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TCG PLEASED TO ANNOUNCE RECIPIENTS OF THE 2007 TCG AWARDS

TCG PLEASED TO ANNOUNCE RECIPIENTS OF THE 2007 TCG AWARDS New York, May 2007 - Since 2001 the TCG Awards have saluted extraordinary contributions to the American theatre community, and Theatre Communications Group (TCG) looks forward to continuing this tradition when the awards are presented on June 9, 2007, during the Closing Ceremonies of the National Conference in Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN. Each TCG member theatre was given the opportunity to nominate one honoree in each award category and a committee of TCG's board of directors selected the award recipients from the pool of nominees. This year the TCG Awards will be presented in six categories in recognition of sustained and exemplary service to the field. The 2007 TCG Award categories and recipients are: Regional Funder Award - St. Paul Travelers Foundation Award - Nathan Cummings Foundation Corporate Award - Humana Inc. Theatre Practitioner(s) Award - Luis Valdez and Liz LeCompte Peter Zeisler Memorial Award - The Foundry Theatre Alan Schneider Director Award - Joel Sass St. Paul Travelers The 2007 TCG Regional Funder Award recognizes a local funding organization that has evidenced leadership and provided sustained outstanding support of theatre(s) in the region in which the TCG conference is being held, and will be presented to St. Paul Travelers. Previous recipients of this award include the Jerome Foundation of St. Paul (MN), ArtsFund of Seattle (WA) and Metropolitan Atlanta Arts Fund of Atlanta (GA). Travelers' giving program and foundation of the company gave approximately $15 million charitably last year through two foundations and the corporate giving program. Travelers focuses on three giving priorities: Arts/Culture, Education, and Community Development. In 2006, 19% of its giving budget went to funding in Arts and Culture, specifically Arts/Diversity and Arts Education. Travelers takes pride in the work of its Arts and Diversity Committee, a group of 15 employees who actively extend the giving of the company through their volunteer partnerships with arts organizations throughout the Twin Cities. For many years, Travelers has taken great pride in supporting small, medium, and large arts organizations of various disciplines. St. Paul Travelers Foundation has a strong interest in supporting arts education programs, recognizing the impact of arts curricula in the public schools. Other project support tends to be given to help fund specific plays and performances. St. Paul Travelers also offers in-kind and sponsorships in addition to its charitable contributions. The company is viewed as an innovative and open funder of the arts, and TCG's staff has found the foundation very approachable and easy to work with. St. Paul Travelers Foundation has recently supported the following theatres in the Twin Cities area: Alchemy Theater, Illusion Theater, In the Heart of the Beast, Minnesota Jewish Theatre Company, Mixed Blood Theatre Company, Mu Performing Arts, Ordway Center for the Performing Arts, Pangea World Theater, Park Square Theatre Company, Penumbra Theatre Company, SteppingStone Theatre, Teatro Del Pueblo, Ten Thousand Things Theater Company, The Children's Theater Company, The Guthrie Theater, The History Theatre and Theatre de la Jeune Lune. Nathan Cummings Foundation The 2007 TCG Foundation Award recognizes a foundation that has evidenced leadership and provided sustained national outstanding support of theatre in America, and will be presented to the Nathan Cummings Foundation. Previous recipients in this category include the Shubert Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Wallace Foundation. The Nathan Cummings Foundation seeks to build a socially and economically just society that values nature and protects the ecological balance for future generations; promotes humane health care; and fosters arts and culture that enriches communities. The Nathan Cummings Foundation's Arts and Culture Program works to support artistic practices, programs and policies that encourage cross-cultural and multidisciplinary collaborations, and give voice to the issues and experiences of underrepresented communities, in order to build a stronger society. The funding priorities acknowledge the