POLITICS, LIES AND REGRET COLLIDE IN THE REGIONAL PREMIERE OF
OTHER DESERT CITIES, SEPTEMBER 4-22, 2013
(Cincinnati, OH) Right-wing parents and left-leaning offspring take center stage in the regional premiere of Jon Robin Baitz’s political potboiler, Other Desert Cities—the Pulitzer Prize finalist and Tony Award-nominated “best new play on Broadway” (New York Times), that USA Today calls “funny, maddening, and moving”. Full of surprisingly touching moments, Jon Robin Baitz (creator of ABC’s Brothers & Sisters) brings dysfunctional family drama to new heights in this witty and deeply enjoyable work, which plays September 4-22, 2013. Directed by D. Lynn Meyers; Premiere Sponsor is the Otto M. Budig Family Foundation.
It’s Christmas Eve, 2004, at the Palm Springs mansion of Lyman and Polly Wyeth—a notably conservative California couple. Home for the holidays are their son Trip, a laid-back Hollywood producer; daughter Brooke, a liberal writer with a history of depression; and Polly’s sister Silda, a liberal former screenwriter recently released from rehab. But the warm desert air turns chilly when Brooke announces the impending publication of her juicy tell-air memoir, which threatens to revive the most painful chapter of the family’s history. As Brooke confesses her true motivations behind the book, she learns the real history is more shocking than she ever knew, leading to an ending that has left audiences stunned and talking everywhere the play has been performed. OTHER DESERT CITIES is a riveting portrait of a prominent family and their very public fall from grace.
“I am captivated by the amount of interaction that has to happen in the course of one day with a family that has never been immersed in that kind of relationship,” explains Producing Artistic Director D. Lynn Meyers. “Jon Robin Baitz has created such an intriguing dichotomy between love and need, between the shelter that a family can provide as well as the devastating alienation it can inflict. These themes are beautifully explored in OTHER DESERT CITIES and I am thrilled to bring it to our stage.”
OTHER DESERT CITIES won the Outer Critics Circle Award, and was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and a Tony Award. Its 2011 Broadway debut earned unanimous critical praise: a “boldly conventional yet altogether gripping work” (Newsday); “a full-bodied, emotionally alive play,” (The Hollywood Reporter); “nothing short of dazzling” (New York Magazine); “great from start to finish” (Associated Press); and as having “the appeal of a Broadway hit from another age” (The New York Times). Jon Robin Baitz’s plays include The Film Society, The Substance of Fire, The End of the Day, Three Hotels, A Fair Country (Pulitzer Prize finalist 1996), Mizlansky/Zilinsky, Ten Unknowns and The Paris Letter, as well as a version of Hedda Gabler that appeared on Broadway in 2001. He is the creator of Brothers & Sisters, a television series that ran for five seasons on ABC until 2011. Other television work includes PBS’s version of Three Hotels, for which he won the Humanitas Prize, and episodes of The West Wing and Alias. He is the author of two screenplays: the film script for The Substance of Fire (1996) and People I Know (2002). Baitz is a founding member of Naked Angels Theater Company, and on the faculties of the MFA programs at The New School for Drama and Stony Brook Southampton.
ABOUT THE CAST
Sara Mackie (Brooke Wyeth) is a graduate of Wright State University and a member of Actors’ Equity Association. She has performed with the Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati in The Marvelous Wonderettes and Winter Wonderettes, Rabbit Hole, Mauritius, The Great American Trailer Park Musical, and Alice in Wonderland, among other holiday favorites. Human Race Theatre Company credits include The Trimble Wars, Twelfth Night and Red Blooded All-American Man. She also was seen onstage at the Carnegie Theatre recently in Camelot in Concert, Pump Boys and Dinettes, and the premiere staged reading of The Sandman. In addition to small roles in commercials, short films and web skits, she has toured children’s theatres across the country.
Dennis Parlato (Lyman Wyeth) returns to Ensemble Theatre, having most recently appeared in Ghost-Writer. Mr. Parlato’s other Ensemble Theatre credits include Becky’s New Car, Mauritius, The Seafarer, Fiction, The Guys, A Question of Mercy, and Glimmer, Glimmer, and Shine. Mr. Parlato played El Gallo in The Fantasticks in NYC. On Broadway, he’s played Lawrence Jameson in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Mr. Robinson in The Graduate, John the Baptist in Salome, and Captain von Trapp in The Sound of Music. Off-Broadway and regional credits include the title roles in Cyrano de Bergerac, Barrymore, The Master Builder, Prospero in The Tempest, Big Daddy in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Scrooge in A Christmas Carol, and Oliver in David Hare’s The Vertical Hour. Mr. Parlato’s film credits include Johnny Suede, Delirious, Dillinger’s Dead, Bury the Evidence, Rick, First Born, Starting Out in the Evening, and Bride Wars.
