THE LAGUNA PLAYHOUSE

PRESENTS
RED HERRING BY Michael Hollinger
February 12 – March 16, 2008

Southern California Premiere is Directed by Andrew Barnicle

The Laguna Playhouse is pleased to present the Southern California Premiere of Red Herring by Michael Hollinger, running February 12 – March 16, 2008 in The Playhouse’s Moulton Theatre in Laguna Beach. The production is directed by Laguna Playhouse Artistic Director Andrew Barnicle.

Take three pairs of lovers, add an unsolved murder and several pinches of espionage, throw in some noir-style atmosphere, and then pickle everything in a brine of early Cold War paranoia. The result is a side-splitting black comedy called Red Herring. Why is Senator Joseph McCarthy’s daughter dating a would-be traitor? What’s that supposedly dead Russian fisherman doing pretending to be feisty landlady Mrs. Kravitz’ deaf husband? How come a pair of dogged gumshoes are prowling around a pier? And how does “I Love Lucy” and the H-Bomb fit into all of this? This spoof Red Scare comedy will keep you reeling with laughter.

“Red Herring is a fable about marriage, but I didn't know that when I started. I thought I was writing a comic noir detective story,” says Hollinger. “Red Herring began years ago as a class exercise for one of my playwriting classes. I wrote a scene about a hard-boiled detective interviewing a belligerent landlady about one of her tenants, whose naked legs stuck out of the bathtub before them. I really liked this image, and the comic noir style, and they kept coming back over the years until I was ready to start the play in earnest. Since my detective character evoked the noir sensibility that burgeoned (at least in film) between the late 1940's and early 1950's, I decided to set my play in that period. Somehow, the title Red Herring came to mind. Since "red" evoked the Red Scares of the McCarthy era and "herring" evoked New England fisheries, I narrowed the period to the early 1950's and the setting to Boston.”

“This play defies categorization in the ordinary way,” notes Barnicle. “You could call it a political thriller farcical romantic drama—it has qualities from just about every genre. I like the idea that it is so unique. Parts of the play are hilarious and depend on the notion of people bumping into each other at the perfect time. This play progresses like a movie, it’s constantly moving with very little time between scenes for a transition. The actors play multiple roles, so they’ll go out through one door and come in through another in a completely different costume as a different character. While this is certainly challenging to stage, it’s also part of the fun.”

Michael Hollinger (playwright) is the author of Red Herring, Incorruptible, An Empty Plate In The Café Du Grand Boeuf, and Tiny Island, all of which premiered at Philadelphia’s Arden Theatre Company and have together enjoyed productions around the country, off-Broadway, and abroad. These plays are all published by Dramatists Play Service; Tiny Island also appears in New Playwrights: Best Plays of 1999, published by Smith and Kraus. His latest play, Tooth And Claw, was commissioned by the Ensemble Studio Theatre/Alfred P. Sloan Science and Technology Project, and received its world and New York premieres in the spring of 2004 at the Arden and EST, respectively. Hollinger has written seven touring plays for young audiences, as well as the 3D Laser Show “Extreme Choices” for New Jersey's Liberty Science Center. For PBS, he has written three short films and co-authored the feature-length “Philadelphia Diary.” Awards include the Roger L. Stevens Award from the Kennedy Center's Fund for New American Plays, a Barrymore Award for Outstanding New Play, the F. Otto Haas Award for an Emerging Theatre Artist, a Mid-Atlantic Emmy Award, and fellowships from the Independence Foundation, Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation, and Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. Hollinger is a resident playwright of New Dramatists and Assistant Professor of Theatre at Villanova.

Andrew Barnicle (Director) joined The Laguna Playhouse as Artistic Director in July 1991, and helped solidify and advance the company’s position as one of the region’s most successful professional non-profit theatres. He has directed more than thirty Laguna Playhouse productions, many of which have been world, national or regional premieres, including Rob Ackerman’s Tabletop, Alan Ayckbourn’s Communicating Doors, Catherine Butterfield’s The Sleeper, Marc Camoletti’s Don’t Dress for Dinner, Richard Dresser’s Rounding Third and Wonderful World, Bernard Farrell’s Lovers at Versailles, Stella by Starlight, Kevin’s Bed, Many Happy Returns, and the world premiere of The Verdi Girls, A.R. Gurney’s Sylvia, Sherwood Kiraly’s Who’s Hot, Who’s Not, Stephen Mallatratt’s adaptation of Susan Hill’s best-selling novel The Woman in Black, David Mamet’s American Buffalo, Steve Martin’s Picasso at the Lapin Agile and The Underpants, W. Somerset Maugham’s The Constant Wife, Joe Orton’s What The Butler Saw, William Shakespeare’s Othello, Neil Simon’s Laughter On The 23rd Floor and Rumors, Daniel Sullivan’s Inspecting Carol and John Twomey’s Teacher’s Lounge. Barnicle also directed the world premiere of his adaptation of Carlo Goldoni’s The Liar in a new translation by his wife Sara. Many of these Laguna Playhouse productions have been world, national or regional premieres. Barnicle’s acting credits include numerous television and film roles, plus major roles on stage with San Diego Rep, Alaska Repertory Theatre, Alabama Shakespeare Festival and Detroit’s Meadow Brook and Hilberry Theatres. Barnicle has been seen on stage at The Laguna Playhouse in the musicals Enter the Guardsman and Gunmetal Blues, as well as To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday, True West, Strange Snow, and last season’s The Ice-Breaker.