March 26, 2002
Contact: Susan Gwynne
(805) 893-2098
e-mail: gwynne-s@sa.ucsb.edu

Obie-Award winner Eric Bogosian presents a scathing evening of classic characters from his plays in The Worst of Eric Bogosian at UCSB Campbell Hall

Summary Facts:

• Eric Bogosian performing The Worst of Eric Bogosian
• A selection of hits from Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll, Pounding Nails in the Floor with My Forehead and Wake Up and Smell the Coffee
• Obie Award winner has also appeared in over a dozen feature films, including his own Talk Radio
• Contains adult themes and language
• Thursday, May 9 / 9 pm
• UCSB Campbell Hall
• General: $22/$19, UCSB students: $19/$16
• Tickets/information: UCSB Arts & Lectures at 893-3535

Eric Bogosian, incendiary writer of plays like Drinking in America and Talk Radio, will perform The Worst of Eric Bogosian, an evening of favorite rants and monologues, on Thursday, May 9 at 9 pm in UCSB Campbell Hall. A selection of greatest hits from Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll, Pounding Nails in the Floor with My Forehead and his latest work Wake Up and Smell the Coffee, this compendium rolls down a hellish slope of modern attitude into the swamps of hilarious, frothing rant. Directed by his longtime collaborator Jo Bonney, Bogosian brings to life numerous crazy characters in this edgy one-man show that’s dazzling, daring and sophisticated. The Worst of Eric Bogosian contains adult themes and explicit language. After a recent performance the New York Daily News wrote, “Bogosian displays all the rambunctious energy and rebel spirit he showed in his more youthful works. His wit is as venomous as ever, his material even more devastating and polished than before.” And a rave review in the Los Angeles Times trumpeted the headline, “At his ’Worst,’ Bogosian at his best.”

Eric Bogosian is the author of the plays Talk Radio (New York Shakespeare Festival/PublicTheater), subUrbia (Lincoln Center Theater) and Griller (Chicago’s Goodman Theatre and Baltimore’s Centerstage Theater). He has also written and performed three Obie Award winning solo evenings of theater: Drinking In America, Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll, and Pounding Nails in the Floor with My Forehead. His most recent one-man show Wake Up and Smell the Coffee was nominated for a Drama Desk Award.

He wrote the screen adaptations of his first two plays, receiving the Berlin Film Festival’s “Silver Bear” for his work on Talk Radio. Bogosian starred in the acclaimed Oliver Stone directed film version of that play. In his four-star review of the movie, critic Roger Ebert claims, “[Bogosian] feels this material from the inside out, and makes the character convincing.” Bogosian has also appeared in Robert Altman’s The Caine Mutiny Court Martial, Under Siege 2 and will co-star in the upcoming film Ararat directed by Atom Egoyan. In addition, he has guest starred in over two dozen feature films and television shows including Paul Schrader’s Witchhunt, Woody Allen’s Deconstructing Harry, the CBS telefilm Blonde, HBO’s Bright Shining Lie, The Larry Sanders Show, Third Watch and Law and Order.

Bogosian has also written fiction. His novel Mall, published by Simon & Schuster in November of 2000, takes a satiric look at American consumer culture. Mal, its “hero,” is a thirty-something speedfreak who shoots his mother, torches his house and heads to the local mall with a sack of weapons and a plan for more mayhem. Booklist wrote, “If John Cheever lived in America today, watched MTV, and shopped at the mall, he’d probably write like Eric Bogosian.”

Bogosian’s monologues are published by Theatre Communications Group and a recording of Pounding Nails in the Floor with My Forehead is available on CD from the Blackbird Recording Company. Further information about Eric Bogosian can be found at his website www.ericbogosian.com.

The director of The Worst of Eric Bogosian, Jo Bonney, also directed his Funhouse, Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll and Pounding Nails in the Floor with My Forehead. A winner of a 1998 Obie Award for Sustained Excellence in Direction, Bonney has also directed Jose Rivera’s References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot and Diana Son’s Stop Kiss at New York City’s Public Theater and Danny Hoch’s one-man shows Jails, Hospitals & Hip-Hop and Some People. She is the editor of Extreme Exposure: An Anthology of Solo Performance Texts from the Twentieth Century (Theatre Communications Group).

This performance by Eric Bogosian is presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures and sponsored by the Santa Barbara Independent and the Harbor View Inn. It is funded in part by the California Arts Council, a state agency, and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency. Courtesy of the UCSB Bookstore, books by Eric Bogosian will be available for purchase and signing. Tickets are $22 and $19 for the general public and $19 and $16 for UCSB students.

For tickets or more information,
call UCSB Arts & Lectures at (805) 893-3535.

Editor: For photos, please call
Susan Gwynne at (805) 893-2098.