SEE HOW THEY RUN

 

by Philip King

directed by Robert Smyth

 

Playing thru September 23 

 

LAMBS PLAYERS THEATRE  

1142 Orange Ave, Coronado CA 92118  

 

Philip King's hilarious caper set during war-time Britain and filled with extraordinary characters, mistaken identities and unexpected visitors, is one of the funniest pieces of theatre of the 20th Century. 

 

Featuring Lamb's 2012 Acting Company members Kerry Meads, Jim Chovick, Cynthia Gerber, Jason Heil and Myra McWethy, with Lamb's Associate Artists Ron Choularton, Jeffrey Jones and Paul Maley, and making his Lamb's debut, Brendan Farley.  

 

Running Time: 2 hrs, including a 15 minute Intermission

 

Age Recommendation: SEE HOW THEY RUN may be enjoyed by the entire family (5 years and older) There is a humorous incident with a drunken character which parents may wish to discuss with younger children ahead of time.

 

 

 

 

Ron Choularton
Sergeant Towers
Ron has had the pleasure of appearing in Enchanted April and Ring Around The Moon at this wonderful theatre. Selected others: Blasted, (Ion theatre); Regional: Dram of Drummhicit; Peter & The Starcatchers (La Jolla Playhouse); Moon For The Misbegotten, Da, Sight Unseen (Old Globe); A Christmas Carol, The Clean House, The Seafarer (San Diego Rep). Selected: St Nicholas, My Fair Lady, Norman Conquests (Cygnet); M Butterfly, Breaking The Code (North Coast Rep, also Diversionary); The Caretaker, Waiting For Godot (Rennaissance); Gangster No One, Baltimore Waltz, Vigil (The Fritz, also Edinburgh Fringe); The Man Who, (New Village Arts). Wrote/presented KPBS Britcom intros. Recipient of numerous Dramalogue, SD Critic's Circle, Patte, & SD Playbill Awards.

Jim Chovick
The Bishop of Lax
Jim has appeared in 30 productions with LPT: Joe vs The Volcano, Guys & Dolls, Harvey, Joyful Noise; Room Service; Boomers; The Voysey Inheritance; Amadeus; Rehearsal for Murder; The Winslow Boy; 1776; A Man For All Seasons; Ring Round the Moon; My Fair Lady; The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe; You Can't Take It With You; A Woman of No Importance; The Mystery of Edwin Drood; Festival of Christmas '99, ’04 and ‘06; and 9 productions of An American Christmas. Other San Diego Theaters: The Old Globe, The Cygnet Theatre (Resident Artist), La Jolla Playhouse, San Diego Rep, North Coast Rep (Associate Artist), New Village Arts, Moxie Theatre, Intrepid Shakespeare Co., Ion Theatre, Playwrights Project, Sledgehammer, Evoke Dance Theater, Starlight, The Avo@Moonlight, 6th@Penn, The Ark, CCT, Mystery Cafe, Vantage Theater and The Fritz. Awards: San Diego Critics Circle, Backstage West Dramalogue, KPBS Patte’, Bille and Robby.

Brendan Farley
Cpt. Cliff Winton
Brendan has been on the Lamb's technical staff for 5 years. His career in theatre has spanned the world, working as an actor and carpenter on shows for small theatre companies in Chicago, building sets for Broadway with Showman Fabricators in New York City, and working with Global Scenic Services and Chicago Flyhouse installing scenery and rigging on cruise ships. Brendan and his wife Katherine, co-owner of Coronado's premier floral design shop Root 75, are loving life as the uber-proud parents of their son Wren.

Cynthia Gerber
Penelope Toop
was a member of LPT’s Resident Ensemble from 1988 to 2001 and is now an Associate Artist. Favorite productions at LPT include Harvey, The Hit, Susan and God, The Miracle Worker, Flight, Steel Magnolias, Quilters, Busman’s Honeymoon, Detective Story, See How They Run, Amadeus, Dracula, To Kill A Mockingbird, and Ring Round The Moon. Cynthia studied at The American Academy of Dramatic Arts. She is also enjoying her role as Cannon and Spencer’s mom.

