THE HUNTINGTON ANNOUNCES CAST AND CREATIVE TEAM OF IMMERSIVE STAND UP IF YOU’RE HERE TONIGHT
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT:
Gabrielle Jaques, Publicist
617-273-1520
PHOTOS available for download here
Members of the press, RSVP here
THE HUNTINGTON ANNOUNCES CAST AND CREATIVE TEAM OF IMMERSIVE STAND UP IF YOU’RE HERE TONIGHT
Experience The Huntington like never before with a unique theatrical experience in the intimate Maso Studio at the Huntington Theatre
Jim Otlieb in Stand Up If You’re Here Tonight; Photo by Michael Brosilow
(BOSTON) – The Huntington announces the cast and creative team of its new production of Stand Up If You’re Here Tonight, the thoroughly unique and interactive play written and directed by John Kolvenbach. The production kicks off 2024, running from Saturday, January 20 – Sunday, March 23, 2024 at the Huntington Theatre in the Maso Studio (264 Huntington Avenue).
Stand Up If You’re Here Tonight is a new play by Olivier Award-nominated playwright John Kolvenbach. Winner of the LA Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Actor, Jim Ortlieb delivers a tour-de-force performance as a man desperate for connection, bent by isolation, and deeply in love with the audience itself. Unlike anything you’ve seen at The Huntington before, this underground experience in the renovated, 150-seat Maso Studio blurs the line between audience and performer, and will have audiences connecting, laughing, thinking, and up on their feet.
Kolvenbach wrote Stand Up If You’re Here Tonight in the spring of 2021, during the Covid-19 pandemic. It premiered at the Harbor Stage Company in Wellfleet, then went on to have sold-out runs in LA, Chicago, and Paris. It has been praised as a “stunningly original existential exercise” by WTTW (PBS) Chicago, and as “uproarious, downright brilliant, and full of joyful surprises!” by the Provincetown Independent.
Kolvenbach explains, “The show is about a guy trying to do the impossible, or the nearly impossible: he wants to achieve a kind of union with the audience, a oneness, to blur the line between the play and the people who are there that night. That’s the ambition of the man in the play, but it’s also the ambition (harebrained, maybe) of the play itself. We hope for communion.”
Huntington Artistic Director Loretta Greco and Kolvenbach first worked together and forged their friendship during her time as artistic director of San Francisco’s Magic Theatre where she produced his plays Goldfish, Mrs. Whitney, Sister Play, and Reel to Reel.
“You are in for a treat!” says Greco. “This incisive, vulnerable, funny, new play by my dear friend John Kolvenbach is the first half of this special intimate evening, and the second opens up to drinks and freeform conversation with the artists and your fellow audience members. This is unlike any experience you’ve had at The Huntington! In Paris and LA, people stayed for hours, and we hope you’ll want to stay and connect as well.”
The Huntington’s production of Stand Up If You’re Here Tonight features actor Jim Ortlieb as Man, a performer seeking an audience. His credits include The Farnsworth Invention and Of Mice and Men on Broadway. The creative team features Huntington staff members, including scenic design by Kristine Holmes (Mala at ArtsEmerson and The Huntington) and lighting design by M Berry (The Ding Dongs at Gloucester Stage Company). The production stage manager is Adele Nadine Traub.
The performance runs for approximately 65 minutes and is followed by a social hour where audiences can interact with members of the cast and creative team and with each other. A beverage during the social hour is included in the price of the ticket.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
John Kolvenbach (Playwright and Director) West End: Love Song (Olivier nomination, Best New Comedy, starring Cillian Murphy); On an Average Day (with Woody Harrelson). Love Song premiered at Steppenwolf and played in New York, Zurich, Melbourne, Sydney, Wellington, Seoul, and Rome and will be revived this spring in Chicago by Remy Bumppo. Average Day has been produced in Tel Aviv, Buenos Aires, and Lisbon. Goldfish premiered at South Coast Repertory, then played at the Magic Theatre, directed by Loretta Greco. Reel to Reel premiered at the Magic. Sister Play premiered at The Harbor Stage Company and at the Magic, both productions directed by the author. Stand Up If You’re Here Tonight opened in the summer of 2021 in Los Angeles and, simultaneously, at The Harbor Stage. The LA production went on to American Blues, in Chicago and then to Paris. Other plays include: Fabuloso, Bank Job, and Marriage Play or Half ‘n Half ‘n Half.
