FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact:
Katalin Mitchell 617.495.2668
x8841 Kati_Mitchell@harvard.edu
April 1, 2008
American Repertory Theatre
in association with The
Joseph Papp Public Theater
presents
the world premiere of
Cardenio
by Stephen Greenblatt and
Charles L. Mee
directed by Les Waters
May 10 — June 8
Loeb Drama Center
Cambridge, Mass. — The American Repertory Theatre
(A.R.T.) is pleased to present the world premiere of Cardenio, written by Shakespeare scholar Stephen
Greenblatt and playwright Charles L. Mee — inspired by Shakespeares play
Cardenio, which was lost soon after its first performance. The production is directed by Les
Waters, and runs at the Loeb Drama Center, 64 Brattle Street, Cambridge from
Saturday, May 10 through Sunday, June 8; it will be available for press viewing
beginning Wednesday, May 14.
For
their wedding Anselmo and Camila retreat with their closest friends to a villa
in Umbria. Between the ceremony
and the celebration, Anselmo begs Will, his best man, to flirt with his new
wife to test her faithfulness.
While Will struggles between appeasing his friend and probing his
feelings for Camila, Anselmos parents, both aging actors, crash the party.
They bring with them two surprises – a lost play by Shakespeare and
Anselmos ravishing former classmate, Susana, to star in the play.
Using
Shakespeares comedies as inspiration, Stephen Greenblatt and Charles L. Mee
have woven a contemporary version of the story, now set at a wedding party on
the terrace of a villa in the Umbrian hills, and brimming with familiar
Shakespearean flourishes. Along with the traditional criss-crossing of
suspicious lovers and a cunning Iago-like meddler, the play cleverly updates
other classic conventions. They
pitch us into a world where love is easy to find but hard to attain, where
maids double as opera divas, and where handymen build great Shakespearian
performances. This midsummer comedy explores the surprising ways people find
love amidst chaos. Together, Mee
and Greenblatt have invented what Shakespeare might have written if he lived in
the twenty-first century.
The
cast includes A.R.T. Company members Remo
Airaldi as Rudi, Thomas Derrah as Melchiore, Will LeBow
as Alfred, and Karen
MacDonald as Luisa. They are joined by returning actors Nathan Keepers as Edmund and Mickey Solis as Anselmo, and incoming actors Rebecca Luttio as Simonetta,
Maria Elena Ramirez as
Doris, and Leenya
Rideout as Susanna. The cast also includes A.R.T. Institute
actors Sarah Baskin as Camila, Thomas Kelley as Will, and
Elizabeth Wilson as
Sally. Set design is by Annie Smart, costume design by Christal Weatherly, lighting design by James Ingalls, sound design by David Remedios, and movement by Doug Elkins.
About
the Creative Staff:
Stephen
Greenblatt is Cogan
University Professor of the Humanities at Harvard University. Founder of the new historicism, Greenblatt
is a specialist in Shakespeare, sixteenth- and seventeenth-century English
literature, the literature of travel and exploration, and literary theory. Former president of the Modern Language
Association, he is also a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
and the American Philosophical Society and a permanent fellow of the Institute
for Advanced Study in Berlin.
Greenblatt is the author and editor of numerous books, including Will in the World (2004; a New
York Times Best Seller), Hamlet in Purgatory (2001), The
Norton Anthology of English Literature
(general editor, 2006), Practicing
New Historicism (with
Catherine Gallagher, 2000); Norton
Shakespeare (general editor,
1997), New World Encounters (editor, 1993), Marvelous Possessions
(1991), Learning to Curse (1990), Shakespearean
Negotiations (1988; winner of
the MLAs James Russell Lowell Prize), and Renaissance Self-Fashioning (1980), among others; he is the founding editor of the journal Representations. He is a
recipient of the Mellon
Distinguished Humanist Award, his research has been supported by the National
Endowment for the Humanities; the Guggenheim and Fulbright Foundations, the
American Council of Learned Societies, and other funding agencies.
Playwright
Charles L. Mees work at the A.R.T. includes Full Circle, Snow
in June, and bobrauschenbergamerica;
and at the A.R.T. Institute Trojan
Women A Love Story and Orestes. He is the only playwright member of the SITI Company, for whom
he has written Orestes 2.0,
bobrauschenbergamerica, Hotel Cassiopeia, soot and spit (the musical), and Under Construction. He has also written Vienna: Lusthaus, A Perfect Wedding, and a number of other plays in addition to
his work inspired by Greek plays: Big
Love, True Love, Trojan Women A Love Story and others.
His plays have been performed at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York
Theatre Workshop, the Public Theatre, Lincoln Center, the Humana Festival,
Steppenwolf, and elsewhere in the US, as well as in Berlin, Paris, Amsterdam,
Brussels, Vienna, and Istanbul. Among other awards, he is the recipient of the
lifetime achievement award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His
complete works are available on the internet at www.charlesmee.org. His work is
made possible by the support of Jeanne Donovan Fisher and Richard B. Fisher.
