Los Angeles, CA – Multiple award winning company, director, and actors announce their upcoming production of A Majority Of One. The recipient of numerous nominations and awards as both a long running Broadway hit and a major motion picture, this play will be staged by the West Coast Jewish Theatre and will star Paula Prentiss and Sab Shimono as unwitting travelers, whose very different worlds are about to collide.
A Jewish widow from Brooklyn, whose only son was killed by the Japanese during World War II, accompanies her daughter on a trip to Japan where her son-in-law is to negotiate a trade agreement. While traveling, she makes the acquaintance of a very traditional Japanese man. Their relationship begins to complicate matters for the trade agreement…and for both families. The recipient of numerous awards, A Majority of One speaks to us as clearly now as it did when first performed on Broadway in 1959. As it explores the complexities of distrust, tolerance, and even forgiveness, this story holds the hope that love and humor may still survive across a cultural ocean…
West Coast Jewish Theatre is devoted to the quality production of dramatic and comedic plays, musical theatre, revues, and special performances. Their mission is to portray Jewish history, philosophy and culture through theatrical productions dealing with Jewish life in days past, present and future. The company strives to keep alive dramatic works of the past, and to promote and encourage new and contemporary playwrights whose plays deal with Jewish themes. The West Coast Jewish Theatre hopes to portray, to the non-Jewish community, the unique qualities of the Jewish people and those qualities shared with everyone that make us all equal in the family of man.
Leonard Spigelgass (Playwright) wrote the scripts for eleven Academy Award winning films with additional screen credits that include the films Silk Stockings, Pepe, and Gypsy. He was nominated for his story Mystery Street and garnered three Writers Guild of America nominations over the course of his career. His plays include Dear Me the Sky Is Falling, The Wrong Way Light Bulb, and A Remedy for Winter. Mr. Spigelgass wrote the book for the musical Look to the Lilies, and created many plays for TV’s Playhouse 90. His novels include Million Dollar Baby and Fed to the Teeth.
Salome Jens (Director) has had a long and distinguished career on Broadway, at Lincoln Center (with Elia Kazan), and at the Mark Taper Forum where she worked on Hamlet with Stacy Keach. She recently directed Bad Hurt On Cedar Street in association with The Actors’ studio and has appeared in numerous starring roles for TV such as LA Law, Cagney and Lacy, Gunsmoke, Bonanza and MacGyver.
Producer Herb Isaacs is the Artistic Director of the West Coast Jewish Theatre, and was responsible for bringing forth the original production of Zero Hour, written and performed by Jim Brochu. Zero Hour was the recipient of two Ovation awards for the Los Angeles production. He also produced two plays by Wendy Graf: Lessons, starring Hal Linden; and the award-winning play, Leipzig, starring Salome Jens, Mimi Kennedy and Mitchell Ryan. Herb produced and directed the new musical, American Klezmer, and recently directed the world premiere of a musical about Einstein, The Smartest Man in the World.
About the ensemble:
Paula Prentiss (Mrs. Jacoby) was ‘discovered’ by a talent scout and signed to a seven year contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios while a student at Northwestern University. She then starred in her first movie Where the Boys Are, and later in other MGM films including The Honeymoon Machine, Bachelor in Paradise, The Horizontal Lieutenant, and Follow the Boys. Howard Hawks directed her in Man's Favorite Sport opposite Rock Hudson. Paula starred in The World of Henry Orient with Peter Sellers, In Harm's Way with John Wayne, and What's New Pussycat with Woody Allen. Ms. Prentiss enjoyed critical acclaim with her husband in their CBS television series He and She, and has appeared in several made for television movies . Her stage appearances include Rosalind in Joe Papp's New York Shakespeare Festival production of As You Like It, Marianna in the UCLA Theatre Group production of Measure for Measure and two off-Broadway plays, Arf and The Great Airplane Snatch. Ms. Prentiss made her Broadway debut in The Norman Conquests. She appeared in the American Repertory Theater production of Demons for Robert Brustein, and then in the critically acclaimed Los Angeles premiere of Angel's Share. In 1999 Ms. Prentiss starred in a four month run of Power Plays by Elaine May and Alan Arkin in New York City, where they received glowing reviews in the New York Times. Next, she starred in the Cape Cod Playhouse production of The Tale Of The Allergists Wife. At the Shadowland Theater in Ellenville, New York she then starred with her husband and son (Ross Benjamin, who is playing the role of her son in this production) in Arthur Miller’s All My Sons. Last year Ms. Prentiss opened the 2007 season at Boarshead Theatre in Lansing, Michigan with Mrs. Warren’s Profession co-starring with her daughter, Prentiss Benjamin.
