Assistance
- Written by Leslye Headland
- Directed by Trip Cullman
LESLYE HEADLAND is a Los Angeles-based playwright, screenwriter and director. B.F.A. in Drama from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Robert Moss Prize in Directing from Playwrights Horizons Theater School. Theatre: Bachelorette (Second Stage Uptown), Assistance and the rest of the Seven Deadly Plays series (IAMA Theatre Company). TV: “Terriers” on FX, created by Ted Griffin and Shawn Ryan. Film: she wrote and directed the adaptation of her play Bachelorette, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival 2012, and recently wrote a remake of About Last Night for Screen Gems and executive producer Will Gluck. (As of February 2012)
Playwrights: The Pain of My Belligerence, Assistance, The Drunken City, Manic Flight Reaction, A Small Fire (Drama Desk nomination). Broadway: The Rose Tattoo, Choir Boy, Lobby Hero, Six Degrees of Separation, Significant Other. Select off-Broadway: The Mother, I’m Gonna Pray For You So Hard (Atlantic); Days of Rage, The Layover, Lonely I’m Not, The Substance of Fire, Some Men, Bachelorette, Swimming in the Shallows (Second Stage); Punk Rock (Obie Award), Yen, A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Gynecologic Oncology Unit..., Moscow... (MCC); Significant Other (Roundabout); Choir Boy, Murder Ballad (MTC); The Hallway Trilogy: Nursing, The Last Sunday in June (Rattlestick); Dog Sees God (Century Center); Roulette (EST); US Drag (stageFARM); and several productions with The Play Company. London: The Colby Sisters of Pittsburgh, PA (Tricycle). Select regional: Geffen, Alliance, Old Globe, South Coast Rep, La Jolla Playhouse, Bay Street, Williamstown Theatre Festival.
(Updated Mar 2019)
For these young assistants, life is an endless series of humiliations at the hands of their hellacious boss, a powerful uber-magnate. In rare moments of calm when the phone calls stop rolling, Nick and Nora and their traumatized co-workers question whether all their work will lead to success -- or just more work. Leslye Headland’s Assistance is a biting, high-octane satire about our attraction to power and what we’re willing to sacrifice to stay in its orbit.
Featuring
Michael Esper
Sue Jean Kim
Virginia Kull
Lucas Near-Verbrugghe
Amy Rosoff
Bobby Steggert
Broadway: American Idiot, A Man for All Seasons. Other New York credits: The Lyons, The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures, The Four of Us, Crazy Mary, subUrbia, As You Like It, The Agony and the Agony, Manic Flight Reaction, Big Bill. Regional theatre: The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures; Long Day’s Journey Into Night; Me, Myself and I. Film and TV: All Good Things, A Beautiful Mind, Bittersweet Place, Loggerheads, “Bunker Hill,” “Law & Order.” Clarence Derwent Award recipient. (As of February 2012)
Playwrights Horizons: Assistance, The Drunken City, BFE. Off-Broadway: 10 out of 12 (Soho Rep.), Water by the Spoonful (Second Stage), The Hallway Trilogy (Rattlestick). Regional: The Chinese Room (Williamstown). Film: Maggie’s Plan, James White, Bachelorette. TV: “Girls,” “Elementary,” “Falling Water,” “High Maintenance,” “Delocated,” “Cop Show,” “Alpha House,” “Nurse Jackie.” MFA: NYU.
(as of 08/23/16)
Broadway: Man and Boy, Dividing the Estate, Old Acquaintance. Off-Broadway: Assistance (Playwrights Horizons); Sex Lives of Our Parents (Second Stage); The Orphans’ Home Cycle (Signature Theatre); Dividing the Estate (Primary Stages); Theophilus North, The Breadwinner (Keen Company). Regional: The Orphans’ Home Cycle, Dividing the Estate, To Kill a Mockingbird (Hartford Stage); The Dining Room (Dorset Theatre Festival); A View From the Bridge, Death of a Salesman (Arena Stage); The Tempest (Actors Theatre of Louisville); Our Town (Geva Theatre); A Doll’s House (North Carolina Stage Company). TV: “Boardwalk Empire,” “Nurse Jackie,” “Person of Interest,” “Law & Order: SVU.” Training: Meadows School of the Arts at SMU.
Broadway: Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, The Ritz. Off-Broadway: Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, Macbeth (The Public Theater); Oorah! (Atlantic); boom (Ars Nova), The Most Excellent Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, As You Like It (CSC and Florence, Italy). Regional: The Proud (Dance Mission, San Francisco); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Pittsburgh Public Theater); The Tempest, The Merchant of Venice, The Glass Menagerie (Texas Shakespeare Festival). TV: “Law & Order,” “Law & Order: SVU,” “Guiding Light.” Film: My Idiot Brother. M.F.A. from NYU. (As of February 2012)
is thrilled to be making her Off-Broadway debut reprising the role she originated as one of the founding members of the IAMA Theatre Company in Los Angeles. NY theatre credits: Dangerous Liasons (Blue Heron), Vladamir Mayakovsky (Plaza Cultural), Picnic at Hanging Rock (NYU Mainstage). L.A. theatre credits: Cinephilia, Assistance and Accidental Blonde (all part of Ms. Headland’s Seven Deadly Plays series done with IAMA). Film: Elektra Luxx, Girl Walks into a Bar, Remember Me. TV: “Private Practice,” “Entourage,” “Lie to Me,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “FlashForward.” B.F.A., NYU
(As of February 2012)
is excited to be making his Playwrights Horizons debut. Recent work includes A Minister’s Wife (original cast recording on PS Classics) and The Grand Manner at Lincoln Center Theater, the Broadway revival of Ragtime (Tony, Drama Desk, Drama League, Outer Critics nominations), Yank! at York Theatre (Drama Desk and Drama League nominations) and Betty’s Summer Vacation at Bay Street, directed by Trip Cullman. He is currently writing a book based on interviews with several of New York’s most prolific stage actors.
