San Francisco Playhouse begins its fourteenth season with the World Premiere SEARED written by powerhouse playwright Theresa Rebeck. SEARED is a special commisson by San Francisco Playhouse (450 Post Street, San Francisco, California). Margarett Perry will direct.
San Francisco Playhouse audiences know Ms. Rebeck's work in Seminar and The Scene, the latter of which was adapted to a film, Seducing Charlie Barker, by San Francisco Playhouse director Amy Glazer. In SEARED, Ms. Rebeck explores the tension between following your dream and cashing in for success. Ms. Rebeck's works have been produced in New York, across the country, and on television. (Her complete bio is below.)
SEARED explores the delicate balance between a creative spirit navigating success, recognition, and responsibility to a financial bottom line. In between the caramelized onions and sizzling garlic frying up in the onstage kitchen, tempers are boiling over. The Chef's eight-table jewel box has become a New York favorite. Now the Investor wants to cash in, but the Chef isn't ready to sell out-and the battle between art and commerce ensues. What is the recipe for success, and how many can it serve?
The cast includes
Brian Dykstra* (Jerusalem at San Francisco Playhouse),
Rod Gnapp*,
Larry Powell* and
Alex Sunderhaus*.
The San Francisco Playhouse 2016-2017 Season is one of transformation that is sure to captivate with all of its intimate and thought-provoking premieres. "There is a compelling and palpable power you sense standing in the back of our theatre during a performance," observes
Bill English, Artistic Director. "We create theater to tell stories that enhance our understanding of being alive in our time. The plays we have selected for our new season all tell stories of people who experience a transformation. They have their beliefs challenged and are inspired to question their own identity and their place in the community."
San Francisco Playhouse's production of SEARED is made possible by: Executive Producer Andrew Teufel; Producers Fred & Beth Karren, Dana & Gary Shapiro, Arne & Gail Wagner; Associate Producers David and Cynthia Bogolub, Andre Chenoweth, Loni & Bob Dantzler / Harry & Kay Rabin, Mary & Tom Foote, Leslie Karren, Phyllis &
Jerry Rosenberg; and Artistic Underwriters Joan Rost, and Mike Smith.
Theresa Rebeck (Playwright) is a widely produced playwright throughout the United States and abroad. Plays include Dead Accounts, Mauritius, The Scene, The Water's Edge, Loose Knit, The Family of Mann, Spike Heels at
Second Stage; Bad Dates, The Butterfly Collection, Our House, The Understudy, View of the Dome, Omnium Gatherum (co-written, finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2003) and Poor Behavior. In television, Ms. Rebeck has written for Dream On, Brooklyn Bridge, L.A. Law, American Dreamer, Maximum Bob, First Wave, and Third Watch. She was the creator of the NBC drama Smash. 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. Other awards include the PEN/
Laura Pels Foundation Award, the Athena Film Festival Award, an Alex Award, a Lilly Award and in 2011 she was named one of the 150 Fearless Women in the World by Newsweek. 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, a Playwright Adviser and Board Member of the LARK and and has taught at
Brandeis University and Columbia University. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two children.
Margarett Perry (Director) is an award-winning director of new plays. She has directed and developed new work Off-Broadway and in regional theatres across the country as well as in Scotland and London. Perry is the Resident Director at the Kitchen Theatre having directed more than 20 productions including Sunset Baby, Seminar, Cock, Private Lives, The Motherfucker with the Hat, Paloma, Old Times, A Marriage Minuet and world premieres by Brian Parks,
Rob Ackerman, Rachel Axler and
Brian Dykstra. She is a regular at the Human Race in Dayton where she has directed numerous productions including One Slight Hitch, Vanya & Sonia & Masha & Spike, Other Desert Cities, God of Carnage, The Retreat >From Moscow, Painting Churches and the world premiere of
Michael Slade's Under a Red Moon. Perry was the Producing Artistic Director of Access Theater in NYC where she directed and produced numerous plays and world premieres. She is an Artistic Fellow at The Lark where she has worked with a variety of writers developing new plays. She is currently in development with
Center Theatre Group on
Brian Dykstra's hip hop play, Used to Was (Maybe Did).
www.margarettperry.com
Founded in 2003 and boasting 2500 subscribers, San Francisco Playhouse is the only mid-sized professional venue in downtown San Francisco, an intimate alternative to the larger more traditional Union Square theater fare. Presenting a diverse range of plays and musicals, San Francisco Playhouse produces new works as well as re-imagined classics, "making the edgy accessible and the traditional edgy." And with its bold Sandbox Series, dedicated to nurturing World Premieres-which has developed several new plays that have garnered the Glickman Award for playwriting and others that have gone on to be produced in New York-
The Playhouse has become a significant player in presenting emerging new works as well. San Francisco Playhouse is committed to providing a creative home and inspiring environment where actors, directors, writers, designers, and theater lovers converge to create and experience dramatic works that celebrate the human spirit.
Performance Schedule: September 27 to November 12, 2016, Tues, Wed, Thurs 7pm / Fri, Sat 8pm / Sat 3pm, Sun 2pm. Preview Performances: Sept. 27, 28, 29, 30 at 8pm. For tickets ($20-$125) or more information, the public may contact the San Francisco Playhouse box office at 415-677-9596, or
sfplayhouse.org/sfph/2016-2017-season/seared.
*Actors appear courtesy of Actors' Equity Association.