roles that artists and cultural workers play in stimulating social change and championing economic justice in both traditional and non-traditional venues. By addressing art through the lens of social justice, the program affirms artists and arts institutions that value and encourage creativity, innovation and risk-taking while fostering cross-cultural conversations that transcend race, ethnicity, class, age and geography. The foundation also supports private, public and corporate policies that benefit artists, arts organizations and constituent communities; as well as cross-disciplinary strategies that align the arts community with others with similar or complimentary interests. Humana The 2007 TCG Corporate Award, recognizing a small, midsize or large company that has evidenced national leadership and provided sustained outstanding support of theatre(s) in America, will be presented to Humana. Previous recipients in this category include Target, AT&T and Altria. The Humana Foundation was established in 1981 as the philanthropic arm of Humana Inc., one of the nation's leading health benefits companies. The Foundation is located in Louisville, Kentucky, the site of Humana's corporate headquarters. The Humana Foundation supports and nurtures charitable activities that promote healthy lives and healthy communities. From its inception, Co-founders David A. Jones and the late Wendell Cherry have made the arts an integral part of Humana's culture. Since 1975, the company has contributed more than $40 million to the arts in Louisville, as well as around the country. Humana's sponsorship of Actors Theatre of Louisville's Humana Festival of New American Plays began in 1979 and has since provided more than $16.4 million in continued support. Humana's 30-plus years of support is believed to be the longest running corporate sponsorship of a performing arts organization in the United States. The 31st annual Humana Festival of New American Plays ended April 7, 2007, and featured ten premieres by emerging and established playwrights. The Festival draws more than 26,000 patrons annually, and an estimated 90 million people worldwide have seen a play that originated at the Festival. Three - D. L. Coburn's The Gin Game, Beth Henley's Crimes of the Heart and Donald Margulies' Dinner with Friends -- have won Pulitzer Prizes. Several other Humana Festival plays have been nominated for Pulitzer Prizes. Additionally, six Humana plays have won the American Theatre Critics Award, and four plays have won an Obie Award. In 2004, Variety acknowledged the Humana Festival as "the leading showcase of new American works for the theatre." In addition, the company has supported the Kentucky Shakespeare Festival and theatres in Chicago, Austin, Kansas City, Phoenix, San Antonio, Sarasota, and Washington D.C., and organizations such as The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Americans for the Arts, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, American Symphony Orchestra, Museum of Modern Art and The New York Philharmonic. Luis Valdez and Elizabeth LeCompte The 2007 TCG Theatre Practitioner Award recognizes an individual artist or administrator - institutionally affiliated or unaffiliated - whose work in the American theatre has evidenced exemplary achievement over time and who has contributed significantly to the development of the larger field. This award will be presented to Luis Valdez and Liz LeCompte. The Theatre Practitioner Award was originally given in a previous form as the Zeisler Award. Previous recipients include Woodie King, Jr., Zelda Fichandler, Lloyd Richards, Ming Cho Lee, Ellen Stewart, Maria Irene Fornes, Wiliam Swetland, Sara O'Connor, Ruth Maleczech, John Conklin and Peter Culman. Luis Valdez is regarded as one of the most important and influential American playwrights living today. He founded the internationally renowned, Obie Award winning theatre company, El Teatro Campesino (The Farm Workers' Theater) in 1965 in the heat of the United Farm Workers (UFW) struggle. It is the longest running Chicano theatre in the United States. His involvement with Cesar Chavez, the UFW and the early Chicano Movement left an indelible mark on his work even after he left the UFW in 1967, including his early actos Las Dos Caras del Patroncito and Quinta Temporada (short plays written to encourage