Arena Stage - Crystal City (Arlington, VA)
Arena Stage presents The Quality of Life. This widely acclaimed new drama was written by Emmy Award-winning writer Jane Anderson. Two radically different cousins, each dealing with domestic tragedy, meet one weekend in an attempt to forge a friendship and cope with their losses.
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The last date listed for The Quality of Life was Friday October 9, 2009 / 8:00pm.
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Very powerful play. Particularly resonated with my friend and me since we both are facing situations similar to those on stage. It was gut wrenching at times. I want to read the play because there were some unforgettable lines that I am afraid I will forget.
We found this play wonderfully intense and insightful as it contrasted the existential situations of two couples in their confrontation with death. The couples are intellectually on two different extremes, seemingly unlikely partners in a common struggle. Throughout the piece however, the couples approach each other and at the end move forward and learn to face the inevitable especially due to their differences. A wonderful piece, we both enjoyed it deeply!
Superb job. Johanna Day amazing. In fact, everyone excellent. Tough subject matter but the pulled it off.
The acting in this drama was fabulous. The story line is intense and thought provoking. The seats were excellent, I sat in the front row. Even though the Washington Post (Monday 21 Sep 09) panned the play, I would highly recommend it.
Great acting and a very interesting story. It really made me think.
I really enjoyed this play! It was thought-provoking, emotionally moving, and well-acted.
Powerful acting from each of the 4 actors!
The play was outstanding, very powerful and thought provoking. I highly recommend it.
One problem, which didn't have anything to do with the play, but rather with the theater -- it was freezing in there!!
Quality of Life is an interesting show that misses the mark. I found that I could not sympathize with the characters even though they are undergoing extremely difficult personal issues. The acting is excellent and at times the dialog soars, but then it becomes so repetitive that you want to say enough already. I would still recommend the show because it tackles some important topics in an excellent production.
Very absorbing drama with an excellent 4 person cast. Saw in preview and can't imagine there would be any changes made. The first act flew by. While the subject matter is serious, there are some pretty funny moments. At the end, the woman next to me was crying so be prepared if the subject matter is close to home. --Kay
A very good play with very strong acting. I don't know what play Peter Marks saw but the one I saw got a standing ovation at the end.
Very worthwhile and sobering.
I think that Peter Marks' review hit it. This was nothing but a debate about quality of life issues. I never really believed that the people on the stage were involved in tragic issues.
The play was well written and dealt with heavy subjects without being heavily depressing. 75% of the actors did a wonderful job. I did not think that the actress who played Dinah was very good.
Although the acting was very good, it was much too heavy. I had nightmares after it as did another of our party. There is too little comic relief. Go--if you want to think about horrible murders, euthanesia for
the healthy, broken marriages, destruction of your home due to fire,
etc.
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Arena Stage in Crystal City is a 460-seat theater with a proscenium stage, similar to the Kreeger Theater. They have renovated the theater specifically to accommodate their patrons and productions for the next two-and-a-half seasons while Arena’s new home is being built.
Website: http://www.arenastage.org/about/news/0910-season.shtml
From Emmy Award-winning writer Jane Anderson comes this compelling filled with compassion, honesty and humor. In the wake of devastating personal tragedies, two cousins meet one weekend in an attempt to forge a friendship out of distant familial bonds. Steady, gentle Dinah and husband Bill, reeling from the loss of their daughter, find comfort in spirituality. Meanwhile, rebellious, energetic Jeanette and her ailing husband Neil mitigate illness and the destruction of their home through alternative practices. Can these couples from widely different political and religious backgrounds join together to confront their physical and emotional challenges of loss and survival? This play harnesses spirit and fortitude while exploring the promise of love, the pride of endurance and the quality of life.
Jane Anderson (Playwright) is a multi-award-winning writer and director whose plays have been produced Off-Broadway and around the country, incl. Actors Theater of Louisville, Williamstown, McCarter, Long Wharf, and Pasadena Playhouse. Published plays: Looking for Normal (2001 Ovation), The Baby Dance, Defying Gravity, Food & Shelter, Smart Choices for the New Century, Lynette at 3 a.m. and The Last Time We Saw Her. Other works: The Pink Studio, Hotel Oubliette. Her most recent, The Quality of Life (2008 Ovation), premiered at Geffen Playhouse and later at ACT, both directed by Ms. Anderson. Film & TV: wrote/directed The Prizewinner of Defiance, Ohio; wrote/directed Normal for HBO (six Emmy, three Golden Globe, Directors Guild and Writers Guild noms); wrote HBO’s groundbreaking The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom (Emmy, PEN, and Writers Guild awards). Other TV films: When Billie Beat Bobby and The Baby Dance (Peabody Award; Golden Globe and three Emmy noms). She wrote/directed the first segment of If These Walls Could Talk II, which starred Vanessa Redgrave and earned Ms. Anderson an Emmy nom. Other screenwriting: How to Make an American Quilt and It Could Happen to You. Ms. Anderson resides in West Marin and L.A. with her spouse, Tess Ayers, and their son, Raphael.
