Rancho Viejo
- Written by Dan LeFranc
- Directed by Daniel Aukin
Playwrights Horizons: The Big Meal (Drama Desk and Lortel nominations). Other Off-Broadway: Sixty Miles to Silver Lake (Soho Rep./Page 73, New York Times Outstanding Playwright Award). Regional: Troublemaker, or the Freakin Kick-A Adventures of Bradley Boatright (Berkeley Rep); Bruise Easy (American Theater Company); The Big Meal (American Theater Company, Joseph Jefferson Award, Time Out Chicago #1 Play of the Year). International: The Big Meal (UK, Stockholm, Shanghai). TV: “The Affair” (Showtime; Golden Globe, Best Drama; Writers Guild Award nom.), Steve McQueen’s “Codes of Conduct” (HBO). Residencies: Sundance Theatre Lab, MacDowell Colony, Djerassi, Jaw West, Mellon Foundation Playwright-In-Residence, Playwrights Horizons 2013-16. Alumnus: New Dramatists, SohoRep. Writer/Director Lab, MCC Writers’ Group, SPACE at Ryder Farm’s Working Farm. Board member: Page 73. Instructor: Yale School of Drama.
Playwrights Horizons Commission
World Premiere
We never meet young Richie and Lonna, whose marriage is on the rocks. But miles and miles away, in the affluent southwestern suburb where their parents live, this couple’s separation is disturbing the tranquility of a community they’ve barely met. In Dan LeFranc’s comedy of anxiety and awkward neighbors, the residents of Rancho Viejo drift from one gathering to the next, wrestling life’s grandest themes while fending off existential despair — set against the lustful, yearning strains of a distant bolero.
Featuring
Ruth Aguilar
Anita
Mark Blum
Pete
Bill Buell
Mike
Ethan Dubin
Tate
Julia Duffy
Patti
Tyrone Mitchell Henderson
Leon
Lusia Strus
Suzanne
Mare Winningham
Mary
Mark Zeisler
Gary
Marti
Mochi
Playwrights Horizons debut. Off-Broadway: Into the Glades, Something Outrageous, Hodgepodge, Etta Jenks. Regional: Unmerciful Good Fortune (Unhinged), Grease and Godspell (Jones Hall). Film: Divorce Texas Style, English Vinglish (Special Mention Toronto Film Festival). TV: “Black & White” (A&E Comedy Pilot), The Hunt, Monsters Inside Me. BA from Music University of St. Thomas. Awards: Emmy NY1 Commercial. www.ruthaguilar.com
Playwrights Horizons: After the Revolution; Little Footsteps; Gus and Al (Obie Award), Table Settings; Say Goodnight, Gracie. Broadway: The Assembled Parties, The Best Man, Twelve Angry Men, A Thousand Clowns, Lost in Youngers. Other Off-Broadway: The Model Apartment; The Good Mother; Lonely, I’m Not; We Live Here; Picked; Singing Forest; The Long Christmas Ride Home; The Waverly Gallery; Mizlanski Zilinski; It’s Only a Play; Key Exchange. Film: How We Fell in Love, Blumenthal, Shattered Glass, Desperately Seeking Susan, Crocodile Dundee, The Presidio, Blind Date, Worth Winning, Lovesick. TV: “Mozart in the Jungle” and many more.
Playwrights Horizons: Kin, On the Bum, Violet (concert). Broadway: Cyrano, Equus, The History Boys, Inherit the Wind, Urinetown, 42nd Street, Titanic, Tommy, Taking Steps, Big River, Annie, Once a Catholic. Other Off-Broadway: Indian Ink (Roundabout); Tartuffe, The Winter’s Tale, Twelfth Night (The Public/Delacorte). Film: God's Pocket, Across the Universe, Spy Game, Welcome to the Dollhouse, The Love Letter, Requiem for a Dream, Quiz Show, Kinsey. TV: “Elementary,” “Blue Bloods,” “The Bronx Is Burning,” “John Adams,” “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” “Law & Order,” “Boardwalk Empire.”
