The Patron Saint of Sea Monsters
- Written by Marlane Meyer
- Directed by Lisa Peterson
Marlane Meyer lives in Hollywood, California. She’s been writing plays for thirty-five years. Her produced plays include Etta Jenks, The Geography of Luck, Kingfish, Moe’s Lucky Seven, The Mystery of Attraction and The Chemistry of Change, the latter for Playwrights Horizons. Her other productions include The Royal Court Theatre, The Public Theater, The Magic Theater, Steppenwolf Theater and others. She has also been a writer/producer for television. These shows include “Nothing Sacred,” winner of a Peabody Award, “Law & Order: Criminal Intent” and “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.” She has also been a recipient of the Kesselring Award and the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. (As of March 2013)
Recent NY credits include An Iliad, written with Denis O’Hare (NYTW- 2012 Obie Award, Lortel Award, Drama Desk nominations); Shipwrecked by Donald Margulies and Motherhood Outloud by 15 writers (Primary Stages); The Trestle at Pope Lick Creek by Naomi Wallace, Slavs! (Thinking About the Longstanding Problems of Virtue and Happiness) by Tony Kushner, Traps by Caryl Churchill, The Waves adapted from Virginia Woolf by Peterson and David Bucknam (Drama Desk nominations) and Light Shining in Buckinghamshire by Caryl Churchill (Obie Award for Directing), all at New York Theatre Workshop; The Fourth Sister by Janusz Glowacki and The Batting Cage by Joan Ackerman (Vineyard Theatre); The Poor Itch by John Belluso, The Square by 16 writers, and Tongue of a Bird (The Public); Collected Stories by Donald Margulies (MTC); Birdy adapted from the William Wharton novel by Naomi Wallace (Women’s Project); The Chemistry of Change by Marlane Meyer (Playwrights Horizons/WPP); The Model Apartment by Donald Margulies (Primary Stages); and Sueno by Jose Rivera (MCC). Lisa has directed regionally at the Mark Taper Forum (where she was Resident Director for 10 years), La Jolla Playhouse (Associate Director for 3 years), Guthrie, Berkeley Rep, Seattle Rep, Arena Stage, McCarter, Actors’ Theater of Louisville, Hartford Stage, Long Wharf, Yale Rep, Baltimore Center Stage, Huntington, Dallas Theater Center, Oregon Shakespeare Festival and California Shakespeare Theater. She is a Usual Suspect at NYTW, a member of Ensemble Studio Theater, and on the executive board of SDC.
WORLD PREMIERE
Aubrey, a very determined romantic, believes she’s met her soul-mate in Calvin, a boozing womanizer. But in this tilted, thoughtful comedy, true love is an even more tangled predicament. Peopled by an assortment of eccentrics, mystics and front porch philosophers, this new play from Marlane Meyer is a sweet polemic, an unexpected love story, and a deliciously cockeyed view of the sustaining—and destructive—power of belief.
Featuring
Candy Buckley
Rob Campbell
Laura Heisler
Haynes Thigpen
Danny Wolohan
Jacqueline Wright
Playwrights Horizons debut. Broadway: Scandalous, After the Fall, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Cabaret, Ring Round the Moon. Off-Broadway: Shockheaded Peter (Little Shubert); Valhalla, View of the Dome (NYTW); Two Noble Kinsmen, The Petrified Prince (Public); Defying Gravity (American Place Theater); Bernarda Alba (Lincoln Center); Mimi le Duck (New World Stages); Communicating Doors (Variety Arts). Recent: Little Dog Laughed at Hartford TheaterWorks. Recipient: Princess Grace Statuette; Drama Desk and Helen Hayes Award nominations.
Playwrights Horizons: The Patron Saint of Sea Monsters, Small Tragedy (Obie Award, Lortel nomination). Broadway: All the Way, Translations, Ivanov. Off-Broadway: Anne Washburn’s Iphegenia in Aulis, Mad Forest, In the Blood, The Singing Forest, Him, Lascivious Something, Orphan of Zhao, The Illusion, House For Sale, Living Room in Africa. Film: Unforgiven, Boys Don't Cry, The Crucible, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Rabbit Hole.
Playwrights Horizons: Kin, Doris to Darlene, People Be Heard. Broadway: Coram Boy. Other Off-Broadway: The Mistakes Madeline Made (Naked Angels), Everything Will Be Different (Soho Rep), A Mother, A Daughter and a Gun (Dodger Stages), Water Music (EST), Somewhere Someplace Else (Clubbed Thumb), The Given (Studio Dante). Regional: Geffen Playhouse, South Coast Rep, Williamstown, Humana Festival, Woolly Mammoth, McCarter, Old Globe, The Alley. TV: “The Middle,” “Ugly Betty,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Bones,” “Numbers.”
