Cast & Creative
NEW LOS ANGELES REPERTORY COMPANY
PETER ELLENSTEIN, PRODUCING ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
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ADAM WEINSTOCK VICTORIA MORRIS DENNIS TRUNFIO ROBINA RICCITIELLO
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RED SPEAR PRODUCTIONS PIERRE VUILLEUMIER SUNYA 1984 TOM KIRDAHY
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PRESENT
JOHN RUBINSTEIN
in
BY
RICHARD HELLESEN
Scenic Design
MICHAEL DEEGAN
Lighting Design
ESQUIRE JAUCHEM
Projection & Sound Design
JOE HUPPERT
Creative Consultant
SARAH G. CONLY
Production Supervisor
KAREN L. CARPENTER
Press Representative
JOSHUA FORD
(Olney Theatre)
General Management
LDK PRODUCTIONS
LISA DOZIER SHACKET
DIRECTED BY
PETER ELLENSTEIN
John Rubinstein
Dwight D. Eisenhower
John Rubinstein originated the title role in the Broadway musical Pippin, directed by Bob Fosse, and won the Tony and Drama Desk Awards for his performance in Children of a Lesser God. Other Broadway appearances include Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Ragtime, Hurlyburly, M. Butterfly, The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial (Drama Desk nomination), Getting Away with Murder, Fools, Love Letters, and the 2013 Pippin revival. He appeared off-Broadway in Counsellor-at-Law (2005 Lucille Lortel Award, Outer Critics' Circle and Drama League nominations), Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Urban Blight, Cabaret Verboten, and Morning's at Seven. Regionally: Wicked in LA, and the international tour of the Pippin revival. He starred in the TV series, “Family” (Emmy nomination), and “Crazy Like A Fox”, and over 300 episodes. Films include “Being the Ricardos”, “Hello, I Must Be Going”, “21 Grams”, “Red Dragon”, “The Boys from Brazil”, “Someone to Watch Over Me”, “Daniel, Zachariah,” and “Getting Straight”. He directed the world premiere of A. R. Gurney's The Old Boy, and Counsellor-at-Law, Company, Brigadoon, Macbeth, The Three Sisters, Phantasie, Nightingale, The Rivals, A Little Night Music, Guys and Dolls, Into The Woods, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, and The Rover. He composes film and TV music (“Jeremiah Johnson”, “The Candidate”, “The Dollmaker”, "China Beach", among others), hosted two classical music radio programs, played keyboards in a rock band, and has recorded over 200 audiobooks, most numerously Jonathan Kellerman’s Alex Delaware series of Los Angeles crime novels. He is married to Bonnie Burgess, and their son Max is the youngest of his five children, joining Jessica, Michael, Peter, and Jacob.
Richard Hellesen
Playwright
Richard Hellesen is the author of numerous plays for adults and young audiences. His most recent work, Eisenhower: This Piece of Ground, premiered off-Broadway at Theatre at St. Clement's in 2023. As an Associate Artist at Ford's Theatre in Washington, his work includes the full-length Necessary Sacrifices, the one-acts One Destiny and The Road from Appomattox, and the 2015 adaptation of Frank Wildhorn's musical The Civil War, titled Freedom's Song. With composer David De Berry he wrote the book for a widely-produced adaptation of Dickens' A Christmas Carol, most recently seen at the Denver Center Theatre and Syracuse Stage. Other plays include Kingdom (Denver Center; Stavis Playwriting Award, National Theatre Conference, and finalist for the PEN USA-West Literary Awards); Once In Arden (South Coast Repertory; Julie Harris Award, Beverly Hills Theatre Guild); Moonshadow (Dennis McIntyre Award, Philadelphia Festival Theatre for New Plays); and an adaptation of Frank Norris’ The Octopus (semi-finalist, O’Neill National Playwrights Conference). His two dozen short plays include five finalists for the National Award for Short Playwriting, all produced at City Theatre in Miami (among others). His one-act Dos Corazones received a Los Angeles Ovation Award writing nomination, and appears in an edition of “Best Ten-Minute Plays” by Smith & Kraus. Mr. Hellesen’s plays for young audiences include a version of The Twelve Dancing Princesses (published by Samuel French), and adaptations of The Emperor’s New Clothes and Esther Forbes’ novel Johnny Tremain (both premiered at B Street Theatre, Sacramento). With Grammy-winning composer Michael Silversher he has written a musical adaptation of Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows (commissioned and produced by South Coast Repertory), as well as eleven Educational Touring musicals for SCR, three of which--Face 2 Face, My Mom’s Dad, and Birds of A Feather--were subsequently produced at the Sundance Children’s Theatre in Utah. Along with composer/lyricist Joy Sikorski, their adaptation of Lois Lowry’s young adult novel Gathering Blue was a finalist at the National Music Theatre Conference, and premiered at the Gretna Theatre, Pennsylvania, in 2017. A member of the Dramatists Guild, Mr. Hellesen has twice been playwright-in-residence at the William Inge Center for the Arts in Independence, Kansas, and assists with One-on One Dramaturgy for the Playwrights Center in Minneapolis. He has also worked in the literary departments of Berkeley Repertory Theatre, South Coast Repertory, and B Street Theatre in Sacramento, where he makes his home.
