- 2023-10-09
Keith Huff’s A Steady Rain
MARIN THEATRE COMPANY PRESENTS KEITH HUFF’S A STEADY RAIN
TOP-SELLING BROADWAY SENSATION
FROM A WRITER/PRODUCER OF MAD MEN TV SERIES
MAKES WEST COAST PREMIERE
February 2 - 26, 2012 | Opening Night, February 7
MILL VALLEY, CA—Marin Theatre Company presents the West Coast premiere of Keith Huff’s A Steady Rain from February 2 to February 26. Meredith McDonough directs this award-winning crime drama that became a top-selling Broadway sensation. Opening night is on Tuesday, February 7.
“I am delighted that MTC is bringing this taut, mesmerizing thriller to the Bay Area,” says MTC’s artistic director Jasson Minadakis. “A huge hit in Chicago and on Broadway, it’s a rollercoaster-ride of suspense and surprises that takes the good cop/bad cop genre to a level all its own. MTC’s Boyer Theatre is a perfect venue for this intimate, fiery story of childhood friends who’ve grown up walking on the edge of the law. Now police officers, they struggle to balance the temptations of the job with the responsibilities of the badge.”
A Steady Rain is a crime drama told through the confessions of Denny and Joey, two less-than-reputable Chicago beat cops. After Denny shakes down a bitter street hustler one too many times, the officers’ badges, their lifelong friendship and Denny’s family all come under fire in this “gritty, rich, thick, poetic and entirely gripping noir tale” (Chicago Tribune).
The play premiered at Chicago Dramatists in 2007 and moved to Chicago’s Royal George Theatre in 2008, earning playwright Keith Huff the 2008 Jeff Award for Best New Work. The play premiered on Broadway at the Schoenfeld Theatre in September 2009. Starring Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig, the sold-out show broke the Broadway record for highest weekly gross of a non-musical production. Time Magazine named the New York run of A Steady Rain one of the “Top 10 plays of 2009.”
Keith Huff is a 25-year veteran of the storefront theater scene in Chicago. He is a Resident Playwright Emeritus of Chicago Dramatists and has written a dozen plays including the recently produced The Detective’s Wife, which continues the trilogy of plays about Chicago police officers that he began with A Steady Rain. After the success of A Steady Rain, which Huff is currently adapting for film, he was able to leave his 20-year job as a medical journal editor. Now a writer and co-producer for AMC's Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning television series Mad Men, he is also writing Kill Switch, an original screenplay; for the AMC’s series Why We Fight; and for the upcoming NetFlix series House of Cards, featuring Kevin Spacey.
MTC’s production of A Steady Rain is directed by Meredith McDonough, the director of New Works at TheatreWorks in Mountain View and award-winning director of Opus (San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle award Best Director and Best Production). She recently directed the staged reading of Lauren Gunderson’s Silent Sky at MTC as part of the theater’s New Works play development series.
A Steady Rain features Bay Area actor Kevin Rolston and New York-based actor Khris Lewin. Rolston has previously appeared at MTC in the West Coast premiere of Happy Now?, world premiere of Sunlight and What the Butler Saw. Having previously worked with MTC’s artistic director Jasson Minadakis at the Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival, Lewin now makes his MTC and West Coast debut in A Steady Rain. He will also appear in MTC’s Othello, the Moor of Venice in March and April 2012.
FACTS & CALENDAR INFORMATION
WHAT
Marin Theatre Company presents A STEADY RAIN | West Coast Premiere
WHO
By Keith Huff | Directed by Meredith McDonough
Featuring Khris Lewin* and Kevin Rolston*
* Member, Actor’s Equity Association
WHEN
February 2 – 26, 2012
Opening Night: Tuesday, February 7
Previews: Thursday, February 2 - Sunday, February 5
Performance Days
Tue, Thu, Fri & Sat 8:00 pm
Wed 7:30 pm
Sun 7:00 pm
Matinees: Every Sun 2:00 pm | Sat 2/11 & 2/25, 2:00 pm | Thu 2/16, 1:00 pm
Check marintheatre.org or call the box office at (415) 388-5208 for exact performance dates and times.
WHERE
Marin Theatre Company | 397 Miller Avenue, Mill Valley, CA 94941
ABOUT
Denny and Joey are two of Chicago’s less-than-finest – one’s a racist bully, the other, a spineless drunk. In this uncompromising crime drama, the two beat cops confess to the misdeeds and mistakes that have tipped their lives into violent chaos. After a bitter street hustler gets shaken down one too many times, Denny and Joey’s lifelong friendship, their badges and Denny’s family all come under fire. Playwright Keith Huff, who is also a writer and co-producer of AMC’s Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning television series Mad Men, won the 2008 Jeff Award for Best New Work for his exploration of the complex relationship between these two deeply flawed men. Finally playing on the West Coast, this lurid Broadway sensation will have you holding your breath with its in-your-face storytelling.
TICKETS
$34–$55, details below (discounts available for Seniors and those Under 30)
Ticket Prices:
Previews: $34 all
Opening Night & Sat Evenings: $50 side | $55 center
Tues: $34 | $38
Wed, Thu, Sun Evenings & Matinees: $39 | $44
Fri: $45 | $50
Discounts available:
RUSH tickets: $15, available one hour prior to show, based on availability
Under 30: $20, all performances
Senior discounts: varies by performance, please call
For group sales, contact Julie Knight, (415) 388-5200, ext. 3302
ENGAGE
“MTC Engaged” invites patrons to join MTC’s artistic staff, designers and casts in conversation. A member of MTC’s artistic staff (often with one or more members of the cast) hosts a Q&A talk back after every performance, except Saturday matinees and evenings, and Opening and Closing Nights.
MTC Engaged Special Events:
• Theater Lecture Series at Mill Valley Public Library – FREE public lecture by MTC artistic staff, 375 Throckmorton Ave., Tues 1/24, 7:00 p.m.
• After Words – post-show interview with special guest: Sun 2/5, 2:00 p.m.
• Director’s Night – post-show conversation with director: Wed 2/8 & 2/22
• Perspectives – pre-show topical lecture: Thu 2/16, 12:00 p.m.
ACCESS
“MTC All Access” strives to make theater accessible to all audiences. For seeing impaired patrons, Large Print playbills are available at the box office at all performances, Digital playbills that are compatible with screen reader software are available online starting one week before the first performance of a production, and Braille playbills are available with two-weeks advance notice through partnership with LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired. To request a Braille playbill, call MTC’s Box Office, (415) 388-5208, or use the California Telecommunications Relay Service by dialing “711.” For hearing impaired patrons, amplified sound Listening Devices are available.
CONTACT
www.marintheatre.org | (415) 388-5208 | boxoffice@marintheatre.org
ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES
Keith Huff (Playwright) is currently writing the film adaptation of A Steady Rain for Barbara Brocolli (EON Films), 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. He currently divides his time between Chicago and Los Angeles, but his home base is Chicago, where he lives with his wife, Georgette, and his daughter, Robin.
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.
Khris Lewin (Denny) makes his MTC debut in A Steady Rain. His work in New York includes the Drama Desk-nominated Fêtes 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 is a graduate of Duke University (BA) and the National Theatre Conservatory (MFA).
Kevin Rolston (Joey) has appeared at MTC in Happy Now?, Sunlight and 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 CenterREP 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.
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.
PRESS CONTACT
Sasha Hnatkovich, Communications Director
(415) 388-5200, ext. 3313 | sasha@marintheatre.org
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