For Immediate Release:
Contact(s) Sandra Varner, Varner PR, em: SV@VarnerPR.com, 510-910-5652 (cell/text)
Shirley Howard-Johnson, Gen. Mgr., em: Shirley@LHTSF.org, 415-345-3985 (office)
Marc Paquette, Audience Development, em: Marc@LHTSF.org, 415-345-3986 (office)
(L to R) Edris Cooper-Anifowoshe, Julian Lopez-Morillas, Dan Clegg and Carl Lumbly
January 3, 2012, San Francisco, CA — Lorraine Hansberry Theatre’s (LHT) 31st season continues in February with Blue/Orange, by British playwright, Joe Penhall. Directing the piece will be Edris Cooper-Anifowoshe, and heading the cast will be Carl Lumbly (Alias, M.A.N.T.I.S., Cagney & Lacey, Men of Honor). Rounding out the cast will be Dan Clegg and Julian Lopez-Morillas. The full production runs February 8 – March 18, 2012.
In this comedy drama, a London psychiatric hospital is the setting where an enigmatic patient claims to be the son of an African dictator — a story that becomes more and more unnervingly plausible as the play progresses. Blue/Orange is an incendiary tale of race, madness and power.
The clash in Blue/Orange is between two psychiatrists, Robert Smith (Julian Lopez-Morillas), a senior doctor at a London hospital, and his protégé, Bruce Flaherty (Dan Clegg). The conflict arises when Christopher (Carl Lumbly) has been admitted to the hospital for evaluation. He has received a diagnosis of borderline personality disorder, but may be more seriously ill, as Dr. Flaherty believes, with schizophrenia. Christopher is about to be released, but Dr. Flaherty wants him committed, a course of action that Dr. Smith opposes. However, it doesn't take long for Christopher's interests to become less of a focus for his caretakers and more of a weapon with which they take turns attacking each other.
Tickets for Blue/Orange are currently on sale, priced at $43–$53. Wednesday–Saturday evening performances are 8pm; Saturday & Sunday matinée performances are 2pm. To purchase by phone or in person, call or visit the LHT box office, 450 Post Street, San Francisco, at 415-474-8800, Tues–Fri, noon–4pm. The box office is also open one hour prior to each performance. Online tickets are available through www.lhtsf.org. For more information, group ticket sales, or to subscribe, call 415 474-8800, or visit Lorraine Hansberry Theatre on the web at www.LHTSF.org.
Biographies:
From stage to screen, Carl Lumbly (featured performer) is an actor respected for his steadfast talent, versatility and class. His prolific career includes over 50 credits in television, film and the theatre and extensive critical acclaim.
Lumbly portrayed CIA agent 'Marcus Dixon,' the gentle, mild-mannered field partner to agent 'Sydney Bristow' (Jennifer Garner) on ABC's fast-paced drama series, Alias, for five seasons.
He currently has a recurring role on the TNT cop drama, Southland, where he plays a new police captain.
For the stage, he starred in the San Francisco Playhouse's production of Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train, Stephen Adly Guirgis's raucous drama directed by Bill English. For his remarkable performance, he was honored with a San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Award for Best Performance by an Actor. Most recently, he was featured in the San Francisco Playhouse production of Cormac McCarthy’s Sunset Limited.
The son of Jamaican immigrants, Lumbly moved to San Francisco intending to work as a journalist for Associated Press. Shortly after arriving, he came across a newspaper ad seeking “two black actors for South African political plays.” That audition led to a role alongside the other actor already cast — an unknown Danny Glover. A forever friendship formed, Lumbly toured with Glover in productions of Athol Fugard's Sizwe Bansi is Dead and The Island.
His journey continued to Los Angeles, where he signed with an agent, followed by a move to New York. There, he landed his first significant on-screen role in a movie-of-the-week, Cagney and Lacey, which turned into the hit series. It was on this show where he met and married the acclaimed actress, Vonetta McGee.
Throughout his celebrated career, Lumbly has earned a variety of awards and nominations for his work. His extensive feature credits include Men of Honor, Everybody's All-American, How Stella Got Her Groove Back, South Central, Pacific Heights, To Sleep With Anger, The Bedroom Window, The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai and Caveman.
For television, Lumbly starred in Color of Friendship, Little Richard, On Promised Land, The Ditchdigger's Daughters, Nightjohn, and Sounder, ABC's telefilm remake of the 1972 classic. He also starred as the voice of action hero 'J'onn J'onzz/Martian Manhunter,' in the Cartoon Network's animated series Justice League.
Edris Cooper-Anifowoshe (director) has directed productions of August Wilson’s Piano Lesson and the World Premiere of Robert Alexander’s A Preface To The Alien Garden at Trinity Repertory Company in Providence, RI; Yellowman at Curious Theatre in Denver; The Old Settler at TheatreWorks, Palo Alto (for which she won a Dean Goodman Award for Excellence) and Water Tower Theatre in Dallas (which received Best Production, 2 Best Acting Awards and an Outstanding Direction nomination from the 2003 Rabin awards).
