DaddyO Dies Well

Legendary Los Angeles-based playwright Murray Mednick directs the world premiere of the fifth installment of his “Gary Plays” cycle, a darkly lyrical comedy in which Gary, Mednick’s hardluck protagonist, takes a psychedelic Ayahuasca trip at the behest of DaddyO, his hipster stepfather. The entire octet of Gary Plays is scheduled to be published in April, 2011 by Sideshow Books and distributed by TCG (Theatre Communications Group).

“The Gary Plays is one of the most engaging and ambitious local theater events of the past few seasons… Mednick’s Gary is a sort of L.A. Leopold Bloom.” – 89.9 FM KCRW

“As Murray Mednick experiments with language and investigates the majority’s relationship to indigenous cultures, he is emblematic of a Los Angeles dramatic tradition in much the same way that Clifford Odets is identifiable with Gotham or David Mamet with Chicago….Bursting with Mednick’s patented cascades of imagery and amusing juxtapositions.” –VARIETY

“Always interesting… circles, playfully and endlessly, around various life-and-death issues” – LA WEEKLY

“Intriguing and promising for L.A. Theatre…The writing is as much about the sound of the language itself as what’s going on… a testament to the power of a sustained body of work and that’s not easy” – KCRW

“Daddy O is the epitome of ‘cool.’ There’s more going on here than meets the eye.” –ON STAGE LOS ANGELES

“Magic lives in DADDYO DIES WELL…Delights with delicious themes of the occult, the adventurous, the tragic, and the uplifting. The acting touches your core being and the play as a whole inspires an enchantment….hums with life and it is full of vitality and truth”.-EYE SPY LA

“Will leave all viewers with a “I don’t know what just happened to me, but I know I liked it” sensation. With both script and direction by Mednick, it is a fun, wonderfully strange, and well-executed production. Mednick’s direction is satisfying, detailed, and beautifully choreographed with subtle Greek chorus interjections that add depth to the story.”-LAIST.COM

Starring
Peggy Ann Blow*, Strawn Bovee*, Hugh Dane*, Elizabeth Greer*, Jack Kehler, Melissa Paladino*, Casey Sullivan*
(*Denotes Member of Actors’ Equity Association)

Artistic Director: Guy Zimmerman
Executive Producer: Racquel Lehrman
Producer: Roger Q. Mason
Set Designer: Matt Aston
Costume Designer: Melody Brocious
Lighting Designer: Dan Reed
Music and Sound Designer: John Zalewski
Projection Designer: Marc I. Rosenthal
Stage Manager: Laura Manchester
Casting Director: Raul Clayton Staggs
Publicist: Lucy Pollak

PRODUCTION AND CAST BIOS

Hugh Dane (DADDYO)

Hugh Dane created the role of Daddy O in the Padua Playwrights’ production of Out of the Blue. He is thrilled to reprise the role in this, his fourth Padua Playwrights’ production, and is honored to be directed by the author, Murray Mednick. Hugh is the recipient of an LA Weekly Award for Willie & Esther, Dramalogue Award for The Visit, and 3 NAACP Theatre Award nominations for The Marriage, Undertakers Cut, and Willie & Esther. Hugh received an LA Weekly Award nomination for the Padua Playwrights’ production of Dogmouth. Hugh has numerous film, television and commercial credits. Look for him in his recurring role as Hank in the hit NBC series, The Office, and his recurring role as Cat Daddy on the TVOne sitcom, Love that Girl. He dedicates his performance to Nique, Chris, Chazz, Sebastian, Maxwell, Jameer, Gail, and to his late brother, Billy.

Casey Sullivan (GARY)

Casey Sullivan is a rare LA native. Father and mother met at the Renaissance Festival in Marin. He was doing sonnets and she was singing the folk. Since that mad, crazy conception Casey has traversed many worlds and is glad to stop here in DaddyO Dies Well. Previous creative sojourns include Jerry in Tracy Letts play BUG at US Veterans Arts Alliance; 365 plays/365 days at Center Theatre Group; The Vagabond in The Tavern at the Strater Hotel in Durnago, CO. Lovborg in Hedda Gabler at the Little Fish Theatre. Narrator for staged reading of More Lies about Jerzy at the Black Dahlia. Sex, Relationships, and Sometimes Love at the Actors Playpen; the lawyer in Jurisprudence at the Underground Theatre; Macduff in Othello at Cal Shakespeare Company; Everyman in Everyman with the LA Thespians; The Blunders at The Vermont in Los Feliz. Casey has studied acting with the Antaeus Academy.

