april, 2021
16aprallday02maySitting and TalkingLia Romeo
Show Info
April 1, 2021…Laguna Beach, CA…Laguna Playhouse is excited to announce that Playhouse favorites Dan Lauria and Wendie Malick will reunite in the Southern California premiere of SITTING AND TALKING. Created and
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Show Info
April 1, 2021…Laguna Beach, CA…Laguna Playhouse is excited to announce that Playhouse favorites Dan Lauria and Wendie Malick will reunite in the Southern California premiere of SITTING AND TALKING. Created and written specifically for the zoom platform, Lia Romeo’s charming, deeply heartfelt play follows a man and woman in their 60s as they navigate the vulnerable, awkward, and sometimes hilarious path to companionship via online dating during quarantine. Film and TV star Dan Lauria, (Jack Arnold in “The Wonder Years,” Broadway’s Lombardi), is joined by Emmy and Golden Globe-nominated actress Wendie Malick (“Hot in Cleveland,” “Just Shoot Me”), and the piece is directed by James Glossman. SITTING AND TALKING will stream beginning Friday, April 16 through Sunday, May 2 at lagunaplayhouse.com. “We are overjoyed that Dan and Wendie are teaming together to present this moving Southern California premiere play. They are two of our Playhouse treasures and under the direction of James Glossman, Lia Romeo’s new play is going to be a moving and wonderful event for our audiences,” comments Artistic Director Ann E. Wareham and Executive Director Ellen Richard.
ABOUT THE CREATIVE TEAM
JAMES GLOSSMAN (Director) Most recently directed the East Coast premiere of Jeff Daniels’s Flint at Shadowland Stages (NY), and DW Gregory’s Memoirs of a Forgotten Man at NJRep, where he has also directed (among other projects) Circumference of a Squirrel, Two Jews Walk Into a War, and Tour De Farce. Other recent: American premiere of Bang Bang!, new farce by John Cleese; cowrote & directed the music-theatre piece Shostakovich and The Black Monk: A Russian Fantasy, with multiple-Grammy-winning Emerson String Quartet and a rotating cast including Sean Astin, David Strathairn, Len Cariou, Jay O. Sanders, Jeffrey DeMunn, and Richard Thomas, in concert and festival halls around the world including Tanglewood, Ravinia, Wolf Trap, Los Angeles, and Seoul, South Korea. Adapted/Directed world premieres of Raymond Chandler’s Trouble Is My Business (Portland Stage), Kate Atkinson’s Behind the Scenes at the Museum (Luna Stage), and Jim Lehrer’s Kick the Can, The Special Prisoner (with William Schallert), and Flying Crows (available from Dramatic Publishing). Directed East Coast premieres of Jeff Daniels’s Guest Artist and Jeffrey Sweet’s Bluff (both with John Astin), Los Angeles premiere of Noël Coward’s A Song at Twilight (with Orson Bean & Alley Mills), first NYC revival of Sheldon Harnick’s Smiling, The Boy Fell Dead (w/ Judy Kaye & Tony Roberts–York Theatre), and productions around the country of The Value of Names with Jack Klugman (opposite Dan Lauria & Liz Larsen, and earlier Louis Zorich & Megan Muckelmann). Earlier this year, James directed a workshop reading of his stage adaptation of Robert Heinlein’s science fiction classic, The Door Into Summer (w/ Jeff DeMunn, Evelyn McGee Colbert & Stephen Colbert), and completed his adaptation of three short stories by Tom Hanks. Graduate of Northwestern University, ACT, BADA-Oxford, and Yale School of Drama. Lecturer in Directing, Voice/Speech, and Shakespeare, Johns Hopkins University. Associate Artist, Shadowland Stages.
DAN LAURIA (Charles) has appeared as a guest star in over seventy television episodic programs and more than twenty Movie of the Week productions, plus a score of motion picture credits. Dan is a very familiar face to the off-off, off, and regional theatre scene, having performed, written, or directed over 50 professional stage productions. In 2010/2011, Dan was seen on Broadways as the legendary coach Vince Lombardi in the long-running production of Lombardi, with the beautiful and talented Judith Light, directed by Thomas Kail of Hamilton fame. Dan returned to Broadway in the 2013 and 2014 productions of the Tony nominated A Christmas Story: The Musical directed by John Rando. However, Dan is most recognized as the Dad on the highly acclaimed Emmy-winning ABC television show, “The Wonder Years.” Dan and his dear friend, the lovely and talented Ms. Wendie Malick, have performed the play The Guys by Anne Nelson (about our first responders) for numerous theatres and fire departments around the country. Wendie and Dan also perform Love Letters as a fundraiser for regional theatres, for the development of new plays. Dan was recently on the TBS show “Sullivan & Son” for three seasons. Dan also played manager Al Loungo on “Pitch” about the first woman pitcher in Major League Baseball and has recently joined the family on “This is Us,” both shows written by Dan Fogelman. Two years ago, Dan wrote and starred in the Off-Broadway production of Dinner with the Boys, produced by the one and only Pat Addis and the NJ Rep. This was followed by an Off-Broadway production of The Stone Witch by Shem Bitterman and upcoming regional production of Lee Blessing’s new play, Tea with the Boss, with Gwenn and Wendie Malick. Dan and Ms. Malick are the co-creators of the Durango Play Festival for the development of new plays. Dan and his Godson Julian Farnsworth also write children’s books–go online and check them out: The Godfather Tales.
