"I truly regret that my shooting schedule is going to prevent me from performing at A.C.T. this spring," stated Auberjonois in a letter to A.C.T. subscribers. "I know that you're in for a wonderful experience with The Imaginary Invalid and that the project is in terrific hands. I very much hope I'll be able to participate in some other way in the celebration of forty years of A.C.T., a theater that has meant so much to me."
The A.C.T. Founding company member was to play the titular hypochondriac Argan in the world premiere adaptation by Constance Congdon. Ron Lagomarsino will stage the work still scheduled to play June 7-July 8, 2007. No replacement casting has yet be announced.
"While we will miss Rene greatly," said artistic director Carey Perloff, "we know that The Imaginary Invalid will be beautifully realized by director Ron Lagomarsino and our longtime collaborator, adaptor Connie Congdon. We wish Rene the very best and we are currently hard at work re-casting this wonderful role."
Patrons with questions about this matter can call A.C.T.'s subscriber hotline at (415) 439-2459.
* A.C.T.'s season lineup (subject to change) is as follows:
Perloff directs the Zurich, Switzerland-set work where the lives of real-life characters including writer James Joyce, artist Tristan Tzara and revolutionary Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (Lenin) are connected by the show's narrator, British consul official Henry Wilfred Carr. A.C.T. core acting company members René Augesen and Gregory Wallace star.
Laird Williamson directs the work that centers around the rich Southern family of Regina Giddens whom all conspire — against each other — to acquire more riches from a prospective business deal.
Penned before his popular The Constant Wife, this work centers on a woman who left her husband for his best friend only to find herself back in town as her son is about to repeat history.
A.C.T. core acting company member René Augesen stars in the title role of the classic tale of one woman's struggle to find her own independence.
Perloff directs A.C.T. member Steven Anthony Jones in the new work commissioned by the company about the struggle of San Francisco's Japantown to rebuild itself following the interment of Japanese Americans during World War II.
The British playwright pens a tale of a middle-aged office worker who is suddenly visited by a woman he knew 15 years earlier.
Current company members René Augesen, Steven Anthony Jones and Gregory Wallace take to the Geary Theater stage as Ron Lagomarsino directs the classic story of an old hypochondriac who insists he is sick. Tickets are available to the season at A.C.T., 415 Geary St. in San Francisco, CA, by calling (415) 749-2250. For more information, visit www.act-sf.org.