Photo Flash: 'Dead Man's Cell Phone' at South Coast Rep

South Coast Repertory will present the Southern California premiere of Dead Man's Cell Phone, Sarah Ruhl's fantastical new play about a woman who answers a dead man's cell phone and finds her life turned upside down. Directed by Bart DeLorenzo, Dead Man's Cell Phone runs Sept. 21 - Oct. 12 on the Julianne Argyros Stage. Low-priced previews are available Sept. 21 - 25. Opening night is Sept. 26. Press night is Saturday, Sept. 27 at 7:45 p.m. Tickets to Dead Man's Cell Phone may be purchased online at www.scr.org, by phone at (714) 708-5555 or in person at the SCR box office.

In Dead Man's Cell Phone, Jean decides to answer the incessantly ringing cell phone of a stranger seated across from her in a café, only to realize that he's deceased. Soon she's telling his callers what she thinks they need to hear as she draws them into the surprises and mysteries of their lives - and her own. The New York Times raved about Ruhl's "beguiling new comedy" which recently played to sold-out houses in New York, and Variety called the playwright's imaginative comedy "wondrously mad and moving."

Dead Man's Cell Phone marks Ruhl's return to South Coast Repertory following the West Coast Premiere of The Clean House in 2005, which also enjoyed a New York run and was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. Her other plays include Demeter in the City, which was nominated for an NAACP Award, Eurydice, Melancholy Play, Late: a cowboy song, Orlando and Passion Play, winner of the Kennedy Center Fourth Forum Freedom Award. Ruhl's plays have also been performed in throughout the United States and in England, Germany, Israel, New Zealand and Australia, and have been translated into Spanish, Polish, Russian and Korean. In 2003, she was the recipient of a Helen Merrill Award and a Whiting Writers' Award, a PEN/Laura Pels Award, and in 2006 was the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship.

The cast includes Andrew Borba (Dwight), Nike Doukas (The Other Woman/Stranger), Shannon Holt (Hermia), Christina Pickles (Mrs. Gottlieb), Lenny Von Dohlen (Gordon) and Margaret Welsh (Jean).

Tickets for the show range from $20-$52 for previews and $28-$64 for regular performances. The show runs until October 8th.

Shannon Holt and Margaret Welsh