WENDIE MALICK (Enid) gaining prominence on the small screen as Nina Van Horn in “Just Shoot Me” which earned her 1 Golden Globe and 2 Emmy nominations. Wendie also starred in “Hot in Cleveland,” earning a People’s Choice Award and SAG nomination for Best Ensemble as well as “Dream On,” earning 4 Cable Ace Awards. Other television credits include, “Frasier,” “Big Day,” “Good Company,” “Rush Hour,” with recurring arcs on “This Is Us,” “The Ranch,” “American Housewife,” “Pitch,” “Darrow and Darrow,” and “NYPD Blue.” Wendie’s television guest appearances include “Seinfeld,” “Grace and Frankie,” “Mom,” “CSI,” “NCIS: New Orleans,” “LA Law,” and “The X-Files.” Animated television credits include appearances on “Jimmy Neutron,” “SpongeBob Squarepants,” and “Bojack Horseman” which received an Annie Nomination. Her career on the big screen includes credits such as “Adventureland,” “Fifty-Nothing,” “Jerome,” “Confessions of a Shopaholic,” “Waiting,” “Racing Stripes,” “The American President,” “On Edge,” “Trojan Wars,” “Raising Genius,” “Mr. Mikes Mondo Video,” “A Little Sex,” “The Goods,” “Bugsy,” “Funny About Love,” “The Emperor’s New Groove” and “Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel.” Wendie’s theatre credits include Off-Broadway renditions of Burleigh Grimes, North Shore Fish, and Big Night at the Kirk Douglas Theater; The Underpants at the Geffen; Don’t Blame Me, I Voted For Helen Gahagan Douglas at the Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company; The Santaland Diaries at the Coast Playhouse; Love Letters at the Laguna Playhouse; The Guys at the Studio Arena and Columbia University; Blithe Spirit and What Is The Cause Of Thunder at the Williamstown Theatre Festival; as well as Closure at the New Jersey Repertory Theatre. Malick’s passion for animal and humanitarian efforts is shown through her work on the Board of The Environmental Media Association, as well as being a spokesperson for The Humane Society of the United States and Return to Freedom, a wild horse sanctuary and advocacy group.
LIA ROMEO (Playwright) Her play The Forest was selected for the O’Neill Playwrights Conference, and was scheduled to receive a National New Play Network rolling world premiere in the upcoming season (cancelled due to the coronavirus). This and three of her other plays have been recognized by the Kilroys List. Her plays have been produced at 59E59, Unicorn Theatre, Project Y Theatre Company, Dreamcatcher Rep, HotCity Theatre, and many other companies. She was the winner of City Theatre’s 2019 National Short Playwriting Award, and was a 2018 Individual Artist Fellowship winner in playwriting from the New Jersey State Council for the Arts. Her plays are published by Broadway Play Publishing, Playscripts, Dramatists Play Service, and Smith & Kraus.
CHRIS O’CONNOR (Producer) is Founding Artistic Director of Mile Square Theatre in Hoboken, NJ. In 2017 he received an Award of Excellence from the New Jersey Theatre Alliance for his stewardship of MST. He conceived and produces MST’s annual 10-minute play festival 7th Inning Stretch. He has directed over 20 productions at MST, and has directed at theatres and universities all over America, most recently Franklin Stage Company, where he directed Billy Bishop Goes to War. His recent work at MST includes I and You, Betrayal, Circle Mirror Transformation and the world premiere of Long Gone Daddy by Joseph Gallo. As an actor, Chris has performed in such theatres as Maltz Jupiter Theatre, Franklin Stage Company, Seattle’s A Contemporary Theatre, The Culture Project, Soho Rep, Center Theatre Group, Gloucester Stage, Provisional Theatre of Los Angeles, The Bathhouse Theatre, Seattle Children’s Theatre, and City Theatre in Pittsburgh, where he originated the role of Peter in Craig Wright’s The Pavilion. Recent TV/film credits include “Magic City,” “Burn Notice,” and the indie thriller “Depraved.” His plays for young people have been produced at Seattle Children’s Theatre, his short baseball play The Mascots is published in Smith & Kraus’s 2011 Best 10-Minute Plays and his play Miss Ring Has Lost Her Phone was a finalist in the 2016 City Theatre National Short Play Competition. He has taught at SUNY Purchase, Rutgers University, University of Miami, and is proud to be Assistant Professor on the Theatre Arts faculty at Molloy College/CAP21. BFA, Carnegie-Mellon University and MFA, Rutgers University.
SITTING AND TALKING will be available On-Demand from April 16 – May 2, 2021. All ticket holders will be invited to join the cast and creative team for a special LIVE talk-back Sunday, April 18 at 5:30pm. Viewing passes are $20 per household. Tickets are available at lagunaplayhouse.com.
Playing
April 16 (Friday) - May 2 (Sunday)
Presented by
Laguna Playhouse
Get Tickets
SITTING AND TALKING will be available On-Demand from April 16 – May 2, 2021. All ticket holders will be invited to join the cast and creative team for a special LIVE talk-back Sunday, April 18 at 5:30pm. Viewing passes are $20 per household. Tickets are available at lagunaplayhouse.com.
