Danny Pintauro - Hot 'N' Throbbing

August 25, 1999

ARENA STAGE PRESENTS NEW VERSION OF
PAULA VOGEL'S INTENSE DRAMA HOT 'N' THROBBING,
DIRECTED BY MOLLY SMITH

(Washington, DC) Arena Stage begins its 1999-2000 season with a new version of Paula Vogel's provocative drama, Hot 'N' Throbbing, directed by Molly Smith. Focusing on a suburban mother and her relationship with her daughter, son and estranged husband, Hot 'N' Throbbing delves into the connections between sex, power and domestic abuse. Hot 'N' Throbbing will be performed September 3 through October 17 in the Kreeger Theatre. The opening night performance will be on Thursday, September 9 at 8:00 p.m.

Molly Smith comments, "This is a dangerous and exciting play that is both screamingly funny and deeply devastating. Hot 'N' Throbbing focuses on the family at home – the place of the greatest safety and the greatest violence. With her gift for writing about taboo subjects with profound insight, Paula Vogel probes the inner workings of our hearts and minds. She refuses the easy answers, and creates a world as bright and new as anything ripped out of the daily paper."

Paula Vogel remarks, "One out of every three families experiences episodes of domestic violence. I would call it an epidemic that needs to be placed front and center for our community to examine, discuss and, hopefully, overcome. Since first drafting Hot 'N' Throbbing in 1993, I have re-examined the explosive, topical issues surrounding the play and, based on my exploration, have made substantial changes to the original work. The new version of Hot 'N' Throbbing presented at Arena Stage is more daring and more biting than the one done previously."

Paula Vogel won the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for How I Learned To Drive, as well as the New York Drama Critics Circle and other awards for Best Play. Her plays have been performed at the Vineyard Theatre, Roundabout Theatre, Center Stage, The Studio Theatre and Perseverance Theatre in Alaska. The Baltimore Waltz won the Obie Award for Best Play (1992), and her anthologies, The Baltimore Waltz and Other Plays and The Mammary Plays (including Drive) have been published by Theatre Communications Group. Other plays include Desdemona and The Mineola Twins. Ms. Vogel has received the AT&T New Plays Award, The Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays, the Guggenheim Fellowship and several National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships.

Molly Smith, now in her second year as Artistic Director of Arena Stage, directed last season's Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and How I Learned To Drive. Prior to Arena, she founded the Alaska-based Perseverance Theatre, which she led for 19 years. Directing credits at Perseverance include: The Odyssey, The Greeks, Genesis, The Front Page, Top Girls, The Cherry Orchard, Macbeth, Farther West, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, The Collected Works of Billy the Kid, The Sirens, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Death of a Salesman. Her work has been seen at theaters from Berkeley Repertory Theatre to Rhode Island's Trinity Repertory Company to New York Theatre Workshop. She has developed works by nationally and internationally renowned playwrights, including Paula Vogel's How I Learned To Drive and The Mineola Twins, and John Murrell's Democracy and The Faraway Nearby. She has also directed two films, Raven's Blood and Making Contact. Ms. Smith has served on many national panels, including those for leading cultural organizations such as Theatre Communications Group.

The cast of Hot 'N' Throbbing includes Lynnda Ferguson, Colin Lane, Danny Pintauro, Rhea Seehorn, Craig Wallace and Sue Jin Song. Lynnda Ferguson makes her Arena Stage debut with this production. South Coast Repertory credits include: Amanda in Private Lives (1999 Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award, Lead Performance), Celimene in The Misanthrope, Hedda in Hedda Gabler, Tracy Lord in The Philadelphia Story and Lina in Misalliance. At the Matrix Theatre Company of Los Angeles, she has appeared in The Homecoming (LADCC Award), Mad Forest and Dangerous Corner. Ms. Ferguson executive produced Making Contact, a feature film directed by Molly Smith, which will be released this fall.

Colin Lane appeared in the New York productions of Molly Sweeney at Roundabout Theatre Company, Portia Coughlan at The Actor's Studio, Philadelphia Here I Come at The Irish Rep and Seconds Out at The New York Shakespeare Festival/Public Theater, co-produced by The Irish Rep. Regional credits include: Molly Sweeney, Los Angeles and Hartford; Peer Gynt and Firebugs, The Guthrie Theater; Remembrance and Dancing at Lughnasa at Asolo Theatre Company; Hedda Gabler at Portland Stage Company; and As You Like It, Twelfth Night, King John and The Rat in the Skull for Shakespeare & Company. Film credits include: Broken Harvest, The Blood Oranges and Lesser Prophets.

