Laughing Wild (loopy satire)
The Reunion
Elizabeth Craven, John
Craven and Laura Jorgensen,
all original members of the Western
Union Theater
Company which lived within Cinnabar’s walls
for more than ten years, are reunited in this
fast-paced, no-holds-barred, loopy satire by
the wacky and inspired Christopher
Durang.
Elizabeth Craven is a theatre artist, administrator
and educator who’s life’s work is international
artistic exchange. A member of the International
Theatre Institute for ten years and a veteran innovator
in the global performance network, Elizabeth has
been introducing American audiences and artists
to extraordinary and little known performances
and performing artists for more than twenty years.
She has worked closely with the Artistic Director
of the German State Theatre, the Hungarian Minster
of Culture, many of the Continent’s nationally
appointed artistic directors, and United Nations
UNESCO chair in Romania.
Ms Craven is currently ending her tenure as Head
of the MFA International Performance Program
at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and
as resident director of the Clarence Brown Theatre
Company which was founded by Sir Anthony Quayle
and the late Ralph Allen. Formerly she was co-artistic
director of Western Union Theatre Company (1984-1994)
in Sonoma County and a founding member of The
Play Group Theatre Ensemble (1972-1979). Recently
Elizabeth has been involved in numerous international
projects that have played in New York, Hungary,
The Slovak Republic, Romania, and Venezuela.
In May she returned from a two-month artistic
exchange with TransARTlantica, a consortium of
professional theatres in Italy, France, Russia,
Germany and several Scandinavian countries.
Recently, Elizabeth has been involved in the
founding of Porchlight Theatre Company in Ross,
California, where she has directed productions
of A Month In The Country, Wild Honey cited by
the Bay Area Critics for Outstanding Production
of 2003, and The Seagull. Recent among her seventeen
professional credits at the Clarence Brown Theatre
are: Athol Fugard’s Road To Mecca, Wole
Soyinka’s, The Bacchae; Chekhov’s,
Three Sisters; and Steve Martin’s, Picasso
At The Lapin Agile, and the 1996, professional
premiere of John O’Keefe’s Bronte
Cycle. Two of her college productions, Mark Rozovsky’s,
Strider and Stephen Dietz’, God’s
Country performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington
D.C.
Laura Jorgensen is an audience favorite at Cinnabar Theater. Her association with the 31 year-old theater began as an original member of Western Union Theater Company, which was in residence at Cinnabar for ten years. Her numerous appearances on the Cinnabar stage include Blue Window, Reckless, A Lie of the Mind and Mad Forest. In addition to her work with Cinnabar, Laura has also performed at Actors’ Theatre in Santa Rosa and with the First Stage Company in Petaluma. While living in Budapest, Hungary, she had the opportunity to work with The English Theater Company, directing their production of Our Country's Good. Recently, Laura appeared in Cinnabar productions of Edward Albee’s Three Tall Women, Terrence McNalley’s A Perfect Ganesh, George Bernard Shaw’s Heartbreak House, Edward Albee’s A Delicate Balance, Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads and Athol Fugard’s The Road to Mecca. She created roles in two world premieres by nationally acclaimed playwright, John O'Keefe: that of Kit Jackson in Glamour and Anne Ingersol in Queer Theory, both introduced at Cinnabar Theater.
John Craven began his acting career in the 1970’s as a member of The Play Group, in Knoxville, Tennessee. Since then he has been featured in more than one hundred plays. John was a founding member of Western Union Theatre Company, playing Austin in Sam Sheperd’s, True West, Western Union’s first official production, directed by Amy Glazer at Cinnabar in 1984.
John is a resident member of The Clarence Brown
Theatre Company as well as a free-lance actor who
has performed in numerous Bay Area theater productions.
Some of his recent credits include: A Month in
the Country, Wild Honey and The Seagull with Porchlight
Theatre Company in Ross and The Devil in A Bright
Room Called Day for La Luna Company in San Francisco.
Mr. Craven is also a professional teacher and
director. He holds a position in the Art Quest
Drama Program at Santa Rosa High School where
he has served on the permanent faculty for thirteen
years.
John’s recent directing credits include
Tony Kushner’s A Bright Room Called Day for
Actor’s Theatre in Santa Rosa as well as
Edward Albee’s A Delicate Balance and G.
