The West Coast Premiere of Theresa Rebeck's wickedly funny look at the hardest working artist in the biz - the Understudy.

Franz Kafka's undiscovered masterpiece in its Broadway premiere is the hilarious and apropos setting for Rebeck's exploration of the existential vagaries of show business and life.

Charged with running the understudy rehearsal for the production, Roxanne (Deana Duncan) finds her professional and personal life colliding when Harry (Eric Mulholland), a journeyman actor and her ex-fiancé, is cast as the understudy to Jake (Michael Morgen), a mid-tier action star yearning for legitimacy. As Harry and Jake find their common ground, Roxanne tries to navigate the rehearsal with a stoned lightboard operator, an omnipresent intercom system, the producers threatening to shutter the show and her own careening feelings about both actors and her past. Will the show go on? "The Understudy" is a dazzling and humanistic look at people trying to do what they love in the face of obstacles that mount until all anyone can do is dance.

"(The Understudy)…delivers a clever indictment of contemporary theatre while making the characters' personal circumstances ever more Kafkaesque: They are no more in control of the forces of celebrity, art, money, and Broadway than they are of their own fates." -- The New Yorker.




Recommended for ages 16 and older (language)
Running time: 90 minutes with no intermission

We are now accepting proposals for the 2011/2012 Theatre Series. Learn more HERE.



THE CREATIVE TEAM.

Vito Zingarelli (Director), David Gignac (Scenic / Properties Design), Dorit Zingarelli (Costume and Hair Design / Choreography), Patty Mathieu (Lighting Design), David B. Malony (Sound Design), Christen Lien (Composer), Julie O'Brien (Stage Manager)

THE CAST.

Deana Duncan (Roxanne), Michael Morgen (Jake), Eric Mulholland (Harry)



THE CREW.

Assistant Stage Manager
Serena Hill

Sound Board Operator
Dylan Gibson

Light Board Operator
Noelle Weiner

Properties
Susy Demers

Stage Crew
Heather Mayhugh, Daniella Rose, Jim Scullin

Scenic Painters/Builders
Megan Besst, Charlie Bieber, Dale Boose, Sam Estill, David Gignac, Frank Laurie, Cheryl Lawrence, Heather Mayhugh, Chris Spencer, Tristan Steel, Jim Troxel

Wig Master
Joyce Degenfelder

Seamstress
Val Johnson

Technical Intern
Sarah Parker, Zach Ramsey






ABOUT THERESA REBECK.

Theresa Rebeck is a widely produced playwright throughout the United States and abroad. Past New York productions of her work include Mauritius at the Biltmore Theatre in a Manhattan Theater Club Production; The Scene, The Water’s Edge, Loose Knit, The Family of Mann and Spike Heels at Second Stage; Bad Dates, The Butterfly Collection and Our House at Playwrights Horizons; and View of the Dome at New York Theatre Workshop. Omnium Gatherum (co-written, finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2003) was featured at the Humana Festival, and had a commercial run at the Variety Arts Theatre. Her newest work, The Understudy, premiered at the 2008 Williamstown Theatre Festival and ran in New York at the Laura Pels Theater in a Roundabout Theatre Company production as part of their 2009 - 2010 season.

Ms. Rebeck has written for American Theatre Magazine and has had excerpts of her plays published in the Harvard Review. Ms. Rebeck’s first novel, Three Girls and Their Brother, was published by Random House/Shaye Areheart Books in April 2008. Her second novel, Twelve Rooms With A View, was published by Random House/Shaye Areheart Books in May of 2010. Both novels are available online and at booksellers everywhere.

In television, Ms. Rebeck has written for "Dream On," "Brooklyn Bridge," "L.A. Law," "American Dreamer," "Maximum Bob," "First Wave," and "Third Watch." She has been a writer/producer for "Canterbury’s Law," "Smith," "Law and Order:Criminal Intent" and "NYPD Blue." Her produced feature films include "Harriet the Spy," "Gossip," and the independent features "Sunday on the Rocks" and "Seducing Charlie Barker," an adaptation of her play, The Scene. Awards include the Mystery Writer’s of America’s Edgar Award, the Writer’s Guild of America award for Episodic Drama, the Hispanic Images Imagen Award, and the Peabody, all for her work on "NYPD Blue." She has won the National Theatre Conference Award (for The Family of Mann), and was awarded the William Inge New Voices Playwriting Award in 2003 for The Bells. Mauritius was originally produced at Boston’s Huntington Theatre, where it received the 2007 IRNE Award for Best New Play as well as the Eliot Norton Award.

Ms. Rebeck is originally from Cincinnati and holds an MFA in Playwrighting and a PhD. in Victorian Melodrama, both from Brandeis University. She is a proud board member of the Dramatists Guild, a Contributing Editor to the Harvard Review, an Associate Artist of the Roundabout Theatre Company and has taught at Brandeis University and Columbia University. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two children.


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SPECIAL THANKS.

Theresa Rebeck, South Whidbey School District, ACT - A Contemporary Theatre, McCaw Hall, Joyce Degenfelder, Seattle Repertory Theatre Wig Master


The Understudy is produced by special arrangement with Dramatists Play Service, Inc.