Jason Heil
Rev. Lionel Toop
LPT Associate Artist: See How They Run, Joe vs. the Volcano, The Glory Man, Harvey, Joyful Noise, The Glass Menagerie, Room Service, The Voysey Inheritance, An American Christmas (’07,’08, ‘09), Enchanted April, Into the Woods, and The Winslow Boy. Other San Diego credits include Angels in America (ion theatre company), Twelfth Night, Plaid Tidings (Old Globe), Cabaret, Noises Off (Cygnet), Clybourne Park (San Diego Rep), work at North Coast Rep, Moonlight, Starlight and all incarnations of Lucy Simon’s Zhivago (La Jolla Playhouse & NYC/London Readings). Regional theatres include Arkansas & Tennessee Rep, A Noise Within, and nine seasons with the Utah, Lake Tahoe, Marin, and Texas Shakespeare Festivals. Directing: Turn of the Screw (Intrepid Shakespeare), Born Yesterday, The Mousetrap, Barefoot in the Park, Ring Round the Moon, You Never Can Tell (Moonlight), Plaid Tidings (New Village Arts), Twelfth Night (Actors’ Rep, OH), and Brilliant Traces (Finishing the Hat, L.A.). MFA: UC Irvine.

Jeffrey Jones
An Intruder
This is Jeffrey's second show with Lambs Players. He was seen previously at Lambs in Five Cups of Coffee. He was last seen at Cygnet Theatre in Behanding in Spokane. Other credits include: Cygnet Theatre; Burn This, Atwater Fixin to Die, Man from Nebraska. Ion Theatre; The Pillowman, Frankie and Johnny at The Claire de Lune. North Coast Repertory; The Importance of Being Earnest and Travesties. He is grateful to be working with this amazing cast, director and crew.

Paul Maley
Rev. Arthur Humphrey
Paul Maley graduated from UCLA’s Theatre program in 1984 where he concentrated on acting, playwriting, and a girl named Sharon! After their marriage in 1987, they spent two years creating sketches for a Northern California church before moving to San Diego in 1990 to work with Lamb’s Players Theatre’s Educational Touring Company. Paul served at LPT for 20 years as performer, writer, designer, administrator, and grantwriter. LPT acting credits include educational productions of The Glass Menagerie, Measure For Measure, and over 2,000 performances in 30 touring plays. His favorite LPT roles include Arnold in The Boys Next Door, Rockfist Slim in The Boy Who Fell Into a Book, John Christopher Smith in Joyful Noise, and multiple roles in The Hit and Leaving Iowa. He currently works as an administrative assistant at Point Loma Nazarene University, and frequently performs in outreach programs with the San Diego Symphony and his family’s own company StageWorks! Paul dedicates his performance to his lovely wife of 25 years and his two amazing children. Matt. 6:33.

Myra McWethy
Miss Skillon
Lamb’s: An American Christmas (10 years), Uncle Vanya, My Fair Lady, See How They Run. Off-Broadway: Menopause, The Musical. Los Angeles: Coronet Theatre: Menopause, the Musical (original LA Cast), Bar Lubitsch Theatre: The Hook-Up Conversations. San Diego: La Jolla Playhouse: Our Town. San Diego REP: A Christmas Carol (3 years). Also shows at The Welk Theatre, Starlight, Moonlight, & North Coast Repertory. Television: Conan, Malcolm In The Middle, iCarly, The Bill Engvall Show, American Body Shop, and the CBS MOW Surrender Dorothy. Two Funny or Die videos. Proud writer of a daily Twitter & Facebook column as “Conan O’Brien’s Hoarder.” www.MyraMcwethy.com. Thanks Lamb’s, Kevin, Gordon, daughter Brynn (May grad of Columbia College), niece Kaitlyn (May grad of U of IA!) and all my SD friends!

Kerry Meads
Ida
wears many hats as actor, director, and playwright. Kerry is the director of LPT’s Educational Outreach. On staff at LPT since 1976, she now serves as LPT’s Associate Artistic Director. As resident playwright, her work includes Boomers, American Rhythm, Dracula, My Asparagus Is Growing Fine and LPT’s annual Festival of Christmas. Her directing credits include Guys & Dolls, Trying, An Ideal Husband, Pretty Fire, Thunder At Dawn, Private Lives, The Boys Next Door, Amadeus, Beau Jest, The Foreigner and You Can’t Take It With You. As a performer she has been seen in such productions as The Great Divorce; Quilters; Tartuffe; Godspell; She Loves Me; A Woman of No Importance; You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown; Till We Have Faces; Pump Boys and Dinettes; Into The Woods; Hello, Dolly!; Boomers, The Hit, Leaving Iowa, Harvey and The Music Man.

Susan Clausen
Female Understudy
Susan is on staff at Lamb’s Players where her credits include Harvey, A Man For All Seasons, ‘Till We Have Faces and The Diviners. She recently performed as Clara Schumann with the San Diego Symphony. Other recent credits include California Suite, How the Other Half Loves and Social Security at Scripps Ranch Theatre. She was also a storyteller with WriteOutLoud’s TwainFest '10 and '11. Other local credits include Defying Gravity, The Last Night of Ballyhoo, Auntie Mame, Dancing at Lughnasa and Jake’s Women at North Coast Rep. Susan is an on-air host for KPBS and a voice-over artist. Her favorite role is that of “Mom” to 11-year old daughter, Hailey.