campesinos to leave the fields and join the UFW); his mitos (mythic plays) Bernabe and La Carpa de los Rasquachi; his examinations of Chicano urban life in I Don't Have to Show You No Stinkin' Badges; his re-visioning of classic Mexican folktales in Corridos; his exploration of his own Indigenous Yaqui roots in Mummified Deer and Zoot Suit, the first Chicano play on Broadway and the first Chicano major feature film. Valdez's numerous feature film and television credits include La Bamba starring Lou Diamond Phillips, Cisco Kid starting Jimmy Smits and Cheech Marin and Corridos: Tales of Passion and Revolution starring Linda Ronstadt. His latest anthology Mummified Deer and Other Plays was recently published by Arte Público Press. Valdez has taught at many universities and was on the founding faculty at California State University, Monterey Bay. He is the recipient of honorary doctorates from several universities including his alma mater, San Jose State University. Valdez's hard work and long creative career have won him countless awards including numerous LA Drama Critics Awards, Dramalogue Awards, Bay Area Critics Awards, the prestigious George Peabody Award for excellence in television, the Presidential Medal of the Arts, the Governor's Award for the California Arts Council, and Mexico's prestigious Águila Azteca Award given to individuals whose work promotes cultural excellence and exchange between the US and Mexico. In April, 2007, Valcez was inducted into the College of Fellows of the American Theatre at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Elizabeth LeCompte is a founding member of The Wooster Group. Since 1975, LeCompte has constructed, with the members and associates of The Wooster Group, eighteen multimedia theater pieces, including the trilogy Three Places in Rhode Island, consisting of Sakonnet Point (1975), Rumstick Road (1977), and Nayatt School (1978); the epilogue to the trilogy, Point Judith (1979); a second trilogy, The Road to Immortality, consisting of Route 1 & 9 (1981/1987), L.S.D. (...Just the High Points...) (1984), and Frank Dell's The Temptation of St. Antony (1987); North Atlantic (1984/1999); Brace Up! (1991/2003), based on Paul Schmidt's translation of Chekhov's Three Sisters; Fish Story (1994); The Emperor Jones (1993/2006) and The Hairy Ape (1995) by Eugene O'Neill; House/Lights (1999/2005), based on Gertrude Stein's Doctor Faustus Lights the Lights; To You, The Birdie! (Phèdre) (2002), from the play by Jean Racine; Poor Theater (2004); Who's Your Dada?! (2006), commissioned by the Museum of Modern Art to close its Dada exhibition; Hamlet (2007), by William Shakespeare; and the opera La Didone (2007) by Francesco Cavalli and Giovan Francesco Busenello. LeCompte and The Wooster Group have created seven film, video and DVD works and choreographed four short dance pieces. She and TWG were recently commissioned to create an installation for the 2008 opening of the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Her numerous honors and awards include a NEA Distinguished Artists Fellowship for Lifetime Achievement in American Theater, a MacArthur Fellowship, and a Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from the French Ministry of Culture. The Foundry Theatre The 2007 Peter Zeisler Memorial Award r ecognizes an individual or organization whose work exemplifies innovative or untraditional practices, who is dedicated to freedom of expression and has not yet been recognized in the national field for this work. 2006 was the inaugural year for the Peter Zeisler Memorial Award, given in tribute to the late executive director of TCG, Peter Zeisler, and it was presented to Will Power. Established in 1994 by producing artistic director Melanie Joseph and board member Cornel West, The Foundry Theatre aspires to assemble a community of artists with revolutionary ideas for the theatre and the world in which it is situated. Now an artistic producing collective that includes co-producers Anne Erbe and Sunder Ganglani, The Foundry Theatre is an ongoing performance of ideas - created by new theatre works and public dialogue events - which invite as many people as possible to consider what it means to be citizens of a world that must be changed. The Foundry Theatre commissions, develops and premieres new works, collaborating on their long-term