Jack Kehler (DR. JONES)

Jack has acted in numerous Padua/Oxblood productions including three by the esteemed Murray Mednick and three by Wesley Walker. Also, Ed Simpson’s Elephant Sighs and Additional Particulars. More recently, Arthur Miller’s Some Kind of Love Story, Burglers of Hamm’s Land of the Tigers and Joe Bay’s the last fling. Some of his films include the Big Lebowski, Love Liza, Invincible, Fever Pitch, Waterworld, Under the Tuscan Sun, Big Trouble and Jeff Phillips’ Errand Boy. A long time member of the Actors Studio, Jack is pleased to be working alongside all involved with daddyo… For liam, carol and shawna.

Elizabeth Greer (GLORIA)

Elizabeth Greer earned a BFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and an MFA from Yale School of Drama. TV credits include Cold Case, The Shield, My Own Worst Enemy, Charmed, and West Wing. Film credits include The Gunrunner Billy Kane, Interference, Transformers 1.5, Meet Market, Cahoots, and Sexting, an awarded short by Neil LaBute. Theatre credits include performances at such venues as Yale Repertory Theater, Lincoln Center, The American Jewish Theater, Skirball Center, and Ensemble Studio Theatre–LA. She is a member of EST-LA’s producing staff and Edgemar Theatre Group. Elizabeth is honored to work with Padua Playwrights on this production. For further information, visit www.elizabethgreer.com.

Melissa Paladino (MARCIA)

MELISSA PALADINO hails from New York, but was last seen as Dee in the West Coast premiere of Adam Rapp’s Bingo with the Indians at Rogue Machine Theatre, of which she is a company member. STAGE: Razorback (Rogue Machine Theatre), Sailor’s Song (LAByrinth Theater Co. at The Public/ John Patrick Shanley), Fight Girl Battle World, Men of Steel, Living Dead in Denmark, The Vampire Cowboy Trilogy (VCT Productions), A Woman From the Past (German Theater Festival). TV/FILM: Time Warner, GSN, Lifetime, Fort Doom, 25 to Life, The Horribly Slow Murderer with an Extremely Inefficient Weapon.

Peggy A. Blow (ANTONIO)

PEGGY ANN BLOW is no stranger to the Gary Plays, having played Antonio in a couple of Padua productions and in the film Gary’s Walk. She began her career in theatre right out of college and has continued ever since, garnering many performance awards, coast-to-coast in musical as well as dramatic theatre. Peggy has guest starred in many prime time network and cable programs. Most recently, she appeared as Judge Lydia Salt in Californication. She thanks you all for your continued support! IMDB/actors access/Hervey Grimes Talent Agency.

Strawn Bovee (MAMA BEAN)

STRAWN BOVEE: The Odyssey Theater: Richard III, The Cherry Orchard, Tartuffe, The Seagull, MacBeth, Three Sisters, Antigone. The Redcat: Double Play. The Hayworth: Iphigenia At Aulis, Sister Cities, The Heiress. City Garage: The Balcony, Savannah Bay, Garbage, the City and Death, The Little Red Hot Man, Over Nothing At All, Journey Among the Dead. Other: Medea, Doll’s House, Landscape, The Shawl, The Possibilities, The Unreasonable Are Dying Out. TV: The Guardian, Gilmore Girls, Judging Amy, Port Charles, General Hospital. Film: Unspeakable Act (upcoming), Just My Luck, All the Ships at Sea, Photosynthesis, My Final Day of Intoxication, Brewster’s Millions. SAG-AFTRA-AEA

PRODUCTION TEAM

Murray Mednick (Writer/Director)

