Cast Announced for Donald Margulies' The Model Apartment

CAST ANNOUNCED FOR THE MODEL APARTMENT

WRITTEN BY DONALD MARGULIES
DIRECTED BY MARYA MAZOR

CAST FEATURES GIOVANNI ADAMS, MARILYN FOX, MICHAEL MANTELL AND ANNIKA MARKS

OCTOBER 11 – NOVEMBER 20 (OPENING NIGHT IS OCTOBER 19, 2016)
IN THE AUDREY SKIRBALL KENIS THEATER AT THE GEFFEN PLAYHOUSE

LOS ANGELES (September 20, 2016) – Geffen Playhouse announces the cast for its production of The Model Apartment written by Pulitzer Prize winner Donald Margulies. This marks Margulies’ seventh production at the Geffen. Marya Mazor directs the cast featuring Giovanni Adams, Marilyn Fox, Michael Mantell and Annika Marks.

Max and Lola are retiring to Florida, desperately hoping to live out their golden years in relaxation and respite. But the life they have left behind quickly comes calling, plunging their deluxe seaside condo into a nightmare tinged with the brutality of their past. We return to an early work by Pulitzer Prize winner and Geffen Playhouse favorite Donald Margulies (The Country House, Time Stands Still, Dinner with Friends) to bear witness to a haunting family history.

“Remarkable! A neglected American masterpiece.” – Time

Tickets currently priced from $60 to $76 and are available in-person at the Geffen Playhouse box office, via phone at 310.208.5454 or online at www.geffenplayhouse.org. Fees may apply.



THE MODEL APARTMENT
Written by Donald Margulies
Directed by Marya Mazor
Previews: Tuesday, October 11 – Tuesday, October 17
Opening Night: Wednesday, October 19
Closing Night: Sunday, November 20

CAST
Giovanni Adams as Neil
Marilyn Fox as Lola
Annika Marks as Debby/Deborah
Michael Mantell as Max

PRODUCTION TEAM
Set Design by Tom Buderwitz
Costume Design by Sara Ryung Clement
Lighting Design by Brian Gale
Sound Design by Lindsay Jones
Production Stage Manager Niki Armato
Production Assistant Mercedes Aponte
Casting by Phyllis Schuringa

SEASON SPONSOR
Plaza La Reina

OPENING NIGHT SPONSORS
Napa Valley Grille
Audi of America
City National Bank
Douglas Elliman
Hint
Kind

PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE
Monday No performance
Tuesday – Friday 8:00 PM
Saturday 3:00 PM and 8:00 PM
Sunday 2:00 PM and 7:00 PM

TICKET INFORMATION
Tickets currently priced from $60 to $76 and are available in-person at the Geffen Playhouse box office, via phone at 310.208.5454 or online at www.geffenplayhouse.org. Fees may apply.

LOCATION
Audrey Skirball Kenis Theater at the Geffen Playhouse
10886 Le Conte Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90024

SIGNATURE SERIES
In addition to the opening night, the run of The Model Apartment will feature pre-show Signature Series events. These include Lounge Fridays and Wine Down Sundays. Thanks to the support of Geffen Playhouse partners and sponsors, all elements of Signature Series evenings are complimentary as part of the ticket price. Signature Series events include:
· HAPPY HOUR LOUNGE FRIDAYS
A cultural happy hour that helps fast-paced Angelenos ease into the weekend, these events offer complimentary sparkling wine and refreshments with DJ-spun tunes starting at 7:00pm. Sponsored by LAArtsOnline.com. Date: Oct. 14, 2016
· WINE DOWN SUNDAYS
Wine Down Sundays provides the perfect pairing – pre-performance wine sampling followed by a 7pm curtain time to close out the week. Date: Oct. 16, 2016