B. Shaw’s, Heartbreak House, both at Cinnabar
Theater. He is happy to be once again working with
his dear old theatre family.
(John Craven appears with permission from Actors
Equity Association.)
Christopher Durang was born on January 2, 1949, in Montclair, New Jersey. Educated at Harvard College and the Yale School of Drama, he has had plays both on and off Broadway including The Nature and Purpose of the Universe; Titanic; A History of the American Film; Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You; Beyond Therapy; Baby With the Bathwater; The Marriage of Bette and Boo; Laughing Wild; and Betty's Summer Vacation. He won Obie Awards for Sister Mary Ignatius and The Marriage of Bette and Boo, received a Tony nomination for "Best Book of a Musical" for A History of the American Film, and received a Drama Desk nomination for Betty's Summer Vacation. He has also written several screenplays including Beyond Therapy; The Nun Who Shot Liberty Valence; The House of Husbands (which he co-authored with Wendy Wasserstein); and The Adventures of Lola.
Durang has also performed for both stage and screen. As an actor, he appeared in Laughing Wild in Los Angeles and The Marriage of Bette and Boo in New York (for which he shared an acting ensemble Obie Award). He performed his cabaret Chris Durang and Dawne in numerous venues, earning himself a 1996 Bistro Award. He also appeared with Julie Andrews in the Sondheim review Putting it Together and with Sigourney Weaver in the Brecht-Weill parody Das Lusitania Songspiel--which they co-wrote. He has made guest appearances on several sitcoms including Frasier (episode 6.8: "The Seal Who Came To Dinner" as "Sebastian Melmoth") and has had supporting roles in several feature films including The Out of Towners (Paranoid Man), Simply Irresistible (Gene O'Reilly), Joe's Apartment (Boss Clergy), The Cowboy Way (Waiter), Life With Mikey (Santa), Housesitter (Reverend Lipton), The Butcher's Wife (Mr. Liddle), In the Spirit (Ambulance Attendant), A Shock to the System (Convention Speaker), Penn & Teller Get Killed (Jesus Freak), Mr. North (YMCA Clerk), The Secret of My Success (Davis), and Heaven Help Us (Priest).
Durang has been awarded numerous fellowships and grants including a Guggenheim, a Rockefeller, the CBS Playwriting Fellowship, the Lecompte du Nouy Foundation Grant, the Kenyon Festival Theatre Playwriting Prize, and the Lila Wallace Readers Digest Writers Award. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild Council and is co-chair of the playwriting program at Juilliard.
Some twenty years ago at age "30-something," Laura Jorgensen, John and I were part of the formation of Western Union Theatre Company. From 1984 to 1994 this small collective of theatre artists presented more than thirty productions at the Cinnabar Theatre beginning with Sam Shepard's True West featuring John Craven, Jim Peterson and Joan Hawley. In that first production Laura Jorgensen assisted my co-artistic director, Amy Glazer with everything from stage management to scouring the county thrift stores for toasters.
Since the announcement of Western Union Theatre Company's hiatus in the spring of 1994, our company members have literally traveled the world, doing theatre, teaching, directing, changing partners and professions but always keeping in touch. Sometimes our paths crossed in the most unusual ways. For example, in the mid nineties, during the ten years I worked as director of the University of Tennessee's International MFA Theatre Program, Laura and I found ourselves together in Budapest, Hungary I was there for a theatre festival; she was living there. One night as we sat across from one another in a crowded nightclub, both of us commented on how amazingly 'normal' it felt to be together in this far away place. Life is sometimes as strange as this play.
Once again, it is hard to believe how 'normal' it feels to be working with Laura and John on the same stage where we began so long ago. Now older, more experienced and, hopefully, wiser, we are no less excited about entering the magical realm of theatre together. I have laughed more in the last couple of weeks in these rehearsals than I have in years. I have also appreciated the common ground that exists between us as artists. It is a rare thing to have artistic relationships that span a lifetime. John and Laura have matured into consummate professional actors with whom it is an honor and a privilege to be working again. Furthermore, I am thrilled to see Western Union Theatre Company's name on a program with my own.
Thanks Elly, Nancy and all my artistic comrades in Western Union Theatre Company (past, present and future) with whom I hope to continue to work.
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