Old Globe Theatre San Diego

The Old Globe Theatre in San Diego will present the West Coast premiere of Arthur Miller's latest play, "Resurrection Blues," March 18 to April 18, 2004. "Resurrection Blues," a satire set in a totalitarian state, premiered at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis last summer. Also occupying the Old Globe during the 2003-04 season will be Tom Stoppard's "Rough Crossing" (Sept. 18-Oct. 26), William Inge's "Bus Stop" (Jan. 22-Feb.

Modernist architect Eugene Weston III was in his early 30s when he declared that "the house is the last of the handcrafted objects" in an industrial age. The year was 1956, and he argued in The Times that even a modest house could be "more beautiful and meaningful" if it was built with post-and-beam construction that opens up interiors and invites the outdoors in through walls of glass. A third-generation Los Angeles architect, Weston built a string of midcentury homes here before spending three decades with a San Diego firm known for such large-scale commissions as the Old Globe Theatre, San Diego Wild Animal Park and several major buildings at UC San Diego.

A film-based musical by Harvey Fierstein, a drama inspired by the life of boxing legend Joe Louis and a new take on the MGM classic "The Band Wagon" are among world premiere offerings announced for the Old Globe Theatre of San Diego's 2007-08 winter season. Fierstein's Broadway-bound "A Catered Affair" opens the season in the Old Globe (Sept. 30 to Oct. 28).

The Elizabethan theater built for the 1935 California Pacific International Exposition in San Diego's Balboa Park was never intended to be permanent. FOR THE RECORD: Old Globe: An article in Saturday's Calendar section about the Old Globe theater complex in San Diego quoted executive producer Louis G. Spisto as saying that no seat in the new Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre was more than 12 feet from the stage. No seat is more than 16 1/2 feet from the stage. — But as the Old Globe approaches its 75th anniversary, the company is celebrating not just longevity and survival during tough economic times, but the completion of a new theater and education complex on the same green spot where abridged Shakespeare shows were first performed.

The Old Globe Theatre in San Diego on Monday announced its 2006-07 season, which will include the pre-Broadway staging of a new play by Kenneth Lonergan, starring Matthew Broderick. The regional theater has, according to executive director Louis Spisto, "sent 18 productions to Broadway" -- that is, if you include "The Times They Are A-Changin,' " Twyla Tharp's dance-concert staging of Bob Dylan's songs, which is Broadway-bound after opening to mixed reviews in February.

Actor Peter Coyote was recalling the Wednesday evening performance of Neil Simon's "Jake's Women" at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego. "When Stockard (Channing) and I came offstage at intermission, we threw our arms around each other with delight because the first act was so fresh and truthfully acted and we found so much wonderful new stuff in it. "Then we heard at the intermission that Neil had stormed out telling a friend of ours that it was the worst show ever." Simon was more than upset.

In the winter of 1925, a Kentucky spelunker named Floyd Collins went searching for a hidden cave to turn into a tourist attraction--but what he really wanted to find was a ticket out of his hardscrabble and dreary farmer's life. While making his way through the dank passageways beneath the earth, he got stuck in a narrow tunnel and, until his death 15 days later, remained trapped more than 150 feet underground. Rescuers from the National Guard and the Red Cross, among others, were summoned.

A performance of "Macbeth" is underway at the Old Globe Theatre's outdoor venue in Balboa Park. But two of the actors are nowhere nearby. Katie MacNichol and Bruce Turk, a married couple who play Lady Macduff and the Bloody Captain, are nearly a mile away, in their temporary apartment north of the park. It's changing-of-the-guard time. The object of their vigil is their son Alexander, 18 months old, who recently went to bed.

Three musicals will anchor the lineup in San Diego during the Old Globe Theatre's 2004-05 season, which also will feature the Southern California premiere of Richard Greenberg's Tony Award-winning baseball drama, "Take Me Out," the theater has announced. The musicals will include two world premieres.

