[NoHo Arts District, CA] – Moving Arts presents the West Coast premiere of Leap in the Dark Productions’ Sorry., created by Melissa R. Randel and co-directed by Larry Biederman.
About Sorry.
Sorry. challenges the many ways women defer, adapt, comply, and apologize in a man’s world. Three women from three different time periods find themselves wondering, what if they just couldn’t anymore? When Persephone discovers she can no longer say, “I’m sorry,” she ruminates:
I knew this day would come. . .Do you think we’ve used them all up?
What’s going to happen to us, now?
In the present day, Francine, a lawyer, looks the other way from the harassment of a female colleague. Oh, and then she murders her husband. From the 19th century, Lillian terminates pregnancies with herbs. And she gets institutionalized for being a lesbian. Persephone, of Ancient Greece, fights breast cancer AND domestic violence. Three mythical Furies reflect these women to themselves, championing their power and questioning their participation in their own oppression.
The Cast
Lea Floden as Lillian
Anna Giannotis as Fury
Jeffrey Johnson as The Men
Denise Leitner as Fury
Melissa R Randel as Persephone
Denise Scheerer as Fury
Jacqueline Wright as Francine
The Team
Playwright – Melissa R Randel
Co-Director – Larry Biederman
Producer – Dana Schwartz
Set Designer – Justin Huen
Lighting Designer – Brandon Baruch
Sound Designer – Sloe Slawinski
Costume Designer – Rosalida Medina
Stage Manager – Ashley Weaver
Graphics – Michelle Hanzelova
Publicity – Sandra Kuker PR (Sandra Kuker-Franco)
The Cast and Production Team
LARRY BIEDERMAN – Co-Director
Larry Biederman was introduced to Los Angeles with his acclaimed productions of Eric Overmyer’s Dark Rapture starring Nick Offerman at the Evidence Room, and the World Premiere of Crumble by Sheila Callaghan (“Shameless”) at LATC. Biederman’s biggest collaborator from the television world has been Winnie Holzman (Wicked, “My So-Called Life”), serving as the on-set coach for her series “Huge” (ABC Family). He also directed Holzman and her husband, actor Paul Dooley, on two successful productions of their play Assisted Living, premiering at the Odyssey Theatre in L.A., and then moving east to a run at the George Street Playhouse. Most recently, he staged a festival presentation of Stupid Kid by Sharr White (“The Affair”) starring Laurie Metcalf and Tom Irwin and another Sheila Callaghan L.A. premiere of We Are Not These Hands at Rogue Machine Theatre.
He has directed two premieres of Mickey Birnbaum’s plays. The first, the L.A. premiere of Big Death and Little Death, included a live death metal band at the Road Theatre. The second, a world premiere of Backyard at the Echo Theatre Company, earned two Ovation awards and five Stage Raw Award nominations, including Best Direction.
Biederman also enjoys the classics, including direction of Moliere’s The Learned Ladies at Theatre of NOTE, Lillian Hellman’s The Autumn Garden at Antaeus, which earned three more LA Weekly award nominations, including Best Revival. In 2009, Biederman took his innovative staging of Schnitzler’s La Ronde to the New York International Fringe Festival, where, in addition to critical acclaim, both actors received Best Actor awards for the festival.
Biederman spent seven seasons with San Francisco’s American Conservatory Theater, directing and serving in many senior capacities on the A.C.T. artistic staff, and as Associate Director of their M.F.A. program. Bay Area productions include Peter Barnes’ Red Noses, a Critic’s Choice named one of the year’s 10 best productions.
Biederman teaches directing and acting, both privately and for many reputable training programs throughout the country (Williamstown Theatre Festival, Old Globe) and in Australia where he has held master classes in Sydney and Melbourne for the Academy of Film, Television and Theatre, JMC Academy, and Darlo Drama. He made his Sydney directing debut at the Belvoir Theatre with another mounting of Moliere’s The Learned Ladies. He has had the privilege of directing great actors during their training years, including Omid Abtahi, Elizabeth Banks, Jim Parsons, and Anika Noni Rose. Currently, he is a Professor of Directing and Acting at Cal State Northridge. Biederman lives in Studio City with his wife, Therese and their son, Tyler.
