Gilbert Cates
Producing Director
Gilbert Cates is recognized as a leader in
television, film and theater.
Currently presiding as the Producing Director of The Geffen Playhouse,
he is dedicated to enriching the Los Angeles theatrical spectrum by
presenting the finest in contemporary and classical theater.
In November 1996, Cates was the recipient of the Jimmy Dolittle
Award for Outstanding Contribution to Los Angeles Theater. He
received the 1999 Ovation Award for best play for Collected Stories,
starring Linda Lavin and Samantha Mathis, which he directed at the
Geffen.
The accolades for Cates expand into other areas of
the entertainment industry. He produced and directed the 1970 film
version of the Broadway hit I Never Sang for My Father, starring
Melvyn Douglas, Gene Hackman and Estelle Parsons. The movie earned
three Academy Award nominations. Cates also directed Joanne Woodward
and Sylvia Sidney in the 1973 film Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams,
which received two Oscar nominations. Other film directing credits
include: The Promise, One Summer Love, The Last Married Couple in
America, Oh! God Book II and Backfire. He further distinguished
himself as director and/or producer of a number of television
dramatic specials. These include NBC’s 1972 Emmy Award-winning To
all My Friends on Shore, starring Bill Cosby; ABC’s 1974 The Affair
starring Natalie Wood and Robert Wagner; NBC’s 1975 After the Fall
starring Faye Dunaway and Christopher Plummer. Other credits include:
Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye, The Kid from Nowhere, County Gold, Faerie
Tale Theater’s Rapunzel and Goldilocks and the Three Bears; Hobson’s
Choice, Burning Rage, Consenting Adults, Fatal Judgment, Do You Know
the Muffin Man, Call Me Anna, Absolute Strangers, In My Daughter’s
Name, and Tom Clancy’s Netforce (Cates directed James Agee’s A Death
in the Family for Masterpiece Theater’s American Collection of PBS
and Donald Margulies’ Collected Stories for PBS Hollywood Presents).
In September 2002, he directed David Eldridge’s Under the Blue Sky
for The Geffen Playhouse and directed Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in 2005,
the inaugural production in the newly-renovated Geffen Playhouse. In
February 2007 he directed Jeffrey Hatcher’s A Picasso in the Audrey
Skirball Kenis Theater.
Mr. Cates served two terms as President of the Directors Guild of
America from 1983 to 1987. In 1989, he received the Guild’s Robert
B. Aldrich Award for extraordinary service and, in 1991, he received
the DGA’s Honorary Life Membership. He also served as Dean of the
UCLA School of Theater Film and Television (which he founded) from
1990-1998.
In 2006, Cates produced the 78th Annual Academy Awards show for ABC, his
13th occasion producing the Awards, for which he has already
garnered 84 nominations and 17 Emmy Awards.
Mr Cates was born in New York City and attended Syracuse University.
Married to Dr. Judith Reichman, he has four children, two
stepchildren and is a grandfather .
Randall Arney
Artistic Director
Randall Arney begins his seventh season as Artistic Director at The
Geffen Playhouse where he has directed Arthur Miller’s All My Sons,
Richard Greenberg’s Take Me Out, Stephen Jeffreys, I Just Stopped by
to See the Man, Rebecca Gilman’s Boy Gets Girl, David Rambo’s God’s
Man In Texas, and Conor McPherson’s The Weir.
Arney directed the world premiere of Steve Martin’s Picasso at the
Lapin Agile in Chicago as well as subsequent premiere productions in
Los Angeles, Off-Broadway, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and
Tokyo.
An ensemble member of Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theater Company since
1984, he served from 1987 to 1995 as the company’s artistic
director. Broadway transfers under his leadership include The Rise
and Fall of Little Voice, The Song of Jacob Zulu (6 Tony Award
nominations), and The Grapes of Wrath (1990 Tony Award, Best Play).
Additional directing credits for Steppenwolf include I Just Stopped
by to See the Man, Martin McDonough’s The Beauty Queen of Leenane,
Ariel Dorfman’s Death and the Maiden, Sam Shepard’s Curse of the
Starving Class, Lee Blessing’s A Walk in the Woods, and John Olive’s
Killers. Mr Arney’s acting credits with Steppenwolf include Born
Yesterday, Ghost in the Machine, The Homecoming, Frank’s Wild Years,
You Can’t Take It With You, Fool for Love, Coyote Ugly, True West,
and Balm in Gilead. Film and television credits include Normal,
Weapons of Mass Distraction (both for HBO), Grey’s Anatomy (ABC),
and Judging Amy (CBS).
Mr Arney has an M.F.A. in acting from Illinois State University.
Stephen Eich
Managing Director
Stephen Eich is a producer, manager, and director with over
twenty-five years experience in both the commercial and
not-for-profit professional theater. From 1979 to 1995, he was the
Managing Director of Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theater Company where he
produced over 125 productions including the 1990 Tony Award-winning
Best Play, The Grapes of Wrath. With his Steppenwolf partner at the
time, Artistic Director Randall Arney, he oversaw the emergence of
an internationally recognized award-winning theater, built a new
$9.5 million dollar home for the company and secured the theater’s
administrative future. He produced Steve Martin’s award-winning
Picasso at the Lapin Agile at Steppenwolf before taking it, with
partner Joan Stein, to Los Angeles’ Westwood Playhouse, then to New
York, Chicago, San Francisco and England. Mr Eich was co-producer of
Paul Simon’s musical The Capeman, which starred Marc Anthony and
produced two concerts at Carnegie Hall in New York featuring the
national voices of Puerto Rico. Stephen Eich received a Master of
Fine Arts degree in Directing from the University of Minnesota and a
Bachelor of Science in Theater Education from Illinois State
University.