Theatre Works, the Los Angeles-based company that puts high-profile plays and high-profile actors together for recording and radio, have a full season of stars and drama planned for 2001-02. Oscar nominees Laura Linney and Eric Stoltz will read Harold Pinter's Betrayal, Stockard Channing will recreate her Tony-nominated performance in The Lion in Winter, and Keith Reddin's Synergy, fresh off its world premiere at the Alley, will get a cast featuring Fred Willard ("Best in Show"). The final winter slot will be a play from Arthur Miller — possibly Incident at Vichy or The Ride Down Mt. Morgan starring Patrick Stewart.
Pinter's famously backwards-running Betrayal kicks off the season Oct. 10-14. 2001 Oscar nominee Laura Linney ("You Can Count on Me," the upcoming Broadway revival of The Crucible) and Eric Stoltz ("MASK," Three Sisters, Our Town) play lovers accidentally brought together by her husband, his best friend. Alfred Molina (Art, "Enchanted April") plays the third arm of the love triangle. Rosalind Ayres directs.
Clifford Odet's drama The Country Girl follows Oct. 31-Nov. 4. Glenne Headly and Stacy Keach star.
Acclaimed latino comedy troupe Culture Clash will record and perform their Bordertown, an exploration of the San Diego/Tiajuana border Nov. 28-Dec. 2. The three satirist at Culture Clash's heart are Richard Montoya, Ric Salinas and Herbert Siguenza. Stuart K. Robinson directs.
2001 double Tony nominee Jack O'Brien (The Invention of Love, The Full Monty) will direct Oscar and two-time Emmy nominee Channing ("The West Wing," "Six Degrees of Separation") in her Tony-nominated turn as Eleanor of Aquitane in The Lion in Winter, Dec. 12-16. Scott McPherson's family drama Marvin's Room will follow Jan. 16 20. Filmdom's Mary Steenburgen and TV's Jean Smart (The Man Who Came to Dinner) star in this play about two bitter sisters brought together by their older sibling's fight against leukemia. Dennis Erdman directs.
Reddin's Synergy, a satire on a woman's desperate search for souls at the Walt Disney company, made its world premiere in Feb., 2001 at Houston's Alley Theatre. A year later — Feb. 6-10, to be exact — Theatre Works will record and broadcast the comedy. Gordon Hunt directs Willard, Jeffrey Donovan, Richard Kind ("Spin City"), Joey Slotnick and JoBeth Williams.
The final selection, tba Arthur Miller play, will be performed Feb. 27 March 3.
All TheatreWorks theatre productions are recorded for future broadcast on Santa Monica College's KCRW 89.9FM and are sold on the L.A. Theatre Works homepage at http://www.latw.org. In the past 11 years, productions have won several awards including the Corporation for Public Broadcasting's Gold and Silver Awards, three Sony Awards, the Writer's Guild of America's Best Comedy Award and the 1999 Audie Award for Best Dramatic Production from the Audio Publishers Association. Their recording of The Prisoner of Second Avenue, featuring Richard Dreyfuss and Mason, was recently nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Comedy Album.
Single tickets are $36-$40. Skirball Cultural Center is located at 2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd. For reservations, call (310) 827-0889.
