Pacific Resident Theater In A Garden

Pacific Resident Theater Homepage

Pacific Resident Theatre

PRT's 25th Anniversary Gala Fundraising Reading Series
presents the Original Cast of the
Edgerton Award-Winning New Play

In a Garden
by Howard Korder

One Night Only!
Sunday, September 18th at 7:00pm
Includes a Post-Show Reception

An American architect gets a mysterious assignment from a Middle Eastern dignitary in the latest play from Pulitzer Prize nominee and acclaimed writer of HBO's Boardwalk Empire, Howard Korder.

The original cast from the World Premiere at South Coast Repertory in 2010 will reprise their roles in the second play of the 25th Anniversary Gala Fundraising Reading Series at Pacific Resident Theatre.

"A summer house will adorn the garden of the Culture Minister of Aqaat, designed by American architect Andrew Hackett. He should live so long. The Culture Minister takes quite a while to make up his mind and likes nothing better than to skirmish over the renderings — and his favorite Hollywood movies. Will the house be built before the two men, like their countries, change loyalties and find themselves caught up in history? In this cat and mouse game, cultures clash and world views are turned upside down."

Mark Harelik ( "The Big Bang Theory, Broadway: "The Light in the Piazza" and "Mrs. Warren's Profession") reprises his role as Othman; Jarion Monroe returns as Aqaat's dictator, Najid, and PRT member Matt Letscher ("Brothers and Sisters," Eli Stone Broadway: "The Rivals "at Lincoln Center, Neil Simon's "Proposals") returns in the role of Hackett.

Tickets are $35 and include a post-show reception
For Reservations Call: (310) 822-8392

{ Photo Credit: Mark Harelik and Matt Letscher in Howard Korder's In a Garden. Photo by Henry DiRocco/SCR}

Playwright Bio

Howard Korder is a proud member of the PRT Honorary Board. His 1988 coming-of-age play Boy's Life earned him a Pulitzer Prize for Drama nomination. He is currently a writer and producer on the HBO series "Boardwalk Empire. His other plays include Search and Destroy , which has been widely produced and made into a feature film; The Lights; The Hollow Lands; and Sea of Tranquility, subsequently produced in New York and across the country.

Director – IN A GARDEN

John Alan Simon works on both independent and studio films. The feature film "Radio Free Albemuth" based on the novel by Philip K. Dick, ("Blade Runner," "Minority Report," "A Scanner Darkly,") which he adapted and directed, is currently winning awards on the festival circuit and is slated for theatrical release early next year. He produced ‘The Getaway’, directed by Roger Donaldson, starring Alec Baldwin, Kim Bassinger and Philip Seymour Hoffman. Simon’s adaptation of Dick's “Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said”, developed with Rosenbloom Entainment, has been optioned by The Halcyon Company (“Terminator Salvation”). Simon and Rosenbloom will produce along with Halcyon and Electric Shepard, the producing arm of the Philip K. Dick Trust. Simon’s next film as a director will be the noir thriller “Nothing More than Murder”, which he adapted from the Jim Thompson novel (“The Grifters,” “The Getaway,” “The Killer Inside Me”) As president of Discovery Productions, Simon has been involved with the production, financing, sales, and marketing of many successful independent features. LA theatre directing includes two LA Times Critics Choice/LA Weekly Pick of the Week Oscar Wilde plays – An Ideal Husband as Victorian Noir and Woman of No Importance. Prior to his entry in the film business, Simon was a journalist and film critic for the New Orleans Times Picayune and editor of New Orleans magazine. He graduated with honors from Harvard College and received his master's degree from the Writer's Workshop program at the University of Illinois - Chicago Circle. He is on the board of directors of the British Academy of Film & Television Arts, Los Angeles.

The Cast

Matt Letscher (Hackett) is a member of PRT and recently appeared Off-Broadway in The Roundabout Theatre Company production of The Language Archive. He has appeared on Broadway in The Rivals at Lincoln Center, Neil Simon's Proposals, and regionally in the world premiere of Lanford Wilson's Raindance, Other Theatre credits include Double Double at Williamstown Theatre Festival, Rain Dance and The Tropical Pickle at The Purple Rose Theatre Company, Anatol (LADCC Award) and Tonight at 8:30 at Pacific Resident Theatre, Love's Labour's Lost at The Old Globe and Julius Caesar and As You Like It at the Idaho Shakespeare Festival. What They Have and Ridiculous Fraud, at South Coast Repertory. Film and television credits include Towelhead, Madison, Straight-Jacket, Identity, Gods and Generals, Super Sucker, The Mask of Zorro, Lovelife, "Entourage " "Brothers & Sisters " "Medium " "Eli Stone " "The New Adventures of Old Christine " "Criminal Minds " "CSI: Miami " "Boston Legal " "Joey " "Good Morning, Miami" and the upcoming Amish Grace on Lifetime in March. His play, Sea of Fools, had its world premiere at The Purple Rose Theatre Company in 2007; his next play, Gaps in the Fossil Record, premiered in 2009 at the Pacific Resident Theatre.

