GEFFEN PLAYHOUSE KICKS OFF 10-YEAR CAMPAIGN CELEBRATING AMERICAN THEATER Geffens 2004-2005 Season Starts with Tony Award Winning Take Me Out; A World Premiere Adaptation of Lerner & Loewes Paint Your Wagon; And Pulitzer Prize Winners -- You Cant Take It With You and I Am My Own Wife

Gilbert Cates, Geffen Playhouse Producing Director, has launched a landmark 10-year campaign celebrating American theater at the Geffen Playhouse. He also announced four of the five plays lined up for the Geffens exciting 2004/2005 Season, all of which will take place at the new Brentwood Theatre as the Geffen undergoes 15 months of renovation and expansion. This next season at the Geffen will begin with Americas favorite pastime and Tony Award winner, TAKE ME OUT, to be directed by the Geffens Randy Arney. Next, Gil will direct an adaptation of the Broadway musical PAINT YOUR WAGON, which will mark the first major revival of the musical. In 2005, the Geffen will produce two Pulitzer Prize winning plays. Celebrating the 100th birthday of writer Moss Hart, his son Christopher Hart will direct the Geffens revival of YOU CANT TAKE IT WITH YOU. Finally, the Geffen will bring a massive Broadway hit to Los Angeles with I AM MY OWN WIFE, starring Jefferson Mays and directed by Moises Kaufman, from the 2004 Pulitzer Prize winning Broadway production.

LOS ANGELES, CA (PRWEB) May 24, 2004 -- Geffen Playhouse Producing Director Gilbert Cates today announced a landmark 10-year campaign to celebrate American theater. Marking a milestone for Southern California theaters, Geffen Playhouse will dedicate the majority of its season programming for the next 10 seasons to plays that examine the values and ideals of America at various times throughout history. This salute to American theater begins with the Geffens 2004-2005 season, which was also announced by Cates today. Geffen Playhouses upcoming season begins with the West Coast Premiere of Tony Award winner Take Me Out, followed by a world premiere adaptation of Lerner & Loewes Paint Your Wagon, and two Pulitzer Prize winning plays -- You Cant Take It With You and I Am My Own Wife. The first season in Geffens decade long pledge to theater made in America will also mark the inauguration of a new theater for Los Angeles -- the historic Brentwood Theatre -- which will serve as the Geffens interim home for an estimated 15 months of renovation and expansion.

We have a dynamite season lined up the Geffen Playhouse. Its going to be fantastic! Weve secured a Tony Award winner fresh off the Great White Way, two Pulitzer Prize winning plays and were adapting a classic American musical," said Cates. This season is also significant to us as we inaugurate a beautiful new theater for L.A., break ground on and expand our own theater, and as we kick off a 10-year journey to explore American theater."

The Geffen season kicks-off at the Brentwood Theatre with the 2003 Tony Award winner for Best Play Take Me Out. In this critically acclaimed new play by Richard Greenberg, superstar baseball player Darren Lemming makes the matter-of-fact announcement to the public that he is gay. Take Me Out examines the fall-out from his announcement as it ripples through the team, the media, and across the nation. Geffen Playhouse Artistic Director, Randall Arney, will direct this 2003 Pulitzer Prize finalist for Drama that explores the many layers of identity, whether personal, professional or sexual, as seen through the eyes of a homosexual baseball player in an irrefutably heterosexual sports world. Lauded by critics and fans worldwide, The New York Times called Take Me Out an unconditional, all-American epiphany that, in these days of fretful ambivalence, is something to cherish." The Geffen Playhouse production of the West Coast premiere of Take Me Out begins in previews at the Brentwood Theatre on September 14, 2004 and runs through October 24, with press performances beginning September 22, 2004.

Arney, who last directed the Geffens production of I Just Stopped By To See The Man, also directed the Geffen productions of Gods Man in Texas and The Weir. He is an ensemble member and former artistic director of Chicagos Steppenwolf Theatre (1987-1995), where he directed numerous plays including The Beauty Queen of Leenane, Death and the Maiden and Curse of the Starving Class. Arney also directed the world premiere of Picasso at the Lapin Agile at Steppenwolf, as well as the subsequent Los Angeles, off-Broadway, San Francisco, Washington, D.C. and Tokyo productions.