Playwrights Horizons debut. Off-Broadway: Shear Madness, NYC premiere (New World Stages). Regional: peerless, His Girl Friday (Barrington Stage Company);The Whale (Adirondack Theater Festival); Sleep Rock Thy Brain (Actors Theatre Louisville); 60 Miles to Silver Lake (Collaboraction, Chicago); Remember This: Walking with Jan Karski (D.C. Lab for Global Performance, NY Theater Row). TV: "Orange Is The New Black." Training: Actors Theater Louisville Apprenticeship and University of Chicago. Thanks to Dan and my parents in sunny SoCal. www.ethandubin.com
Playwrights Horizons debut. Broadway: Once in a Lifetime. Regional: The Enchanted (Kennedy Center); Curse of the Starving Class, Three Sisters (St. Louis Rep); Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (Huntington, IRNE Award nomination); The Heiress, Little Foxes (Pasadena Playhouse), Sex and Education (Laguna Playhouse). Film: Intolerable Cruelty. TV: “Newhart” (seven Emmy Award nominations, Golden Globe nomination, five American Comedy Award nominations), “Designing Women,” “Looking” (HBO), “Shameless” (Showtime), “The Blue and the Gray,” “Romeo and Juliet” (PBS), “Key and Peele,” “Scream Queens.”
Playwrights Horizons debut. Broadway: Bring in 'Da Noise, Bring in 'Da Funk. Off-Broadway: The America Play, Two Noble Kinsmen, The Tempest (Public Theatre) Piano Lesson (Signature Theatre) The Public Sings (City Center). Regional: Aubergine, Intelligent Homosexual's Guide… (Berkeley Rep); The Winter’s Tale, Piano Lesson (Yale Rep); Jitney (ATL); Radio Golf. TV: “Elementary,” “House of Cards,” “Orange Is the New Black,” “Boardwalk Empire,” “Law & Order.” Founder: Quick Silver Theater Company (Audelco nomination).
Playwrights Horizons: The Retributionists. Broadway: Enron, Elling. Other Off-Broadway: The Undeniable Sound of Right Now (Rattlestick). Regional: Confederacy of Dunces (Huntington); Travesties and Are You There, McPhee? (McCarter); Good People (Jeff Nomination), Our Town, Hysteria, Whispering City, her commissioned, LA Weekly award-winning solo-show, It Ain't No Fairy Tale (Steppenwolf); Love's Labor's Lost, Merry Wives of Windsor (Chicago Shakespeare), Go Away Go Away (European Rep, Jeff Award); Henry IV (Royal Shakespare Company, England). Film: Restless, Kelly & Cal, The Mend, Cotton (Best Actress, Four Festivals), 50 First Dates, Miss Congeniality 2. TV: “Blue Bloods,” “Modern Family,” “Wayward Pines,” Estelle on “Good Behavior.”
Playwrights Horizons: After the Revolution. Broadway: Casa Valentina (MTC, Tony nomination), Picnic (Roundabout). Other Off-Broadway: Her Requiem (Lincoln Center), Tribes (Barrow Street, Lortel nomination), 10 Million Miles (Atlantic, Lortel Award). Film: Georgia (Academy Award nomination); Turner and Hooch; Wyatt Earp; St. Elmo's Fire; Mirror, Mirror; Philomena and upcoming The Seagull. TV: two Emmy Awards and eight total nominations, most recently for HBO's "Mildred Pierce" and History Channel's "Hatfields & McCoys." Recurring roles on "American Horror Story" and Showtime’s “The Affair.”