development with various ensembles of artists. Among their productions are works by Kirk Lynn (Major Bang), Carl Hancock Rux (Talk), Alice Tuan (The Roaring Girle), Rinde Eckert (And God Created Great Whales), W. David Hancock (Deviant Craft; The Race of the Ark Tattoo; The Convention of Cartography) and Moscow's Kama Ginkas (K.I. From Crime). The Foundry Theatre productions continue to tour nationally and internationally and have been honored with 8 Obie Awards and 3 Drama Desk nominations for unique theatrical experience. In addition, The Foundry Theatre hosts public dialogues which regularly bring artists together with thinkers in other fields to investigate the social and political workings of a changing polis. These events in tandem with their artistic output were recognized with a special Obie Award in 2001, citing the company for "creating new, envelope-pushing work and taking on some of the thorniest issues of the world we inhabit." Joel Sass The 2007 Alan Schneider Director Award, designed to identify and assist exceptional directors whose talent has been demonstrated through work in specific regions, but who are not yet known nationally , will be awarded to Joel Sass. Previous recipients of this award have been Michael John Garcés, Nancy Keystone, Darko Tresnjak, Henry Godinez, Roman Paska, Mark Brokaw, Charles Newell, David Saint, Roberta Levitow, Kyle Donnelly, Peter C. Brosius and Mary Robinson. Joel Sass is a stage director, designer and adapter specializing in new work for the stage and imaginative treatments of classic plays. His directing credits include Pericles (Guthrie Theatre), Lettice and Lovage (Theatre de la Jeune Lune), I Am My Own Wife (The Jungle Theater), and many productions as artistic director for the award-winning Minneapolis-based Mary Worth Theatre Company including Titus Andronicus, Shakespeare's R & J, Crazyface, Valley of the Dolls, History of the Devil, and others. Joel was named Best Director-2002 by the Twin Cities theatre critics, and Mary Worth was named Best Independent Theatre Company-2003. For three seasons, he was resident assistant director at Theatre de la Jeune Lune, where he worked on numerous world premieres including Children of Paradise and The Ballroom. He is a recipient of the McKnight Theatre Artist Fellowship in directing, an Ameriprise IVEY Award for scenic design, numerous grants from the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, and the Alan Schneider Directing Award. Current projects include Shining City for the Jungle Theatre, Nine Parts of Desire at the Guthrie, and the development of two new works: Cowboy Hamlet, a rockabilly song cycle set within a dirt-floored rodeo ring; and a new meditation on Mary Shelley's Frankenstein which unfolds during the American Civil War. ### Theatre Communications Group (TCG) , the national organization for the American theatre, offers a wide array of services in line with its mission: to strengthen, nurture and promote the professional not-for-profit American theatre. Artistic programs support theatres and theatre artists by awarding approximately $3 million in grants annually, and offer career development programs for artists. Management programs provide professional development opportunities for theatre leaders through workshops, conferences, forums and publications, as well as industry research on the finances and practices of the American not-for-profit theatre. Advocacy , conducted in conjunction with the dance, presenting, opera and symphony orchestra fields, includes guiding lobbying efforts and providing theatres with timely alerts about legislative developments. As the country's leading independent press specializing in dramatic literature, TCG's publications include American Theatre magazine, the ArtSEARCH employment bulletin, plays, translations and theatre reference books . As the U.S. Center of UNESCO's International Theatre Institute , a worldwide network, TCG supports cross-cultural exchange through travel grants and other assistance to traveling theatre professionals. Through these programs, TCG seeks to increase the organizational efficiency of its member theatres, cultivate and celebrate the artistic talent and achievements of the field, and promote a larger public understanding of and appreciation for the theatre field. TCG serves over 460 member theatres nationwide.

