Bill Rauch — who staged the new work at the Costa Mesa, California company's 2005 Pacific Playwrights Festival — returns to direct the full production which opens Jan. 13 for a run at the Julianne Argyros Stage through Jan. 29.
The Further Adventures of Hedda Gabler proposes the classic heroine "lives on in ‘The Neighborhood of Tragic Women,’ an alternative hell where fictional characters are forced to endure until at last they are forgotten. Will she ever really die?"
Susannah Schulman — a SCR stalwart of On the Mountain, Cyrano de Bergerac, The Dazzle, Nostalgia, The Taming of the Shrew, Six Degrees of Separation and A Christmas Carol — embodies the title character. She appears opposite fellow SCR veterans Christopher Liam Moore (Habeas Corpus, Lovers and Executioners) as Tessman and Kimberly Scott (Safe in Hell, Our Townand Broadway's Joe Turner’s Come and Gone) as Mammy.
They are joined in the ensemble cast by Dan Butler (Biloxi Blues, Lisbon Traviata, Bulldog on "Frasier"), Patrick Kerr ( Habeas Corpus, The Underpants, blind man on "Curb Your Enthusiasm"), Preston Maybank (SCR's A View from the Bridge, The Little Prince, Cyrano de Bergerac), Kate A. Mulligan (Habeas Corpus, Embedded) and Bahni Turpin (Slide Glide the Slippery Slope, Taking Control). Schulman, Kerr, Scott and Turpin appeared in the previous reading of the work.
Whitty earned his Tony for his book to the 2004 Tony Award winner for Best Musical Avenue Q. He is also the author of The Hiding Place (2003 Pacific Playwrights Festival), Suicide Weather, Balls and The Plank Project. His screenplays include "Zora," a feature to star Jennifer Aniston, and as-yet-untitled musical project with music by Andre 3000 of Outkast. The new season at SCR will continue with the American premiere of Terry Johnson's Hitchcock Blonde (Feb. 3-March 12, 2006), Tracy Letts' Man from Nebraska(March 12-April 2, 2006), two world premieres — Christopher d'Amboise's The Studio (March 31-May 7) and Tanya Barfield's Blue Door (April 23-May 14) — and Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing (May 19-June 25, 2006).
Tickets to the new season at South Coast Rep, at 655 Town Center Drive in Costa Mesa, CA are available by calling (714) 708-5555. For more information, visit www.scr.org.