MELISSA R RANDEL – Persephone / Playwright
Randel’s aesthetic in theater-making is an amalgam of visual, literary, and performing arts, thanks to her jazz musician father and dancer mother. In fifth grade, her gift for truth surfaced as a nascent playwright, inventing characters who said and did things she was not allowed to express. Women being silenced is a recurring theme in Randel’s work.
Eager to begin a professional career, Randel graduated in three years with a BA in Dance from UC Irvine. After attending an open call for replacement dancers in A Chorus line, Randel worked briefly in Mexico as a magician’s assistant. In six months she went from levitation and disappearing to touring with the National, International, and Bus and Truck companies of A Chorus Line. The next four years were spent on Broadway, giving a total of 2284 performances as Judy Turner. The production team of A Chorus Line, including Michael Bennett and Joseph Papp, left an indelible impression: “It was my true grad school.”
Inspired by Judy Turner’s line, “Don’t you want to do more than just dance in the chorus?” Randel left Broadway, immersing herself in a formal two-year conservatory program at The Studio of Actor’s Space. Randel built a reputation for originating roles in new plays, including Steven Fechter’s Schiele, Molly Newman’s Shooting Stars, Sheila Callaghan’s Roadkill Confidential, and Suzanne Bradbeer’s Confederates.
Accepting an invitation to teach a “movement for actors” class led to Randel’s career shift into the world of academia. Within three months, she was co-chairing the Dance Department and working on her masters from California State University Long Beach (MA Dance). In 2007, Randel was hired full-time as Chair/Co-chair of the Theater Department at Glendale College, where she remained for over a decade.
An introduction to Anne Bogart’s SITI Company, renowned for their ground-breaking physical theater, coincided with Randel’s foray into academia. Randel began developing her own work, melding SITICompany’s aesthetics with her own. As part of the avant-garde community formed out of SITI Company’s West Coast alumni, Randel premiered two original works: The Hat and Asylum. The Hat is a reinvention of Randel’s parents’ tumultuous marriage with a charmingly savvy version of her mother and a jazz musician father who spoke only through his musical instrument. Premiering at the NY International Fringe Festival, The Hat toured internationally. Asylum, a collaboration illuminating atrocities performed on women in asylums, sowed seeds for the character, “Lillian” in Sorry.. Other devised collaborations include: When Skies are Gray, This is NOT a Tree, We are Stardust, and Wonder City.
In 2018, culling personal and witnessed harassment in academia, Randel began writing Sorry.. A play for and about women, Sorry. examines the underlying code of the female apology, beauty, aging, domestic abuse, breast cancer, abortion, and suicide.
LEA FLODEN – Lillian
LA: Morphic Resonance at the Matrix & the Eclectic (Dramalogue and LA Weekly Awards), Headless at Ensemble Studio Theatre- LA, Tale of the Allergist’s Wife and The Clean House at Cal Rep, Dorian at LATC, The Great Grandson of Jedediah Kohler at Circle Rep West, True Believer and Star of Hope at Arcade.
NY: Babylon Gardens at Circle Repertory Company (with Tim Hutton and Mary Louise Parker, directed by Joe Mantello), where she was an original member of Circle Rep LAB Company. Other Circle Rep productions include David Mamet’s The Poet and the Rent, The Diviners (both with Jeff Daniels), The Three Sisters, A.R. Gurney’s What I Did Last Summer, Lanford Wilson’s Sa-Hurt/Bottle Harp and Harry Houdini’s Last Act. Other NY appearances include Short Change at the Beckett, Mummy’s Tomb at LA Mama ETC, Nothin Depressin at the WPA, Alan Ball’s Cherokee County at the York Theatre Company, Cowboy (opposite Eartha Kitt), Van Gogh Passion at the Women’s Project, The Ladder (with Sandra Seacat) at Music Theatre Group/Lenox Arts Center, and Jules Feiffer’s A Think Piece at the Hudson Guild.