Murray is the founder of the Padua Hills Playwrights Festival and Workshop, where he served as Artistic Director from 1978 through 1995. Born in Brooklyn, New York in 1939, he was for many years a playwright-in-residence at New York’s Theatre Genesis, which presented much of his early work, including The Hawk, The Deer Kill, The Hunter, Sand, and Are You Lookin’? He was artistic co-director of Theatre Genesis from 1970 -1974, when he emigrated to California. Plays produced since then include Iowa and Blessings (for the PBS series Visions), The Coyote Cycle, Taxes, Scar, Heads, Shatter ‘N Wade, Fedunn, Switchback, Baby Jesus!, Dictator, Freeze, 16 Routines, Mrs.Feuerstein, G-nome, and Joe and Betty. Girl On a Bed, the third in his series of The Gary Plays (following Tirade for Three and Gary’s Walk), was recently made into a film, and the fourth, Out of the Blue, was presented in Los Angeles in 2005. Another play, Clown Show for Bruno, was presented in October of ’06 at the Lost Studio in Hollywood, and then, along with The Destruction of the Fourth World, and the film of Girl on a Bed, at Arts District, Downtown L.A. , as part of a tribute to Mr. Mednick in February, 2009. DaddyO Dies Well is the fifth in the series of Gary Plays.

Mednick is the recipient of two Rockefeller Foundation grants, a Guggenheim Fellowship, an OBIE, several Bay Area Critics Awards, a 1992 Ovation Lifetime Achievement Award from Theatre LA for outstanding contributions to Los Angeles theatre. He won the 1997 (Dictator) and 2003 (Fedunn) L.A. Weekly Playwriting Awards. His play Joe and Betty received the 2002 American Theatre Critics Association Best New Play Citation. Mednick was awarded the 2002 Margaret Harford Award for Sustained Excellence in Theater by the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle, and a lifetime achievement award from the L.A. Weekly.

Published plays include: The Hawk, the Deer Kill, and The Hunter, published by Bobbs-Merill, Three Plays by Murray Mednick (Padua Hills Press), Switchback (Sun and Moon Press). The Coyote Cycle, Padua Hills Press; Hipsters in Distress, Are You Lookin’?, and other plays (Padua Hills press). Anthologized plays include Freeze, The Deer Kill, Willie the Germ, The Hawk, Sand, Switchback, Taxes, Coyote Plays, and others.

Racquel Lehrman, Theatre Planners (Executive Producer)

Racquel is the founder and managing director of Theatre Planners, her own theatre production/PR firm. She graduated from NYU-Tisch School of the Arts and lived in NY for over ten years producing theatre. Theatre Planners has since developed into a very busy and successful outlet for actors, writers, producers and theatre companies. Doing everything from producing, publicity, consulting, printing, graphics and more. Racquel loves to make productions a reality and help to keep the theatre scene in LA alive and strong. Racquel has acquired the Actor’s Gang old space on El Centro and is the new owner of the LOUNGE THEATRES in Hollywood on Theatre Row. To learn more about Racquel and Theatre Planners, go to www.theatreplanners.com.

Roger Q. Mason (Producer)

Roger Q. Mason is a Los Angeles-based playwright, director, and producer. His plays include Orange Woman, A Ballad for a Moor, Onion Creek, and Lizzie. His work has been featured at such venues as McCarter Theatre, Ensemble Studio Theatre – LA, and Theatre of NOTE. As a director and producer, he has worked with such companies as EST–LA, USC School of Theatre’s Drama Club, Alive Theatre, A Noise Within, and Rogue Machine Theatre. Mason received an AB in English and Certificates in Theatre and African American Studies from Princeton University. He is currently an MA candidate at Middlebury College’s Bread Loaf School of English. Mason thanks Murray Mednick and Guy Zimmerman for allowing him to take this theatrical odyssey with them.

Guy Zimmerman (Artistic Director of Padua Playwrights)

An award-winning writer, director and producer, Zimmerman has served as artistic director of Padua Playwrights since 2001. Under his direction this LA-based company has staged over twenty-five productions of new plays, including three in New York City and three abroad, that have garnered a host of LA Weekly, Ovation, Garland, and Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle awards and nominations. Zimmerman has edited a six-volume anthology series for Padua Press, distributed nationally by TCG. He has also produced and directed a series of digital media productions of original plays including Pronghorn, Girl on a Bed, Gary’s Walk (both based on plays by Murray Mednick), and Snout. Previously, Zimmerman wrote for network television, including the shows Cracker, The Pretender and Wonderland. His own plays include La Clarita,The Inside Job, and Vagrant. His articles and essays about film, theater, art, science and politics have been published in the LA Weekly, LA Theater Magazine, Backstage West, the LA Citizen, Cyrano’s Journal, Bedlam Magazine and, most recently, the arts and culture website Times Quotidian. Zimmerman received a BA in History from the University of Pennsylvania and is currently working towards an MA in Urban Sustainability at Antioch University. He lives in LA with his wife, Jenny Bright and their daughter, Eliza, aged 10.

