance has appeared in Stage Directions, On Stage Lighting, Parabasis Blog and PLSN Magazine. He has been a guest artist at University of California, Berkeley, Williams College and University of San Francisco. His installation work has been seen at SOMArts, Studio Gracia, Outside/Input and Black Rock City. Krech has a BA in art and politics from UC Berkeley and an MFA in design from New York University. LucasKrech.com Maggie Whitaker (Costume Designer) has designed costumes for MTC's production for Life x 3. Her design work in the Bay Area includes Little Rock for TheatreWorks' New Works Festival, The Shape of Things and Fat Pig (San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Choice Award nominee for costumes) at Aurora Theatre Company, The Sweetest Swing in Baseball at Magic Theatre, Lady Gray and Krapp's Last Tape at the Cutting Ball Theater, Assassin and Jerry Springer: The Opera (SFBATCC nominee for costumes) at Ray of Light Theatre and #5 Angry Red Drum at Asian American Theater Company. She also designed Wildflower, Twelfth Night, Medea and Tango for the University of California, San Diego. Her presentation of Aristophanes' The Birds was selected for exhibition at the Prague Quadrennial Scenofest and she won Theatre Bay Area's Dean Goodman Choice Award for her design work on Lobby Hero at the Aurora Theatre. Whitaker has an MFA in costume design from the University of California, San Diego. Chris Houston (Sound Designer) is a pianist, composer and sound designer. He has designed sound for MTC's productions of The Glass Menagerie, Bellwether, Seven Guitars, Edward Albee's Tiny Alice, Fuddy Meers, Seagull, Happy Now?, In the Red and Brown Water, Equivocation, Sunlight, boom, My Name is Asher Lev, Magic Forest Farm, Lydia, The Seafarer, Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune, Love Person, A Streetcar Named Desire, said Sa•d and Lovers and Executioners. Locally, his designs and compositions have been featured at A.C.T., Aurora Theatre Company, SF Playhouse, Center REP, Magic Theatre and the San Francisco Shakespeare Festival. Lynne Soffer (Dialect Coach) has provided coaching for 25 MTC productions, including The Glass Menagerie, Happy Now?, My Name Is Asher Lev, Lydia, My Children! My Africa! and A Streetcar Named Desire. She has worked on over 200 theater productions at A.C.T., Berkeley Rep, San Jose Rep, Magic Theatre, Cal Shakes and Marin Shakespeare Company among others. Her regional credits include the Old Globe, Dallas Theater Center, Arizona Theatre Company, the Arena Stage, Seattle Rep and Denver Center Theatre Company. Her film and television credits include Metro, Duets, The Land of Milk and Honey and America's Most Wanted. Soffer works as a professional actor and acting teacher and is the recipient of the 2011 Actors' Equity Association Lucy Jordan Humanitarian Award. Seren Helday (Properties Artisan) is resident props artisan for MTC. She has provided props for all productions since 2008. She has also provided props for A.C.T., Center REP, Cal Shakes and SF Playhouse. She spent one year as Master Carpenter at New Conservatory Theatre Center in San Francisco, building some 30 shows for their season. Helday was also technical director of the Live Theatre Workshop in Tucson in addition to working as a designer, performer and manager. Section D: Administrative Staff Biographies Jasson Minadakis (Artistic Director) is in his sixth season as artistic director of MTC, where he has directed The Glass Menagerie, Tiny Alice, Seagull, Happy Now?, Equivocation (2010 Bay Area Critics Circle Award for Director), Sunlight, Lydia, The Seafarer, Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune, A Streetcar Named Desire, said Sa•d, Love Song and The Subject Tonight is Love. He will direct Othello, the Moor of Venice later this season. As artistic director of Actor's Express Theatre Company, he directed The Pillowman, Bug, The Love Song of J. Robert Oppenheimer, Echoes of Another Man, Killer Joe, Burn This, The Goat or, Who is Sylvia?, Blue/Orange and Bel Canto. As producing artistic director of Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival, he directed numerous plays including 19 productions of Shakespeare. Regionally, he has directed at Georgia Shakespeare, Playhouse on the Square and Wayside Theatre. The Atlanta Journal Constitution, Creative Loafing and Southern Voice named