BIOGRAPHIES

DONALD MARGULIES (Playwright)
The Model Apartment is Mr. Margulies’ seventh production at the Geffen Playhouse, preceded by The Country House, Coney Island Christmas, Time Stands Still, Shipwrecked! An Entertainment, Dinner with Friends, and Collected Stories. His many other plays include Brooklyn Boy, Sight Unseen, The Loman Family Picnic, God of Vengeance, What’s Wrong with this Picture? and Found a Peanut. He has won a Lucille Lortel Award, a Los Angeles Ovation Award, two American Theatre Critics Awards, two Los Angeles Drama Critics Awards, two OBIE Awards, two Dramatists Guild Hull-Warriner Awards, one Tony Award nomination, six Drama Desk Award nominations, two Pulitzer Prize nominations and one Pulitzer Prize. His screenplay, The End of the Tour, which was selected for The Black List and premiered at Sundance in 2015, was nominated for Film Independent Spirit and UCLA Scripter Awards for Best Adapted Screenplay. His works have been performed on and off Broadway; at major theatres across the United States including South Coast Repertory, Manhattan Theatre Club, Primary Stages, Williamstown Theatre Festival and Joseph Papp’s New York Shakespeare Festival; and in Paris, London, Rome, Madrid, Stockholm, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Sydney, Berlin, Vienna, Istanbul, Mumbai and many other cities around the world. Mr. Margulies has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, The New York Foundation for the Arts, and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. He was honored by the American Academy of Arts and Letters with an Award in Literature, by the National Foundation for Jewish Culture with its Cultural Achievement Award, by the PEN/Laura Pels International Foundation for Theatre with its award for an American Playwright in Mid-Career, and was the recipient of the William Inge Award for Distinguished Achievement in the American Theater and the Sidney Kingsley Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Theatre by a playwright. Mr. Margulies is an alumnus of New Dramatists and serves on the council of The Dramatists Guild of America. He is an adjunct professor of English and Theatre Studies at Yale University.

MARYA MAZOR (Director)
Marya Mazor is an award-winning director. She recently directed Ivy & Bean at South Coast Repertory, That Pretty Pretty...or the Rape Play at Son of Semele, The English Bride at Road Theatre, and Dragon Play and Time Stands Still at Chance Theater, as well as Aladdin for Walt Disney Imagineering. Other recent productions include the world premiere of Brian Nelson’s Overlooked at Chance Theater and Churchill’s Mad Forest at Open Fist Theatre Company. Her hit production of Edward Albee’s The Goat was named Best Play of 2011 by OC Weekly and a Los Angeles Times Critics’ Pick. She was one of eight women chosen for the AFI Directing Workshop for Women, where she directed the short film The Winged Man, featuring Ana Ortiz, written by playwright and Academy Award Nominee Jose Rivera (Motorcycle Diaries). Marya has also directed at Long Wharf Theatre, Pasadena Playhouse, New York Stage & Film, Nada, Dixon Place, Main Street Theatre, Circle X Theatre, Theatre @ Boston Court and Berkeley Rep (with Asian American Theatre Company), among others. Marya founded Voice & Vision, a professional theater in New York City and served as its Artistic Director for ten years. She received the NEA/TCG Directing Fellowship and holds an M.F.A. in directing from Yale.

GIOVANNI ADAMS (Neil)
Giovanni Adams recently played Frederick Douglass in the world premiere of Mount Misery at Cutting Ball Theater in San Francisco. He was recognized by StageSceneLA for his performance in The Recommendation at IAMA Theatre Company. Prior to that, he joined the world premiere casts of Sunny Afternoon (Gangbusters Theatre Company) and the LA Drama Critics Circle award-winning and Ovation Award-nominated One Night in Miami (Rogue Machine Theatre). He has participated in the Pacific Playwrights Festival at South Coast Repertory, the Bay Area Playwrights Festival and the Writer’s Workshop Retreat at Center Theatre Group to develop new works. Stage credits: Bela Lugosi’s Dead (IAMA Theatre Company) and Miss Julie and King Lear (Yale Repertory Theatre). Film/television credits: In the Dark, Fatal Instinct, Nina, Hustle vs. Heartache, Criminal Minds, Zach Stone is Gonna Be Famous, Grey’s Anatomy and Gary Unmarried. Giovanni was born in Jackson, MS and received his BA from Yale University.

