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2004-2005 Performing Arts Season News Release
For Immediate Release

October 12, 2004
Contact: Susan Gwynne
(805) 893-2098
e-mail: gwynne-s@sa.ucsb.edu

UCSB Arts & Lectures presents the hilarious Off-Broadway smash Matt & Ben at Center Stage Theater

Summary Facts:

UCSB Arts & Lectures presents Matt & Ben, the off-Broadway “certified hit” (Variety) about Matt Damon and Ben Affleck that has had smash runs in both New York and L.A., for an eight performance run, Wednesday, November 17—Sunday, November 21 at Center Stage Theater, Paseo Nuevo. In Matt & Ben, Jennifer Morris and Quincy Tyler Bernstine portray Matt (Damon) and Ben (Affleck)—before J-Lo, before Gwyneth, before Project Greenlight, before Oscar....before anyone actually gave a damn. When the screenplay for Good Will Hunting drops mysteriously from the heavens, the boys realize they’re being tested by a Higher Power. The New York Times hailed the show as “a deliciously spiteful send-up of Hollywood’s naked emperors.”

“This show is about friendship and collaboration,” Bernstine and Morris claim. “Damon and Affleck went to school together, remained best friends and collaborators. Mindy and Brenda [the creators of the show] went to school together, remained best friends and created this play together. The two of us also went to school together, are best friends and now we get to do some male-bonding on stage up on stage.”

Written by Mindy Kaling and Brenda Withers and directed by David Warren, Matt & Ben took the prize for “Best Overall Production” during its sold-out run at the New York International Fringe Festival and was the only play invited to appear at the HBO sponsored 2003 U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen. In July 2003, Matt & Ben opened Off-Broadway at P.S. 122 in the East Village and took the New York theatre scene by storm with The New York Times calling the show “absolutely delightful, sharp and clever!” Matt & Ben was named “the hottest ticket in town!” by Us Weekly; “the hottest play in New York” by Newsweek; and “a big Off-Broadway hit!” by E! Entertainment Television. Matt & Ben was included on Entertainment Weekly’s “Must List,” Rolling Stone Magazine’s “2003 Hot List” and was among Time magazine’s top five theatre picks of the year.

Quincy Tyler Bernstine (Ben) was born in Madison, Wisconsin and raised in Washington, DC. She was trained at Brown University (BA) and UC San Diego (MFA) and is a member of The Civilians and LAByrinth Theater Company. Bernstine has performed regionally with The Alliance, Long Wharf, La Jolla Playhouse, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Nashville Shakespeare Festival, Baltimore’s Center Stage, Mark Taper Forum, Virginia Stage Company and others. She has also appeared on television in Chapelle’s Show. Her New York theater credits include The Ladies (Cherry Lane/ Dixon Place); Paris Commune (Mazer), The Rats are Getting Bigger (New Work Now! at the Public and the 2003 NY Fringe Festival), The Trail of Her Inner Thigh (LAByrinth), The Train Play (Clubbed Thumb), and Crewneck (Lincoln Center Director’s Lab and PS NBC), among others.

Jennifer R. Morris (Matt) received her MFA from UC San Diego. She is a founding member of The Civilians, and with them has performed The Ladies (Cherry Lane/Dixon Place), Canard, Canard Goose (Joe’s Pub/HERE), and Paris Commune (The Mazer). Morris will return to Santa Barbara with The Civilians to present Gone Missing on Wednesday, April 6 at UCSB Campbell Hall. On television she has appeared on ER (NBC), Profiler (NBC), Situation Normal, and has hosted shows on WE, TV Food Network, and has provided the voice of 24 Frame News on The Sundance Channel. Her theater credits include [sic], Communist Dracula Pageant (Soho Rep), The Right Way to Sue (New Georges), Christmas Carol, Lysistrata (Actors Theatre of Louisville), Harmony (La Jolla Playhouse), Pericles, Twelfth Night (Shakespeare Santa Cruz), and Fingered (Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco).

The audience is welcome to stay after the Wednesday and Thursday performances for a Meet-the-Artists discussion with the cast.

In UCSB Arts & Lectures’ on-going effort to make events accessible to all who wish to enjoy them, the performance on Saturday at 7:30 pm will be signed. American Sign Language interpretation is made possible by the California Arts Council in collaboration with the National Arts and Disability Center and by the Santa Barbara Foundation’s Access Theatre Endowment Fund.

Matt & Ben is presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures and sponsored by the Best Western Beachside Inn. Tickets for the play are $28 for the general public and $18 for UCSB students. They are on sale now and can also be purchased at the door, if still available.

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

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

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