Lisa Peterson (Director). Arena Stage: The Rainmaker. NY credits include: Shipwrecked and The Model Apartment (Primary Stages); End Days (EST); The Poor Itch, The Square, Tongue of a Bird (Public); Trestle at Pope Lick Creek, Bexley Oh, Slavs, Light Shining in Buckinghamshire, Traps, The Waves (NYTW); The Fourth Sister and The Batting Cage (Vineyard); Sueno (MCC); Birdy and The Chemistry of Change (WPP); Collected Stories (MTC). Regionally, Ms. Peterson has worked at La Jolla (assoc. artistic dir., 1992-95), Mark Taper (resident dir., 1995-2005); Guthrie, McCarter, Huntington, Hartford, Yale, Baltimore Center Stage, Actors Theater of Louisville, Intiman, Berkeley, South Coast, California Shakespeare, Oregon Shakespeare, and Philadelphia Theater Company. She’s received Obie and Drama-Logue awards, Drama Desk noms, and an NEA/TCG grant. A graduate of Yale College, Ms. Peterson is a member of EST and the executive board of SSDC.
Cast
Johanna Day (Jeannette). Arena Stage: Culture Clash in the District (dir. Charles Randolph-Wright), American Daughter (dir. Molly Smith), Rainmaker (Helen Hayes Award, dir. Lisa Peterson). Other theater: August: Osage County, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (dir. Lisa Peterson), Ethan Coen’s Almost an Evening (dir. Neil Pepe), The Evildoers by David Adjmi (dir. Rebecca Taichman), Edward Albee’s Peter and Jerry (Drama Desk nom, dir. Pam McKinnon), Satellites by Diana Son (dir. Michael Greif), David Auburn’s Proof (Tony and Lortel noms), Carol Mulroney by Stephen Belber (dir. Lisa Peterson), Noah Haidle’s Vigils (dir. Kate Whoriskey), Ellen McLaughlin’s Helen (dir. Tony Kushner), How I Learned to Drive by Paula Vogel (orig. cast, dir. Mark Brokaw), Craig Lucas’ Three Postcards and Blue Window. Film/TV: Law & Order (recurring), Judging Amy (recurring), The Fringe, The Exonerated, The Making of…, Unbreakable, The Trap.
Annette O’Toole (Dinah) has appeared Off-Broadway in Kindness (Playwrights Horizons) and The Seagull (CSC); Magnolia (Goodman); Yankee Wives and Sun Bearing Down (Old Globe); Merton of the Movies at Ahmanson, Los Angeles; Vanities at Westwood/HBO, Los Angeles; and Love Letters at Canon, Beverly Hills. Her film and TV credits include 48 HRS, Superman III, Cat People, Smile, One on One, Smallville, Law & Order, Nash Bridges, Stand by Your Man and The Kennedys of Massachusetts (for which she received Emmy and Golden Globe nominations). Ms. O’Toole was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Song with her husband, Michael McKean, for “A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow.”
Kevin O’Rourke (Bill). Broadway: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof with Kathleen Turner and Charles Durning, Spoils of War, Alone Together. Off-Broadway: Stuff Happens (Public); The Radical Mystique, Joined at the Head (MTC); Hurrah at Last (Roundabout); Breaking Up (Primary Stages). Regional: Baltimore Center Stage, Long Wharf, Yale Rep, Seattle Rep, Williamstown. Film: The Aviator, Turbulence, Bedroom Window, Vice Versa, Tattoo. TV: Remember WENN (SAG nom), Law & Order, Cashmere Mafia, The Sopranos, NY Undercover, Damages. Artistic director: Williams College Summer Theatre Lab.
Stephen Schnetzer (Neil) has appeared in Arena Stage’s Legacy of Light, Noises Off and The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia? On Broadway, he was in The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?; A Talent for Murder and Filumena (dir. Laurence Olivier). Off-Broadway credits include Romeo and Juliet (Playhouse 91); Timon of Athens and Cymbeline (New York Shakespeare Festival); Miss Julie (Roundabout) and the original production of The Lisbon Traviata. Other regional theaters include American Shakespeare Theatre, McCarter, Boston’s Lyric Stage, PCPA, Mark Taper Forum in The Tempest with Anthony Hopkins and 20 productions over four seasons with American Conservatory Theater. He also toured with Sir Michael Redgrave in Shakespeare’s People. TV: Damages, The Wite, all the Law & Order’s, New Amsterdam, Cosby Murder Mysteries, Days of Our Lives, One Life to Live and Another World.
The Creative Team for The Quality of Life includes Set Designer Neil Patel, Costume Designer Ilona Somogyi, Lighting Designer Alexander V. Nichols, Sound Designer John Gromada, Fight Choreographer David Leong, Stage Manager Susan R. White, Assistant Stage Managers Amber Dickerson and Kurt Hall and Production Dramaturg Janine Sobeck.
The Quality of Life is sponsored by Gina and John Depres and by Joan and David Maxwell.
Arena Stage today stands as a flagship American theater. Arena Stage was one of the first not-for-profit theaters in the United States, as well as a pioneer of the regional theater movement. It was the first regional theater to transfer a production to Broadway, the first invited by the U.S. State Department to tour behind the Iron Curtain, and the first to receive a Tony Award. Taking a leadership role in extending theater's horizons, Arena Stage has implemented groundbreaking policies and programs, promoting diversity in all aspects of theater, from theatergoing to production. The Arena Stage legacy of world-class productions includes vast epics, charged dramas, rousing musicals, and probing profiles. From the monumental to the developmental, Arena Stage has helped build the canon of American theater. While they produce American classics, Arena Stage premieres new American plays and supported works in progress. They've nurtured artistic growth and engaged the community, broadening and intensifying the theatrical experience for one and all. And yet, in spite of it all, in their second half-century they see themselves as more fresh, restless and dynamic than ever.