Director
Les Waters directed Chris Durangs Media Amok at the A.R.T. He is the Associate Artistic Director of Berkeley Repertory
Theatre; his directing credits include Sarah Ruhls Eurydice (also performed at Yale Repertory Theatre and Second Stage in New
York City, voted one of the Top 10 Plays of 2006 by the New York Times), Charles L. Mees Ftes de la Nuit and
Big Love (also at Actors
Theatre of Louisvilles Humana Festival, Long Wharf Theatre, the Goodman Theatre,
and the Brooklyn Academy of Musics Next Wave Festival; winning a 2001 Obie
Award for Direction), Finn in
the Underworld, The Glass Menagerie, The
Mystery of Irma Vep, The Pillowman, Suddenly
Last Summer, To the Lighthouse, and Yellowman. Other credits: Apparition,
Connelly Theatre (voted one of the Best 5 Plays of 2005 by Time Out New York), Hot
N Throbbing, Signature
Theatre; Fen and Ice
Cream with Hot Fudge, Rum and Coke, Romeo and Juliet, New York Shakespeare Festival; Life During Wartime, Manhattan Theatre Club; Savannah Bay, Classic Stage Company. Waters work has been
seen at theatres across the United Kingdom and the United States, including
American Conservatory Theater, Goodman Theatre, The Guthrie Theater, La Jolla
Playhouse, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, and Yale Repertory Theatre. Waters is an associate artist of The
Civilians, a New York-based theatre group, and former head of the M.F.A.
directing program at U.C. San Diego. His many honors include a Drama-Logue
Award, an Edinburgh Fringe First Award, a KPBS Patte, and several awards from
critics circles in the Bay Area, Connecticut, and Tokyo.
About
the Professional Acting Company:
Remo Airaldi has appeared in fifty-four productions at the
A.R.T. Performed at Hartford
Stage, La Jolla Playhouse, Geffen Playhouse, American Conservatory Theatre,
Walnut St. Theatre, Prince Music Theater, Actors Theatre of Louisville,
Serious Fun Festival, Moscow Art Theatre, Taipei International Arts Festival,
Commonwealth Shakespeare Company.
Thomas Derrah has appeared in over 100 roles at the A.R.T.
over 27 years receiving a number of awards, has toured with the Company acrosss
the U.S., and throughout Europe, Canada, Israel, Taiwan, Japan, and
Moscow. He was seen on Broadway in
twenty-seven roles in Jackie:
An American Life, as well as
off –Broadway, in regional theatres and local companies. He is the
recipient of a number of awards from local critics and the Los Angeles
DramaLogue Award (for title role in Shlemiel
the First).
Nathan Keepers was seen at the A.R.T. as Karl in Amerika and La Flche in The
Miser. He has spent ten seasons with Theatre
de la Jeune Lune in Minneapolis, including
The Deception, The Miser, The Little Prince, The Ballroom, Tartuffe, Medea,
Gulliver, The Seagull, The Government Inspector, The Magic Flute.
He also appeared in The Comedy of Errors at The Guthrie Theater, and The Swan and Fully
Committed at The Jungle Theatre, among others.
Will LeBow appeared at the A.R.T. in fifty
productions. Other credits include The Huntington
Theatre, Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, Gloucester Stage Company, and the
Boston Pops premiere of How the Grinch Stole Christmas (narrator). He appears on television in the Cable
Ace Award-winning animated series
Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist
as the voice of Stanley.
Karen MacDonald is a founding member of the A.R.T., has
appeared in sixty-two productions, and received a number of Elliot Norton and
IRNE Awards for her work. She
directed Dressed Up! Wigged
Out!, for Boston Playwrights
Theatre, played in numerous
productions in local theatres, and nationwide at the Alley Theatre (Company
member), the Goodman Theatre, Long Wharf Theatre, Syracuse Stage, Cincinnati
Playhouse, Hartford Stage, and Philadelphia Festival of New Plays.
Maria Elena Ramirez was seen in The Skin of Our Teeth at the New York Shakespeare Festival; Living Out at Second Stage; The Thugs at Soho Rep; Regional: Princess
Turandot at Westport County
Playhouse; Ftes de la Nuit, at Berkeley Repertory Theatre; Anna in the Tropics and
Living Out at Seattle
Repertory Theatre; Blood
Wedding at The Guthrie Theatre
and Missouri Repertory Theatre; among others. Films include Personal
Velocity, The War Within, The Women,
and television roles in Law
& Order, Law & Order: SVU, The Sopranos, Now and Again, Third Watch,
Guiding Light.
Leenya Rideout appeared on Broadway in Cyrano de Bergerac Company, and Cabaret
(1998 revival, original
cast). Off-Broadway and regional credits include Yiddle with a Fiddle, The
Portable Pioneer and Prairie Show, and
Cowgirls; The
Canterbury Tales at The Guthrie
Theater, Guys and Dolls at North Carolina Theatre; Avenue X at Cincinnati Playhouse & Merrimack Repertory
Theatre; Honky Tonk
Highway at Florida Studio
Theatre, and the international Tour of My Fair Lady (Eliza Doolittle). Films include Mona
Lisa Smile, Loser, Bittersweet, The
Singing Biologist; and she was
seen on television in Company (PBS); My Favorite Broadway (PBS); Nashville
Star (USA Network), Jerry Lewis Telethon.