Steve Gallion
Male Understudy
Steve’s appearances with LPT include Amadeus, Beau Jest, Much Ado About Nothing, Cyrano de Bergerac, Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hunchback of Notre Dame, A Christmas Carol, and The Nerd. Directing credits include 1776 and Hay Fever (Napa Valley Rep), Mother Courage and Her Children (Backbone Theater); Beau Jest and The Deadly Game (North Coast Rep), and Waiting (Riba-99 International Play Festival in Klaipeda, Lithuania). Steve received an M.F.A. in Theatre Producing and Management from Columbia University and an M.A. in Theatre from San Diego State University.

Mike Buckley
Set Designer
Since 1984 Mike has designed over 150 productions at Lambs Players in addition to many shows at such companies as San Diego Rep, The Laguna Playhouse and the Old Globe/USD MFA program. Recent favorites include sets for How To Succeed… at the Welk, the world premier of Joe vs. the Volcano here at Lambs and set and lights for anon(ymous) at Southwestern College where he teaches technical theatre and design. He is currently working on designs for upcoming productions of the world premier of Wrinkles at the Welk, Footloose at San Diego Musical Theatre and Night of the Iguana at Southwestern College. Also a playwright, his romantic comedy The Hit had an extended run at LPT’s Coronado Theatre and then the Horton Grand Theatre and his set for The Hit earned Mike his fifth Patte Award. As an actor, Mike has appeared in many shows at LPT. Favorites include The Hit, Joseph…, Beau Jest, Johnny Pye and the Foolkiller, The Secret Garden, and My Fair Lady. He also appeared in Crazy For You at Moonlight. TV credits include Wicked, Wicked Games as well as several commercials. Mike also designs residential interiors through his business Weekend Makeover.

Jemima Dutra
Costume Designer
A graduate from Allan Hancock College earning her Associates Degree in Fashion Studies with Honors and Certificate of Fashion Design with Honors from Fashion Careers College. Costume design credits include: Lamb's Player's world premier of Mixtape, Hip Pocket for LPT's educational outreach touring show and Trying. Costume design at other venues include: All This and Moonlight at Scripps Ranch Theater, Old Wicked Songs and Talley's Folly at North Coast Rep, and Side Man for Bang! Productions. Jemima has worked at Lamb's for over 6 years in the costume department as a cutter/pattern maker, seamstress, and assistant to Jeanne Reith, she has also worked backstage as Assistant Stage Manager on Boomers and Godspell. Jemima has showcased her designs at local San Diego fashion venues, has been featured in 944 magazine, and The Social Diary. She would like to thank her wonderful husband Jeff and their daughter Amelia for all their love and support.

Lila Lace Flores King
Lighting Designer
is happy to be working with LPT again where she has served as a technician and Assistant Stage Manager on many productions including Enchanted April, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Festival Of Christmas, Into The Woods, American Rhythm, 1776, South Pacific, Dial M For Murder, Metamorphoses and An American Christmas. Lace is the Assistant Technical Director at Coronado High School’s Performing Arts School, COSA, where she has designed lights for Two by Five, Oliver! and Honk! Lace is a recent graduate of San Diego State University. She is currently the Assistant Light Director at the Old Globe, and a resident light designer for Joan B. Kroc Theatre and Coronado School of the Arts.

Deborah Gilmour Smyth
Sound Designer
has been a member of the Lamb’s Players resident ensemble since 1979 and is now an Associate Artistic Director. Originally from the East Coast, she has lived all over the United States and went to school at San Francisco State University where she studied music and theatre. One of San Diego’s most active performers with over 120 productions to her credit, she is a two-time recipient of the San Diego Theatre Critics’ Circle’s Craig Noel Award for Outstanding Female Performance in a Musical: for her performance as Mother in Ragtime at Starlight Musical Theatre, and for her role of Margaret Johnson in The Light in the Piazza at Lamb’s Players. She has performed in over 120 productions here. She recently played Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd at Cygnet Theatre. Deborah enjoys the opportunity to be involved in an ensemble that promotes the integrity of story and the craft of the art over the celebrity of the individual. Deborah and her husband, Producing Artistic Director Robert Smyth, make their home in Coronado.