Sab Shimono (Mr. Asano) debuted on Broadway in the original cast of Mame, with Angela Lansbury. He returned to Broadway as Lord Abe in the 2005 revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Pacific Overtures after playing the role of Manjiro in the original cast on Broadway. Sab’s most recent stage appearances include The Pleasure of His Company at The Old Globe Theater, Happy End, and Philip Kan Gotanda’s After The War at A.C.T. Collaborations with writer/director Gotanda span more than 25 years, garnering a 1990 & 1991 New York Drama Desk nomination for Outstanding Actor in The Wash. Sab was seen in the Off-Broadway productions of Yankee Dawg You Die, Avocado Kid, The Wind Cries Mary, Manzanar, and Yachio. His numerous film credits include Presumed Innocent, Waterworld, Old Dogs, The Big Hit, Paradise Road, The Shadow, Suture, Sensei, and Americanese, which premiered at the 2006 Asian American Film Festival in San Francisco. Sab is a former member of The Antaeus Company, and has received awards from LA Weekly, Dramalogue, and a Clio for Best Actor.
Ross Benjamin (Jerry) is a graduate of Harvard University and has studied in Oxford and London with the British American Drama Academy. He recently completed a sold out run in the West Coast Premiere of Modern Orthodox at Theatre 40. Ross guest starred in the pilot Life On Mars for ABC, and has completed post-production in the starring role of the feature film Hard Four (with Ed Asner, Dabney Coleman, Ed Begley Jr. and Bryan Cranston). Ross appeared as Peter Goldsmith in Mike Nichols’ Primary Colors and had a recurring role on Tracy Ullman’s HBO comedy Tracy Takes On. On stage in New York, Ross has played Chris Keller in Arthur Miller's All My Sons, Treplyev in The Sea Gull, Al in On the Open Road, Cootie in Moonchildren, and Bottom and Sir Andrew in A Midsummer Night's Dream and Twelfth Night, respectively. He was seen opposite Larry Pressman in the Inkwell Theater production of Peter Lefcourt's Only the Dead Know Burbank (directed by Peter Bonerz), and has appeared at the Williamstown Theatre Festival where he played Harry Bagley in Cloud Nine and Tireseus in The Bacchae. At London’s Drill Hall he was seen as The King in Love's Labour's Lost. Ross is a member of the New Jersey Repertory Company and the co-founder of Flatshoe Entertainment and The American Screenwriting Competition.
Additional cast includes:
Anya Profumo (as Alice)
Barbara Minkus (as Essie)
Fay Kato (as Ayako)
Tomo Kawaguchi (as Noketi)
Edison Park (as Eddie)
Production Team
Set Designer: Victoria Bellocq
Lighting Designer: Kent Inasy
Costume Designer: Danielle Bray
Sound Designer: Stafford Floyd
A Majority of One opens Thursday October 23rd and runs through December 14, 2008 at Pico Playhouse 10508 West Pico Blvd. LA, CA 90064. Previews at $20/ticket will be October 18th, 19th, & 22nd. Performances are Thursdays-Saturdays at 8:00 pm and Sundays at 2 pm. Tickets are $35 and may be purchased by calling (800) 838-3006 or on line at www.westcoastjewishtheatre.com
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