Remembering sadness in the happiest of times. If it seems like a Chekhovian concept, so be it. Jack O'Brien, artistic director of the Old Globe, is fulfilling a longtime dream of directing Chekhov's "Uncle Vanya" on the main stage of his theater. The playwright is new to O'Brien's repertoire, and anticipation of the run, which begins Jan. 11 with several of his favorite actors, fills the 50-year-old director with unmitigated delight.

Adrian Noble got roughed up a bit toward the end of his tenure as the Bard's man in Britain -- he left in 2003 after 13 years as artistic director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, his plans for tearing down its main stage in Stratford-upon-Avon and building a more contemporary facility having drawn slings and arrows from the media and the arts community. Noble, 58, is eager to have another go at leading a company of Shakespearean actors, this time at San Diego's Old Globe. Noble has been named artistic director of next year's annual Shakespeare Festival, consisting of three summer productions at the Lowell Davies Festival Theatre in Balboa Park, the theater announced Friday.

Jerry Patch, co-artistic director of San Diego's Old Globe Theatre, is leaving the No. 2 position at the Globe to take a job as director of artistic development for New York City's Manhattan Theatre Club. Patch -- who joined the Globe in 2005 as resident artistic director and was appointed co-artistic director with Darko Tresnjak last fall -- will leave May 31. Patch's departure follows close on the heels of December's announcement that Tony Award-winning director Jack O'Brien would step down after 26 years as artistic director.

Acknowledging that he has become more of a Broadway baby than a steward for San Diego, Jack O'Brien is stepping down after 26 years as artistic director of the Old Globe Theatre. Moonlighting regularly on Broadway since 2000, he has earned three Tony Awards as director of "Hairspray," Shakespeare's "Henry IV" and Tom Stoppard's "The Coast of Utopia."

It's "extreme makeover" time for San Diego's Old Globe Theatre. The 72-year-old Balboa Park arts institution -- consisting of the Old Globe Theatre, the outdoor Lowell Davies Festival Theatre and the small Cassius Carter Centre Stage -- is slated for major renovation, beginning in June 2008.

A film-based musical by Harvey Fierstein, a drama inspired by the life of boxing legend Joe Louis and a new take on the MGM classic "The Band Wagon" are among world premiere offerings announced for the Old Globe Theatre of San Diego's 2007-08 winter season. Fierstein's Broadway-bound "A Catered Affair" opens the season in the Old Globe (Sept. 30 to Oct. 28).

Amy Freed, a Pulitzer Prize finalist for her play "Freedomland," has been named to Old Globe Theatre's Playwright-in-Residence program, the San Diego-based theater announced Monday.

Regarding the Bruins' latest fiasco in their remarkable string: Is it true that Steve Harvey's Bottom Ten isn't really the piece of idle, undergraduate whimsy it appears, but actually the product of diligent research, with particular emphasis on correlating recruiting strength, logical, minimal expectations and game day futility? CHARLES CHICCOA Glendale

The Old Globe 1992 six-play winter season will feature two world premieres: a musical and a comedy and is totally contemporary. The world premiere musical of Joan Micklin Silver's and Julianne Boyd's "A . . . My Name Is Still Alice" (May 14-21, mainstage) revisits the characters in their earlier popular piece "A . . . My Name Is Alice" 10 years later. It will feature most, and possibly all, of the original 1984 New York cast of "A . . . My Name Is Alice."

The Old Globe Theatre in San Diego on Monday announced its 2006-07 season, which will include the pre-Broadway staging of a new play by Kenneth Lonergan, starring Matthew Broderick. The regional theater has, according to executive director Louis Spisto, "sent 18 productions to Broadway" -- that is, if you include "The Times They Are A-Changin,' " Twyla Tharp's dance-concert staging of Bob Dylan's songs, which is Broadway-bound after opening to mixed reviews in February.

The Old Globe Theatre is more than halfway home in a newly announced fundraising campaign that aims to raise $75 million by 2010. The goals: $20 million in construction funds to spruce up the San Diego company's main stage, replace its smaller second one and build a new education center; $22.5 million to boost its endowment from $3 million to at least $25 million, and $32.5 million for operations and new artistic initiatives, including commissioning plays.