Michael McKeon
Properties Designer
is an avid Photographer, Videographer, Painter, Sculptor and “maker of things.” Since 2008, Michael has had the honor to work with Lamb’s as a Craft Master, Scenic Designer, Scenic Artist, Properties Designer, Multimedia/Video Designer and Technician, Stage Manager and Front of House Associate for various shows and special events at LPT. Other scenic design credits include: Killer Joe - San Diego Theater Critics Circle Award (Compass), Side Man (Diversionary), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Intrepid Shakespeare Company)

Amanda Salmons
Stage Manager
Amanda Salmons has worked previously at Lambs Players on The Music Man and The Rivalry. Other San Diego credits include 2012 Shakespeare Festival, Anna Christie, How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, Somewhere, Groundswell, Lost in Yonkers, I Do! I Do!, The Price (The Old Globe) The Gondoliers, The Pirates of Penzance, Candide, Trial by Jury, Rumpelstiltskin (Lyric Opera San Diego) and SummerFest (La Jolla Music Society). She received her B.A in Theatre from UC San Diego.

Robert Smyth
Director
is the Producing Artistic Director of Lamb's Players Theatre. Moving to San Diego from the East Coast in 1976, he joined the staff of Lamb's Players (at the time a touring performing arts company based in El Cajon) with a vision to build a professional resident repertory company. Lamb's Players opened its first resident theatre in National City in the spring of 1978. In 1994, the company moved its resident stage to Coronado. Now San Diego's third largest professional theatre, it continues to maintain one of the region's few resident acting ensembles. The company's mission is "to tell good stories well." As Artistic Director and CEO, Smyth's hats include that of administrator, director, actor, and occasional playwright. He has directed over 100 productions, including many world and regional premieres. He has also toured internationally with a one-man performance of Aldyth Morris's Damien, the powerful story of the renegade priest who stood up to the church and the government for the lepers confined on the island of Molokai. He and his wife, actress/director Deborah Gilmour Smyth, recently received a joint "lifetime achievement" Patté Award.

"A laugh-out-loud evening of hilarious high jinks and madcap merriment!"
Donnie Matsuda - SD DramaKing

"Lamb’s has another hit on its hands!"
Jean Lowerison - SDGLN

"It's hilarious! We were promised laughter. They delivered. **** (4 stars)"
Charlene Baldridge - Theatre Blogosphere

"Excellent comedy closes Lamb's summer season!!

To say the play is pure silliness or glee wouldn’t do justice to how intelligently everything comes apart and comes back together. Half the pleasure is trying to figure out when everyone on stage will figure it all out. The other half of the pleasure is watching these affectionately sketched characters carry on. "
Roxana Popescu - Union Tribune

"Lamb's takes the trick with SEE HOW THEY RUN!

Producing Artistic Director Robert Smyth has a knack for staging plays from the 1940s. He gets the era, how people talked then, and he’s fascinated with the details of the kind of well-made play that 1940s writers routinely produced. He consistently provides persuasive evidence for reviving shows from this period. He’s also good at directing farce, and See How They Run is a classic. It should be a winner at Lamb’s and it is!

First produced and set in 1944, the play resembles Agatha Christie to the extent that it gathers up a bunch of British types and then pits them against each other. Only, instead of a mystery to solve, there’s a lot of mistaken identity resulting in much huffing and puffing as doors open and slam shut and characters chase each other around a country vicarage.

Leading the way is the Vicar’s wife, Penelope (Cynthia Gerber), an American former actress who is quite the fish out of water in these parts. Ms. Gerber has down the rat-a-tat-tat rhythm of the 40s heroine (think any film of that period that starred Katherine Hepburn).

The Lamb’s designers always have a field day with this sort of show, and their work here reflects a solid commitment to craft.

Cooling off in Coronado on a hot August night couldn’t be more enjoyable! "
Bill Eadie - sandiegostory.com

"Lamb’s staple Kerry Meads finds her best role to date as Ida the maid, whose good intentions to decipher the madness make her the most likeable and funniest character of the bunch. If Meads and her big reactions don’t steal the show, it’s only because of the adroit physical comedy of Myra McWethy as the audacious busybody we love to hate."
Milo Shapiro - Stage & Cinema

"Director Robert Smyth has a knack for orchestrating keen ensemble work. His well-chosen cast performs as if to the track meet-born. Cynthia Gerber shines as Penelope Toop, the actress (her descent of the stairs on Mike Buckley's set has a pure Hollywood theatricality). Jason Heil, Brendan Farley, Ron Choularton, and Jeffrey Jones do the 4 X 100 sprints. Myra McWethy and Kerry Meads earn laughs as Miss Skillon and Ida (one of the world's most put-upon maids)."
Jeff Smith - Reader

"For a thoroughly good romp on a great set, with lots of laughter, run to Lamb's in Coronado!"
Jenni Prisk - Center Stage, Actors Alliance of San Diego