Amy Warner (Polly Wyeth) returns to ETC, having last performed in End Days. Her other ETC credits include Collected Stories, 33 Variations. Fiction, The Guys, The Women of Lockerbie, and Permanent Collection. Other regional credits include Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? at Cincinnati Shakespeare Company, for which she won a CEA award for Best Actress. Off-Broadway credits include: Wild Oats, Danton’s Death, Big and Little, and The Underpants. TV credits include appearances on Ally McBeal, Boston Public, The Guardian, The Practice, and E.R.
Dale Hodges (Silda Grauman) returns to Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati, having last appeared in the regional premieres of Mrs. Mannerly, 33 Variations and Grey Gardens. Her other ETC credits include: String of Pearls, Bed Among the Lentils, The Cripple of Inishmaan, Vigil, Side Man, The Skriker, Going to St. Ives, Death of a Salesman, The Illusion, Seascape, A School for Scandal, Everything in the Garden, Buckminster Fuller, In & Out of the Universe, and Eleemosynary. Ms. Hodges’ Playhouse in the Park credits include: The Piano Teacher, The Crucible, King Lear, Ten Little Indians, Wit, The Importance of Being Earnest, Our Country’s Good, How the Other Half Loves, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Equus, and twenty seasons of A Christmas Carol. She has also performed in Cincinnati Shakespeare Company’s productions of The Grapes of Wrath, Long Day’s Journey Into Night, The Merchant of Venice, and Coriolanus, and on the stage of Cincinnati Music Hall, as a narrator with the Symphony, and as the Duchess of Krakenthorpe in La Fille du Régiment with the Cincinnati Opera.
Ryan Wesley Gilreath (Trip Wyeth) also returns to Ensemble Theatre, having last appeared in Next Fall. As Cincinnati native, he trained at the University of Central Florida’s Conservatory program. His television credits include NBC’s Deception, Fox’s pilot Guilty in which he had a scene opposite Cuba Gooding, Jr., and Team Umizoomi on Nick, Jr. Mr. Gilreath has also worked with Emmy-nominated Stephen David Entertainment on their next miniseries which is set to air on Discovery this October.
Production team includes Brian c. Mehring (Resident Scenic & Lighting Designer), Aaron Clements (Technical Operations Director), Matthew Hollstegge (Production Coordinator & Master Electrician), Shannon Rae Lutz (Properties Master & Design Assistant), Matt Callahan (Sound Designer), and Reba Senske (Costume Designer). Production Stage Manager is Brandon T. Holmes.
Ticket Prices
- Tickets are $39 for Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday performances.
- Tickets are $43 for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday performances.
Half-price rush tickets and $15 student rush tickets are available starting two hours prior to show time.
Tickets and seating subject to availability.
Subscriptions
Subscriptions to the 2013-2014 Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati season are available in a variety of packages. Prices start at $162 for seniors; adult subscriptions range from $174 to $192 depending upon day. The popular FlexPass is $202, which includes six flexible tickets to use for any show and in any combination. Opening night subscriptions are $192 and include light refreshments from Ensemble Theatre’s opening night partner(s).
Other Single Ticket Discounts
Military/Educator, Public Radio Perks Card, ArtsWave FunCard, AAA, Senior and Enjoy the Arts discounts available; tickets and seating are subject to availability. ETC accepts all major credit cards and Downtown Cincinnati gift cards. A full list of available discounts and performance calendar is available at http://www.ensemblecincinnati.org.
Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati is supported, in part, by the generosity of community contributions to the ArtsWave Campaign.
The Ohio Arts Council helps fund Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati with state tax dollars to encourage economic growth, educational excellence and cultural enrichment for all Ohioans. Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati also receives funding from the Shubert Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.
2013-2014 Season Presenting Sponsor is the Otto M. Budig Family Foundation. Additional support provided by Garfield Suites Hotel, The Greater Cincinnati Foundation, the Shubert Foundation, and National Endowment for the Arts.
Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati is a professional theatre dedicated to producing world and regional premieres of works that often explore compelling social issues. We fulfill our mission through our stage productions and educational outreach programs that enlighten, enliven, enrich and inspire our audiences.
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