I cant think of a better way to begin our exploration into American theater than with a play centered on baseball, Americas favorite pastime," said Arney. Take Me Out is an incredibly smart, moving and funny story that brings together what may be the most traditional American pastime with very contemporary issues surrounding identity and sexuality."

Greenbergs Take Me Out had its world premiere in a co-production arrangement at Londons Donmar Warehouse. The play made its off-Broadway debut at The Public Theater in 2002 and transferred to Broadways Walter Kerr Theatre in February 2003. One of Americas most prominent playwrights currently writing for the stage, Greenberg is known for his use of witty dialogue and eloquent characterizations. Greenbergs other plays include Eastern Standard (1989), Night and Her Stars (1994), Three Days of Rain (1997 Pulitzer Prize finalist), Hurrah at Last (1998), and The Violet Hour (2003).

Geffen Playhouse Producing Director Gilbert Cates will direct the world premiere adaptation of Lerner & Loewes classic musical Paint Your Wagon. American playwright David Rambo will revise this classic American tale set in the midst of the California Gold Rush. The Geffen Playhouse production of Paint Your Wagon is the first revival of the musical and is being presented in association with Christopher Allen, D. Constantine Conte and Larry Spellman. Paint Your Wagon is the story of a grizzled old prospector and his sixteen-year-old daughter who finds gold near their camp. When the word gets out, gold miners descend upon the area and create a boomtown. The Geffen Playhouse production of Paint Your Wagon begins in previews at the Brentwood Theatre on November 23 and runs through January 9, with press performances beginning December 1, 2004.

I am so thrilled to be directing the revival of this truly American play, set in one of the most exciting eras of this country, the California Gold Rush," said Cates. This is also an incredibly unique opportunity for us to work with the estates of Lerner and Loewe and with David Rambo, one of the hottest American playwrights today, in rethinking this classic story about hope and love in America."

Cates is the recipient of the James A. Dolittle Award for Leadership in Los Angeles Theatre. The Geffen Playhouse production of Collected Stories, which was directed by Cates, received the 1999 Ovation Award for Best Play. Cates served two terms as President of the Directors Guild of America from 1983 to 1987. In 1989, he received the Guilds Robert B. Aldrich Award for extraordinary service, and in 1991 he received the DGAs Honorary Life Membership.

The collaborative team of Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe dominated the Broadway stage and American musical theater from 1947 through to the 1960s. With celebrated musicals including Brigadoon, My Fair Lady, and Camelot, the works of this playwright and lyricist duo continue to premiere on stages all over the world.

Paint Your Wagon made its Broadway debut at the Shubert Theatre in 1951 and ran for 289 performances.

The Geffen Playhouse celebrates the 100th birthday of Moss Hart with a revival of the Pulitzer Prize winning play You Cant Take It With You. Hart co-wrote this American classic with his partner George S. Kaufman. You Cant Take It With You has been credited for paving the way for the TV sitcom, featuring what may have been Broadways first dysfunctional family. A paean to independence and self-indulgence, the play is centered on an eclectic family of individualists, who amuse with their energetic physical antics and inspire with their wholehearted pursuit of happiness. Directed by Christopher Hart, the son of Moss Hart, the Geffen Playhouse production of You Cant Take It With You begins in previews at the Brentwood Theatre on April 12, 2005 and runs through May 22, with press performances beginning April 20, 2005.

You Cant Take It With You opened in New York in 1936 to instant critical and popular acclaim. The 1937 Pulitzer Prize winner for Drama went on to run for 837 performances on Broadway, followed by two major revivals in 1965 and 1983.

Recognized the world over, as masters of comedic playwriting, George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart were incredibly successful collaborators in the 1930s. While each made important contributions to American theater individually, Kaufman and Hart are best known for the successful and influential comedies they wrote together in the 1930s. Other widely successful Kaufman and Hart collaborations included Merrily We Roll Along (1934), Id Rather Be Right (1937), The Fabulous Invalid (1938), The American Way (1939), The Man Who Came to Dinner (1939), and George Washington Slept Here (1940).