Broadway tour and regional theatre roles include: Cowboy and the Legend (again opposite Eartha Kitt), Run for Your Wife at the Morris Mechanic, Noises Off (with Millicent Martin) at the Phoenix, Olivia in Twelfth Night, Rosalind in As You Like It and Titania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, also at the Phoenix, Bing and Walker at the Peterborough Players, another Rosalind in As You Like It at the Asolo, Talley’s Folly at Connecticut Stage, Ibsen’s Ghosts, Othello, Kitty in The Time of Your Life, Zerbinetta in Scapino and Cecily in The Importance of Being Earnest, TV and film credits include Shannon’s Deal, Jack’s Place, Over My Dead Body, Saturdays, As the World Turns and Search for Tomorrow, as well as countless commercial and voiceover contracts. She played Louise in the quirky and award-winning indie film How To Be Louise (LA Woman’s Film Festival, Sundance and Berlin Film Festivals, released by Sundance on Netflix). Her voice has starred in many animated TV shows and films, including Space Cats, James Bond Jr., Disney’s Whispers and The Wish that Changed Christmas.
Also a playwright/screenwriter, Lea’s plays have been produced in LA at EST-LA, Playwrights Arena, Friends and Artists Theatre, and Arcade, as well as at Women’s Project NYC, Portland Oregon’s Sowelu Theatre Company and Stark Raving Theatre, and the Asolo in Sarasota, FL. Her screenplay version of Headless was honored at Sundance Writer’s Lab, Star of Hope was awarded Best New Play by the Portland, Oregon Critic’s Association.
Lea has coached actors in LA, NYC, London, Glasgow, Dubai, and Hong Kong. She teaches Musical Theatre at LA’s Colburn School. She had a forty-year artistic collaboration and marriage with now deceased director Dan Bonnell.
ANNA GIANNOTIS – Fury
Anna Giannotis, actor, filmmaker, teaching artist, has performed in regional theatres throughout the U.S. Favorite stage roles: SERAFINA DELLE ROSA in The Rose Tattoo, YIAYIA MIMI in Women of Zalongo, and DESPO in Ilya Darling. Anna has written/directed three award-winning documentaries for the Greek Heritage Society of SCA all narrated by Olympia Dukakis and is in development with a mini-series based on a real Greek American spy. “KUDOS” to Melissa, Cast & Crew for Sorry.
JEFFREY S.S. JOHNSON – The Men
Jeffrey S.S. Johnson has performed with lauded theatre groups such as Critical Mass, The Evidence Room, VS. Theatre, Sons Of Semele, Moving Arts, Bad Puppets, Bootleg Theater, the Odyssey, FAKE Radio Players, the Celebration, and more, also in the Pacific Northwest with the Portland Center Stage. (a few of those with Larry!)
Over the years, he’s become an accomplished voiceover artist in commercials, industrials, narration, video games, and the like. Most notably, Mr. Johnson has been the voice of T-Mobile since 2012.
“Captain Black”, his debut as a feature film writer/director was featured in 11 film festivals worldwide, earning awards for Best Actor, Best Film & Best Direction.
He has also been dipping his toes into producing film & music. https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1378502/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_0_nm_8_q_jeffrey%2520johnson
DENISE LEITNER – Fury
Denise has had a long career as a prominent dance teacher and performer. She has had the honor to be a faculty member at, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles High School for the Arts, Edge Performing Arts Center, Santa Monica College, UCLA and most recently as Director of Dance at Mayfield Senior School. Denise has also had the opportunity to travel abroad extensively to choreograph and conduct master classes.
As well as teaching and choreographing Denise is a photographer specializing in dance and theater photography. She has photographed the American Ballet Theater, Lines, Paul Taylor, Heidi Duckler, Oguri-Body Weather Laboratory and the Los Angeles Dance Festival just to name a few. Denise’s love for photography not only lies in photographing live performances, but also in creating fine art dance portraiture.
DENISE SCHEERER – Fury
Denise has performed with The Jazz Tap Ensemble under the direction of Lynn Dally. She studied and performed with tap legends Eddie Brown and Sam Weber.
Denise taught workshops and master classes all over the Pacific Northwest and California and was in the dance faculty at Loyola Marymount University for five years. She taught in New York City for a Tradition in Tap workshop that honored her husband, Robert Scheerer, as well as fap festivals in St. Louis, Detroit, Los Angeles Tap Festivals and at the Oregon Center for the Arts at Southern Oregon University.
Denise has a Bachelor of Arts in Performing Arts with honors from St. Mary’s College of California, and currently teaches and serves as Tap Chair at The Trudl Zipper Dance Program at the Colburn School of Performing Arts.