In 2006, She received a second Rabin nomination for her direction of Neil LaBute’s This Is How It Goes at Water Tower. Edris’s San Francisco credits include the West Coast premiere of Relativity at the Magic Theatre and the Southern premiere at Southern Rep, Stealin Home at Exit Theatre; Crying Holy at Theatre Rhinoceros and Urban Zulu Mambo w/ Rhodessa Jones at Lorraine Hansberry Theatre.
She has additional directing credits at Woolly Mammoth in Washington, DC, the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, the Alabama Shakespeare Festival and Capital Rep in Albany, NY. She directed and assisted with American Conservatory Theatre’s MFA Program on Robert O’Hara’s An American Ma(u)l and Femi Osofisan’s Who’s Afraid Of Solarin? With the company she founded, Black Artists Contemporary Cultural Experience, Edris has produced and directed On The Hills Of Black America and Hollis Mugley’s Only Wish +2 by Keith Adkins; Chain and Late Bus To Mecca by Pearl Cleage; Will He Bop, Will He Drop? by Robert Alexander and presented three plays by Robert O’Hara — Booty Candy, Living Room and Leigh. She served on the selection committee of the Bay Area Playwrights Festival from 2000-2003.
She holds an MFA in Directing from the University of Iowa and is an alumna of the NEA/TCG Career Development Program For Directors. Additional training has included theater research and performance at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria and Shakespeare & Company, Tanglewood, Mass. She currently is an Assistant Professor of Acting and Directing at Indiana University where she led a company of thirty students in Robert O’Hara’s American Ma(u)l, the Congolese satire, Parentheses of Blood and has mounted productions of Suzan Lori Parks’ The America Play and 365 Festival project. She developed the IU Black Play Lab with an initial $50,000 award from New Frontiers Fellowship. With playwrights Robert Alexander and playwright, Niyi Coker Jr., whose play was recently done in Nigeria for Wole Soyina’s birthday celebration. She recently performed as part of Northwestern University’s solo/black/woman performance festival.
Joe Penhall’s (playwright) first major play Some Voices premiered at the Royal Court Theatre in London in 1994. It was very well received and won the John Whiting Award and has since been played on Broadway twice. In 2000 he adapted the play for film directed by Simon Cellan-Jones which starred Daniel Craig and Kelly Macdonald premiering at the Cannes Directors' Fortnight. Penhall adapted Ian McEwan's novel Enduring Love in 2004 to film starring Rhys Ifans and Daniel Craig. That same year he also wrote the screenplay for BBC2's BAFTA nominated dramatization of Jake Arnott's novel The Long Firm starring Mark Strong.
In 2005 his play Blue/Orange began its run at the National Theatre directed by Roger Michell starring Bill Nighy, Andrew Lincoln and Chiwetel Ejiofor. The play centering on two doctors trying to deal with a young black schizophrenic patient, was a huge success, winning Best New Play at the Evening Standard Awards, Laurence Olivier Awards and at the Critics Circle. It transferred to the West End at the Duchess Theatre the following year. Penhall adapted this play in 2005 for TV with a new cast. That same year Penhall wrote his first short film and directed it too, The Undertaker starred Rhys Ifans and premiered at the London Film Festival.
His follow up play, Dumb Show, was staged at the Royal Court Theatre in 2004 and focused on tabloid journalism, directed by Terry Johnson. Penhall has called this a “small light play” to contrast against the “huge dark play,” Blue/Orange. Landscape With Weapon, about the invention of a weapon of mass destruction, was first performed at the National Theatre in 2007, directed again by Roger Michell starring Tom Hollander and Julian Rhind-Tutt. Penhall spent six years working on The Last King of Scotland even flying to Uganda and meeting Idi Amin's henchmen, however he allowed his name to be removed from the film after other writers were brought on board. Penhall however adapted Cormac McCarthy's book The Road in 2009 for a film starring Viggo Mortensen for which he received wide praise and he says is his best produced screen work. Penhall has also written a 2009 detective drama, Moses Jones, for BBC Television. In December 2011 Penhall returned to the theatre with his play Haunted Child being staged at the Royal Court Theatre with Sophie Okonedo and his next play, Birthday, starring Stephen Mangan and directed by long term collaborator Roger Michell is to be premiered in June.
ATTENTION CALENDAR EDITORS:
Lorraine Hansberry Theatre (LHT) continues its 31st season with Blue/Orange, by Joe Penhall, featuring Carl Lumbly and directed by Edris Cooper-Anifowoshe.
WHEN
PREVIEWS
WEDNESDAY–FRIDAY, February 8-10, 8pm
OPENING
SATURDAY, February 11, 8pm
TIME
8pm Wednesday–Saturday
2pm Saturday & Sunday Matinées
WHERE
Lorraine Hansberry Theatre
450 Post Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
PRODUCTION RUN
February 8 – March 18, 2012
TICKETS
Wednesday–Friday $43
Saturday–Sunday $53
Discounts are available for students, seniors (65+), and groups of 10 or more.
To purchase by phone or in person, call or visit the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre box office, 450 Post Street, second floor, San Francisco, at 415 474-8800, Tue–Sat, Noon–4pm. The box office is also open one hour prior to each performance. Tickets are available online at www.lhtsf.org. For more information, group ticket sales, or to subscribe, call 415 474-8800, or on the Web at www.LHTSF.org.