MARILYN FOX (Lola)
Marilyn Fox was last seen as Bessie Berger in the remount of Awake and Sing! (Odyssey Theatre, Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for Lead Performance) and as Ranevskaya in The Cherry Orchard (Pacific Resident Theatre). Also at Pacific Resident Theatre: Lady Torrance in Orpheus Descending (LADCC Award for Lead Performance), Anna Petrovna in Ivanov (directed by Gar Campbell) and The Quick-Change Room (LADCC Award and Garland Award for Lead Performance), which moved Off-Broadway. She has appeared at Berkshire Theatre Festival, Pittsburgh Public Theater, INTAR Theatre, South Coast Repertory, Laguna Playhouse and Westwood Playhouse, among many others. Ms. Fox is the Artistic Director at Pacific Resident Theatre (LA Weekly Career Achievement Award). On television, she has been seen on Partners, Down the Shore, Judging Amy, Star Trek and more. Ms. Fox is an Adjunct Associate Professor at UCLA’s School of Theater, Film and Television, and teaches acting at PRT. For my Mom and Gar Always.

ANNIKA MARKS (Debby/Deborah)
Annika is thrilled to be making her Geffen Playhouse debut! Select theater: Church & State (Skylight Theatre), All American Girl (InterAct), Doesn’t Anyone Know What a Pancreas Is? (Ensemble Studio Theatre-LA, Ovation Nomination for Featured Actress), Mlle. God (Ensemble Studio Theatre-LA), The Accomplices (Fountain Theatre). Select film: Fox Searchlight’s The Sessions (Special Jury Award for Ensemble Acting, Sundance Film Festival), Gravitas Ventures’ Anguish, eOne’s Grace. (Best Actress Award, Woods Hole Film Festival). Television: Monte Porter on The Fosters (Freeform), The Last Tycoon (Amazon), Flaked (Netflix), Battle Creek (CBS), NCIS: New Orleans (CBS), Monday Mornings (TNT), Southland (TNT). Marks is also a writer/producer whose projects include the Stay Filthy, Cali series and The Games We Play. Marks is a graduate of the Circle in the Square Theatre Conservatory. Love to Rich, who agreed to move their wedding to a Monday so she could be part of this incredible production!

MICHAEL MANTELL (Max)
Regional: Paradise Lost (Intiman Theatre), Golden Boy (The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis), Awake and Sing! (Seattle Rep), What I Did Last Summer (Buffalo Studio Arena), The Taming of the Shrew (American Shakespeare Festival), The Last Good Moment of Lily Baker and The Downside (New York Stage and Film). In New York: The Tenth Man (Lincoln Center Theater), among others. In Los Angeles: Broadway Bound and AfterMath (Odyssey Theatre), A Small Fire (Echo Theatre), David Hockney’s Couch (Ensemble Studio Theatre – L.A.), Orange Flower Water (L.A. Stage & Film), The Monogamist (Gascon Theatre). Television: played David Rayburn for three seasons on State of Grace (ABC Family), Aquarius, Kingdom, Masters of Sex, Family Tree, CSI, The West Wing. Film: Eight Men Out, Ides of March, Ocean’s Thirteen, Thank You for Smoking, A Mighty Wind, AI and, later this year, Ben Affleck’s Live by Night.

ABOUT GEFFEN PLAYHOUSE
Geffen Playhouse has been a hub of the Los Angeles theater scene since opening its doors in 1995. Noted for its intimacy and celebrated for its world-renowned mix of classic and contemporary plays, provocative new works and second productions, the not-for-profit organization continues to present a body of work that has garnered national recognition. Named in honor of entertainment mogul and philanthropist David Geffen, who made the initial donation to the theater, the company was founded by Gilbert Cates, and is currently helmed by Artistic Director Randall Arney, Executive Director Gil Cates, Jr., and Co-Chairs of the Board Martha Henderson and Pamela Robinson. Proudly associated with UCLA, the Geffen welcomes an audience of more than 130,000 each year, and maintains extensive education and community engagement programs, designed to involve underserved young people and the community at large in the arts. www.geffenplayhouse.com

####
MEDIA CONTACT
Katy Sweet & Associates Public Relations
/310.479.2333