Tyne Daly and More Star in LOVE, LOSS, AND WHAT I WORE Benefit Performance at Rubicon Theatre, 12/2

On Sunday, December 2, Rubicon Theatre Company will present a benefit performance of Love, Loss, and What I Wore with a star-studded cast of women including Emmy and Tony-winner Tyne Daly, Amy Peitz and Amanda McBroom.

Based on the book by Ilene Beckerman, Love, Loss, and What I Wore was written by the late Nora Ephron, beloved screenwriter and novelist, and her sister, writer and producer Delia Ephron. Simply staged and modest in nature, this entertaining show has become a phenomenon with women everywhere. Told through a series of vignettes, Love, Loss and What I Wore looks at the important relationships, events and issues in our lives – mother-daughter relationships, first dates, proms, weddings, feelings about our bodies, health, etc. viewed through the prism of clothing. The New York Times described the show as “breezy and enjoyable,” a story about “matters of the heart and matters of the closet.”

Rubicon's production of Love, Loss, and What I Wore is directed by Rubicon Artistic Associate Jenny Sullivan, a childhood and lifelong friend of the Ephron sisters. Jenny has directed more than a dozen productions at Rubicon (including The Rainmaker, Steel Magnolias, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Hamlet). Jenny’s extensive credits also include six seasons at Williamstown Theatre Festival, Off-Broadway and Pasadena Playhouse. Jenny directed the West Coast premiere of Love, Loss, and What I Wore to critical acclaim at the Geffen in Los Angeles with a rotating cast that featured actresses Rita Wilson, Rhea Perlman and Tyne Daly. In addition to Tyne Daly, Amanda McBroom and Amy Pietz, Rubicon’s production will feature two other soon-to-be-announced celebrity actresses.

Proceeds from Love, Loss, and What I Wore will provide seed funding for the Micheline Sakharoff Fund for Women Artists, a newly established fund to support the work of women directors, designers, actors and musicians at Rubicon. Micheline will be honored at the performance kicking off the campaign drive which will begin on December 2 and end in late spring at Rubicon’s 15th Anniversary Gala on April 6, 2013 during which Ms. Sakharoff’s 90th birthday will also be celebrated.

In addition to the performance of Love, Loss, and What I Wore, all audience members are invited to attend a pre-show champagne reception at 12:00 noon in Rubicon’s Laby Hall, with live music by concert pianist Miriam Arichea. Attendees may purchase raffle tickets or participate in a silent auction which will include clothing and apparel from designer boutiques, accessory stores and department stores.

Micheline Sakharoff is a long-time donor and supporter of Rubicon and a member of the Rubicon Board of Directors. She has been a Season Sponsor of Rubicon for 11 years and has also supported a number of specific productions, including the upcoming Our Town by Thornton Wilder, Defying Gravity by Jane Anderson, and Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett. Micheline championed and helped program Rubicon’s BeckettFest, during which the entire Beckett canon was presented on stage or film throughout Downtown Ventura over a six-week period, along with workshops and seminars.

Born in Paris, France, Micheline studied at the Sorbonne before moving to America to marry Albert Sakharoff, a decorated war veteran whom she met the day after the liberation of France. The couple moved to California, first to the Los Angeles area and then to Ventura. Micheline completed her graduate studies at UCLA and was a professor of literature and French language at California State University Northridge for 25 years before retirement.

The 1:00 p.m. matinee will be dedicated to another local woman known for her dramatic flair and elegant attire – Ojai volunteer and community activist Lynn Taylor, who died earlier this year from cancer. Contributions to the Micheline Sakharoff Fund for Women Artists can also be made in honor of Lynn Taylor.

The throughline of Love, Loss and What I Wore is narrated by Gingy, a wise older woman who reminisces about what she wore at milestones in her life—complete with sketches of the styles.