him Best Director of 2004. Ryan Rilette (Producing Director) is in his fifth season as producing director at MTC, where he has directed Bellwether, Fuddy Meers, In the Red and Brown Water, boom and Magic Forest Farm. He will direct God of Carnage later this season. From 2002 to 2008, Rilette served as producing artistic director of Southern Rep in New Orleans, where he directed the world premieres of The Breach, Rising Water, The Sunken Living Room, The Vulgar Soul and The House of Plunder and regional premieres of Kimberly Akimbo, The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia? and In Walks Ed. He has also directed for A.C.T.'s MFA program, New Theatre in Miami, the Tennessee Williams Festival, Soho Rep and the Flea, among others. He is the president of the National New Play Network, cofounder and former executive artistic director of Rude Mechanicals Theater Company in New York and a former professor at Tulane and Loyola Universities. Margot Melcon (Dramaturg) joined MTC in 2008 and has served as dramaturg for all productions in the past three seasons. She was Literary and Publications Associate at A.C.T. for four years. She has worked with the Kennedy Center and Bay Area Playwrights Festival, was a fellow at the National Critic's Institute at the O'Neill Playwrights Festival and is a freelance writer for American Theatre magazine. She is a graduate of California State University, Chico. Recently, she taught a Principles of Dramaturgy course at the Playwrights Foundation in San Francisco. Meg Pearson (Casting Director) has directed casting for all MTC mainstage productions since 2008. In addition, she directs casting for MTC's School Tour and MTC's New Works staged readings series. Outside of MTC, Ms. Pearson recently served as casting director on the feature film Seducing Charlie Barker, directed by Amy Glazer, and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Bay Area Children's Theatre. Before coming to MTC, she served as casting assistant on television shows Las Vegas, King of Queens and Grounded for Life, as well as feature films Eurotrip, Dude, Where's My Car? and Straight Jacket. Pearson is a graduate of the Theatre Arts program at Boston College. Section E: About MTC Celebrating our 45th Anniversary this season, Marin Theatre Company is the Bay Area's premier mid-sized theater and the leading professional theater in the North Bay. We produce a six-show season of provocative plays by passionate playwrights from the 20th century and today in our intimate 231-seat proscenium theater. We are committed to the development and production of new plays by American playwrights, with a comprehensive New Play Program that includes at least one world premiere each season, two nationally recognized annual playwriting awards, new play readings and workshops by the nation's best emerging playwrights and a leadership position in the National New Play Network. Our numerous educational programs serve more than 6,000 students each year. MTC is a proud member of the National New Play Network, the country's alliance of non-profit professional theaters that champions the development, production and continued life of new plays for the American theater. WHO'S WHO END Part 5: Expanded Programs Article - Introducing Marin's teens to professional theater one play at a time: Comments from students and teachers about MTC's student matinees At Marin Theatre Company, we work to ensure that growing up in Marin means experiencing great theater. Our Student Matinee Series brings hundreds of middle and high school students to MTC to see special weekday morning performances of one or more of our main-stage productions. Teaching artists - most of whom are members of the cast - visit the schools before and after the performance to deepen the students' experience and to help the classroom teachers connect the performance to the curriculum. For our upcoming production of Othello, the Moor of Venice, MTC is offering four student matinee performances at no charge to the participating schools, an opportunity made possible through the generosity of the National Endowment for the Art's Shakespeare for a New Generation program and matching funds from our donors and the Marin Charitable Foundation. Over 800 students from 16 schools are scheduled to attend Othello. Earlier this season, over 600 students from eight schools, including the