Mark Harelik (Othman) Broadway Credits include: The Light in the Piazza, Mrs. Warren's Profession. Off-Broadway: Old Money, The House in Town, The Beard of Avon. Nat'l tour: The Heidi Chronicles. His Regional Theatre credits include: Williamstown Theater Festival, Mark Taper Forum, American Conservatory Theater, Seattle Repertory Theatre, The Intiman Theatre, Denver Center Theater Company, The La Jolla Playhouse, The Old Globe Theater, South Coast Repertory Theater. Film credits include For Your Consideration, Election, The Job, Meeting Spencer, Timer, Eulogy, Watching the Detectives, Jurassic Park III, Barbarians at the Gate. Television credits include Breaking Bad, Lie to Me, Monk, The Big Bang Theory, Eli Stone, Pushing Daisies, Grey's Anatomy, ER, Dirt, Sleeper Cell, Prison Break, Heroes, Medium, The Closer, Bones, Las Vegas, Desperate Housewives, Will and Grace, Raines, Seinfeld, Star Trek Voyager; and the television movies War Stories, The Partridge Family, Hefner Unauthorized, and My Brother's Keeper. He is the author of (and appeared in) The Immigrant, The Legacy and Hank Williams—Lost Highway>. Mr. Harelik is a Fox Foundation and Ten Chimneys Foundation Fellow.

Jarion Monroe (Najid) created the role of Dr. Waxling in Howard Korder's Search and Destroy and traveled with it to Yale Repertory. Recent film and television projects include principal roles in the features The Game, In Control of All Things, The Zodiac, The Californians, "Trauma," "Frasier" and "Seinfeld." Mr. Monroe is also the voice of Lynch in the game Kane and Lynch as well as several other video game titles including: CSI: Fatal Conspiracy, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, and The Godfather.

Pacific Resident Theatre

	PRT's 25th Anniversary Gala Fundraising Reading Series presents the Original Cast of the Edgerton Award-Winning New Play In a Garden by Howard Korder One Night Only! Sunday, September 18th at 7:00pm Includes a Post-Show Reception An American architect gets a mysterious assignment from a Middle Eastern dignitary in the latest play from Pulitzer Prize nominee and acclaimed writer of HBO's Boardwalk Empire, Howard Korder. The original cast from the World Premiere at South Coast Repertory in 2010 will reprise their roles in the second play of the 25th Anniversary Gala Fundraising Reading Series at Pacific Resident Theatre.
"A summer house will adorn the garden of the Culture Minister of Aqaat, designed by American architect Andrew Hackett. He should live so long. The Culture Minister takes quite a while to make up his mind and likes nothing better than to skirmish over the renderings — and his favorite Hollywood movies. Will the house be built before the two men, like their countries, change loyalties and find themselves caught up in history? In this cat and mouse game, cultures clash and world views are turned upside down." Mark Harelik ( "The Big Bang Theory, Broadway: "The Light in the Piazza" and "Mrs. Warren's Profession") reprises his role as Othman; Jarion Monroe returns as Aqaat's dictator, Najid, and PRT member Matt Letscher ("Brothers and Sisters," Eli Stone Broadway: "The Rivals "at Lincoln Center, Neil Simon's "Proposals") returns in the role of Hackett. Tickets are $35 and include a post-show reception For Reservations Call: (310) 822-8392 { Photo Credit: Mark Harelik and Matt Letscher in Howard Korder's In a Garden. Photo by Henry DiRocco/SCR}

Playwright Bio
	Howard Korder is a proud member of the PRT Honorary Board. His 1988 coming-of-age play Boy's Life earned him a Pulitzer Prize for Drama nomination. He is currently a writer and producer on the HBO series "Boardwalk Empire. His other plays include Search and Destroy , which has been widely produced and made into a feature film; The Lights; The Hollow Lands; and Sea of Tranquility, subsequently produced in New York and across the country.

