Award-Winning Performer Returns to Playhouse
To Develop Hilarious New One-Man Show
 |
| John Leguizamo - Latin History for Dummies |
La Jolla Playhouse is pleased to present
John Leguizamo: Latin History for Dummies, created and performed by
John Leguizamo, directed by Tony Taccone, as part of its
Page To Stage New Play Development program. The production will run
April 5 – 17 in the Mandell Weiss Theatre. Tickets are available at
lajollaplayhouse.org or by calling
(858) 550-1010.
Class is in session with John Leguizamo’s new one-man show,
Latin History for Dummies, delivering rapid-fire laughs in a
biting and comic take on 500 years of Latin History, spanning the Aztec
and Incan Empires to World War II. Following up on his 2010 Playhouse
Page To Stage workshop of
Ghetto Klown, which later transferred to Broadway and won the
Drama Desk and Outer Critic Circle Awards for Outstanding Solo
Performance, John Leguizamo returns to develop his latest work and share
his fiercely funny, satirical and often over-looked
version of American history.
“With his incisive comedy and rock-star swagger, any new show by John Leguizamo is a cause for celebration,”
Playhouse Artistic Director Christopher Ashley. “After his
wildly-successful, sold-out Page to Stage production a few years ago,
we’re honored to welcome John back to develop this new one-man show,
which takes on hilarious new turf in John’s uproarious
and inimitable style.”
Launched in 2001, La Jolla Playhouse’s
Page To Stage Play Development Program is designed to facilitate
the development of new plays and musicals in a workshop production. Page
To Stage productions offer audiences the rare opportunity to experience
the birth of a play and to take part in
its evolution. After each performance, audience talkback sessions
provide insights for the creative team. Previous Page To Stage
productions include Chasing the Song, John Leguizamo’s
Ghetto Klown, Peter and the Starcatchers, The Night Watcher, The Farnsworth Invention, Zhivago, the Tony Award-winning
700 Sundays and I Am My Own Wife, which went on to receive a Pulitzer Prize for Drama. In order to preserve the developmental nature of the program,
Page To Stage productions are not open to review.
Multi-faceted performer and Emmy Award-winner
John Leguizamo's notable career defies categorization. Possessing
boundless energy and creativity, his work spans the genres of film,
theatre, television, literature and beyond. As writer and performer,
Leguizamo created the Off-Broadway sensation
Mambo Mouth (1991), in which he portrayed seven different
characters (Obie, Outer Critics Circle, Vanguardia Awards). His second
one-man show,
Spic-O-Rama (1993) enjoyed extended sold-out runs in Chicago and
New York (Dramatists' Guild Hull-Warriner Award for Best American Play,
Lucille Lortel Outstanding Achievement Award for Best Broadway
Performance, Drama Desk Award for Best Solo Performance).
His third solo show, Freak, completed a successful run on Broadway in 1998. A special presentation of
Freak, directed by Spike Lee, aired on HBO (Emmy Award for
Outstanding Performance in a Variety or Music Program and nomination for
Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Special). In 2001 Leguizamo
returned to Broadway with
Sexaholix...a Love Story, directed by Peter Askin (Outer Critics
Circle Award nomination for "Outstanding Solo Performance" and Tony
Award nomination for Best Special Theatrical Performance).
Sexaholix aired as an HBO Special in 2002 and toured widely. His most recent one-man show,
Ghetto Klown, was developed at La Jolla Playhouse and went on to
Broadway run in 2011. Presently, Leguizamo delights younger fans as the
voice of “Sid” in
Ice Age 1, 2, 3. He has been seen in countless films including Love in the Time of Cholera opposite Javier Bardem and Benjamin Bratt,
The Happening opposite Mark Wahlberg, Righteous Kill opposite Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino,
The Babysitters opposite Cynthia Nixon and The Take opposite Rosie Perez, as well as
Miracle at St. Anna, Land of the Dead, The Groomsmen, Lies &
Alibis, Assault on Precinct 13, Sueno, Spin, Moulin Rouge, Summer of
Sam, King of the Jungle, Spawn, William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet,
Dr. Doolittle, Carlito's Way and
Casualties of War.
During
Tony Taccone’s tenure as the Michael Leibert Artistic Director of
Berkeley Rep, the Tony Award-winning nonprofit has earned a reputation
as an international leader in innovative theatre. He has staged more
than 35 plays in Berkeley, including new work
from Culture Clash, Rinde Eckert, David Edgar, Danny Hoch, Geoff Hoyle,
Quincy Long, Itamar Moses and Lemony Snicket. He directed the shows
that transferred to London,
Continental Divide and
Tiny Kushner, and two that landed on Broadway as well:
Bridge & Tunnel and
Wishful Drinking.
Prior to working at Berkeley Rep, Taccone served as artistic director
of Eureka Theatre, which produced the American premieres of plays by
Dario Fo, Caryl Churchill and David Edgar before
focusing on a new generation of American writers. While at the Eureka,
he commissioned Tony Kushner’s legendary
Angels in America and co-directed its world premiere. He has collaborated with Kushner on eight plays at Berkeley Rep, including
The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures.
His regional credits include Actors Theatre of Louisville, Arena Stage,
Center Theatre Group, Eureka Theatre,
Guthrie Theater, Huntington Theatre Company, Oregon Shakespeare
Festival, Public Theater and Seattle Repertory Theatre. As a playwright,
he debuted
Ghost Light, Rita Moreno: Life Without Makeup and
Game On,
written with Dan Hoyle. In 2012, Taccone received the Margo Jones Award
for “demonstrating a significant impact, understanding, and affirmation
of playwriting, with a commitment to the living
theatre.”
The Tony Award-winning
La Jolla Playhouse is internationally-renowned for creating some
of the most exciting and adventurous work in American theatre, through
its new play development initiatives, its innovative Without Walls
series, artist commissions and residencies, including
BD Wong, Daniel Beaty and Kirsten Greenidge. Currently led by Artistic
Director Christopher Ashley and Managing Director Michael S. Rosenberg,
the Playhouse was founded in 1947 by Gregory Peck, Dorothy McGuire and
Mel Ferrer, and reborn in 1983 under the artistic
leadership of Des McAnuff, La Jolla Playhouse has had 25 productions
transfer to Broadway, garnering 35 Tony Awards, among them Jersey Boys,
Memphis, The Who’s Tommy, Big River, as well as Billy Crystal’s 700 Sundays and the Pulitzer Prize-winning
I Am My Own Wife, both fostered as part of the Playhouse’s Page To Stage Program. Visit
www.LaJollaPlayhouse.org.
I am pumped to see this! happy that these types of works are hitting the stage. side note: i also do not check 'hispanic' when filling out forms...
No comments:
Post a Comment