December 12, 2000 Summary Facts:
Master monologist Spalding Gray, a favorite among Santa Barbara theatergoers for the last decade, returns to the UCSB stage for one night only with the latest installment in what he calls “the ongoing self-opera of Spalding Gray,” an intimate new performance titled Morning, Noon and Night on Saturday, January 20 at 8 p.m. in UCSB Campbell Hall. An incisive tale of wonder, wit and warmth from a day in his life as the stay-at-home dad of three children ranging in age from 9 months to 11 years-old, Gray marvels at the miracle of childhood, celebrates the liberating power of devotion to one’s children, and draws sustaining humor from the simple, incessant and urgent needs and details of everyday family life. Courtesy of the UCSB Bookstore, copies of books by Gray will be available for purchase at the event. Long known for his compulsive self-obsession, Gray takes on a new level of awareness, expanding his concerns to include his vividly portrayed step-daughter Marissa, age 11, five-year-old son Forrest and nine-month-old baby Theo. With the same ironic detachment he brought to his earlier work, Gray narrates a tale of his encounters with Cheerios on the kitchen floor, a search for The Nutty Professor at the video store and Tickle Me Elmo in the bed he shares with the children’s mother Kathie Russo. But The New York Times claims this work is “more focused, more relaxed; as a result it’s a more charming work (than his previous ones), one that feels almost effortless in its humor and clarity.” Despite his celebration of the day-to-day, ordinary elements of family life—meals, bath and trips downtown for ice cream—Gray has not lost his unsentimental observational and philosophical style. According to the Times, Morning, Noon and Night “discourses meaningfully on such patented Gray matters as death and chance and passing gas in public.” Morning, Noon and Night is presented with the talents of creative consultant Paul Spencer, a writer from New York who also worked with Gray on It’s a Slippery Slope. Meghan Coleman serves as the Disembodied Voice of Death. A writer, actor and performer, Gray has created a series of 18 monologues, including Sex and Death to the Age 14; Booze, Cars and College Girls; A Personal History of the American Theater; India and After (America); Monster in a Box; Gray’s Anatomy; It’s a Slippery Slope; and the Obie Award-winning Swimming to Cambodia. These works have virtually defined an entire genre of solo performance over the last two decades. His appearances on and off-Broadway include his portrayal of the Stage Manager in the revival of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town, and Hoss in the Performance Group’s New York premier of Sam Shepard’s Tooth of Crime. With the Wooster Group, which he co-founded in 1977, Gray wrote and performed the autobiographical trilogy Three Places in Rhode Island. Gray’s film credits include The Killing Fields, Swimming to Cambodia , True Stories, Clara’s Heart, Beaches, The Pickle, The King of the Hill, The Paper, Beyond Rangoon, The Toolshed and Diabolique. His publications include a collection of monologues, Sex and Death to the Age 14, Swimming to Cambodia, In Search of the Monkey Girl, Orchards, Monster in a Box, Gray’s Anatomy, It’s a Slippery Slope and Morning, Noon and Night, and the novel Impossible Vacation. Spalding Gray’s previous performances at UCSB include It’s a Slippery Slope and Gray on Gray, Or Everything Reminds Me of Something in 1997; Gray’s Anatomy in 1994, Monster in a Box in 1990 and 1992 when he also performed A Personal History of the American Theater. Presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures, this event is sponsored by the Bath Street Inn and The Santa Barbara Independent, and is supported in part with funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency, and the California Arts Council, a state agency. For tickets or more information, Editor: For photos, please call |