ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT

Matthew Lombardo is a New York-based playwright whose work has been critically acclaimed and has earned him international recognition.

Mr. Lombardo’s Broadway credits include High starring Kathleen Turner at the Booth Theatre, and Looped which featured Valerie Harper as Tallulah Bankhead in a Tony-nominated performance at The Lyceum Theatre.

Off-Broadway he has penned Who's Holiday, the irreverent comedy showcasing the talent of Lesli Margherita as an adult Cindy Lou Who at the Westside Theatre (Lucille Award Nomination for Outstanding Solo Show); Tea At Five which starred Kate Mulgrew as Katharine Hepburn at the Promenade Theatre (IRNE Award winner for Best Solo Play); Mother and Child featuring Tony Award-winning actress Ann Wedgeworth at Second Stage; and Guilty Innocence at The Actors’ Playhouse.

His plays have received three National Tours including High, again with Ms. Turner; Looped, which starred Stefanie Powers; and Tea at Five which featured the talents of Faye Dunaway, Stephanie Zimbalist and Tovah Feldshuh.

Regionally, his work has been performed at Hartford Stage, American Repertory Theatre, Seattle Rep, Arena Stage, Pasadena Playhouse, Huntington Theatre Company, Cleveland Playhouse, Repertory Theatre of Saint Louis, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park and others.

Internationally, his plays have been translated into several languages and have been performed all over the world.

Upcoming plays include: Conversations With Mother, When Playwrights Kill, and House of Atreus.

THE DIRECTOR

Peter Goers

Peter Goers is an Adelaide director, actor, designer and occasional playwright. A Fringe Award winner and former Artistic Director of the University of Adelaide Theatre Guild. His production of “California Suite” opened Holden Street Theatres in 2003. He co-directed the opera “Hansel And Gretel” with Dame Joan Hammond, pantomimed Captain Hook in the ballet of “Peter Pan”, taught university drama and directed plays in Istanbul, Turkey and is a prolific and iconoclastic Adelaide theatre director. Favourites of the many shows he’s directed include “A Little Night Music”, “The Glass Menagerie”, “Streetcar”, "Kiss Of The Spider Woman”, “The Christian Brothers” and “Amadeus”. As an actor his favourite roles are Elwood P. Dowd in “Harvey”, Gerald Popkiss in “Rookery Nook”, the Emperor in “Amadeus” and playing opposite Martha Lott in “California Suite”. Goers is a celebrated ABC Radio broadcaster and frequent entertainer who has appeared more than a thousand times throughout Australia including the Theatre Royal in Tasmania. He has performed eight solo shows for the Holden Street Theatres Fringe and is the author of two memoirs, “Maddening, Self-Indulgent Crap” and “In The Air Of An Afternoon Almost Past” published by Wakefield Press and is a Distinguished Alumni of Flinders University. In 2013 he was honoured by the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for services to community, broadcasting and the arts.

Martha Lott - Tallulah Bankhead

Is a founder and the Artistic Director of Holden Street Theatres. The Fringe shows she has produced over the last twenty years at Holden Street have won more than one hundred awards and given her theatre coveted international reputation. Born to a show business family, Martha has worked as actor, director and producer in Australia and the UK. Martha has appeared in many plays including at the State Theatre Company and in her own play “That Boy” and in a celebrated production of “Grounded”. Her recent film and television credits include “Storm Boy” and “The Stranger”.

Marthalott.com

Chris Asimos - Danny Miller

Is an Honours graduate from the Flinders University Drama Centre. He has worked extensively in stage and screen in Australia and overseas. Some of his credits include “Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries”, "Danger 5” (Seasons 1 and 2), “House Husbands” and “Bad Language”. Stage work includes State Theatre’s “Hibernation”, “A View From The Bridge”. “The Three Sisters” and “Ripcord” opposite Nancye Hayes and Carmel Johnson. He also appeared in the Australian Shakespeare Company’s “Romeo And Juliet” and “Alice In Wonderland” and “Wind In The Willows”. He starred in the world premiere of “Barassi” and an extensive tour of “Become The One”. Chris is a resident performer with the National Theatre for Children and has toured to hundreds of schools across Australia.

Chris Asimos

Robert Cusenza - Steve

Robert has played a prolific, diverse and popular range of roles for Adelaide companies. These include Stanley Kowalski in “A Streetcar Named Desire”, title roles in The Elephant Man, The Dresser, the Woody Allen role in “Play It Again Sam”, Tom in “The Glass Menagerie”, Teach in “American Buffalo” and three characters with 67 costume changes, including Harpo Marx, in “Lady Be Good”. He also appeared in “The Matchmaker”, “Rookery Nook”, “Home”, “Playboy Of The Western World”,“Furtive Love”, “The Fantasticks" and revue. Recent roles include Mr Goldstone in “Gypsy” and two roles in “California Suite” which opened Holden Street Theatres in January, 2003. He also appeared in the movie “Fire In The Stone” (in which was dubbed for American audiences) and a best forgotten TV series with Graeme Bond.

Brian Wellington

After a lengthy "sabbatical", Brian returns to the Theatre.

With a lengthy background in Directing & Acting - including Stage, TV & Film; Brian was also co-Founder of The Fringe: albeit that much of thar was lost with the passage-of-time. He was also Chairman of Adelaide's premier theatre; The Adealide Theatre Group at the erstwhile Sheridan Theatre.

The smell of the crowd, and roar of the greasepaint, has finally drawn him back to the stage arena.