Contact: Phillip Matthews Director of Communications 212 609-5900 ext. 230

NEW YORK CITY CENTER ANNOUNCES 15TH ENCORES! SEASON  CHRISTINE EBERSOLE TO STAR IN APPLAUSE Followed by JUNO DIRECTED BY GARRY HYNES & NO, NO, NANETTE STARRING BETH LEAVEL & ROSIE O’DONNELL Kathleen Marshall, Garry Hynes and Walter Bobbie to Direct Season Begins February 7, 2008

Rosie O’Donnell, Christine Ebersole and Beth Leavel will star in New York City Center’s 2008 Encores! season, today announced Artistic Director Jack Viertel. Tony Award-winner Christine Ebersole will star in Applause, directed by Kathleen Marshall, the opening show of the acclaimed Encores! series, running February 7 – 10, 2008. Applause will be followed by Joseph Stein and Marc Blitzstein’s rarely seen Juno, directed by Tony Award-winner Garry Hynes, March 27 – 30, and No, No, Nanette, starring Rosie O’Donnell and Tony Award-winner Beth Leavel and directed by Walter Bobbie, running May 8 – 12. Rob Berman has been appointed music director for the 2008 season. Tony-winner Christine Ebersole (Grey Gardens) will star as Margo Channing in Applause, the 1970 Tony Award-winning musical with music by Charles Strouse, lyrics by Lee Adams and book by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, based on the classic film All About Eve, about a great Broadway star and her duplicitous understudy. The original Broadway production, starring Lauren Bacall, opened at the Palace Theatre on March 30, 1970, playing a total of 896 performances. Songs from Applause include “Applause,” “Welcome to the Theater,” and “Good Friends.” Kathleen Marshall will direct and Rob Berman will be the music director for Applause, which runs February 7 – 10. Applause is made possible with major support from the Joseph S. and Diane H. Steinberg Charitable Trust. Juno, with music and lyrics by Marc Blitzstein and book by Joseph Stein, based on the 1924 play Juno and the Paycock by Sean O'Casey, will run from March 27 –30. Juno will be directed by Tony Award-winner Garry Hynes (The Beauty Queen of Leenane, DruidSynge, The Lonesome West), with music direction by Eric Stern and musical staging by Warren Carlyle. This will be the first production since the original Broadway staging in 1959 to use the original orchestrations by Blitzstein, Hershey Kay and Robert Russell Bennett which will be restored by the Encores! musical staff. Juno chronicles the disintegration of an Irish family in Dublin in the early 1920s, during the confrontations between the Irish Republican Army and the British. Juno Boyle is the hardworking matriarch who struggles heroically to hold the family together in the face of war, betrayal, and her husband's drinking. The original Broadway production opened at the Winter Garden Theatre on March 9, 1959, starring Shirley Booth and Melvin Douglas, directed by Jose Ferrer, and choreographed by Agnes de Mille.  It played 16 performances.  Songs include “I Wish It So,” “We’re Alive” and “One Kind Word.” The 2008 Encores! season will conclude with No, No, Nanette, running May 8 – 12, and starring Rosie O’Donnell and Tony Award-winner Beth Leavel (The Drowsy Chaperone). Walter Bobbie, who served as Artistic Director of the series in 1995 and 1996, and directed the multi-award winning Chicago for Encores! on Broadway and around the world, will return to direct; music direction will be by Encores! founding music director Rob Fisher. Based on the comedy My Lady Friends by Frank Mandel and Emily Nyitray, No, No, Nanette is a light-hearted tale of millionaires, misunderstood wives, innocent young girls, beautiful women and betrayal, with lots of tap dancing. No, No, Nanette has had two major Broadway productions; the show originally opened in 1925, and was revived and reconceived in 1971 in a production supervised by Busby Berkeley and adapted and directed by Bert Shevelove.  Encores! will present the 1971 version of Nanette, which has music by Vincent Youmans, lyrics by Irving Caesar and Otto Harbach, and book by Otto Harbach. The show features such classic songs as “Tea for Two” and “I Want to Be Happy.” Rob Berman succeeds Paul Gemignani.  Gemignani turned over the baton to Berman at the end of the 2007 season, when he found his music directing obligations for Broadway and film made him unavailable.    Rob Berman is no stranger to Encores!, having served as music director for last season’s Encores! production of Stairway to Paradise.  He worked as founding music director Rob Fisher’s associate on a number of productions at City Center and took over the podium from Maestro Fisher during the Broadway transfers of Wonderful Town and The Apple Tree, both of which originated at Encores! He was the conductor of the Broadway revival of The Pajama Game and music director of the Kennedy Center Sondheim Celebration’s Sunday in the Park with George (Helen Hayes Award, Best Musical Direction). Berman is music supervisor of Irving Berlin's White Christmas and music director for the Kennedy Center Honors. Newman’s Own is the Season Sponsor for the 2008 Encores! season.  