Last year, The New York Times praised Doug Wrights solo show I Am My Own Wife as the most stirring new work to appear on Broadway this fall." The Geffen Playhouse production of this 2004 Pulitzer Prize winner will feature the original acclaimed Broadway actor/director team of Jefferson Mays and Moisés Kaufman. Under the direction of Kaufman, The New York Times lauded Mayss performance of Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, a soft-spoken but tenaciously gender-bending biological male, as thoroughly mesmerizing." Based on a true story, and inspired by interviews conducted by Wright over several years, I Am My Own Wife was recently nominated for five Drama Desk Awards and is expected to be among the top contenders when Tony Award nominations are announced in May. The Geffen Playhouse production of I Am My Own Wife begins in previews on June 14, 2005 and runs through July 24, with press performances beginning June 22, 2005.

Doug Wright won an OBIE Award and the Kesselring Award for Best New American Play from the National Arts Club for his play Quills, which premiered at the Geffen Playhouse in 1996. Wright wrote the screenplay adaptation of Quills, for which he received a Golden Globe Award nomination and the Paul Slevin Award from the Writers Guild of America. His other plays include The Stonewater Rapture, Interrogating the Nude, Watbanaland, Buzzsaw Berkeley and Unwrap Your Candy.

OBIE Award winning actor Jefferson Mays originated the role of Charlotte von Mahlsdorf in I Am My Own Wife in New York. A seasoned Broadway performer, Mayss Southern California theater credits include Tartuffe, The Importance of Being Earnest, Fortinbras, Twelfth Night, Life During Wartime, and Macbeth at La Jolla Playhouse; and Hamlet at San Diego Repertory. Mays is the recipient of the Drama Logue Award, the Patte Award and the Garland Award.

Director Moisés Kaufman is the founder and Artistic Director of Tectonic Theater Project. He co-wrote and directed The Laramie Project with Tectonic, which was later nominated for a Drama Desk Award and won the American Library Association GLBT Literature Award. Kaufman directed the film adaptation of The Laramie Project for HBO, for which he won numerous accolades and awards including an Emmy nomination for Best Director (the film received four nods total), the National Board of Review Award, Opening Night Selection at Sundance Film Festival, and the Humanities Prize among others.

I Am My Own Wife premiered at Playwrights Horizons in 2003 and moved to the Lyceum Theater on Broadway later that year. The Geffen Playhouse production of I Am My Own Wife is being produced in association with Delphi Productions.

From June 2004 through September 2005, Geffen Playhouse will be located at the Brentwood Theatre on the grounds of the Veterans Administration in Brentwood. Single ticket prices range from $28 to $46. The performance schedule is Tuesdays - Thursdays at 7:30 p.m.; Fridays at 8:00 p.m.; Saturdays at 4:00 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.; and Sundays at 2:00 and 7:00 p.m. For ticket information, please call the Geffen Playhouse box office at (310) 208-5454. For group reservations, please call (661) 250-7424. Visit the Geffen Playhouse website at www.geffenplayhouse.com.

Geffen Playhouse is headed by Producing Director Gilbert Cates, Artistic Director Randall Arney and Managing Director Stephen Eich.

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GEFFEN PLAYHOUSE 2004/2005 FIVE-PLAY SUBSCRIPTION SEASON AT THE BRENTWOOD THEATRE

Take Me Out
West Coast Premiere
Written by: Richard Greenberg
Directed by: Randall Arney
1st Preview Performance: Tuesday, September 14, 2004
Opening Night: Wednesday, September 22, 2004
Closing Performance: Sunday, October 24, 2004

Paint Your Wagon
World Premiere Adaptation
Written by: Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe
Adapted by: David Rambo
Directed by: Gilbert Cates
1st Preview Performance: Tuesday, November 23, 2004
Opening Night: Wednesday, December 1, 2004
Closing Performance: Sunday, January 9, 2005

Third production to be announced.
February 1-March 13, 2005

You Cant Take It With You   
Celebrating the 100th Birthday of Moss Hart
Written by: George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart
Directed by: Christopher Hart
1st Preview Performance: Tuesday, April 12, 2005
Opening Night: Wednesday, April 20, 2005
Closing Performance: Sunday, May 22, 2005

I Am My Own Wife   
Los Angeles Premiere
Written by: Doug Wright
Directed by: Moisés Kaufman
Starring: Jefferson Mays
1st Preview Performance: Tuesday, June 14, 2005
Opening Night: Wednesday, June 22, 2005
Closing Performance: Sunday, July 24, 2005