Danny Pintauro is best known for his eight year run as Jonathan Bower on ABC's "Who's the Boss?" for which he won the Youth in Film Award for Exceptional Performance by a Young Actor in a Long Running Series. His film credits include leading roles in Stephen King's "Cujo" , and "The Beniker Gang" . Other television credits include a five-year continuing role on As the World Turns, and a guest star spot on Highway to Heaven with Michael Landon. Recently, he made his New York theater debut in the critically acclaimed "The Velocity of Gary (Not His Real Name)" , a solo piece by James Still.

Rhea Seehorn returns to Arena Stage after appearing in last season's How I Learned To Drive. Credits at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, where she is a member of the acting company, include Lori in Freedomland, Lisa in Dead Funny, Patti in Brimstone and Treacle and Gail in The Big Slam (Helen Hayes Award nomination). Other credits include: Hero in Joe Banno's Much Ado About Nothing at the Folger Shakespeare Library, Corday in Marat/Sade (Helen Hayes Award nomination) and Cecily in Travesties (Mary Goldwater/Theatre Lobby Award) at Washington Shakespeare Company. Television and film credits include "Homicide," TNT's "The Day Lincoln was Shot," Achille's Heel, Eat Me!, Floating and The Pitch.

Sue Jin Song is a recent graduate of NYU's MFA Acting Program. She made her professional debut last season at Syracuse Stage playing Anna in Burn This. Her television credits include "Spin City," "As the World Turns" and "Guiding Light."

Craig Wallace's recent performances include Belize in Angels in America Parts 1 and 2 at Signature Theatre; Billy Mars in The Last Orbit of Billy Mars at Woolly Mammoth Theatre and Walter Lee in A Raisin in the Sun at Olney Theatre Center. Other regional credits include The Shakespeare Theatre, where he has been in numerous productions; The New Jersey Shakespeare Festival; The Kennedy Center; Theatre of the First Amendment; and others.

The production team of Hot 'N' Throbbing includes Bill C. Ray (Sets), Marilyn Salvatore (Costumes), Allen Lee Hughes (Lights) and Timothy M. Thompson (Sound).

Set designer Bill C. Ray spent 10 years designing for Perseverance Theatre in Alaska, where he created sets for more than 30 productions and designed the theater facility itself. Taking a psychological approach to interpreting plays, Mr. Ray also draws a great deal from the fundamentals of painting and graphic art. He adapts textures, dynamics, contrast and color (otherwise applied to canvas) to the three-dimensional format required for the stage. Mr. Ray comments, "Watching Molly Smith's relentless search for the 'truth' in a script has always inspired me, both as a designer and painter. In the designs for Hot 'N' Throbbing, I used the architectural style of 'deconstruction' as a jumping-off point, by creating a house that stands and also appears to fall apart. It is a symbol for the characters' very broken home and it's also a metaphor for a lot of structural contradictions in our society."

To deepen the experience of audiences attending productions, Arena features Molly's Salon, conversations with Molly Smith and some of the renowned playwrights, actors, directors and designers whose work is being brought to Arena Stage this season. Molly's Salons are free to subscribers and donors, with a nominal admission fee for the general public. The upcoming Salon will take place on Monday, September 13 at 7:00 p.m. at Arena Stage and will feature Molly Smith in conversation with Arena's Artistic Associate Steven Samuels.

Beginning this season, Arena will offer a new series entitled The Actor's Arena, in which actors and directors both demonstrate and discuss their art with Arena audiences. The first program of the series will take place on Sunday, October 3 from 4:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. and will focus on the production of Hot 'N' Throbbing. From first read-through to final preview, Molly Smith and actors from the production will demonstrate and share insights into their work in preparing this unusual and thought-provoking play. Tickets are available through the box office.

Hot 'N' Throbbing is supported in part by The Daryl and Steven Roth Foundation. Through the Foundation, the Roths have supported Paula Vogel's first two years at Arena Stage.

This production is part of the American Playwright's Project, a new initiative at Arena Stage dedicated to developing a significant body of new American plays. Philip Morris Companies Inc. is one of the first corporations to provide generous support for this project.

Additional support for Paula Vogel's work at Arena Stage is provided by Hecht's.