Paul Newman and the Newman’s Own Foundation donate all profits and royalties after taxes for educational and charitable purposes.  Paul Newman and the Newman’s Own Foundation have given over $200 million to thousands of charities worldwide since l982.  For years, Paul Newman filled old wine bottles with his homemade salad dressing for Christmas gifts.  One day, he reckoned that what was good enough for his pals was good enough for the public, and Newman's own all-natural line of food products was born.   It has grown to include pasta sauce, microwave popcorn, salsa, lemonade and steak sauce.  For more information about Newman’s Own, please visit www.newmansown.com. Major support for the New York City Center Encores! 2008 season is provided by the Joseph S. and Diane H. Steinberg Charitable Trust. New York City Center Encores!(Jack Viertel, Artistic Director) has, since 1994, celebrated the rarely-heard works of America’s most important composers and lyricists.  Conceived as “concert versions,” each Encores! season gives three scores the chance to be heard as originally intended by their creators.  Over the years, Encores! has presented the works of the Gershwins, Rodgers and Hart, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Kurt Weill, Bock and Harnick, Burt Bacharach, Kander and Ebb, Comden and Green, and many more.  The program is the recipient of a special 2000 Tony Honor for Excellence in the Theatre, as well as an Outer Critics Circle Award, Lucille Lortel Award and Jujamcyn Theaters Award. New York City Center (Arlene Shuler, President and CEO) has long been known and beloved by New York audiences not only as one of the City’s preeminent performing art institutions but also as an accessible and welcoming venue for dance and theater.  New York City Center produces the Tony-honored Encores! musical theater series, and is home to some of the country’s leading dance companies, including Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, American Ballet Theatre, Paul Taylor Dance Company and now for its inaugural season, Morphoses/The Wheeldon Company, as well as Manhattan Theatre Club, one of New York’s leading theater companies. Continuing to fulfill its mission to make the arts accessible to the broadest possible audience, in 2004 New York City Center launched the acclaimed Fall for Dance Festival.  In 2006, New York City Center formed partnerships with both London’s Sadler’s Wells Theatre to facilitate the exchange of innovative dance works, and with Carnegie Hall to work together on exciting new programming initiatives between the two neighboring institutions. In 2007 New York City Center introduced the Encores! Summer Stars series with the critically-acclaimed production of Gypsy. Tickets for the 2008 Encores! season are available at the New York City Center Box Office (West 55th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues), through CityTix® at 212-581-1212, or online at www.nycitycenter.org

T-F 10:30

OLIVER PLATT as Nathan Detroit, with additional casting to be announced shortly, this brand new production of GUYS AND DOLLS.

Lead producer Howard Panter for Ambassador Theatre Group and co-producers Tulchin/Bartner and Darren Bagert announced today that a brand new production of GUYS AND DOLLS, directed by DES McANUFF, the Tony Award-Winning director of Jersey Boys, will begin previews on Broadway on February 3, 2009 at Broadway's Nederlander Theatre (208 West 41st Street). Opening Night is March 1. Starring Tony Award nominee OLIVER PLATT as Nathan Detroit, with additional casting to be announced shortly, this brand new production of GUYS AND DOLLS marks the first joint Broadway project by two-time Tony Award winning director DES McANUFF and Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Award nominated choreographer SERGIO TRUJILLO since their collaboration on the Tony Award winning musical Jersey Boys. Packed with such classic hits as "Fugue for Tinhorns," "A Bushel and a Peck," "Adelaide's Lament," "I'll Know," "Guys and Dolls," "More I Cannot Wish You," "Luck Be A Lady," and "Sit Down, You're Rockin' the Boat," GUYS AND DOLLS features music and lyrics by Frank Loesser and book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows. Based on "The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown" and "Blood Pressure," two short stories by Damon Runyon, it also borrows characters and plot elements from other Runyon stories, most notably "Pick the Winner". The musical