[NEohioPAL] Ken Ludwig World Premiere "The Game's Afoot" Delivers Thrills, Laughter

Tue Nov 8 09:04:03 PST 2011

Ken Ludwig World Premiere "The Game's Afoot" Delivers Thrills, Laughter

New Comedy-Mystery at CPH Makes for a Madcap Holiday "Whodunit"

November 25 - December 18, 2011

Opening Night: November 30, 2011

CLEVELAND, OH (November 7, 2011) - Cleveland Play House (CPH) is thrilled to
present a world premiere by multi-Tony AwardR-nominated playwright and
winner of the Olivier and Helen Hayes Awards, Ken Ludwig. Directed by Aaron
Posner, Ken Ludwig's The Game's Afoot (or Holmes for the Holidays) will take
audiences on a hilarious adventure filled with murder, mayhem and intrigue.
The CPH production of Ken Ludwig's The Game's Afoot (or Holmes for the
Holidays) will begin in the Allen Theatre at PlayhouseSquare on Friday,
November 25 and run through Sunday, December 18, 2011. Tickets are available
at PlayhouseSquare ticket office by calling 216-241-6000 or online at
www.clevelandplayhouse.com <http://www.clevelandplayhouse.com/> . Ken
Ludwig's The Game's Afoot is presented with support from Cuyahoga Arts and
Culture and the Ohio Arts Council. 

"It's a pleasure to welcome back one of the premier comic playwrights, Ken
Ludwig," states Michael Bloom, CPH Artistic Director. "His Leading Ladies
was a great success in my very first season at CPH, and it's a great
privilege to premiere another of his plays, this time in the new Allen
Theatre."

"I'm thrilled to be working again with all my friends at Cleveland Play
House, and it's particularly a treat to have The Game's Afoot premiere on
the stage of the new Allen Theatre," says playwright Ken Ludwig. "I have
fond memories of working on Leading Ladies here in Cleveland, and I value
the dedication and professionalism of the Cleveland Play House leadership
and staff, as well as the joy they bring to the Cleveland community."

ABOUT THE PLAY 

In this Ken Ludwig world premiere we meet famed stage actor William Gillette
at his Connecticut castle, recovering from an attempt on his life following
a performance of his renowned play, Sherlock Holmes. It's Christmas Eve, and
much to his mother Martha's chagrin, William invites fellow actors, Aggie &
Simon and Felix & Madge, over for the holiday weekend. His elaborate home,
filled with gadgets and hidden passageways, becomes the setting for a
murder, and Gillette must use the Sherlock Holmes crime-solving skills he
made famous on stage to catch the culprit. Will Gillette uncover the secrets
his guests are hiding? Will he discover who the murderer is before he/she
claims another victim? Will his guests ever be able to drink eggnog again?

The real-life William Gillette was a star of the American stage during the
early part of the 20th century. Gillette wrote the play Sherlock Holmes in
collaboration with Sherlock Holmes creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and he
starred in it with enormous success in both New York and London for over 30
years. With his royalties from this and other plays, he built a replica of a
medieval castle on the Connecticut River, and there he frequently
entertained the casts of his latest New York hit. This elaborate house was
filled with gadgets representing the latest technology, which Gillette
reportedly reveled in. The house is open to the public to this day.

Ludwig was inspired to write a comedy thriller after a family vacation in
London. Taking his children to see all the highlights of this historic
region, Ludwig was astonished that it was a performance of Agatha Christie's
The Mousetrap at St. Martin's Theatre that stood out as their favorite
activity of the 6-week trip. Inspired by his children's enthusiasm for The
Mousetrap, Ludwig wrote The Game's Afoot (or Holmes for the Holiday). 

THE GAME'S AFOOT Cast:

The Game's Afoot brings together a cast of veteran actors. William Gillette
is played by Donald Sage Mackay, who has appeared at regional theatres
throughout the U.S. including The Old Globe, Mark Taper Forum, La Jolla
Playhouse and San Jose Rep. Recent film and television credits include
Transformers 2, Mad Men, House, Weeds, and NCIS. Playing Gillette's mother,
Martha, is Patricia Kilgarriff, who last appeared at Cleveland Play House in
The Importance of Being Earnest in 1998. Her Broadway credits include Night
Must Fall and A Small Family Business. At Manhattan Theatre Club, Kilgarriff
was featured in Time and Again, Kindertransport and The Art of Success.
Other off-Broadway work includes Beckett/Albee, Spread Eagle, London Suite,
All's Well That Ends Well, Counting the Ways, and Footfalls.

Rounding out the cast is Eric Hassom (Felix Geisel) who recently concluded
the national tour of The 39 Steps. Other recent credits include August:
Osage County at Arden Theatre Company and The Vibrator Play at Woolly
Mammoth Theatre Company, and at Folger Shakespeare Theatre in the world
premiere of Cyrano, the new translation/adaptation by Michael Hollinger and
Aaron Posner; Lise Bruneau (Madge Geisel) most recently performed in Legacy
of Light at Arena Stage, My Name is Asher Lev at Round House and Delaware
Theatre Company, and in An Ideal Husband, Ion, Othello and The Winter's Tale
at Shakespeare Theatre Company; Rob McClure (Simon Bright), a three-time
Barrymore Award-winning artist who starred on Broadway in the Tony
Award-winning Avenue Q, and I'm Not Rappaport alongside Judd Hirsch and Ben
Vereen. He will soon reprise his Craig Noel Award-winning performance as
Charlie Chaplin in Becoming Chaplin which is expected to arrive on Broadway
next year after a successful run at La Jolla Playhouse; Mattie Hawkinson
(Aggie Wheeler) has performed in regional theatres across the country,
including Goodman Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Lookingglass
Theatre, Victory Gardens Theater, Baltimore CENTERSTAGE, Denver Center
Theatre Company, Manhattan Theatre Club, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, and
Indiana Repertory Theatre; Sarah Day (Inspector Goring) has been a part of
the acting company of American Players Theatre in Spring Green, Wisconsin
since 1986, and is currently a member of their Core Company; Erika Rolfsrud
(Daria Chase) appeared on Broadway in The Coast of Utopia, Exit the King and
Rabbit Hole. Off-Broadway credits include Electra in a One-Piece, Dally with
the Devil, Misalliance, The Cocktail Party, The Glory of Living, How I
Learned to Drive, Love's Fire, Trout Stanley, and O, Pioneers!