Jim Ortlieb (Man) Broadway: The Farnsworth Invention, Of Mice and Men, Guys and Dolls. 1st National Tour: Billy Elliot the Musical (Chicago and Toronto). International: Hughie, The Homecoming, Requiem for a Heavyweight, Translations, Faith Healer, Dark Pony (Gare St. Lazare Paris, France and West Cork, Ireland). Regional: Picasso at the Lapin Agile, Man Who Came to Dinner (Steppenwolf); Grapes of Wrath (Dir. David Cromer, Ford’s Theatre); Tartuffe, Candide (Weston, VT); M the Murderer (Organic, Chicago, and Gare St. Lazare, Paris); Blind Date (Goodman, Chicago); The Book of Will, All in the Timing (Northlight, Chicago); Life Sucks (Lookingglass, Chicago); Scapin (American Blues Theatre Company, of which he is a member.) TV and Film: American Horror Story, ER, Gilmore Girls, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, West Wing, The Closer, CSI, Grey’s Anatomy, The Shield, Felicity, Roswell, Home Alone, Magnolia, A Mighty Wind, Flatliners, Latter Days, Drunkboat, Contagion, The Crash, Running Scared, Goodnight Sweet Wife. Awards: twice nominated for Best Actor for the Joseph Jefferson Award in Chicago; Best Actor nominee for Boston’s Independent Reviewers of New England Award (for John Kolvenbach’s Marriage Play at Merrimack Rep in Lowell), and a Best Actor winner of the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle award for his work in Stand Up If You’re Here Tonight.
PERFORMANCE INFORMATION FOR STAND UP IF YOU’RE HERE TONIGHT
WHEN
Performances: January 20 – March 23, 2024
Select Evenings: Tues – Thurs at 7:30pm; Fri – Sat at 8pm; select Sun at 7pm
Matinees: Select Wed at 3pm; select Sat and Sun at 2:30pm
Days and times vary; see complete schedule above.
Running time: 1 hour performance with no intermission, followed by a 1 hour social opportunity
Press Opening: Wednesday, January 24 at 7pm (RSVP here)
WHERE
The Huntington Theatre, Maso Studio
264 Huntington Ave, Boston
TICKETS
Tickets start at $30. Season ticket packages and FlexPasses are also now on sale:
- online at huntingtontheatre.org
- by phone at 617-266-0800;
- or in person at the Huntington Theatre (264 Huntington Ave), Boston or Calderwood Pavilion (527 Tremont Street)
Select discounts apply:
- $10 off: season ticket holders
- $40 “HYPE” tickets (Huntington Young Patron Events) for patrons 40 years-old and younger (valid ID required)
- $20 student and military tickets (valid ID required)
Please note that a digital recording of this production will be available for online viewing.
The Huntington asks that any patron experiencing COVID symptoms stay home and contact ticketing services for more information about exchanges.
ACCESS PERFORMANCES FOR STAND UP IF YOU’RE HERE TONIGHT
Tickets are $20 for each patron and their guests. To reserve tickets please email access@huntingtontheatre.org, call ticketing services at 617-266-0800, or in person at the Huntington Theatre, 264 Huntington Ave, Boston.
Accessible performances are supported in part by the Liberty Mutual Foundation.
OPEN CAPTIONED PERFORMANCE: Tuesday, February 13 at 7:30pm. The Huntington offers open captioning at designated performances for any patron who benefits from having the text of spoken dialogue visible in time with the play.
ASL-INTERPRETED PERFORMANCE: Friday, February 16 at 8pm. The Huntington offers American Sign Language interpretation at designated performances for patrons who are Deaf or hard of hearing.
AUDIO-DESCRIBED PERFORMANCE: Saturday, February 17 at 2:30pm. The Huntington offers audio description for patrons who are blind or low-vision at designated performances. Please visit huntingtontheatre.org/visit/accessibility for information.
Large Print and Braille Programs will also be available for patrons at performances.
MEMBERS OF THE MEDIA
Any members of the media who are interested in speaking with the artists of Stand Up If You’re Here Tonight, please contact Publicist Gabrielle Jaques at gjaques@huntingtontheatre.org or 617-273-1520.
Press night for critics is Wednesday, January 24 at 7pm. Please RSVP here for press night or other available performances.
Production photos will be available for download online, and b-roll footage can be requested.
PHOTOS available for download here
ABOUT THE HUNTINGTON
Celebrating over 40 years of outstanding theatre, The Huntington is Boston’s theatrical commons and leading professional theatre company. On our stages and throughout our city, we share enduring and untold stories that spark the imagination of audiences and artists and amplify the wide range of voices in our community.
Under the leadership of Norma Jean Calderwood Artistic Director Loretta Greco and Executive Director Christopher Mannelli, The Huntington is committed to welcoming broad and diverse audiences, provides life- changing opportunities for students through its robust education and community programs, is a national leader in the development of playwrights and new plays, acts as the host organization for a multi-year residency of The Front Porch Arts Collective, a Black theatre company based in Boston, and serves the local arts community through our operation of The Huntington Calderwood/BCA.
The Huntington reopened the historic Huntington Theatre in fall of 2022 after its transformational renovation, and is currently in phase two of the project; the renovation and building project of this storied venue with a bold vision for the future will allow us to innovatively expand our services to audiences, artists, and the community for generations to come. For more information, visit huntingtontheatre.org.
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