Says Director Sullivan, “Like a long heart-to-heart with your best friend over coffee, the conversation meanders from a bittersweet story of a stepmother wearing the same style bathrobe as her husband’s late wife (to the dismay of the children), to a couple’s musings of what they wore on their wedding day, to a rant about loathing the need to carry a purse.” With odes to black clothing, Madonna-wannabe-attire, cowboy boots and outfits that make mothers cringe, Love, Loss and What I Wore is unabashedly girly—in a good way.

Lighthearted and witty, Love, Loss and What I Wore is perfect for a girls night out or date night. Marilyn Stasio of Variety described the play as, "A great girly show. Impeccable timing and droll delivery."

Continues Sullivan, “Some people call the show ‘a chick flick for the stage,’ and it’s a fair assessment. It has all of the qualities of a great chick flick: relatable characters, quotable comedy and the right amount of sentimental moments mixed in.”

A good choice for a special mother-daughter event, Love, Loss and What I Wore is recommended for those 13 and older.

Tyne Daly is an Emmy award-winning actress who graduated from the American Academy of Dramatic Art and went on to appear in many TV guest spots, as well as starring in “Cagney and Lacey” as Detective Mary Beth Lacey. Tyne’s film credits include “John and Mary,” “The Adulteress” and Inspector Harry Callahan's first female partner Kate Moore in the 1976 Dirty Harry film “The Enforcer.” In subsequent years, Tyne devoted her energies to the Broadway stage, including winning a Tony award for her role of Mama Rose in the revival of the musical Gypsy and taking on the challenges of the five-role, one-woman show Mystery School at Gotham's Angel Orensanz Foundation Center in 1998. In 1999, Tyne returned to television, most notably with a key supporting role as the lead character's domineering, judgmental mother on the series drama “Judging Amy.” Having caught the theatrical bug, however, she also retained her footing on stage in such productions as the acclaimed Rabbit Hole (2006) and in the original cast of Love, Loss, and What I Wore (2009). In 2011, she starred as Maria Callas in Master Class at the Manhattan Theater Club on Broadway.

Amanda McBroom returns to Rubicon, having previously appeared in Love Letters (opposite her husband George Ball), Lady Macbeth Sings the Blues (which continued off-Broadway under the title A Woman of Will), A Delicate Balance, and in the Ovation nominated ensemble of Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris. Amanda also starred in the New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and European productions of Jacques Brel.... She has acted with such prestigious companies as ACT in San Francisco, the Mark Taper Forum in L.A., and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland. Amanda appeared in the World Premiere of her original musical Heartbeats at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego and in subsequent productions at Theatre Three in Dallas, The Cleveland Playhouse, Goodspeed Opera House, The Mechanic in Baltimore, The Pasadena Playhouse and Sacramento Music Circus. The cast album of Heartbeats is recorded on the Varese Sarabande label and the musical is represented by the Rogers and Hammerstein Music Library. She appeared on Broadway in Seesaw and has starred in Sweeney Todd, A Little Night Music and Mame. Amanda’s television credits range from “Star Trek: The Next Generation” to her most recent appearance at the Kennedy Center in the NBC special “From the Heart.”

Amy Pietz played the role of Annie Spadaro in the NBC sitcom “Caroline in the City,” which aired from 1995 to 1999. She was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild award for the role in 1999. She starred as Charlie in the ABC sitcom "Rodney" which debuted in 2004, Franny Tolchuck in "Aliens in America" in 2007, and MerEdith King in "The Nine Lives of Chloe King" in 2011. Pietz has made guest appearances on "Ally McBeal," "Burn Notice," "The Drew Carey Show," "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," "Bones," "Trust Me," "Curb Your Enthusiasm," "The Office," "Star Trek: The Next Generation" and "The Closer."