Playwrights Horizons debut. Broadway: A View From the Bridge. Off Broadway: Piece of My Heart, eurydice, Sex Lives of Our Parents, The Accomplices. Regional: American Repertory Theatre, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Baltimore CenterStage, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Yale Rep, Berkeley Rep, Goodman, McCarter, Seattle Rep, Folger Theatre, and BAM Next Wave Festival. Television: “The Blacklist,” “House of Cards,” “Elementary,” “The Good Wife,” “Rescue Me,” “Blue Bloods,” “Unforgettable,” “Pan Am,” “The Americans,” all three “Law & Order(s).” Film: Pervertigo, Random Hearts. Trained at SUNY Purchase.
Playwrights Horizons debut. Other Off-Broadway: The Open House (Signature). Film: Annie (2014) with Quvenzhané Wallis, Jamie Foxx, and Cameron Diaz. TV: “Billions” as Paul Giamatti’s dog, 2016 Nutrish dog food campaign. Marti was discovered by guardian/trainer William Berloni at Adopt A Dog Shelter in Armonk, New York in May 2013. Marti had been in that shelter for over two years after being brought up to New York from a high kill shelter down south. She has a long career in show business and as an ambassador for homeless dogs everywhere proving they are all stars.
Creative Team
Dane Laffrey
Scenic DesignJessica Pabst
Costume DesignMatt Frey
Lighting DesignLeon Rothenberg
Sound DesignKyle Gates
Production Stage ManagerWilliam Berloni
Animal TrainerPlaywrights: Rancho Viejo, Indian Summer, Iowa, The Christians. Broadway: set for the current revival of Once On This Island, set and costumes for Deaf West’s Spring Awakening, set for Fool For Love. Other Off-Broadway: MTC, Roundabout, Atlantic, BAM Harvey, Labyrinth, Second Stage, Vineyard, LCT, MCC, Soho Rep., Rattlestick, Transport Group, others. Regional: Humana Festival, Mark Taper Forum, Old Globe, Geffen, Williamstown, Huntington, Goodspeed, Denver Center, Center Stage, Dallas Theatre Center, others. International work in Tokyo, Oslo, Osaka, and throughout Australia. 2017 Obie for Sustained Excellence in set and costume design; nominations for a Drama Desk Award and five ATW Henry Hewes Awards.
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.
Playwrights Horizons: The Profane, Rancho Viejo, A Life, Placebo, This, Grand Concourse, The Call, Go Back to Where You Are, She Stoops to Comedy. Other Off-Broadway: Everybody (Signature), All the Ways... (MCC), War (LCT3), Gloria (Vineyard), The Way We Get By (Second Stage), Buzzer (The Public), An Octoroon (Soho Rep., TFANA), Generations (Soho Rep.). Regional: For Peter Pan on her 70th birthday (Humana Festival 2016, Berkeley Rep).
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.
Playwrights Horizons: Rancho Viejo. Broadway: Annie (all revivals), The Crucible, Living on Love, The Audience, Bullets Over Broadway, Lady Day…, A Christmas Story, Legally Blonde, Camelot, Frankenstein, The First, Alice in Wonderland, Oliver!, Anything Goes, Nick & Nora, La Bête, The Wiz, The Wizard of Oz, Dinner at Eight, Chitty Chitty…, The Woman in White, Awake and Sing, The Lieutenant of Inishmore. Awards: 2011 Tony Honoree, 2014 Outer Critics Circle, 2017 Drama League Award.
Special thanks to the Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation for its generous support of Rancho Viejo.
Rancho Viejo is the result of a Playwrights Horizons/Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust commission.
Playwrights Horizons thanks the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for supporting Dan LeFranc's residency at our theater from 2013-2016. During that period, the Mellon Foundation's grant generously supported the creation and development of Rancho Viejo.
Critic's Pick. AN IMPECCABLY ACTED COMEDY! Dan LeFranc’s ‘Rancho Viejo’ is sweet, hypnotic, and very funny.
★★★★ Critic's Pick. MAGNIFICENTLY STRANGE and WELCOMING. Daniel Aukin’s immaculate production shines with a smashing cast.
A very skilled writer who knows how to slash your jugular vein but — to his great credit — never forgets what his audience is feeling and constantly reaches to touch their hearts.”
