Pasadena Playhouse and Deaf West Theatre Announce Cast and Creative Team for ‘Our Town’

Jane Kaczmarek. – Courtesy photo

Jane Kaczmarek stars in Pasadena Playhouse’s centennial season opener with a cast that includes deaf and hearing actors

Pasadena Playhouse, the State Theatre of California and Deaf West Theatre, the performing arts organization behind the Tony Award-winning and Ovation Award-winning revival of “Spring Awakening,” have announced the cast and creative team for a new production of Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town.” Directed by Tony Award-nominated Sheryl Kaller (Broadway’s “Next Fall” and “Mothers and Sons”) this groundbreaking new co-production by Pasadena Playhouse and Deaf West Theatre will be performed in both American Sign Language and spoken English.

Performances begin Sept. 26 and run through Oct. 22, with the official press opening on Sunday, Oct. 1. Tickets are now on sale at pasadenaplayhouse.org.

The 2017/18 season marks Producing Artistic Director Danny Feldman’s inaugural season for Pasadena Playhouse, which celebrates its centennial this year.

“I wanted to kick off the Playhouse’s Centennial Season by revisiting one of the greatest plays ever written, one that was originally produced here at the Playhouse in 1939, just a year after its world premiere,” said Feldman. “By partnering with our friends at Deaf West Theatre, together we are creating a thrilling opportunity for our community to experience this timeless classic in a profound new way.”

“The play is a touchstone of American theatre,” said Deaf West Theatre’s Artistic Director DJ Kurs. “It’s thrilling to adapt one of the classic works of the American stage with a director like Sheryl Kaller and a cast of this caliber but also to perform it before an audience that, more than ever, is unified in an understanding and appreciation of the possibilities of a bilingual staging in American Sign Language and English.”

Acclaimed actress Jane Kaczmarek stars in Wilder’s American masterpiece as the Stage Manager. She starred for seven years in the Emmy Award-winning TV series “Malcom in the Middle.” As “Lois,” she was nominated for seven consecutive Emmy Awards, as well as numerous Golden Globe and SAG Awards, and has won the American Comedy Award and the Television Critic’s Award for two consecutive years, the first woman to ever receive such an honor.

Kaczmarek starred in the West Coast run of David Lindsay-Abaire’s 2011 Tony Award-nominated play “Good People” at the Geffen Playhouse, for which she received a 2012 Ovation Award nomination for lead actress in a play. And, she recently appeared in Eugene O’Neill masterpiece “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” also at the Geffen, where she starred opposite Alfred Molina as “Mary Tyrone.” Other Los Angeles theater credits include: Kindertransport for which she received an Ovation Award; and at South Coast Repertory she appeared in the premiere of the Pulitzer Prize-winning “Dinner with Friends and Raised in Captivity” for which she won the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award.

In New York, Kaczmarek appeared on Broadway in “Lost in Yonkers” and in plays at the Manhattan Theatre Club, The Public, Second Stage, Long Wharf, New York Stage and Film, and the Berkshire and Williamstown Theatre Festival.
In addition to Jane Kaczmarek, the cast of “Our Town”, which includes performers signing American Sign Language (ASL) and speaking roles, features:

– Marie-France Arcilla as Ensemble (A Drama Desk Award recipient for her performance in Stephen Schwartz’s “Working.” Off-Broadway credits: “Shout”!, “The Ark,” “Sid” and others)

-Deric Augustine as George Gibbs (regional theater credits include: “The King and I,” “Romeo and Juliet”and “A Soldier’s Play.” TV credits include “Queen Sugar.”)

– Harold Foxx as Howie Newsome (numerous film, TV and stage credits include “The Actor Whisperer,” “For My Woman,” “Audism Unveiled” and more)

– Sandra Mae Frank as Emily Webb (best known for her role as “Wendla” in Broadway’s
“Spring Awakening,”and Lyric Theatre’s “Fiddler on the Roof”)

– David Gautreaux as Ensemble (Los Angeles and New York stage lead roles include: “Tom Jones,” “Jumpers,” “Real to Reel,” “Blood Moon” and others)

– Russell Harvard as Mr. Webb (Broadway’s “Spring Awakening,” Off Broadway’s Tribes, for which he receiveda Theatre World Award and Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Lucille Lortel Award nominations. He is most recognized for his work as HW Allman in the 2008 Oscar nominated film “There Will Be Blood.” He currently stars in “Fargo.”)

– Dot Marie Jones as Mrs. Soames (Three Emmy Award nominations for her role as football coach ‘Shannon Beiste’on FOX’s megahit television show “Glee”)

– Leonard Kelly-Young as Ensemble (Mark Taper Forum’s “The Christians” and “A School for Scandal,” Seattle Repertory Theatre’s “A View From the Bridge” and others)

– Troy Kotsur as Simon Stimson (Deaf West’s “Spring Awakening,” “Big River” and “At Home at the Zoo”)

– Annika Marks as Mrs. Webb (Geffen Playhouse’s “The Model Apartment,” Ensemble Studio Theatre’s “Doesn’t Anyone Know What A Pancreas Is” for which she received an Ovation Award Nomination for Best Featured Actress)
– Ivan Martinez as Ensemble

– Amanda McDonough as Ensemble (theater credits: “Once Upon a Mattress,” “Annie” and “The Taming of the Shrew”)

– Natasha Ofili as Ensemble

– Sharon Pierre-Louis as Emily Webb (ABC Family’s “Lincoln Heights” and “The Lying Game.”She played “Lil Jody” in Quentin Tarantino’s “Django Unchained.”)

– On Shiu as Ensemble (Hollywood Fringe Festival’s “Grimm Tales,” The Manor Theatre Company’s “Big Love”and Miles Memorial Playhouse’s “Letter to Eve”)

– Alexandria Wailes as Mrs. Gibbs (Broadway productions include Deaf West Theatre’s
“Spring Awakening” and “Big River”)

– Jud Willford as Mr. Gibbs (First National Touring Company of “Wicked,” “Scapin” with Bill Irwin, and the title role of ‘Macbeth’ with “The California Shakespeare Theater”)

The cast of “Our Town” is composed of deaf and hearing actors. The production will be performed in American Sign Language and English in a seamless ballet.

Joining Kaller’s “Our Town” creative team are award-winning choreographer David Dorfman (“Indecent”), scenic designer David Meyer, costume designer Ann Closs Farley, lighting designer Jared A. Sayeg, co-sound designer Leon Rothenberg, co-sound designer Jonathan Burke, associate director Srda Vasiljević, ASL masters Joshua Castile and Jevon Whetter and production stage manager Jenny Slattery.

“Our Town” will begin performances on Tuesday, Sept. 26 and run through Sunday, Oct. 22, with the official press opening on Sunday, Oct. 1 at 5 p.m. Performance schedule is Tuesday – Friday evenings at 8 p.m.; Saturday at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m., and Sunday at 2 p.m.  Please note that there is no Sunday, Oct. 1 matinee performance; there are no Tuesday evening performances on Oct. 3 and 17; and there is no performance on Wednesday evening on Oct. 18; and there is no performance on Sunday Oct. 22 at 7 p.m.

Tickets for “Our Town” are $25 – $92 and available online at PasadenaPlayhouse.org, by phone at (626) 356-7529 or by visiting the Pasadena Playhouse Box Office, located at 39 South El Molino Avenue, Pasadena, CA 91101. For more information on all productions at Pasadena Playhouse visit PasadenaPlayhouse.org.

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