American Conservatory Theatre Goes Hollywood

The ensemble cast features 2007 Drama Desk Awardnominee Andrew Polk (The Accomplices), Matthew Del Negro (The Sopranos), and Jessi Campbell (A.C.T.'s Blackbird). Speed-the-Plow plays A.C.T. January 4 through February 3. Press night is Wednesday, January 9. Tickets—starting at $14—are available now by calling A.C.T.

A.C.T. has enjoyed a longstanding and successful history with Mamet's work. Productions of the master's work, including Sexual Perversity in Chicago (2005), American Buffalo (2003), and The Voysey Inheritance (2005) have been audience favorites. "There's nothing like the pungent, visceral language of David Mamet to jolt an audience to attention," says Perloff, "particularly when that language sits in a house like A.C.T.!" She continues, "Speed-the-Plow is an extraordinary power play between three equally matched opponents, and our goal with this production is to make sure that Karen really stays 'in the game' with the guys, since after all it is she who makes the action of the play turn. We're thrilled to welcome Jessie Campbell back after her astonishing work in Blackbird last season—and to match her with two such electric actors. What better play to do in the midst of the writers' strike than a play about desperation in Hollywood."

The plot of Speed-the-Plow focuses on two high-powered Hollywood executives, Charlie Fox and Bobby Gould, who have come up from the mailroom together. Charlie brings Bobbie a surefire hit with a major star attached. Bobby seems certain to give the green light, until his beautiful new secretary gets involved. In addition to the action among the characters, director Greco is fascinated with the play's broader cultural background of Hollywood and the movies. "What interests me is the love affair with the film industry that we have with Americans," says Greco, "that sort of warm and fuzzy feeling we get about film and movie stars. The romance of it all never dies." She continues, "The glorification of the artifice fascinates me—we know it's not 'real' but we never lose our interest. Speed-the-Plow treats these issues with amazing clarity: the larger romance of the movies is juxtaposed with these frequently skeevy, profit-obsessed businessmen who actually make these films. It's fantastic stuff."

Though Speed-the-Plow was first produced on Broadway in 1988 (featuring Madonna as Karen), Greco plans to set the piece firmly in the present day. To that end, she and costume designer Alex Jaeger went on a fact-finding mission to Hollywood to see how the movie moguls of today are dressing and acting. Finding their way onto the lot of a major motion picture company, Jaeger and Greco went so far as to eat lunch in the commissary, taking detailed notes on the executives around them. Since their trip, they have collaborated with the production's design team to come up with an aesthetic that feels both real and magical, and that is unmistakably redolent of Hollywood and the movies. Sound designer Jake Rodriguez and set designer Skip Mercier have endeavored to create a world that inhabits the show business reality Speed-the-Plow so powerfully portrays.

The cast of A.C.T.'s Speed-the-Plow features three fantastically versatile stars of stage and screen; two of whom are reunited with director Greco in this production after previous collaborations. As conniving movie mogul Bobby Gould, Matthew Del Negro makes his debut on the A.C.T. stage. Famed for his recurring role on HBO's The Sopranos as financial advisor Brian Cammarata, Del Negro is also a veteran of The West Wing, Law & Order, CSI: Miami, and many others. Committed to retaining a balance of film, television, and theater work, Del Negro continues to be a presence at the New York International Fringe Festival, and his off-Broadway credits include Touch (directed by Greco) and Burning Blue.

Jessi Campbell is featured as Karen, Gould's earnest secretary—in director Greco's view, the character that is "the real engine of the play." Campbell made her A.C.T. debut in last season's Blackbird, also directed by Loretta Greco. New York credits include the title roles of Inky and Victoria Martin: Math Team Queen at the Women's Project (both directed by Greco), the Girl Scout in Commedia dell Smartass at New Georges, Boy in Lascivious Something at Cherry Lane Theater, and Shawna in The Chrysalis Stage (written and directed by Cobey Mandarino) at the 2006 New York International Fringe Festival. Film and television credits include the remake of The Amityville Horror, Spinning into Butter with Sarah Jessica Parker, Rescue Me, Law & Order: SVU,and The Knights of Prosperity.

Recent Drama Desk Award–nominee (for Accomplices) Andrew Polk will appear as Gould's oldest friend, the furiously ambitious Charlie Fox. In addition to his numerous New York credits (recently including Accomplices, Walmartopia, and Flight), Polk has also served as artistic director of the critically acclaimed Cape Cod Theatre Project since its founding in 1995. Polk has been nominated for Helen Hayes and Barrymore awards, winning the Barrymore in 1997 for Best Ensemble in Love! Valour! Compassion! A Bay Area native, Polk gained some of his first theater experience on the A.C.T. stage. As a twelve-year-old student in A.C.T.'s Young Conservatory, Polk was invited by director Edward Hastings (later artistic director of A.C.T.) to act onstage in A.C.T.'s production of David Belasco's Girl of the Golden West in 1980. On television, Polk has appeared on 30 Rock, Law & Order, Law & Order: SVU, and Law & Order: CI, among others.

The design team for Speed-the-Plow includes a number of renowned professionals from the Bay Area and beyond. Lighting designer York Kennedy's theatrical designs have been seen across the country at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Seattle Repertory Theatre, A.C.T., the Alley Theatre, Dallas Theater Center, Yale Repertory Theatre, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Goodspeed Musicals, and the Whitney Museum in New York. Honors for theater lighting design include the Drama-Logue, San Diego Drama Critics' Circle, Back Stage West Garland, ariZoni Theatre, and Bay Area Theatre Critics' Circle awards. -- www.act-sf.org