JACQUELINE WRIGHT – Francine
Jacqueline Wright, AKA Jax, received their BFA in acting from California Institute of the Arts. Recently Jax was honored to be selected as a member of EST LA’s Ignite Project playwrighting lab, sparking the creation of their new full-length plays Emergency Snack. As well as their latest full length, Redwood & The Giant Play. Their short play The Coffee Pot Tree premiered at EST LA in 2023. Driving Wild, directed by Bart Delerenzo, premiered at Theater of Note, Critic’s pick LA WEEKLY. Have You Seen Alice? directed by Adrian A Cruz premiered at Theater of NOTE, Critic’s Pick LA TIMES and LA WEEKLY, nominated for LA Weekly performance and design awards. Eat Me, directed by Chris Fields, nominated for LA Weekly and Ovation awards, Love Water, directed by Dan Bonnell, produced by EST LA with Open Fist, Critic’s Choice LA WEEKLY, Ovation nominations, Jerome Fellowship Finalist and Sherwood Finalist. As a performer she originated the roles of Molly Carlson and Betty in The Patron Saint of Sea Monsters by Marlane Meyer, directed by Lisa Peterson, JonBenét Ramsey in House of Gold, directed by Gates McFadden, Carrie in Backyard by Mickey Birnbaum directed by Larry Biederman, and the title character in The Dope Elf, written & directed by Asher Hartman, The Air Planner in Daniel Sullivan’s Xs Tons Millions directed by Adrian A. Cruz, and The Mother in Caye Castagnetto’s Rhino, Put Your Hand Inside the Puppet Head. She can be seen in Asher Hartman’s short film It Had All Happened Through This, This…? and as the Chupacabra worshipping villain in the b-movie homage flick Cursed In Baja directed by Jeff Daniel Phillips, and as Tommy in the feature film adaptation of Jacqueline’s critically acclaimed play Eat Me directed by Adrian A. Cruz (Sundance lab finalist, Best Film: Cult Films & Peephole Festival), now streaming on all platforms. JacquelineWrightArts.com
DANA SCHWARTZ – Producer
DANA SCHWARTZ is an LA writer, director, producer and actress. She has had plays produced nationwide, including at Moving Arts, the Echo Theater, Theater of NOTE, Sky Pilot, REDcat LA, Disney Hall, Segerstrom Center, La Jolla Playhouse, Curtis Theater, LACMA, and Iron Skirt Stories. She has directed plays across the country and has performed around the world. Dana is also the Program Director of the MADlab New Play Development Program at Moving Arts.
SANDRA KUKER-FRANCO, SANDRA KUKER PR – PUBLICITY AND MARKETING
An Award-winning Publicist with over four decades of experience Sandra has created a client list of diversity and successful campaigns. Film highlight: A World Away (Mark Blanchard). Stage: I’m Not A Comedian, I’m Lenny Bruce (Ronnie Marmo, Director, Joe Mantegna), Eisenhower: This Piece of Ground (Tony Winner John Rubinstein), Adventures In The Great Beyond, Death Of A Salesman (Frances Fisher & Joe Cortese), Elephant Man, My Child, Mothers Of War (an all-star cast), Voice Lessons (Laurie Metcalf, French Stewart & Maile Flanagan), Write Act Repertory 15+ Production Campaigns, Panic! Productions: Footloose The Musical, plus eight others. Crimson Square TC/BHP: Outrage + eight other shows. Utilizing the strength of relationships, social media and traditional PR. www.SandraKukerPR.com
Moving Arts Mission Statement:
MISSION: Moving Arts is committed to creating, producing and promoting adventurous theatrical new work by diverse Los Angeles artists for diverse audiences.
Testimonials:
“Critics and adventurous playgoers have acclaimed them for producing new plays which offer something special in a black box theatrical environment.” – LOS ANGELES TIMES
“Moving Arts has been consistently garnering attention and acclaim for its steadfast loyalty to original works.” – DramaLogue
About Leap in the Dark Productions
“Theater is my passion, revelation of the human condition is my goal. When the exquisite world of the body wrestles with the complexity of the soul, we cannot look away.”
Established in 2013 with the premiere of The Hat at the New York Fringe Festival, Leap in the Dark Productions features physical theater productions with a feminine gaze.
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