The Good Samaritan by Wendy MacLeod
LOCATION
The Road on Lankershim – THEATRE
5108 Lankershim Boulevard
North Hollywood, CA 91601
(Street parking or paid lot parking at 5125 Lankershim Blvd)
The Good Samaritan
By Wendy MacLeod
Directed by Michael John Garces
PAIGE – Michaela Fraboni
LEXY – Chelsea Kurtz
HÈCTOR – Gabriel Garcia
CARLY – Juanita Chase de Lamont
JANE – Gabriela Ortega
KYLE – Bruce Lemon
ADAM – Adam Peltier
TEDDY – Adam Duarte
SAM ADAMS – Raymond Watanga
*Appears courtesy of Actor’s Equity Association
SYNOPSIS
When Héctor, a Guatemalan teenager working at a nearby agri-business, hides in a college student’s car, she has to figure out how to protect him from the rule-bound CA down the hall and the farmer who’s looking for him. Can they trust the soccer player who claims to have connections to a senator? Inspired by a labor-trafficking case in Ohio, The Good Samaritan is a timely college play that explores American attitudes about immigration.
TICKETS
No reservations or advance tickets. Admission is by donation ($15 suggested).
MEET YOUR PLAYWRIGHT
WENDY MACLEOD’s newest play Slow Food will premiere next season at Merrimack Repertory Theater and The Laugh Track is slated to be produced at ACT in Seattle, who commissioned the play. Her comedy Women in Jeopardy! which premiered at Geva Theater, is now being done around the country. Her other plays include Sin (The Goodman, Second Stage), Schoolgirl Figure(The Goodman Theatre), The Water Children and Juvenilia(Playwrights Horizons), and Things Being What They Are (Seattle Repertory Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre) and The House of Yes (Gate Theater and Soho Rep)–which became an award-winning Miramax film starring Parker Posey. Her play The Shallow End is about to be made into a film by director Cynthia Silver. A graduate of the Yale School of Drama, she is a winner of The New Yorker caption contest.
MEET YOUR DIRECTOR
MICHAEL JOHN GARCES is the Artistic Director of Cornerstone Theater Company, a community-engaged ensemble. Recent directing work includes Cornerstone’s Urban Rez written by Larissa FastHorse, What Happens Next by Naomi Iizuka (La Jolla Playhouse/Cornerstone), peh/LO/tah by Marc Bamuthi Joseph (Yierba Buena Center for the Arts, Brookly Academy of Music) and Wrestling Jerusalem (The Guthrie, Mosaic Theatre of DC, Cleveland Public Theatre).
An Interview with Playwright Wendy MacLeod
1: What is the name of your play?
The Good Samaritan
2: What was your first job in the theatre?
I was a lowly directing intern on a production of A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S NIGHT DREAM which starred Kathleen Turner as Titania.
3: Do you ever model characters after real life people?
Sometimes I don’t realize who the real models were until after the play is written.
4: As an artist, what subjects tend to draw your interest?
I’m interested in issues of class, and on the way characters are inside or outside of a given world. I often cast a satirical eye upon the world.
5: Do you have other passions aside from playwriting?
I’m also passionate about contemporary fiction, especially Alice Munro and Rachel Cusk.
6: Are you currently working on any new projects?
I’ve just finished a commission The Laugh Track for ACT in Seattle, which was inspired by the story of one of the few female writers in the early days of television. It was just developed at the Hedgebrook Women’s Playwrights Festival. My screenplay The Shallow End is in pre-production and the film will be directed by Atlantic Theater faculty member Cynthia Silver.
7: Here’s a fun question! What is your favorite dessert?
Chocolate mousse.
8: Any acknowledgements or words of encouragement?
Yes, I’m grateful to Valerie Luiselli for her book TELL ME HOW IT ENDS: An Essay in 40 Questions. She was a translator for undocumented children heading north who had to fill out a required questionnaire in hopes of being allowed to stay.
9: Describe your play in 3 words!
College
Compassion
Cluelessness