Peter Ellenstein
Director
Peter Ellenstein is Producing Artistic Director of the New Los Angeles Repertory Company. He is a multi-award-winning director, producer, new play midwife, and educator, whose work has been seen all over the country. For thirteen years, Peter was Artistic Director of the William Inge Center for the Arts in Kansas where he created many innovative playwright development programs such as the William Inge Home Playwright Residencies, partnerships with leading national arts organizations (Martha Graham Company, Cornerstone Theater) and rural arts and education partnerships.. He served seven years as Producing Director of the original Los Angeles Repertory Company, for whom he directed the LA Premiere of Assassins, Odets’ Rocket to the Moon, and many other acclaimed productions. Peter served as Interim Artistic Director of both the Gretna Theatre in Pennsylvania, and the Jerry Herman Ring Theatre at the University of Miami in Florida. Peter has been a consultant, board member, panelist and site visitor for many institutions including the National Endowment for the Arts, California Arts Council, Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE) and KCACTF. Peter directed a nationally prominent streaming version of Richard Hellesen’s Necessary Sacrifices. He has a decades long artistic relationship with Richard Hellesen and has directed the premieres of many of Richard Hellesen’s plays. Peter comes from a theatre family, his father was noted actor/director Robert Ellenstein and his brother David is longtime Artistic Director of North Coast Rep and current interim Artistic Director of Laguna Playhouse. Peter lives in Los Angeles with his three dogs: Sabine, Helena and Mr. Jiggs.
Michael Deegan
Set Design
MICHAEL DEEGAN (Scenic Designer/Associate Lighting Designer) has designed scenery, lighting, and projections since 1970. His focus has been on opera, starting in Boston working with Esquire Jauchem. He was recruited by the Metropolitan Opera in 1977 and moved to New York City where he married and started collaborating with costume and set designer Sarah G. Conly. Notable Off-Broadway productions are Flight, Dante’s Inferno and Angel of the Amazon. They designed A Streetcar Named Desire for Andre Previn in Pittsburgh. The New York Times picked their production of Pique Dame as a top ten of the year. International design credits include Philip Glass’ La Belle la Bete and Dracula. Michael and Sarah have designed scenery, lighting and costumes for opera productions in Iceland, Italy, Japan and China. Michael won an Emmy for “Bernstein at Seventy.” On Broadway, he designed the lighting for The Circle and Shadowlands.
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Esquire Jauchem
Lighting Designer
For the past forty years, Esquire Jauchem has had an extremely varied career in the performing arts. He was the founder of the Boston Repertory Theater, Associate Director (with Sarah Caldwell) of the Opera Company of Boston, and co-founder of Broadway’s Jauchem & Meeh Special effects company. He has worked as a Producer, Writer, Director, and Designer (lighting, sets, and costumes) in a variety of performance arts and produced over 1,000 episodes of network and cable television. His film, “Bondage,” based on a play by David Henry Hwang, can currently be seen on Amazon Prime.
Joe Huppert
Projection & Sound Design
Joe Huppert is working with New LA Repertory Company for the first time. Previous designs include: This Wonderful Life at North Coast Rep, American Blues and other venues ; The Dybbuk and The Oldest Boy (Craig Noel Award) for San Diego Repertory Theater, Lizard Boy for Diversionary Theater,Glengarry Glen Ross for La Jolla Playhouse. Sound designs includeBlueprints to Freedom,Peter and the Starcatchers (La Jolla Playhouse),The Fantasticks andStop Kiss for Pasadena Playhouse,Scott Joplin's Rag, Extraordinary Chambers (Craig Noel Nomination (Mo'Olelo); Wisdom From Everything (Local Theater Company),Urinetown,Over the Tavern,KingO’ The Moon (Mercury Theater)