GOOD PEOPLE THEATER COMPANY'S FIRST SHOW EARNS MULTIPLE RAVE REVIEWS PLUS COVETED "OVATION RECOMMENDED!" RATING

LOS ANGELES, June 19, 2013 — Producing Artistic Director Janet Miller and the Board of Good People Theater Company (GPTC) are pleased to announce the Company’s debut show, LA’s first fully staged production of A MAN OF NO IMPORTANCE, has been rated OVATION RECOMMENDED by the voters of LA Stage Alliance. Based on scores received in the “Overall Production” category of the LA Stage Alliance audience voter balloting system, this honor comes just six performances in to a 13-show run and confirms GPTC’s first show is considered in the top 15% of all productions this season in Los Angeles.

In addition to the OVATION achievement, the GPTC team is also pleased to announce a 95% “sweetness” rating on Bitter Lemon’s proprietary “FringeMeter” (a tabulation based on Fringe website audience reviews) and, to date, a total of eight rave press reviews and notices from the following location and national media outlets:

BroadwayWorld
Headline: “…an Astounding Inaugural…”
http://losangeles.broadwayworld.com/article/BWW-Reviews-Good-People-Theatre-Company-Produce-an-Astounding-Inaugural-A-MAN-OF-NO-IMPORTANCE-20130611

BroadwayWorld Special Coverage: SUMMER STAGES – Our Picks for Summer’s Best Around the World!
Los Angeles listing of five shows leads off with GPTC’s A Man of No Importance
http://broadwayworld.com/article/BroadwayWorld-Special-Coverage-SUMMER-STAGES-Our-Picks-for-Summers-Best-Around-the-World-20130614

Stage and Cinema
“…(an) enthralling production…Good People nailed it right out of the gate.”
http://www.stageandcinema.com/2013/06/17/a-man-of-no-importance-good-people-hollywood-fringe/

FrontiersLA.com
“…Miller elicits extraordinary ensemble work…”
http://www.frontiersla.com/Entertainment/Theater-Reviews/story.aspx?ID=1985167

Musicals in LA
“…a beautifully polished production in every regard…a triumph…”
http://musicalsinla.blogspot.com/2013/06/hollywood-fringe-review-man-of-no.html

Arts In LA
“…Miller’s staging is as a fluid as her handling of the actors is sensitive…”
http://artsinla.com/Theater_Reviews.html

Stage Scene LA (which gave the show it’s “Wow” rating)
“…Only the highest praise can suffice to describe Miller’s dream cast…”
http://www.stagescenela.com/2013/06/a-man-of-no-importance-2/

On Stage Los Angeles
“…(Janet Miller’s) production beams…”
http://onstagelosangeles.blogspot.com/2013/06/a-man-of-no-importance-at-lillian.html

LA Stage Times
“…treat(s) the tale with the respect it deserves.”
http://www.lastagetimes.com/2013/06/comedy-tonight-yes-prime-minister-neva-dead-mans-cell-phone-bob/

ABOUT A MAN OF NO IMPORTANCE

Offered as part of the Hollywood Fringe Festival (Project #1093) with direction and musical staging by Miller and musical direction by Corey Hirsch, GPTC’s “wee Irish musical” features a 15-member cast of accomplished actors—many of whom are drawn from Miller’s most successful productions. Winner of New York City’s Outer Circle Critics Award for Best Musical when it debuted, the show has a book by Terrence McNally, with music by Stephen Flaherty and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens. The musical tells the story of Alfie Byrne, a modest, poetical Everyman in 1960s Dublin weighed down by a secret love that, when exposed, tests the boundaries of true friendship and finally mutual tolerance.

Good People’s first show, A MAN OF NO IMPORTANCE, continues through June 30 at the Lillian Theatre Hollywood (1076 Lillian Way at Santa Monica Boulevard) and runs each weekend through June 30 (Friday and Saturday at 8pm and Sunday at 2pm.) Tickets are $20 general admission, with discounts for Fringe insiders (Citizens and Participants). All dates go on sale today (May 1) through the Fringe Box Office by calling 323-455-4585 or online at the show’s Hollywood Fringe Festival project page www.hff13.org/1093.

