THE WILMA THEATER PRESENTS THE UNITED STATES PREMIERE OF CHERRY DOCS BY DAVID GOW - CAST FEATURES STAGE AND SCREEN STAR DAVID STRATHAIRN
For Immediate Release: March 22,
2000
Contact: Damian J. Sinclair, 215.893.9456 x107
Philadelphia, PA - David Gow's gripping drama CHERRY DOCS makes its United
States debut at The Wilma Theater under the direction of co-Artistic Director
Jiri Zizka. CHERRY DOCS begins previews May 3, opens May 10 and runs through
June 4. Tickets range from $7 - $38 and can be purchased by calling (215)
546-7824 or online at www.wilmatheater.org.
CHERRY DOCS, a moving portrait of the angels and demons in our own backyards, follows Mike, a Neo-Nazi skinhead on trial for murder, defended by a Jewish legal-aid lawyer. In this explosive play, David Gow explores the nature of hate. Danny, a lawyer who prides himself on his liberal tolerance, must come to terms with the feelings Mike unearths in him. And Mike's life is suddenly in the hands of a man whom he wishes were dead. As both men reluctantly agree to work together, they realize that more than their beliefs are on the line. In this confrontation, their very lives hang in the balance. CHERRY DOCS asks the simple, but harrowing, question: can we eliminate hate?
CHERRY DOCS first premiered in Canada at the Factory Theatre in April 1998 and since then has attracted numerous independent productions across Canada. The play was translated into Hebrew and successfully produced in Tel-Aviv. The author's adaptation has been broadcast on CBC Radio. The play was nominated for a Dora Mavor Moore award, a Chalmers award in Toronto, as well as a Writers' Guild of Canada Award. A feature film based on David Gow's own screenplay of CHERRY DOCS is currently in pre-production at Motion International.
CHERRY DOCS was written in 1998 by David Gow who had spent fifteen years in the theater and performing arts. He studied performance at Concordia University and holds a Masters of Fine Arts in Playwriting with studies at the graduate level in psychology from York University. Gow has performed in major Theaters across Canada including The National Arts Center, The Centaur, Alberta Theatre Projects, Neptune Theatre, The Blyth Festival and others. He acts regularly in film and television, played the author Donald Ogden Stewart in Mrs. Parker & The Vicious Circle produced by Robert Altman and can be seen as the mathematics teacher, Mr. Potter, in the Children's series My Hometown. Other plays by David Gow include Bea's Niece, The Friedman Family Fortune and The Flight of Peter Pumpkin-eater.
The play will be directed by Jiri Zizka, who became the Artistic Director of the Wilma in 1979 where he has directed over 40 productions including Orwell's Animal Farm, Camus' The Stranger, Brecht's Mother Courage, Capek's The Insect Comedy, Weiss' Marat/Sade, his own adaptation of Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray, Brecht/Weill's The Happy End, Orwell's 1984, (at the Wilma, Kennedy Center and Off-Broadway), Fo's Accidental Death of an Anarchist, and a US premiere of Havel's Temptation (a co-production with Joseph Papp's New York Shakespeare Festival). Mr. Zizka has also directed a feature film of Havel's Largo Desolato, adapted by Tom Stoppard, starring F. Murray Abraham for PBS's "Great Performances." He wrote and directed Inquest of Love, a film for PBS/WHYY, which was nominated for an Emmy Award (Mid-Atlantic) and received the Golden Eagle Award for Excellence. His most recent theater credits include George F. Walker's Love and Anger, Martin McDonagh's The Cripple of Inishmaan and Mark Saltzman's The Tin Pan Alley Rag.