comedy was first produced on Broadway at the 46th Street Theatre, opening on November 24, 1950. It was directed by George S. Kaufman and starred Robert Alda, Sam Levene, Isabel Bigley and Vivian Blaine. The musical enjoyed an initial run of 1,201 performances, winning five 1951 Tony Awards including Best Musical. Additional casting and design team will be announced shortly. BIOGRAPHIES OLIVER PLATT (Nathan Detroit) returns to Broadway where he received a Tony nomination for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in Conor McPherson's Shining City. He can be seen in the following upcoming films: Ron Howard's Frost/Nixon as Bob Zelnick; the Harold Ramis comedy The Year One opposite Jack Black and Michael Cera; Nicole Holofcener's untitled film opposite Catherine Keener; and Roland Emmerich's epic 2012 opposite John Cusack, Thandie Newton and Amanda Peet. Additional theatre credits include the Lincoln Center production of Ubu; Jules Feiffer's Elliot Loves, directed by Mike Nichols; and his acclaimed performance as Sir Toby Belch in Brian Kulick's Twelfth Night. He received Golden Globe and back-to-back Emmy nominations for his portrayal of Russell Tupper in Showtime's Huff as well as an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series for his portrayal as White House Counsel Oliver Babish on The West Wing. This year he was nominated again for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series for his recurring role on Nip/Tuck playing the flamboyant TV producer Freddy Prune. DES McANUFF (Director) is a two-time Tony Award-winning director and was recently named Artistic Director of the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, where he is currently directing Romeo and Juliet and Caesar and Cleopatra (starring Christopher Plummer). His 2006 Broadway production of Jersey Boys garnered four Tony awards, including Best Musical, and now has additional companies in London, Chicago, Las Vegas, on tour, and upcoming in Melbourne. He is Director Emeritus of La Jolla Playhouse, which he headed for much of the past 25 years. Broadway credits (developed at the Playhouse): Aaron Sorkin's The Farnsworth Invention (2007); Billy Crystal's 700 Sundays (2004, Tony Award, Best Special Theatrical Event); Dracula: The Musical (2004); How to Succeed… (1995); The Who's Tommy (director/co-author with Pete Townshend, 1993 Tony Award Best Director of a Musical; 1997 London Olivier Awards Best Director/Best Musical); A Walk in the Woods (1988); and Big River (1985, seven Tonys including Best Director of a Musical and Best Musical). Additional productions directed at the Playhouse: The Wiz (2006); Zhivago (2005); Palm Beach (2005); Private Fittings (2005); Tom Donaghy's Eden Lane (2003); Tartuffe (2002); Michael Ondaatje's The Collected Works of Billy the Kid (2001). Film credits: Cousin Bette and The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle (director), Iron Giant (producer), Quills (executive producer). Upcoming: a commission with the Metropolitan Opera for a new piece with Michael Korie and Michael Torke; adapting Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots for stage with Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips and Aaron Sorkin. SERGIO TRUJILLO (Choreographer) choreographed the 2006 Tony Award Best Musical, Jersey Boys, for which he received both Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Award nominations, and the Broadway musical All Shook Up. His most recent theatre credits include: Memphis (La Jolla Playhouse), Saved (Playwrights Horizons), Next to Normal (Second Stage), The Wiz (La Jolla Playhouse) and Zhivago (La Jolla Playhouse). In addition Sergio received critical acclaim for his dances in Mambo Kings (Golden Theatre, San Francisco). Other theatre credits; Disney's European smash-hit Tarzan, the national tour of All Shook Up, Kismet and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (both for Encores!),the Off-Broadway Musicals Bare and The Great American Trailer Park Musical, Peggy Sue Got Married at London's West End and the revival of the Broadway musical Kiss Me, Kate in Tokyo, Japan. In Canada, Sergio choreographed the revival of the Sound of Music and the critically acclaimed production of West Side Story at the Stratford Festival. Other favorite theatre credits include; Kiss of the Spiderwoman at North Shore Music Theatre, The Wedding Banquet at The Village Theatre, a musical adaptation of Twelfth Night in Tokyo, Japan and segments of Chita Rivera's: Chita and All That Jazz. Sergio's Film and Television credits include: Broadway: The American Musical for PBS, The 14th Annual Comedy Awards starring Nathan Lane, Martin Short and Jane Krakowski, NBC's Presentation at Radio City starring the casts of "Will and Grace", "West