Creative Team
David Korins
Scenic DesignerJessica Pabst
Costume DesignerBen Stanton
Lighting DesignerJill BC DuBoff
Sound DesignerKyle Gates
Production Stage ManagerIn two decades of creating omnidirectional experiences, David Korins and his eponymous New York City based creative studio has reached millions of people globally by helping brands, institutions, and artists bring their stories to life. David created the worlds for 25 Broadway shows, including the Tony Award-winning musicals Hamilton, Dear Evan Hansen, Beetlejuice: The Musical, and in 2023 will open Here Lies Love and The Who’s Tommy. Among numerous TV credits, David recently created the new design of HBO’s “The Big Brunch” with Dan Levy, “Last Week Tonight” hosted by John Oliver, was the Production Designer for the 91st and 94th Annual Academy Awards, and Grease: Live!, for which he received an Emmy Award. Korins is the Director of David Blaine’s newly opened Las Vegas residency, is the Global Creative Director of Lighthouse Immersive for whom he designed Immersive Van Gogh, the highest selling experience nationally in 2021, and in 2023 his work on “Disney Animation: The Immersive Experience” will open in multiple venues around the world. David also continues to hold the title of Theater Designer in Residence for TED's conferences internationally. Collaborators include David Blaine, Bruno Mars, Elton John, Lady Gaga, Mariah Carey, Andrea Bocelli, Sia, Robin Eley and Takashi Murakami. David’s work has been presented at Madison Square Garden, Coachella, Gagosian, Lollapalooza and SXSW. Brand partnerships include the NFL, Disney, Twitter, Google, Spotify, YouTube, Microsoft, Sotheby’s and ESPN.
Recent theatre design projects: LITTLE BEAR RIDGE ROAD by Samuel D. Hunter directed by Joe Mantello and starring Laurie Metcalf; INHERIT THE WIND by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee, directed by Henry Godinez, at the Goodman’s Albert Theatre. THE COST OF LIVING by Martyna Majok, directed by Jo Bonney on Broadway at the Samuel Friedman Theatre; Other Broadway credits include The Roundabout Theatre Company's revival of MARVIN'S ROOM by Scott McPherson directed by Anne Kauffman starring Lili Taylor, Celia Weston, and Janeane Garofalo and THE HEIDI CHRONICLES by Wendy Wasserstein, directed by Pam MacKinnon starring Elisabeth Moss, Jason Biggs, and Bryce Pinkham.
Ben is a lighting designer for theater, concerts, dance, installations, and events. He is a five-time Tony Award nominee as well as an Obie, Lortel, IRNE, and Ovation Award winner. Ben is currently represented on Broadway by Maybe Happy Ending at the Belasco Theater. Recent Broadway credits include The Notebook at the Schoenfeld Theater; Mary Jane starring Rachel McAdams; Days of Wine and Roses Starring Kelli O'Hara & Brian Darcy James; Goodnight, Oscar starring Sean Hayes; The Collaboration Starring Paul Bettany & Jeremy Pope; Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol Featuring Jefferson Mays; The Rose Tattoo starring Marisa Tomei; Derren Brown: SECRET at the James Earl Jones Theater; Regina Spektor: Live On Broadway at the Lunt-Fontanne Theater; Ayad Akhtar’s JUNK at the Vivian Beaumont; Six Degrees of Separation starring Allison Janney, Corey Hawkins, and John Benjamin Hickey; Deaf West Theater’s Spring Awakening at the Lena Horne Theater; Fully Committed starring Jesse Tyler Ferguson; and Fun Home (Broadway, Off-Broadway, 1st National Tour, London).
Most recently Kyle served as Producing Manager for Playwrights Horizons Theater School, an NYU Tisch studio, producing 50+ student theater projects a year. Before working in educational theater Kyle was a stage manager for over 15 years working on and off Broadway. Kyle holds a B.F.A. in Stage Management from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts.
Photos of (1) Virginia Kull and Michael Esper; (2) Michael Esper and Virginia Kull; (3) Amy Rosoff; and (4) Sue-Jean Kim and Lucas Near-Verbrugghe by Joan Marcus.
4 of 5 stars. A KNOCKOUT. Fast-paced, gutsy and good-looking. A welcome follow-up to Bachelorette. Leslye Headland’s observant dialogue crackles with biting humor and truth. The cast is superfine. Assistance rises effortlessly.
4 of 5 stars. VICIOUSLY FUNNY. The fine actors in Assistance are dream hires: not only the town’s funniest, but also the hardest working. Leslye Headland is a puckish weaver of sharp, pinging dialogue, a modern-day screwball patter, choreographing bravura bursts of phone activity, during which characters take calls, transfer, coordinate itineraries, all the while navigating personal drama and office vendettas.
3 ½ out of 4 stars. Leslye Headland unleashes A RAPID-FIRE COMIC BLITZKRIEG with a spot-on ear for the way 20-somethings relate to each other. Under the speedy direction of Trip Cullman, the top-notch cast masters these characters.
