Evening in Samarra

Evening in Samarra

An Appointment with John O’Hara

The following was sent to me by Jonathan Higgins, who noted that this play was performed at Harvard University. That was all the additional detail I received. I've written to Jonathan for more information. -- Richard.

Created and Performed by: Jonathan Higgins
Directed by: Michael Hanrahan
Music arranged and performed by: James Scott
Note about the show: The action of the play takes place at the Yale Elizabethan Club circa 1957 and New York City circa 1933.

Biographies

Jonathan Higgins hails from Boston, the setting for a number of his film credits, including Disney’s The Greatest Game Ever Played, The Boondock Saints and Saint Ralph. His roles have ranged broadly from the Boston aristocrat of Greatest Game, to drug dealing on the award winning, The Shield. He has portrayed Darryl F. Zanuck opposite Gregory Hines in Bojangles, a young FDR in CBS’s The Man Who Saved Christmas with Jason Alexander, and the bootlegging Joe Kennedy in Bonanno: A Godfather’s Story.

Other selected credits include starring opposite Samantha Bond and Eli Wallach in the Bookfair Murders, defending troubled Harvey Milk assassin Dan White (Timothy Daley) as attorney Doug Schmidt in Execution of Justice and being fatefully seduced by Mila Jovovich in Bob Rafelson’s No Good Deed. Recent television includes guest stars on The Unit (CBS), the Dresden Files (SciFi), and the Border (CBC) as well as starring in Richard Roy’s Crimes of Passion and the NBC MiniSeries XIII, starring Val Kilmer and Steven Dorf.

A graduate of Phillips Academy Andover and Middlebury College, he received his MFA from
Temple University and spent three years touring classical comedy with the New Vic Theatre of London. Other select theatre includes Herbert Pocket in Great Expectations, Grand Theatre, London, Ontario, Eben , in Desire Under the Elms, Irish Classical Theatre and the original production in Toronto and Los Angeles of John Kolvenbach’s West End hit, On An Average Day. He also premiered Kolvenbach’s Fabuloso, alongside Da Vinci’s Inquest star Nicholas Campbell. He is married with three children and divides his time between Toronto and Los Angeles.

Michael Hanrahan is a native of Chicago but has been living in Canada since 1986. He has spent many seasons at the esteemed Stratford Festival where he was a recipient of the Tyrone Guthrie Aaward. He is a founding member of the internationally acclaimed Soulpepper Theatre Company, where he was recently honored with the Artistic Director Award. Along with Jonathan Higgins, he is the founder of the Actors Imagination Studio.

James Scott has been playing music since childhood when, in the cutest of images, he taught himself to play drums by banging on cardboard boxes with paint mixing sticks. Through his youth he fostered a love of jazz and classical music which continues to infuse his writing and playing. After studying at Wilfred Laurier and York Universities, James has written material and played piano and drums for his own projects and such groups as White Van Speaker Scam, The Daniel Sky Band, Heavy Ethics and King Rig.

(Evening in Samarra was developed at The Actors Imagination Studio, Toronto).