AR Gurney's "The Cocktail Hour"

SOLANA BEACH, Calif. - Aug. 23, 2016 - PRLog -- North Coast Repertory Theatre is toasting the opening of Season 35 with the bracing, boisterous comedy, THE COCKTAIL HOUR, by A.R. Gurney. Mix two upper-class New Englanders, their over-privileged adult children and endless cocktails for a delightfully intoxicating evening of fun. Son John arrives for dinner at his parent's home carrying hisprovocative tell-all script that leaves the family shaken and stirred. Join the Rep for this free-flowing comedy that The New Yorker praised as Gurney's "best play he has done."

Rosina Reynolds directs J. Michael Flynn*, Chris Petschler*, Cristina Soria* and Shana Wride*. The design team includes Marty Burnett (Scenic Design), Matthew Novotny (Lighting), Melanie Chen (Sound), Elisa Benzoni (Costumes), Andrea Gutierrez (Props) and Peter Herman (Wig & Hair). Aaron Rumley* is the Stage Manager.

THE COCKTAIL HOUR previews begin Wednesday, September 7. Opening Night on Saturday, September 10, at 8pm includes a post-show reception.  It will play Wednesdays at 7pm, Thursdays through Saturdays at 8pm, Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2pm with Sundays at 7pm, through October 8, 2016.  EXTENDED TO OCTOBER 8th (BY POPULAR DEMAND).  Tuesday show added, 10/4/16.  No matinee shows on week of extension. North Coast Repertory Theatre is located at 987 Lomas Santa Fe Drive, Solana Beach, CA 92075.  Tickets: Previews- $39; Week Nights - $46; Sat. Eve. & Sun. Mat.- $50; Sat. Mat. & Sun. Night - $43. Seniors, Students, Military - $3 off admission. Call 858-481-1055 or visit www.northcoastrep.org to purchase tickets.

BOX OFFICE     (858) 481-1055 or www.northcoastrep.org

BIOS:

A.R. Gurney (Playwright) Albert Ramsdell Gurney Jr., also known as A. R. Gurney, and sometimes credited as Pete Gurney, is an American playwright, novelist and academic. Born in Buffalo, New York, in 1930, his plays often explore the theme of a declining upper-class life in contemporary America. Several of his works are loosely based on his patrician upbringing, including The Cocktail Hour and Indian Blood. Among his most-produced works are Sylvia, The Snow Ball, The Dining Room and Love Letters.

ROSINA REYNOLDS (Director) North Coast Repertory Theatre: Fallen Angels; Broken Glass; Educating Rita; Glorious; Don't Dress For Dinner; Relatively Speaking; Importance of Being Earnest; Travesties; An American Daughter; The Sum of Us; Blithe Spirit; Corpse; Rough Crossing; Chekov in Yalta. San Diego Repertory Theatre: Bad Dates. Cygnet Theatre: Atwater, Fixin' to Die. Renaissance Theatre: Caretaker (San Diego Critics Circle Award). Compass Theatre: Three Days of Rain. Fritz Theatre: Vigil. Hahn Cosmopolitan Theatre: Marvin's Room. Diversionary Theatre: Marriage Bed; Happy Endings are Extra; Twilight of the Golds; Beautiful Thing; Wrinkles; Another American; Asking and Telling; Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde; Breaking The Code; Lot's Daughters. Chequamegon Children's Theatre: Founding Artistic Director. Twenty-nine years of Broadway musicals with up to 60 kids annually, rehearsed and presented in 3 weeks. This summer we presented The Pirates of Penzance.

J. MICHAEL FLYNN* (Bradley) Returning to Southern California theatre after eighteen years, Mr. Flynn is thrilled to be joining North Coast Rep. During more than four decades in the theatre, Mr. Flynn has worked with – among others – A Contemporary Theatre, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, American Conservatory Theatre, Arizona Theatre Company, Aurora Theatre, Baltimore CenterStage, Berkeley Rep, Boise Contemporary, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Center Rep, Cleveland Play House, Geva, The Goodman, The Huntington, Idaho Shakespeare Festival, The Long Wharf, The Magic, The Old Globe, Oregon Shakespearean Festival, P.C.P.A., Pittsburgh Public, Portland Center Stage, San Jose Rep, Seattle Rep, Syracuse Stage and The Sundance Institute.

CHRIS PETSCHLER* (John) Los Angeles: The Bat, starring Veronica Cartwright; David in Desperate Writers (world premiere.) World tours: Uncle in Beethoven Lives Upstairs, Vivaldi/Giovanni in Vivaldi's Ring of Mystery, Mozart in Mozart's Magnificent Voyage. Selected regional: Man #1 in I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change (several productions nationwide); Foxfire (Jenny Wiley Theatre, KY); Forty Carats (McArt's International Theatre, FL); Mark Antony in Julius Caesar (Oak Park Festival Theatre, Chicago); Georg in She Loves Me (Theatre at the Center); Once Upon a Mattress, Lucky Stiff, The Mousetrap (Drury Lane Oakbrook); Jewtopia (Chicago premiere, Mercury Theater). TV and Film: "The Dark Knight" (Warner Brothers), "The Velvet Veil" (Red Walnut Pictures), "A Credit to the Family" (Second City TV, starring Ed Helms).

CRISTINA SORIA* (Ann) - Delighted to be back playing Ann in The Cocktail Hour. Also at North Coast Rep: Hedda Gabler, Tiny Alice. Cygnet Theatre: When the Rain Stops Falling by Andrew Bovell. 6^th@Penn Theatre: The Lover and Ashes to Ashes by Harold Pinter ("Billie" Outstanding Leading Actress in a Comedy or Drama), Oedipus Tyrannus. South Coast Repertory: So Many Words. Blackfriars Theatre: La Ronde/Getting Around. San Diego Repertory: A Christmas Carol (2X) and Man of the Flesh. Old Globe Theatre/Cassius Carter: La Fiaca. Theatre in Old Town (produced by USIU): You Can't Take It With You. Carlsbad Theatre: The Lady Cries Murder.

SHANA WRIDE*: (Nina) was last seen at North Coast Rep in Faded Glory and Broken Glass.  Other acting credits include Baby with the Bathwater, The Further Adventures of Hedda Gabler, Next Fall (Diversionary Theatre);  Much Ado About Nothing (Intrepid Theatre); Private Lives (Cygnet Theatre);  Women Who Steal, A Christmas Carol, Suds, Working, Six Women with Brain Death (San Diego Repertory Theatre); A Midsummer Night's Dream, Twelfth Night, Merry Wives of Windsor (Shakespeare Festival Los Angeles); Indoor/Outdoor (The Colony Theatre); Macbeth, Fen, Wooden Breeks, Measure for Measure (Open Fist Theatre); Heidi Chronicles and Lips Together, Teeth Apart (Gaslamp Theatre);  Henry IV Parts 1 & 2, Love's Labor's Lost (Idaho Shakespeare Festival); New, Shadowy Waters, No Time Like The Present (Sledgehammer Theatre).  Directing credits include: The Whale, Mistakes Were Made (Cygnet Theatre); Walter Cronkite is Dead (San Diego Repertory Theatre); Boys & Girls and Anita Bryant Died for Your Sins (Diversionary Theatre) and Or (Moxie Theatre).