Wing", "Scrubs" and "Law And Order". He is currently a judge on BBC Canada's Triple Sensation, which is completing its second season. He has staged musical numbers for salsa legend Celia Cruz, Los Rabanes, David Bisbal and Pilar Montenegro on Telemundo. His film credits include New Line Cinema's Woo starring Jada Pinkett. Sergio choreographed Salome (NYC Opera, Opera pacific and Baltimore Opera), The Marriage of Figaro (LA Opera) and was commissioned to choreograph a piece for Ballet Hispanico Hoy Como Ayer. In 2000 he had the honor of choreographing The 54th Presidential Inauguration at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. Mr. Trujillo is the recipient of a 2003 Ovation Award for outstanding choreography in Empire: A New American Musical and three Dora Mavor Moore Award* nominations for outstanding choreography in Swingstep at the Elgin In 2000 he had the honor of choreographing The 54th Presidential Inauguration at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. His upcoming projects include both The Adams Family and Memphis, both for Broadway. FRANK LOESSER (Music and Lyrics) has been called the most versatile of all Broadway composers. His five Broadway musicals, each a unique contribution to the art of the American musical theatre, were as different from each other as they were from the theatre of their day: Where's Charley?, Guys And Dolls, The Most Happy Fella, Greenwillow and How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying. Long before he wrote Where's Charley?, he was already known to America from the dozens of songs that had become enormous popular hits from his Hollywood career. He had supplied lyrics to the music of such greats as Jule Styne, Hoagy Carmichael, Burton Lane and Arthur Schwartz, among others, penning such standards as "On a Slow Boat to China," "Two Sleepy People," "Heart and Soul," "I Don't Want to Walk Without You," "Spring Will Be a Little Late this Year," "(See What) The Boys in the Backroom (Will Have)," "They're Either Too Young or Too Old" and his 1948 Academy Award winner, "Baby, It's Cold Outside." In a few short years, Frank Loesser forged only five Broadway musicals, but the Loesser impact continues to be seismic. In recent years, there have been major revivals of The Most Happy Fella, both on Broadway and at the New York City Opera (added to their permanent repertory); Guys and Dolls won the 1992 Tony Award for Best Revival and was a smash hit on Broadway all over again, running three years and becoming the longest running revival ever on Broadway; and How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying opened on Broadway in 1995, with Matthew Broderick starring, and became another long running hit. JO SWERLING (Book) Born in Bardichov, Russia, Swerling was a refugee of the Czarist regime who grew up on New York City's lower East Side, where he sold newspapers to help support his family. He worked as a newspaper and magazine writer in the early 1920s, then launched a playwriting career, including Street Cinderella, an early comedy for the Marx Brothers. He also wrote their first movie, the unreleased silent comedy Humor Risk in 1921. He scored a major success with the book and lyrics for the 1927 musical revue The New Yorkers and the 1929 play The Kibitzer, which he co-wrote with actor Edward G. Robinson. Swerling was brought to Hollywood by Columbia Pictures chief Harry Cohn to work on the screenplay for the Frank Capra picture, Ladies of Leisure, the first of several collaborations with the director. His dozens of screenplays in the 1930s and 40s include Platinum Blonde, Behind the Mask, Once to Every Woman, The Pride of the Yankees (for which he received an Academy Award nomination), Lifeboat, Leave Her to Heaven, and It's a Wonderful Life. He also provided some uncredited writing for the Gone with the Wind screenplay. ABE BURROWS (Book) Born Abram Solman Borowitz in New York City, Burrows graduated New Utrecht High School in Brooklyn and later attended both City College and New York University. He began working as a runner on Wall Street while at NYU, and he also worked in an accounting firm. After he met Frank Galen in 1938, the two wrote and sold jokes to an impressionist who appeared on the Rudy Vallée radio program. Eventually, Burrows wrote, doctored, or directed such shows as Make a Wish, Two on the Aisle, Three Wishes for Jamie, Say, Darling, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Cactus Flower, Can-Can, Silk Stockings, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Good News (1974 revival), and many others. With his collaborator Frank Loesser, Burrows won a Pulitzer Prize for How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.

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