Globe co-artistic director Darko Tresnjak stages the play, running July 12-Aug. 17 in the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego.
On May 6 Old Globe executive producer Louis Spisto announced casting for The Old Globe's summer productions of Pleasure and Donald Margulies' Sight Unseen. The latter is directed by Esther Emery, running in the Globe's arena stage at the San Diego Museum of Art's James S. Copley Auditorium Aug. 2-Sept. 7.
The cast for The Pleasure of His Company will feature Page (a Broadway veteran of Julius Caesar, The Lion King and How the Grinch Stole Christmas) as Biddeford Pogo Poole, Jim Abele as Jim Dougherty, Erin Chambers as Jessica Poole, Ellen Karas as Katharine Dougherty, Ned Schmidtke as Mackenzie Savage, Sab Shimono as Toy and Old Globe/USD MFA graduate Matt Biedel as Roger Henderson.
The cast of Sight Unseen includes Tony Crane as Jonathan, Katie Fabel as Grete, Michael Haworth as Nick and San Diego native Kelly McAndrew as Patricia.
"In the sophisticated comedy The Pleasure of His Company, San Francisco debutante Jessica Poole is planning her marriage to Napa Valley cattle rancher Roger Henderson, and hopes her father, the international playboy 'Pogo' Poole, whom she hasn't seen in 15 years, will come to give her away at the wedding," according to The Old Globe. "But his arrival disrupts the entire household as he tries to entice Jessica into traveling the world with him, show up her fiancé, and win back the affections of his ex-wife. While his debonair style at first dazzles his daughter, he soon comes to realize that charm alone is no substitute for parental responsibility." In Sight Unseen, "Jonathan Waxman is a celebrated American artist who yearns for something more in life. When he travels to England for his first European retrospective, he decides to visit his original muse and former lover, Patricia, whom he selfishly dismissed 15 years earlier. Waxman, whose work commands astronomical prices 'sight unseen,' wants to rediscover the passion and creativity that once fueled his work. But the visit — along with a troubling interview with a German art critic who questions his motives as a Jewish painter — leads to an unexpected crisis of identity. This incisive and humorous Pulitzer Prize-nominated and Obie Award-winning play deals with race, religion, and the meaning of art."
Tickets for The Pleasure of His Company and Sight Unseen are available through subscription by calling (619) 23-GLOBE, visiting www.TheOldGlobe.org, or at The Old Globe Box Office at 1363 Old Globe Way in Balboa Park. Individual tickets go on sale May 17.
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The Tony Award-winning Old Globe produces a year-round season of 15 plays and musicals on its three stages, including its respected Shakespeare festival. Many Broadway-bound premieres and revivals, such as Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, The Full Monty and Damn Yankees, have been developed at The Old Globe and have gone on to enjoy highly successful runs in New York and at regional theatres across the country.
The Globe's 2008 Summer Season includes the renowned Summer Shakespeare Festival, featuring Romeo and Juliet, The Merry Wives of Windsor and All's Well That Ends Well playing in repertory; The Pleasure of His Company; and Donald Margulies' Sight Unseen.
The Old Globe is under the leadership of executive producer Louis G. Spisto and co-artistic directors Jerry Patch and Darko Tresnjak.