Born into a creative family of screenwriters, Nora and Delia Ephron grew up in Beverly Hills. Nora began her writing career as a reporter at the New York Post. After dabbling in television scripts in the 1970s, Nora broke onto the film scene with the Oscar-nominated script for “Silkwood.” Nora rose to her cinematic heights with the romantic comedy “When Harry Met Sally,” which became an enormous box office hit and earned Nora her second Oscar nomination. Nora continued her critical success with “Sleepless in Seattle,” another film classic which she co-wrote and directed. Nora’s films played a significant part in the rise of several famous movie stars, including Meryl Streep, Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks. Nora’s most recent success came with “Julie and Julia,” which brought her back to the director’s chair and reunited her with Meryl Streep. Nora’s death earlier this June put America, along with many artists in the entertainment community in Los Angeles and New York, into mourning.

Delia Ephron began her career as a writer with her article “How to Eat Like a Child,” which appeared in the New York Times Magazine and later led to a best-selling book of the same name. Delia found success in her novels (including “Hanging Up” and most recently, “The Lion is In”) as well as her journalism, which has appeared in The New York Times, the Oprah Magazine, Vogue, The Wall Street Journal and The Huffington Post. Her film work includes “Hanging Up” (the adaptation of her novel), “Michael”, and the box office hit “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.” Delia collaborated with her sister Nora on several films, including the classic romantic comedies “You’ve Got Mail” and “Bewitched,” as well as “Love, Loss and What I Wore.”
John Simon of Bloomberg Radio wrote, “Nora and Delia Ephron are literary alchemists, experts at mixing the sentimental and the satirical and turning out something poignant.”

Love, Loss and What I Wore was initially presented on August 2, 2008 as a benefit for the John Drew Theatre and Guild Hall in East Hampton, New York. This original production starred Linda Lavin, Karyn Quackenbush, Leslie Kritzer, Kathy Najimy and Sara Chase.

In February and March of 2009, Daryl Roth produced the play for seven Monday night readings benefitting the charity organization Dress for Success. Each of the seven readings featured a different cast and was held at the Off-Off-Broadway DR2 Theatre. The play officially opened Off-Broadway on October 1, 2009 at The Westside Theatre. The production continued to benefit Dress for Success, with Daryl Roth and Alexander Fraser producing and Karen Lynn Carpenter at the helm. The production ran, with different casts performing for separate 4-week runs enabling incredible actresses in high demand to participate despite very tight schedules.

Love, Loss and What I Wore was next produced at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles, where it ran from May 12 through November 19, 2010. Continuing with the tradition of rotating casting with Jenny Sullivan at the helm, the production broke the Geffen’s box office records.

During the show's run, the production welcomed actresses including Kristin Chenoweth, Rosie O'Donnell, Brooke Shields, Alexis Bledel, Doris Roberts, Katie Finneran, Natasha Lyonne, Jane Lynch, Sherri Shepherd, Rachael Harris, Didi Conn, Rhea Pearlman, Melissa Joan Hart, Rita Wilson, Orfeh, AnnaLynne McCord, Haylie Duff, Fran Drescher, Judy Gold, Anne Meara, Minka Kelly, Jamie-Lynn Sigler, Marla Maples, Erin Dilly, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Victoria Clark, Margaret Colin, Katrina Bowden, La La Anthony, Tichina Arnold, Donna McKechnie and more.

The original Off-Broadway production was met with unanimous critical acclaim. The production won the 2010 Drama Desk Award for Unique Theatrical Experience and won the 2010 Broadway.com Audience Choice Award for Favorite New Off-Broadway Play. Several performances also garnered critical acclaim, with Tyne Daly and Rosie O’Donnell earning 2010 Drama League Award nominations for Distinguished Performance.

VIP Patron tickets for the benefit are $150 each and include a pre-show champagne reception, premium seating, a commemorative autographed program and a post-show wine and hors d'oeuvres reception with the actresses at the beautiful home of Doug Halter and Randy Encinas. Regular tickets for the general public are $85 each and include pre-show champagne reception and reserved seating.

Some of the auction items may be viewed online starting November 20 at www.rubicontheatre.org. For tickets or reservations, call (805) 667-2900. Tickets may also be purchased online at www.rubicontheatre.org.