CHERRY DOCS will star David Strathairn as Danny, a Jewish legal-aid lawyer. Mr. Strathairn is an accomplished stage and screen actor who previously collaborated with Mr. Zizka on the US premiere of Havel's Temptation at the Public Theater. On the big screen he has appeared in Return of the Secaucus 7, Eight Men Out, Memphis Belle, A League of Their Own, Passion Fish, Sneakers, Lost In Yonkers, The Firm, The River Wild, Dolores Claiborne, LA Confidential, A Map of the World and Limbo. He has developed a great relationship with filmmaker John Sayles, appearing in seven of his movies. He is also an accomplished stage actor. On Broadway he starred in Ashes, Harold Pinter's most recent play, and was also seen in Einstein & the Polar Bear at the Broadhurst Theater. Off-Broadway and regionally, he has been seen in productions including Hapgood, Lie of the Mind, Salonika, The Tempest, A Moon for the Misbegotten, The Boys Next Door, A Doll's House, I'm Not Rappaport, A Midsummer Night's Dream and recently in Sally's Gone, She's Left Her Name at The People's Light and Theater Company.
Jason Field will portray Danny's opponent, Mike. He has been seen in New York in Outlaws and The Treasures of the Collier Brothers. Jason is making his Wilma Theater debut, but was last seen in Philadelphia as Sergeant Al in Birdy at the Philadelphia Theater Company. His other regional credits include The Last Night of Ballyhoo at GeVa Theater, The Real Thing at Two Rivers Theater, Uncle Bob at the Asylum Theater in Los Angeles, Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth at the Three River Shakespeare Festival, and I Hate Hamlet at the Weathervane Playhouse. He appeared as Joey in the film Boys on the Side.
The production design team boasts a group of long-time collaborators at the Wilma: set designer Jerry Rojo, lighting designer Jerry Forsyth, costume designer Sara Iams and sound designer and music composer Adam Wernick.
Jerry Rojo (Set Designer) returns to the Wilma after designing Orpheus Descending, Quills, Avenue X, Birth and After Birth, Road, What the Butler Saw, Travesties and Etta Jenks. He designed the Wilma's co-production with New York's Public Theatre of Vaclav Havel's Temptation. Other New York credits include Dr. Faustus for La Ma Ma, Ghosts for the Public Theater and numerous productions for Richard Schechner's Performance Group including: Dionysus in '69, and the original NYC production of Sam Shepard's Tooth of Crime. Regional Theatre credits include: Cobb, for the Stamford Theatre Works, CT; Three Sisters, for Stage West, MA and Incommunicado, for the Odyssey Theatre. LA. Citations include the Drama Desk Award for his design of Endgame directed by Andre Gregory.
Sarah Iams (Costume Designer) has designed the costumes for The Road to Nirvana and Etta Jenks at the Wilma Theater and for Jiri Zizka's Inquest of Love, a film for PBS/WHYY. Originally from Philadelphia, she just graduated from the Yale School of Drama with an M.F.A. in Design.
Jerold R. Forsyth (Lighting Designer) has designed more than 150 productions to date. Philadelphia area credits include The Wilma Theater (36 productions), Walnut Street Theatre, Arden Theatre Company, American Music Theater Festival, and The People's Light and Theatre Company, among others. Other East Coast credits include The Kennedy Center, New York Shakespeare Festival, Lincoln Center, York Theatre Company, Village Theatre Company, and Opera Ebony - New York.
Adam Wernick (Sound Designer) has worked on more than 30 productions at The Wilma Theater as a composer, sound designer and music director. His sound design for Quills received a Barrymore Award and his scores for Arcadia and Quartet received Barrymore Award nominations for Outstanding Original Music. Adam has also received the prestigious F. Otto Haas Award for an Emerging Theater Artist. He works extensively for The Shakespeare Theatre in Washington D.C. where he has collaborated with directors Michael Kahn, Garland Wright, Joe Dowling and others. His scores for Richard II and Hamlet each received Helen Hayes Award nominations. He was recently awarded the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts music fellowship.
CHERRY DOCS at The Wilma Theater runs May 3 through June 4, 2000. Ticket prices range from $7 - $38, with discounts available for seniors and groups of 10 or more, and special radically discounted tickets for student and theatergoers under the age of 30. Tickets are available at the Wilma Box Office:
Phone: 215.546.7824
Fax: 215.893.0895
Email: tickets@wilmatheater.org
Online: www.wilmatheater.org
In person: Broad & Spruce Streets, Philadelphia
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