entire junior class at Tamalpais High School, attended student matinee performances of Tennessee Williams's The Glass Menagerie, an opportunity made possible with funding from the Shenson Foundation. Here are some of the responses from students and teachers who attended The Glass Menagerie this past December: "I just wanted to let you know that our group really enjoyed the play. Thank you so much for the opportunity. For many Madrone students, this is the first time they have seen live theater. From the workshop at our school to the live performance and, finally, the question and answer period, [MTC's student matinee program] gives students information that help enhance the entire experience." -Jane Songer, Madrone High School "I love doing this. Can we do it again?" "Live performances are so emotional. I'm glad we got to experience that." "I really liked the play. The acting was so good." Tamalpais High School students "Taking risks that parallel those of Tennessee Williams, the direction complemented the flawless cast and imaginative set." San Domenico School student "I wanted to officially thank you on behalf of the entire Davidson English department. Our field trip went better than any of us could have imagined and this is not an exaggeration. It is rare to see 80-plus students so thoroughly engaged and ecstatic about any performance. It dominated student discussion the entire bus ride back to campus. The students were able to experience an art form that many had never witnessed before and I know that the performance will leave a lasting impression on the minds of students, staff and parents." - Casey Shannon, Davidson Middle School. [ ] Learn more about MTC's Expanded Programs Visit marintheatre.org and click on "Education" to learn about all of MTC's Expanded Programs. For more information, contact Josh Costello, josh@marintheatre.org or 415.388.5200 x3310. - Theater for Young Audiences, including School Tour (Anansi the Spider booking now), Student Matinees (booking now for The Glass Menagerie and Othello) and Family Matinees - Drama Classes and Workshops - Internships - Teen Advisory Board - Summer Theater Camps - Marin Young Playwrights Festival ARTICLE END Part 6: Patron information CONTACT US Box Office: 415.388.5208 Tuesday-Saturday, 12-5PM Closed Sundays, Mondays and Holidays During performance runs the box office is open until show time and on Sundays. Address: 397 Miller Avenue, Mill Valley CA 94941 General: 415.388.5200 Playbill Advertising: Sasha Hnatkovich, 415.388.5200 x3313 Group Sales: Groups of 15 or more receive a discounted rate plus a free group leader ticket. Julie Knight, 415.388.5200 x3302 PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE Tues, Thu, Fri, and Sat 8:00pm Wed 7:30pm Sun 7:00pm Matinees: Thu 1:00pm ¥ Sat & Sun 2:00pm TICKET PRICES Previews: Thu through Sun, $34 All Other Performances: Tues, $38/34 (excludes Opening) Wed, Thu eve & Sun eve, $44/$39 Fri, $50/45 Sat eve, $55/50 Matinees Thu, Sat & Sun $44/$39 Opening Night with Cast Reception, $55/50 Note: Price difference is between center and side sections. Ticket discounts Under 30: $20, all performances, must show valid ID Seniors: $6 off tickets to Thu & Sat matinees; $3 discount to all other performances Rush tickets: $15 (based on availability, one hour prior to curtain) SERVICES & INFORMATION Arrive on time: Performances begin promptly. There are no refunds for latecomers. Late patrons cannot be seated until a designated seating break or possibly intermission. Patrons returning late from intermission will be seated at the discretion of the House Managers. MTC CafŽ: Food and beverages are available before performances and during intermission. Save time and order intermission refreshments prior to the start of the performance. Recycling: Please help MTC conserve resources. Recycle your programs in the racks provided on the way out of the theater, and use the labeled recycling bins for cans, bottles and paper. Recording Equipment: The use of sound, video or photographic recording equipment during performances is prohibited. Listening Devices: For patrons with impaired hearing, listening devices are available free. Please see the House Manager for details. For information about physical and program access at MTC, please call 415.388.5208 or dial 711 to use the California Telecommunications Relay Service. END OF DOCUMENT