The New Conservatory Theatre CENTER

PRESENTS

A Conversation With Barry Humphries

AKA Dame Edna – The Man Behind the Woman

Moderated by Terrence McNally

OCTOBER 4, 2004

The New Conservatory Theatre Center is proud to present A Conversation With Barry Humphries - AKA Dame Edna - The Man Behind the Woman , moderated by playwright-in-residence Terrence McNally. Barry Humphries will give an inside look at his career in show business and describe how he came to create Dame Edna and his other world-renown characters. A Conversation , a benefit for the NCTC Youth Programs, will be held on Monday, October 4 th at 7 pm, in The New Conservatory Theatre Center's newly renovated Decker Theatre, 25 Van Ness Avenue at Market in San Francisco.

Tickets for this special benefit are $75 (Rows A-D), $50 (Rows E-G), $35 (Rows H-K) and include a catered reception after the program. Tickets are available through the NCTC Box Office at 415/861-8972 or on line at: www.nctcsf.org .

Barry Humphries , born 1934 in Melbourne, Australia, is a multi-talented actor, artist and author. He began his stage career in 1952 in Call Me Madman . As an actor, he has invented many satiric Australian characters such as Sandy Stone, Lance Boyle, Debbie Thwaite, Neil Singleton and Barry (Bazza) McKenzie. His most famous creations are Melbourne housewife, Dame Edna Everage, who debuted in 1955, and Sir Les Paterson in 1974. It was Dame Edna – ‘internationally celebrated Megastar' - who achieved worldwide fame for both herself and her creator. Her greeting to adoring audiences of “Hello possums!” is now a part of the lexicon.

Edna, Les and Bazza between them have made several sound recordings, written books and appeared in films and television and have been the subject of exhibitions. Since the 1960s, Humphries' career has alternated between England, Australia and the USA giving solo shows. Barry Humphries' autobiography More Please (1992) won him the J.R. Ackerley Prize in 1993. He has won various awards for comedy and as a TV personality. In 1994, he was accorded an honorary doctorate from Griffith University, Queensland, and was given an Order of Australia in 1982. Most recently, Humphries received a Special Tony Award for a Live Theatrical Event for Dame Edna: The Royal Tour . Currently, Barry Humphries is appearing in Dame Edna – Back with a Vengeance (with a six-week engagement at San Francisco's Curran Theatre from August 31 through October 10, 2004).

Humphries is also regarded as one of Australia's best landscape artists and is the author of several plays, books, novels, and autobiographies. He is married to Lizzie Spender, the daughter of British poet Sir Stephen Spender, and has two sons and two daughters.

Terrence McNally has won four Tony Awards: 1998 for the musical Ragtime; 1996 for Master Class; 1995 for Love! Valour! Compassion!; and 1993 for the musical Kiss of the Spiderwoman . McNally wrote the book for The Full Monty . His other plays include: Corpus Christi ; A Perfect Ganesh; Lips Together, Teeth Apart ; The Lisbon Traviata; Frankie and Johnny in the Claire de Lune and It's Only a Play . Earlier stage works are Bad Habits; The Ritz; Where Has Tommy Flowers Gone?; And Thing That Goes Bump in the Night; Next , and the book for the musical The Rink .

McNally wrote the librettos for New York City Opera's Central Park Opera Trilogy (for The Food of Love , music by Robert Beaser) and San Francisco Opera's premiere of Dead Man Walking (music by Jake Heggie), and recently adapted Dürrenmatt's The Visit , with score by Kander and Ebb.

Terrence McNally has received two Guggenheim fellowships, a Rockefeller grant, a Lucille Lortel Award, and a citation from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He has been a member of the Dramatists Guild since 1970.

The New Conservatory Theatre Center has produced three plays by NcNally: Corpus Christi, Lisbon Traviata and Love! Valour! Compassion!. He is currently playwright-in-residence (on a $50,000 grant underwritten by Theatre Communications Group and the PEW Charitable Trusts) writing a new gay-themed play to be premiered at NCTC during its 25 th Anniversary Season in the Fall of 2005.

New Conservatory Theatre Center's YouthAware Programs are designed to generate young peoples' understanding and respect for other people and to help them understand the impact of making healthy choices to transform a world full of negative influences into one full of potential and possibilities. These programs reach 25,000 young people annually.

EVENT: The New Conservatory Theatre Center presents A Conversation With Barry Humphries - AKA Dame Edna - The Man Behind the Woman, moderated by award-winning playwright-in-residence Terrence McNally. A Conversation is a benefit for the NCTC Youth Programs. A catered reception will follow the program.

WHEN: Monday, October 4 th at 7 pm.

WHERE: The New Conservatory Theatre Center's newly renovated Decker Theatre, 25 Van Ness Avenue at Market in San Francisco.

TICKETS: $75 (Rows A-D), $50 (Rows E-G), $35 (Rows H-K). Tickets are available through the NCTC Box Office at 415/861-8972 or on line at: www.nctcsf.org .