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March 18 - April 2, 2005
(Matinee on Sunday, March 20)
Workshop Theatre invites laugh-ready theatregoers to check into one hilarious hotel with five remarkably diverse couples. Neil Simon's beloved California Suite is about to be presented with a fresh spin. "I thought we should do something a little different," said director Greg Leevy. His concept: make the play a little more contemporary by using a multi-ethnic cast. "It's truer to life, isn't it?" Leevy beamed.
If he has experienced any funny "hotel moments" himself, he's not telling. "I'm just glad Neil Simon got some of his ideas and experiences down on paper for us," Leevy laughs. You'll join him in laughter as you watch this great cast from three continents create Simon as you've never seen him. Leevy is well versed in staging a diverse range of projects in a variety of venues, from Trustus Theatre and Benedict College to USC and Piccolo Spoleto. Finding it impossible to choose a favorite from such divergent works as Dirty Blond, Spinning Into Butter, The Old Settler, Fierce Love, The River Niger, The White Problem, and the opera Amahl and the Night Visitors, Leevy is quick to say the one he treasures most is always "the one I'm working on now." Still, there is a distinct gleam in his eye when he recalls A Raisin in the Sun, which he directed at Workshop two seasons ago.
In addition to directing, Leevy is a well-known actor. His stage work includes The Merchant of Venice, Jeffrey, The Piano Lesson, Glengarry Glen Ross, Kiss of the Spiderwoman, The Sisters Rosensweig, and the title role in Othello. Film and television credits include Simple Justice, The Inkwell, Freakshow, and In the Heat of the Night.
Despite this extensive resume, it is Leevy's work with young artists that is dearest to his heart. Leevy first taught at Workshop Theatre Performing Arts School and later was Education Director at Trustus, where he ran the Apprentice Program. He has for a number of years been Company Representative for FBN Productions/Opera for Kids. Leevy is currently Director of Outreach Programs at the South Carolina Shakespeare Company and Chair of the Discovery Program drama department at the South Carolina Governor's School for the Arts and Humanities. His students have gone on to study at some of the country's most prestigious colleges and universities, including Yale, Carnegie-Mellon, Vassar, and The Juilliard School.
Known for writing almost exclusively from personal experience, Neil Simon's "hotel" plays -- Plaza Suite, California Suite and London Suite -- surely are inspired by his many experiences in luxurious lodgings around the world.
It's obvious in the humanity and compassion that ring through the laughs. The situations are funny, of course, but they're also real.
California Suite debuted at the Eugene O'Neill Theater in 1976, the year Leevy graduated from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. The play was made into a hit 1978 film starring Jane Fonda, Alan Alda, Maggie Smith, Bill Cosby, Richard Pryor and Michael Caine. Smith won an Oscar for her performance.
California Suite is divided into four vignettes, each a one-act playlet that glimpses various guests in the same suite at the Beverly Hills Hotel throughout a year's time. "Visitor from New York" concerns a divorced couple trying to do right by their teen-age daughter. It's a heartfelt, insightful and scathingly funny piece featuring Jennifer Larson and Chip Collins.
"Visitor from Philadelphia" is a free-wheeling farce about a man who attends a bar mitzvah and wakes up with an unconscious hooker in his bed and his wife on the way up to the room -- already in the elevator! Dean Poyner, Leasharn Hopkins and Debora Totten embody this crazy trio.
"Visitors from London" focuses on an eccentric British couple whose "special" relationship" doesn't provide needed comfort on Oscar night. The couple are elegantly portrayed by Christine von Schultzendorff and Glenn Farr.
And "Visitors from Chicago" is a madcap tour de force of physical comedy and timing that illuminates the conflicts and pressures that ensue when two young affluent couples go on an extended vacation together. Starring Vicky Saye Henderson, Maxwell L. Highsmith, Kendrick Cross, and Dawn Michele Smith, this last "playlet" is said to be based on an experience Simon and his wife had with friends.
As with any Neil Simon play, you're sure to laugh and you're sure to relate.
It's the magic of theatre at its best -- a confection with substance -- and the "good, good, good vibrations" will stick to your funny bone for some time to come.
California Suite opens on March 18 and runs through April 2, 2005.
Dates: March 18-April 2, 2005, with one matinee on Sunday, March 20
Curtain times: 8:00 pm evenings except Sundays, 3:00 pm Sunday
Prices: Tickets are $15 for adults, $13 for seniors, students and military, and $8 for children under 12. Group rates available weeknights. Cash/Check/VISA/MC/AmEx. Charge over the phone and your tickets will be waiting the day of performance. Once paid, tickets are non-refundable. We will exchange your tickets for another performance of the same show if notified 24 hours in advance.
Box office: For reservations, call 799-6551, come by the theatre at 1136 Bull St. or mail in your order (include a self-addressed stamped envelope) to P.O. Box 11555, Columbia, S.C. 29211.
Seating: To view seating chart, click here.
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