Laura Manchester (Stage Manager)

Laura Manchester is thrilled to be working with Padua Playwrights and Theatre Planners! She has been in Los Angeles working as an actor, director, and sometimes stage manager since she graduated with her B.A. in Theatre. STAGE MANAGING: Gulf View Drive (Critic’s Choice, LA Weekly award Best Ensemble); The Woman in Black; Spoon River Anthology. DIRECTING: The Shape of Things; The Vagina Monologues; Saint Joan (A.D.); Gulf View Drive (A.D.); The Woman in Black (A.D.); Cindersoot: 21st Century (co-direction); And All the Children Cried. ACTING: (representation: Commercial Talent) Romeo and Juliet; One Night Stands; The Crucible; As You Like It; A Hatful of Rain; The Boys Next Door; Macbeth; As it is in Heaven; I Dream Before I Take the Stand. Many thanks to Racquel for bringing me on board.

Katy Davis (Assistant Stage Manager/House Manager)

Katy Davis recently moved to Los Angeles from Houston where she got her BA in technical theatre. She has been a stage manager for the past five years. Her last project was Among the Thugs with Houston’s up and coming Horsehead Theatre Company. Katy would like to thank her family and friends for all their support in pursuing a career in theatre and film.

Matt Aston (Set Designer)

Matt has designed the sets for over fifty theatrical productions. For Padua Playwrights he designed The Destruction of the Fourth World, Clown Show for Bruno, Tiny Trumpets, Hammers, Acts of Love and participated as an artist in A Thousand Words. He received a grant from LADAD Space to paint paintings inspired by the plays of Padua’s Neo Sacred Revival. Matt received the MFA in stage design on a full scholarship from Southern Methodist University where he studied under William and Jean Eckart.

John Zalewski (Sound Designer)

John Zalewski was inducted into live theater through the work of Reza Abdoh. He’s since created sonic scores for the Humana Festival, the LA Philharmonic, Long Beach Opera, Geffen Playhouse, South Coast Repertory Theatre, Pasadena Playhouse, East West Players, Boston Court, LATC/Latino Theater, Padua Playwrights, Antaeus, The Actors’ Gang, 24th Street Theater, Playwrights Arena, Lewis Family Playhouse, Green Beetle, CircleX, Odyssey, chashama, PS122, LaMama, others. He is recipient of awards from LA Weekly, Backstage, Ticketholders, Dramalogue, LA Stage Alliance and the NEA/TCG designer fellowship. He is a member of Antaeus and Evidence Room. Recently he scored a series of short films with Padua called The Furies and is very excited to be working again with Padua Playwrights.

Dan Reed (Lighting Designer)

Dan is a Lighting Director at KTLA 5, a professor of lighting design at Cal Poly Pomona, and has been recently working abroad on theme parks with the CD+M Architectural Lighting Design Group at the new Ferrari World in Abu Dhabi and the Olympic Water Cube in Beijing, China. Recent theatrical designs Cirque Berzerk at Club Nokia, Songs and Dances of Imaginary Lands with Overtone Industries, Stage Door and The Existents at the Open Fist, and numerous shows with Theatre 40, Gunfighter Nation and Padua Playwrights theatre companies. Awards for lighting design include a pair of Garland Awards for Justine (1997) at the Evidence Room and Fen (2001) at the Open Fist Theatre, and a pair of LA Weekly Awards for Cosmonaut’s Last Message (2003) and Abingdon Square (2004), also at the Open Fist.

Melody Brocious (Costume Designer)

Melody Brocious has been designing costumes in southern California for three years. She has attended the University of California, Irvine, receiving her Masters of Fine Arts. Her work extends into film design, fabric modification, costume construction, and millinery. Favorite projects include costume designs for Lorca in a Green Dress, Cyrano De Bergerac, and Into the Woods.

Kathryn Lochert (Production Assistant/Box Office Manager)

Currently in her 4th year of college, Kathryn is working towards obtaining a BFA in Stage Management from the USC School of Theatre. Kathryn is excited to begin working outside of the collegiate setting and couldn’t be happier than to lend her skills to DaddyO Dies Well and Padua Playwrights Productions as Production Assistant and Box Office Manager for this show. Kathryn would like to thank Roger Q. Mason for such a warm welcome to the team.