For a complete list of cast bios, go online at
http://www.clevelandplayhouse.com/main-stage/ken-ludwigs-the-games-afoot.

THE GAME'S AFOOT Creative Team Bios:

Aaron Posner (Director) is a Helen Hayes and Barrymore Award-winning
director and adaptor of literature. He is founder and former artistic
director of Philadelphia's Arden Theatre and has directed at major regional
theatres from coast to coast including Folger Theatre, Seattle Repertory
Theatre, Portland Center Stage, Alliance Theatre, Actors Theatre of
Louisville, Arizona Theatre Company, The Milwaukee Rep, California
Shakespeare Theatre, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, Round House Theatre, Studio
Theatre, Signature Theatre, Theater J, American Players Theatre and many
more. His adaptations include Chaim Potok's The Chosen and My Name is Asher
Lev (both of which have enjoyed successful runs at Cleveland Play House as
well as at more than 50 other theatres across the country), Ken Kesey's
Sometimes a Great Notion, Mark Twain's A Murder, a Mystery, and a Marriage
and many others. Posner was raised in Eugene, Oregon, attended Northwestern
University, is an Eisenhower Fellow and now lives near Washington, DC.

Ken Ludwig (Playwright) is an internationally acclaimed playwright whose
many hits on Broadway, in London's West End and throughout the world have
made his name synonymous with modern comedy. He has had six shows on
Broadway and six in the West End, and he has won the Laurence Olivier Award,
England's highest theatre honor, as well as three Tony Award nominations and
two Helen Hayes Awards. His work has been commissioned by the Royal
Shakespeare Company and has been performed in thirty countries in twenty
languages. His musical Crazy for You ran for over four years on Broadway and
in London. After a hit revival at The Open Air Theatre in Regent's Park this
summer, Crazy for You transferred to the West End for an open-ended run.
Lend Me a Tenor, originally produced by Andrew Lloyd Webber and recently
revived on Broadway with an all-star cast, was called, "one of the two great
farces by a living writer" by The New York Times. Other plays and musicals
include Moon Over Buffalo (Broadway and London's Old Vic, starring Carol
Burnett, Lynn Redgrave, Joan Collins & Frank Langella); Twentieth Century
(Broadway, starring Alec Baldwin & Anne Heche); The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
(Broadway); Treasure Island (London, Theatre Royal, Haymarket; 2009 AATE
Distinguished Play Award for Best Adaptation); Shakespeare in Hollywood
(commissioned by The Royal Shakespeare Company, Helen Hayes Award as Best
Play); Leading Ladies; Be My Baby (starring Hal Holbrook and Dixie Carter);
The Beaux' Stratagem (adaptation with Thornton Wilder at the request of the
Wilder Estate); The Three Musketeers (Bristol Old Vic); An American in
Paris; Sullivan & Gilbert; The Fox on the Fairway; Midsummer/Jersey, and The
Hound of the Baskervilles. His first children's play 'Twas the Night before
Christmas, opens this holiday season at The Adventure Theatre. His work has
appeared in The Yale Review, and he has just completed a book for Crown
Publishing entitled How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare. He studied music
at Harvard with Leonard Bernstein and theatre history at Cambridge
University in England.

The design team for The Games Afoot includes Daniel Conway (Scenic Design),
Thom Weaver (Lighting Design), Linda Roethke (Costume Design), James C.
Swonger (Sound Design). Also on the team: stage manager Shannon Habenicht.
For a complete list of design team bios, go online at
http://www.clevelandplayhouse.com/main-stage/ken-ludwigs-the-games-afoot.

Ticket Information

Single tickets are on sale now; prices range from $49 to $69. Tickets are
$15 for all students under the age of 25. For single tickets, please contact
the PlayhouseSquare ticket office at 216-241-6000 or online at
www.clevelandplayhouse.com <http://www.clevelandplayhouse.com/> . Groups of
10+ save up to 50% off single ticket prices; call 216-400-7027 or email
cwheeler at clevelandplayhouse.com. 

Founded in 1915, Cleveland Play House is America's first professional
regional theatre. More than 11 million people have attended over 1,100
productions at Cleveland Play House - including more than 100 American
and/or World Premieres. Today, under the leadership of Artistic Director
Michael Bloom and Managing Director Kevin Moore, Cleveland Play House is an
artist-driven theatre that serves the community by holding true to its
mission: To inspire, stimulate and entertain diverse audiences in Northeast
Ohio by producing plays and theatre education programs of the highest
professional standards.

Cleveland Play House is funded through the generosity of Cuyahoga County
residents through Cuyahoga Arts and Culture, and The Ohio Arts Council helps
to fund Cleveland Play House with state tax dollars to encourage economic
growth, educational excellence and cultural enrichment for all Ohioans.

Lisa Craig
Communications & Public Relations Manager
Cleveland Play House
1901 East 13th Street, Suite 200
Cleveland OH  44114
lcraig at clevelandplayhouse.com <mailto:lcraig at clevelandplayhouse.comPhone> 
Phone (216) 400-7022

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