Mickey Solis played Romeo in Romeo and Juliet,
Eben in Desire Under the Elms, and Oliver in Ollys Prison
at the A.R.T. New York: Felipe
Montoya in Night Over Taos at the Theater for the New City, The Error of their Ways at HERE Arts Center; Hanjo at The Japan Society; Psyche at The Ohio Theatre; Beckett at 100 at the 92nd St Y and The New College Theatre
at Harvard; A Midsummer
Nights Dream at Kentucky
Shakespeare Festival, among others. He holds an MFA from the ART/MXAT Institute
for Advanced Theatre Training at Harvard University, and studied comparative
religion and history at Western Michigan University.
Performance schedule is as follows: May 10, 16,
17, 23, 24, 30, 31, June 6, 7 at 8:00pm; May 13, 14, 15, 18, 20, 21, 22, 25,
27, 28, 29, June 3, 4, 5 at 7:30pm; May 11, 17, 18, 24, 25, 31, June 1, 7, 8 at
2:00pm. Single ticket prices range
from $15-$79 (including $25 advance tickets for students and $15 student rush
with $10 off for seniors. Group discounts are also available.
To
learn more about this production and the A.R.T.s upcoming season, log onto the
A.R.T. website at www.amrep.org
or call the A.R.T. InfoLine at (617) 547-8300. The InfoLine is also available 24 hours a day to provide
directions to the theatre; to order brochures, calendars, and newsletters; and
to allow direct access to the A.R.T. Box Office (hours are noon to curtain time
on performance days, noon to 5 pm on non-performance days, closed on Mondays).
The
American Repertory Theatre, located at the Loeb Drama Center in Harvard Square
at 64 Brattle Street, Cambridge, is accessible to persons with special needs
and to those requiring wheelchair seating or first-floor restrooms. Deaf and
hard-of-hearing patrons can also reach the Theatre by calling the toll-free
N.E. Telephone Relay Center at 1-800-439-2370.
Public
transportation and discount parking are available nearby.
AMERICAN REPERTORY THEATRE
FACT SHEET
WHAT:
CARDENIO
by
Stephen Greenblatt and Charles L. Mee
Directed
by Les Waters
Scenic
Design by Annie Smart
Costume
Design by Christal Weatherley
Lighting
Design
by James Ingalls
Sound
Design by David Remedios
Movement
by Doug Elkins
CAST:
Will Thomas
Kelley
Anselmo Mickey
Solis *
Camila Sarah
Baskin
Sally Elizabeth
Wilson
Edmund Nathan
Keepers*
Doris Maria
Elena Ramirez*
Susanna Leenya
Rideout*
Luisa Karen
MacDonald*
Alfred Will
LeBow*
Melchiore Thomas
Derrah*
Simonetta Rebecca
Luttio
Rudi Remo
Airaldi*
WHEN:
Sa
May 10 8pm
(preview)
Su
May 11 2pm
(preview)
Tu
May 13 7:30pm
(preview)
We
May 14 7:30pm
Press opening
Th
May 15 7:30pm
Fri
May 16 8:00pm
Sa
May 17 2pm
& 8:00pm (Playback: post play discussion after matinee performance)
Su
May 18 2pm
& 7:30pm
Tu
May 20 7:30pm
(preview)
We
May 21 7:30pm
Press opening
Th
May 22 7:30pm
Fri
May 23 8:00pm
Sa
May 24 2pm
& 8:00pm (Playback: post play discussion after matinee performance)
Su
May 25 2pm
& 7:30pm
Tu
May 27 7:30pm
(preview)
We
May 28 7:30pm
Press opening
Th
Jun 29 7:30pm
Fri
May 30 8:00pm
Sa
May 31 2pm
& 8:00pm (Playback: post play discussion after matinee performance)
Su
Jun 1 2pm
& 7:30pm
Tu
Jun 3 7:30pm
We
Jun 4 7:30pm
Th
Jun 5 7:30pm
Fri
Jun 6 8;00
pm
Sa
Jun 7 2pm
& 8:00pm (Playback: post play
discussion after matinee performance)
Sun
Jun 8 2
pm
WHERE: Loeb Drama Center, 64
Brattle Street, Harvard Square, Cambridge
TICKETS:
$39-79;
Students: $25. Student rush: $15
Seniors
$10 off ticket price.
Tickets
may be charged to American Express, Visa, or MasterCard.
Group
discounts are available.
Box
Office Phone and A.R.T. InfoLine: (617) 547-8300 www.amrep.org
E-mail
address: press@amrep.org Web address: www.amrep.org
High resolution production
photos of
Cardenio
can be downloaded from
www.amrep.org/media beginning May 12, 2008.