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BROTHERS AND SISTERS' Luke Macfarlane Stars in La Jolla Playhouse's SAM BENDRIX AT THE BON SOIR, 9/24-10/10
This west coast premiere will run September 24 – October 10 at
Martinis Above Fourth (3940 Fourth Avenue, Suite 200, in Hillcrest).
Performances run Mon/Tue/Wed at 7:30 pm; Sat at 2:00 pm; Sun at 2:00 pm
and 7:30 pm. Tickets are $35 and are available by calling (858) 550-1010
or at
LaJollaPlayhouse.org beginning now for subscribers and August 5 for the general public.
In a 1958 Greenwich Village nightclub — a decade before the Stonewall
riots — the drinks and music flow as a young singer and his band take
the stage for his last performance before leaving New York City for
good. Featuring the songs of
Cole Porter,
Kurt Weill and
George Gershwin, Sam Bendrix at the Bon Soir showcases acclaimed actor
Luke MacFarlane as he tells the poignant tale of a gay man looking for love in the wrong decade.
“Our first two WoW presentations – Susurrus at the San Diego Botanic Garden and The Car Plays: San Diego in
The Playhouse’s parking area – gave our audiences unique theatrical experiences in unexpected places,” said Playhouse Artistic Director
Christopher Ashley. “We continue this tradition by presenting
Keith Bunin’s moving play at Martinis Above Fourth in the heart of Hillcrest.”
Luke MacFarlane (Sam Bendrix) is well known to television audiences for his role on the hit ABC series
Brothers and Sisters.
Other television credits include Iron Road, Supreme Courtships, Over
There and Tanner on Tanner. Film credits include Trapped Ashes, Recalled
and Kinsey. A graduate of Juilliard, Mr. Macfarlane has appeared in The
Normal Heart on Broadway, The Busy World Is Hushed and Juvenilia at
Playwrights Horizons, and Where Do We Live at The
Vineyard Theatre.
Keith Bunin
(Playwright) is the author of the plays The Busy World Is Hushed, The
World Over, The Credeaux Canvas, The Principality of Sorrows, The King
of Clocks and A Joke. He has also written for film and television. He is
a graduate of Goddard College and Columbia University and lives in
Brooklyn.
Mark Rucker
(Director) is Associate Artistic Director at American Conservatory
Theatre, where he directed Once in a Lifetime, The Rainmaker and The
Beard of Avon, among others. He is an associate artist at South Coast
Rep, where he has directed more than 20 productions, including world
premieres by
Richard Greenberg,
Annie Weisman and
Culture Clash. Other regional credits include work at Yale Rep,
Arena Stage,
Intiman Theatre, California Shakespeare Theater and
Berkeley Repertory Theatre. His feature film, Die, Mommie, Die!, won a Special Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival.
Funded by a generous grant from The James Irvine Foundation, Without Walls is an exciting
La Jolla Playhouse initiative designed to break the barriers of traditional theatre. Over the course of four years,
The Playhouse
has been commissioning and presenting a series of site-based
productions at locations throughout the San Diego community.
Underscoring the theatre’s mission of providing “unfettered creative
opportunities for the leading artists of today and tomorrow,” coupled
with the idea that
The Playhouse
is defined by the work it creates – not the space in which it is
performed – WoW is designed to offer theatrical experiences that venture
beyond the physical confines of
The Playhouse’s facilities.
Building on the success of the first two WoW productions, Susurrus
and The Car Plays: San Diego – both extended by popular demand –
The Playhouse
recently announced that it will host a WoW Festival in October, 2013,
featuring several site-based pieces by artists and companies from around
the world. In addition to a special return engagement of The Car Plays,
The Playhouse has also commissioned such renowned artists as puppeteer
Basil Twist (Peter and Wendy, Dogugaeshi) to create works for the festival. The festival location will be primarily centered around
The Playhouse,
with various productions taking place throughout La Jolla. Dates and
additional programming for the WoW Festival will be announced shortly.
Located in the heart of Hillcrest, Martinis Above Fourth (MA4) is an
eclectic contemporary restaurant, lounge and bar featuring award-winning
martinis and casual fine dining. Voted #1 Martini Bar in San Diego from
the UT San Diego, MA4 features over 100 specialty martinis, along with a
wide selection of spirits, wine and beer. MA4's menu offers a broad
selection of starters and entrees, from our famous in-house crab cakes
to our blue cheese-stuffed filet. And don't miss the horseradish-infused
au-gratin potatoes. Nightly entertainment is showcased on the main
stage with performers spanning the entire musical spectrum from jazz to
pop and everything in-between. Special cabaret performances are
presented throughout each month with featured entertainers from L.A. and
New York.
The nationally acclaimed, Tony Award-winning
La Jolla Playhouse is known for its tradition of creating the most exciting and adventurous new work in regional theatre.
The Playhouse was founded in 1947 by
Gregory Peck,
Dorothy McGuire and
Mel Ferrer,
and is considered one of the most well-respected not-for-profit
theatres in the country. Numerous Playhouse productions have moved to
Broadway, including the currently-running, multiple Tony Award-winning
hits Jersey Boys and Peter and the Starcatcher, as well as Memphis, Big
River, The Who’s Tommy, How to Succeed in Business Without Really
Trying, A Walk in the Woods,
Billy Crystal’s
700 Sundays, the Pulitzer Prize-winning I Am My Own Wife, Thoroughly
Modern Millie, The Farnsworth Invention, 33 Variations and Bonnie &
Clyde. Located on the UC San Diego campus,
La Jolla Playhouse is made up of three primary performance spaces: the Mandell Weiss Theatre, the Mandell Weiss Forum Theatre and the Joan and
Irwin Jacobs Center for
La Jolla Playhouse, a state-of-the-
Art Theatre complex which features the Sheila and Hughes Potiker Theatre.
The Playhouse is led by Artistic Director
Christopher Ashley and Managing Director
Michael S. Rosenberg.
The James Irvine Foundation is a private, nonprofit grantmaking
foundation dedicated to expanding opportunity for the people of
California to participate in a vibrant, successful and inclusive
society. The Foundation’s grantmaking focuses on three program areas:
Arts, California Democracy and Youth. Since 1937 the Foundation has
provided over $1 billion in grants to more than 3,000 nonprofit
organizations throughout California. With about $1.5 billion in assets,
the Foundation made grants of $65 million in 2011 for the people of
California.
Photo Credit: Walter McBride / Retna Ltd.