Playwrights Horizons: Our House. Broadway: Dead Accounts. Other Off-Broadway: Misalliance (Roundabout); Duchess of Malfi, The Revengers Tragedy (Red Bull Theater). Regional: The Aliens (San Francisco Playhouse), Dead Accounts (Cincinnati Playhouse), August: Osage County (Old Globe), Our House (World Premiere, Denver Theater Center), Hamlet (McCarter), The Black Monk (Yale Rep).
Playwrights Horizons: The Patron Saint of Sea Monsters. New York Theater: An Octoroon (Soho Rep); Im Pretty F#cked Up, Baby Screams Miracle (Clubbed Thumb). Regional: Gnit (Humana Festival); Body of an American, Cymbeline (Portland Center Stage); Concerning Strange Devices…, Lieutenant of Inishmore, Tragedy: A Tragedy (Berkeley Rep); Jack Goes Boating, Sex (Aurora Theatre). TV: “Trauma.”
Playwrights Horizons debut. New York: Eat Me (Ensemble Studio Theatre-NY). Los Angeles: Killers (Evidence Room); Eat Me, Richard the Third, Clyt at Home (LA Weekly Award, Theatre of NOTE); Buddy Buddette, And Still the Dogs (Ensemble Studio Theatre-LA, LA Weekly nomination). International: Grisly Notes and Tones (Dijon Theatre Festival France), Elektra LA LA (Edinburgh Theatre Festival, Scotland). TV: “Monk,” “Criminal Minds,” “E.R.,” “Gilmore Girls,” “Big Love.”
Creative Team
Rachel Hauck
Scenic DesignPaloma Young
Costume DesignRussell H. Champa
Lighting DesignDarron L West
Sound DesignMarisa Levy
Production Stage ManagerRachel Hauck is a Tony Award winning scenic designer based in New York City.
Broadway credits include Hadestown, The Avett Brothers’ Swept Away, Doug Wright’s Good Night Oscar, Paula Vogel’s How I Learned To Drive; Heidi Schreck’s What The Constitution Means To Me; and John Leguizamo’s Latin History For Morons. Most recently, she designed the scenery for Cats: The Jellicle Ball; Galileo: A Rock Musical; and the Avett Brothers’ Swept Away on Broadway.
Rachel is honored that her designs have been recognized. She has received the Tony Award for her design of Hadestown, as well as a Tony Nomination and Jeff Award for Good Night Oscar. Rachel is the recipient of Drama Desk, Lortel, Helen Hayes, Audelco and Ovation Nominations. She is extremely honored to have received the Princess Grace Award, Lilly Award, an OBIE Award for Sustained Excellence and the Distinguished Alumni Award from UCLA where Rachel received her BA.
Rachel was the Resident Set Designer at the O’Neill Playwrights Conference for ten years where she worked with more than 70 playwrights. She remains dedicated to new work and new play development.
She is a member of the American Theater Wing Advisory Board, the 1/52 Grant Administration Committee and a co-founder of Design Action. She was an elected leader of her union, USA 829 for 12 years, and has taught at Princeton, Brown, Vassar and Cal Arts.
Playwrights: Fly By Night, The Patron Saint of Sea Monsters. Broadway: Peter and the Starcatcher (Tony Award); Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 (Tony nomination); Bandstand (Drama Desk nomination); Time and the Conways; Lobby Hero. Other Off-Broadway: Natasha, Pierre… (Kazino, Lucille Lortel Award); Recall (Colt Coeur); Permission (MCC); BrooklynBabylon (BAM). Regional: ART, Dallas Theatre Center, South Coast Rep, Arena Stage, La Jolla Playhouse, Old Globe, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, among others. MFA: UC San Diego. @secondpigeon, palomayoung.com
Broadway: In the Next Room or the Vibrator Play (Lyceum Theatre/Lincoln Center), and Julia Sweeney's God Said Ha!(Lyceum Theater), Off-Broadway: Lincoln Center Theater, Playwrights Horizons, Manhattan Theater Club, Second Stage, Public Theater
Previously at the Friedman: The American Plan,To Be or Not To Be, The Royal Family, Top Girls, and Time Stands Still. He is a Tony and Obie Award-winning sound designer whose work for theater and dance has been heard in over 500 Productions nationally and internationally, on Broadway and off. His accolades for Sound Design include the Bay Area Theater Critics Circle, Lucille Lortel and AUDELCO Awards. He a two-time Henry Hewes Design Award winner, and a proud recipient of the Princess Grace Award statue.
The play's six actors portray 17 characters with a gonzo intensity that's scary, funny, and exhilarating. Meyer manages to find delight, humor, and something lovable in even the vilest human beings.
A dark fable about the power of true love and unshakable belief, rendered with wit, grit, and a stuffed raccoon.
Glimmering with possibility, disorienting and clever, Marlane Meyer's The Patron Saint of Sea Monsters handily demonstrates overindulgence in the High Weird style. Danny Wolohan is brilliant. I love a good Twin Peaks–style gumbo.
