By Kenneth Jones
18 May 2009

Design for Living stars Robert Sella, Gretchen Egolf and Tom Story
photo by Scott Suchman

Design for Living, Noel Coward's comedy about an insular trio of creative personalities, opens May 18 after previews from May 12 at Shakespeare Theatre Company's Lansburgh Theatre in Washington, DC.

Artistic director Michael Kahn directs the bohemian menage a trois of Tom Story as Otto, Robert Sella as Leo and Gretchen Egolf as Gilda, who share love, work and friendship in the early '30s.

Performances play to June 28. Egolf (playing decorator Gilda) appeared in Broadway's Ring Round the Moon and Jackie and TV's "Roswell," "Journeyman," "Martial Law"; Story (playing painter Otto) appeared in DC Studio Theatre's The Invention of Love and A Number; and Sella (playing playwright Leo) appeared in London's The Lady From Dubuque, Broadway's Side Man, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Cabaret and the Michael Mayer-directed national tour of Angels in America.

Joining them are Kevin Hogan as Ernest, Sherri L. Edelen as Grace Torrence, Catherine Flye as Miss Hodge, Rebecca Kaasa as Helen Carver, Todd Scofield as Mr. Birbeck, Richard Thieriot as Henry Carver and Nathan Bennett.

According to STC, "Design for Living follows three glamorous 1920s bohemians — Otto, Leo and Gilda — as they fall in and out of love with each other. Moving restlessly from Paris to London to New York, the three both pursue and repel each other in an ever-more-maddening love triangle. The master of 20th-century English comedy, Coward is at his best in Design for Living, a hilarious and sophisticated look at love, friendship and the joys and perils of fame."

Director Kahn stated, "I think the play is one of Coward's most profound. In Design for Living Coward brilliantly coated his investigation of society and relationships with an extraordinary glittering surface."

The creative team includes set designer James Noone; costume designer Robert Perdziola; lighting designer Mark McCullough; sound designer Martin Desjardins; voice, text and dialect coach Gary Logan; stage manager M. William Shiner; and assistant stage manager Colleen Martin.

For Design for Living tickets call (202) 547-1122 or visit ShakespeareTheatre.org.

Robert Sella, Gretchen Egolf and Tom Story in Design for Living
photo by Scott Suchman