Venus in Fur
by David Ives
Seriously smart and very funny
About the Play
A sexy, smart and funny adaptation of the 1870 erotic novel Venus in Furs by Austrian author Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, which inspired the term “masochism.” A woman arrives late to an audition, which gradually turns into a dance of dominance between the actress and director, as well as a laugh-out-loud depiction of sexual politics. Nominated for the Tony Award for Best Play in 2012. Directed by Andrew Barnicle. Production Sponsored by The Stephen and Carla Hahn Foundation with support from Peter and Debby Stalker.
Artists
Cast
Annie Abrams (Vanda) is thrilled to be back at Ensemble Theatre Company after having played the role of Clea in ETC’s production of The Scene. She also recently appeared as Miss MacKintosh opposite Danny DeVito in The Sunshine Boys (Center Theater Group/Ahmanson Theatre). Other theatre credits include: Brooke in Noises Off (La Mirada Theatre); Philia in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (Reprise!); Ursula Duran in Tickled Pink with Rita Rudner (Laguna Playhouse); Serenity in And the Winner Is… (Laguna Playhouse); Sibyl in Private Lives (GTC Burbank); Luciana in The Comedy of Errors (A Noise Within); Sybil Vane in A Picture of Dorian Gray (Boston Court); Cécile in Les Liaisons Dangereuses (The Blank); Myrrhine in the premiere of Amy Freed’s Lysistrata (Stanford Summer Theater). She also performs stand-up regularly at Flappers Comedy Club in Burbank. TV credits include “Major Crimes,” “Weird Loners,” “True Blood,” “How I Met Your Mother,” and “Without a Trace.” She received her B.A. in Drama from Stanford University. Follow Annie on Twitter @AnnieAbrams and @SallyDuBaine.
Bruce Turk (Thomas) Broadway: The Green Bird (title role; Julie Taymor, dir.), Juan Darien (LIncoln Center; Julie Taymor, dir.). Off-Broadway: Faust, King John, and Pericles (Brooklyn Academy of Music). Regional: 15 productions of Shakespeare at The Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, including Leontes in The Winter’s Tale (Craig Noel Award for Best Actor); Resident Artist at Hartford Stage (Connecticut Circle Award Nomination for Malvolio in Twelfth Night); Pasadena Playhouse (Henry Higgins in Pygmalion). Seasons and productions at the Goodman Theatre, Cincinnati Playhouse, Seattle Repertory Theatre, McCarter Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, Denver Center Theatre Company, Shakespeare Theatre Company, The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, North Coast Repertory Theatre, Portland Stage, and many more. International: Tadashi Suzuki’s Acting Company, Mito (Japan). TV: “Murder in the First,” “Numb3rs,” “ER,” and “Third Watch.” Education: Northwestern University and École Philippe Gaulier (Paris). TCG/Fox Fellowship for Distinguished Achievement. Proud member of AEA and SAG-AFTRA.
Production Team
David Ives (Playwright) has written over three dozen one-act plays for theatre and the radio. The greater part of them are collected in the anthologies All In The Timing. His full-length plays include The Liar, The Heir Apparent, The School for Lies (adapted from Molière’s The Misanthrope), Don Juan in Chicago, and Polish Joke. He has translated Feydeau’s A Flea In Her Ear, as well as Yasmina Reza’s A Spanish Play. He is also the author of three young-adult novels: Monsieur Eek, Scrib, and Voss. A former Guggenheim Fellow in playwriting and a graduate of Yale School of Drama, he lives in New York City. He is on the Council of the Dramatists Guild of America.
Andrew Barnicle (Director) served as Artistic Director of The Laguna Playhouse from 1991 through 2010. In that time, he produced over 100 Playhouse shows and directed over 40 of them, including many World, U.S., West Coast, and Southern California premieres. Recent directing projects at the Playhouse include The Odd Couple, Shirley Valentine, Private Lives, and Ron Hutchinson’s Moonlight and Magnolias, which also played the La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts as a co-production with McCoy/Rigby Entertainment, and Burbank’s Colony Theatre. In the past few years, Andy directed Present Laughter at Chapman University, The Odd Couple, The Lion In Winter, Who Am I This Time? and Gunmetal Blues at North Coast Rep in San Diego, Shirley Valentine and the world premiere of Ken Levine’s A or B? at the Falcon Theatre in Burbank, The Irish Curse at the Odyssey Theatre in LA, John Morogiello’s Blame It On Beckett, Lissa Levin’s Sex and Education, starring Stephanie Zimbalist, and Charles Evered’s Celadine at the Colony Theatre, and Private Lives at the Rubicon Theatre in Ventura. He has also directed at San Diego’s Theatre at Old Town, Michigan’s Meadow Brook Theatre, and San Jose Repertory Theatre.