As a part of the their commitment to “good people doing good work,” the GPTC is also presenting a special “Charity of Choice” performance on Saturday, June 29 at 2pm. In a turn that book-loving Alfie Byrne would surely appreciate, 100% of the ticket proceeds from this performance will be donated to BookEnds, an LA-based non-profit that recycles quality children’s reading material to help build library collections at schools and youth centers in underserved areas across Southern California

ABOUT GOOD PEOPLE THEATER COMPANY

The Good People Theater Company believes there are three good reasons to launch another small theater company in Los Angeles:

We believe you can never have enough intimate plays and chamber musicals performed to the highest standards by actors and theater techs of many generations. We like seeing good people of all ages do great work.

We believe Janet Miller—the company’s founding artistic director—is a walking theater encyclopedia and a true triple threat as a director of straight plays, a director of musicals and a choreographer. We believe Janet is one-of-a-kind. She deserves a professional forum for her talents and ideas, so we’re giving it to her.

We believe quality theater changes people—the actors, theater techs, musicians, and audiences young and old who experience it—for the better. It’s important to be good, to do good (including a charity fundraiser performance in every run) and to make a difference. So that’s what we’re doing.

Founding GPTC Board members include:
• Kimberly Fox, Board President; Former marketing agency president, now marketing consultant and life-long lover of all things theater.
• Janet Miller, Artistic Director (see full bio below)
• Steve De Forest; Consumer Goods Corporate Executive, Executive Recruitment Board Member and Officer, Theatre Producer and Actor
• Rhonda Kramer; Morning and Afternoon Traffic anchor for KFWB News/Talk 980, former owner / CEO of LA Network, providing traffic and news to multiple LA radio stations.
• Steve Julian; Theater actor, director and playwright, voice-over artist, and host of Morning Edition on 89.3 KPCC.
• Dr. Robert Fink; UCLA professor of musicology and former Gilbert and Sullivan Society conductor and performer.

ABOUT JANET MILLER
www.janetmiller.net

Janet Miller is a director, choreographer and educator. Her choreography has been showcased Off-Broadway at the Westside Theatre in The Marvelous Wonderettes. She received a Lucille Lortel Award nomination for Outstanding Choreographer for this production. Janet garnered a LA Stage Alliance Ovation nomination for her work on TMW, a Garland, a Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Choreography, a BroadwayWorld LA Award nomination for Best Choreography and was part of the team that won the Ovation Award for Best Intimate Musical in 2007. She also received a Garland and a LADCC choreography award for Winter Wonderettes.

Miller choreographed the European Premiere of The Marvelous Wonderettes for Teatro Franco Parenti in Milan Italy. She staged her award winning Wonderettes step-touch extensively throughout the US, most notably at Northlight in Chicago, San Jose Repertory Theatre, Capital Repertory in Albany, NY, Sacramento Music Circus, Pittsburgh CLO, The Plymouth Playhouse in Minneapolis, Cabrillo Music Theatre in Thousand Oaks, CA, Moonlight Stage Productions in Vista, CA, McCoy Rigby Entertainment, and The Merry-Go-Round Playhouse in Auburn, NY.

Miller was the Resident Director for Phantom Projects Theatre Group, based at the La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts. In 2010, she directed Lydia R. Diamond’s adaptation of the Toni Morrison book, The Bluest Eye to critical acclaim. The following season, Phantom remounted this production at the Miles Playhouse in Santa Monica. Also for Phantom Projects, Miller directed The Miracle Worker, The Crucible, Of Mice and Men, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) Grapes of Wrath, The Giver and The Importance of Being Earnest.

Miller’s work has appeared on both coasts in productions of Side By Side By Sondheim, South Pacific, Guys and Dolls, Kiss Me Kate, Jesus Christ Superstar, Anything Goes, Baby, The Fantasticks, Annie Get Your Gun, Dames At Sea, Charlie Brown, Urinetown, The Odd Couple, The Nerd, The Man Who Came To Dinner, The Rimers of Eldritch, and Taming of the Shrew to name a few. She has a special expertise in tap, which she has taught and choreographed worldwide most recently in China and Thailand. She was one of the founding members of Golden State Theatre, the Family Theatre of La Mirada, for eighteen years, directing and choreographing over 50 productions. Miller is the recipient of the 2003 Excellence in Art Award for Drama from the city of Torrance, where she was the Artistic Director/Resident Director at the Torrance Theatre Company for seven years, directing sixteen shows during her tenure. She is also the Artistic Director for the MB Players.

Miller holds a B.A. in musical theatre from CSUN, and an M.A. in theatre from CSULA. She is adjunct faculty at CSUN, CSULA and Cerritos College, and is a proud member of SDC.

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