	Director – IN A GARDEN John Alan Simon works on both independent and studio films. The feature film "Radio Free Albemuth" based on the novel by Philip K. Dick, ("Blade Runner," "Minority Report," "A Scanner Darkly,") which he adapted and directed, is currently winning awards on the festival circuit and is slated for theatrical release early next year. He produced ‘The Getaway’, directed by Roger Donaldson, starring Alec Baldwin, Kim Bassinger and Philip Seymour Hoffman. Simon’s adaptation of Dick's “Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said”, developed with Rosenbloom Entainment, has been optioned by The Halcyon Company (“Terminator Salvation”). Simon and Rosenbloom will produce along with Halcyon and Electric Shepard, the producing arm of the Philip K. Dick Trust. Simon’s next film as a director will be the noir thriller “Nothing More than Murder”, which he adapted from the Jim Thompson novel (“The Grifters,” “The Getaway,” “The Killer Inside Me”) As president of Discovery Productions, Simon has been involved with the production, financing, sales, and marketing of many successful independent features. LA theatre directing includes two LA Times Critics Choice/LA Weekly Pick of the Week Oscar Wilde plays – An Ideal Husband as Victorian Noir and Woman of No Importance. Prior to his entry in the film business, Simon was a journalist and film critic for the New Orleans Times Picayune and editor of New Orleans magazine. He graduated with honors from Harvard College and received his master's degree from the Writer's Workshop program at the University of Illinois - Chicago Circle. He is on the board of directors of the British Academy of Film & Television Arts, Los Angeles.

The Cast
	Matt Letscher (Hackett) is a member of PRT and recently appeared Off-Broadway in The Roundabout Theatre Company production of The Language Archive. He has appeared on Broadway in The Rivals at Lincoln Center, Neil Simon's Proposals, and regionally in the world premiere of Lanford Wilson's Raindance, Other Theatre credits include Double Double at Williamstown Theatre Festival, Rain Dance and The Tropical Pickle at The Purple Rose Theatre Company, Anatol (LADCC Award) and Tonight at 8:30 at Pacific Resident Theatre, Love's Labour's Lost at The Old Globe and Julius Caesar and As You Like It at the Idaho Shakespeare Festival. What They Have and Ridiculous Fraud, at South Coast Repertory. Film and television credits include Towelhead, Madison, Straight-Jacket, Identity, Gods and Generals, Super Sucker, The Mask of Zorro, Lovelife, "Entourage " "Brothers & Sisters " "Medium " "Eli Stone " "The New Adventures of Old Christine " "Criminal Minds " "CSI: Miami " "Boston Legal " "Joey " "Good Morning, Miami" and the upcoming Amish Grace on Lifetime in March. His play, Sea of Fools, had its world premiere at The Purple Rose Theatre Company in 2007; his next play, Gaps in the Fossil Record, premiered in 2009 at the Pacific Resident Theatre.

	Mark Harelik (Othman) Broadway Credits include: The Light in the Piazza, Mrs. Warren's Profession. Off-Broadway: Old Money, The House in Town, The Beard of Avon. Nat'l tour: The Heidi Chronicles. His Regional Theatre credits include: Williamstown Theater Festival, Mark Taper Forum, American Conservatory Theater, Seattle Repertory Theatre, The Intiman Theatre, Denver Center Theater Company, The La Jolla Playhouse, The Old Globe Theater, South Coast Repertory Theater. Film credits include For Your Consideration, Election, The Job, Meeting Spencer, Timer, Eulogy, Watching the Detectives, Jurassic Park III, Barbarians at the Gate. Television credits include Breaking Bad, Lie to Me, Monk, The Big Bang Theory, Eli Stone, Pushing Daisies, Grey's Anatomy, ER, Dirt, Sleeper Cell, Prison Break, Heroes, Medium, The Closer, Bones, Las Vegas, Desperate Housewives, Will and Grace, Raines, Seinfeld, Star Trek Voyager; and the television movies War Stories, The Partridge Family, Hefner Unauthorized, and My Brother's Keeper. He is the author of (and appeared in) The Immigrant, The Legacy and Hank Williams—Lost Highway>. Mr. Harelik is a Fox Foundation and Ten Chimneys Foundation Fellow.

	Jarion Monroe (Najid) created the role of Dr. Waxling in Howard Korder's Search and Destroy and traveled with it to Yale Repertory. Recent film and television projects include principal roles in the features The Game, In Control of All Things, The Zodiac, The Californians, "Trauma," "Frasier" and "Seinfeld." Mr. Monroe is also the voice of Lynch in the game Kane and Lynch as well as several other video game titles including: CSI: Fatal Conspiracy, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, and The Godfather.