Playful, Imaginative A Midsummer Night’s Dream
COSTA MESA, Calif. (Jan. 5, 2011) — William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream is one of the Bard’s most joyous comedies, and director Mark Rucker is taking that joy and running with it in South Coast Repertory’s moon-drenched production, which runs Jan. 21 through Feb. 20 on the Segerstrom Stage.
And just as Shakespeare combined characters from three different worlds (royalty in the court of ancient Athens, tradespeople from the Elizabethan era and fairies from Renaissance folklore), Rucker is borrowing from different times and places to create a visually stunning and fantastical world.
Elijah Alexanderportrays Theseus, Duke of Athens, and Susannah Schulman is Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons. The Duke’s rigid views cause a foursome of confused young lovers—Hermia (Kathleen Early), Lysander (Nick Gabriel), Helena (Dana Green) and Demetrius (Tobie Windham)—to flee for the forest, where Alexander and Schulman turn up again as Oberon and Titania, King and Queen of a band of mischievous fairies. Because the fairy royals are engaged in a battle royal, things are thrown out of joint for a band of roguish actors, led by a buffoon named Bottom (Patrick Kerr), which sets the stage for a fairy prankster named Puck (Rob Campbell) to create chaos in the night. But by morning all is well again, leaving harmony not just among the characters but within and between whole worlds.
The A Midsummer Night’s Dream creative team includes Cameron Anderson (set design), Nephelie Andonyadis (costume design), Lap Chi Chu (lighting design), John Ballinger (original music and music director) Ken Roht (original music and choreography), Kimberly Egan(sound design) and Jamie A. Tucker (stage manager).
Deutsche Bankis the Corporate Honorary Producer and Laurie Smits Staude is the Individual Honorary Producer. The Segerstrom Stage season media partners are KOCE-TV and KCRW 89.9.
TICKETS: Can be purchased online at www.scr.org , by phone at (714) 708-5555 or by visiting the box office at 655 Town Center Drive in Costa Mesa. Performances begin Jan. 21 and continue Feb. 20. Ticket prices range from $20 to $66. Low-priced preview performances are available Jan. 21- 27. Opening night is Friday, Jan. 28, and press night is Saturday, Jan. 29, at 8 p.m.
TIMES: Previews are Friday and Saturday, Jan. 21 - 22, at 8 p.m., Sunday, Jan. 23, at 7:30 p.m., Tuesday and Wednesday, Jan. 25 - 26, at 7:30 p.m., and Thursday, Jan. 27, at 8 p.m. Regular performances are Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday evenings at 7:30 p.m., and Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings at 8 p.m., with Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2:30 p.m. Discounts are available for full-time students, patrons 25 years of age and under, educators, seniors and groups of 10 or more. There will be an ASL-interpreted performance on Saturday, Feb. 19, at 2:30 p.m.
POST-SHOW DISCUSSIONS: Wednesday, Feb. 2, & Tuesday, Feb. 8
Discuss the play with members of the A Midsummer Night’s Dream cast during free post-show discussions led by South Coast Repertory’s literary team.
INSIDE THE SEASON: Saturday, Feb. 5, 10:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. $12
Inside the Seasonis a series of interactive seminars that provide a comprehensive inside look at the theatrical production process. Each two-hour session features a set tour and a question-and-answer period with creative personnel working on the production. Inside the Season is offered on select Saturday mornings from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Tickets are $12 each and can be purchased online at www.scr.org , by phone at (714) 708-5555 or at the Box Office. (Tickets to A Midsummer Night’s Dream are sold separately.)
LOCATION: South Coast Repertory is located at 655 Town Center Drive in Costa Mesa, at the Bristol Street/Avenue of the Arts exit off the San Diego (405) Freeway in the Folino Theatre Center, part of the Segerstrom Center for the Arts. Parking is available off Anton Blvd. on Park Center Drive.
COMING UP: The Prince of Atlantis (NewSCRipts reading, Jan. 10), Lucky Duck (Feb. 11 - 27), The Weir (Mar. 13 - Apr. 3).
ABOUT SCR:Tony Award-winning South Coast Repertory, under the artistic direction of David Emmes and Martin Benson, is widely recognized as one of the leading professional theatres in the United States. Founded in 1964, SCR is committed to theatre that illuminates the compelling personal and social issues of our time, not only on its stages but through its education and outreach programs. While its productions represent a balance of classic and modern theatre, SCR is renowned for its extensive new play development program, including the Pacific Playwrights Festival. Of SCR’s more than 450 productions, 117 have been world premieres with subsequent stagings achieving enormous success across America and around the world. SCR-developed works have garnered eight Pulitzer Prize nominations, with Margaret Edson’s Wit winning the prize in 1999 and David Lindsay-Abaire’s Rabbit Hole in 2007. Located in Costa Mesa, California, in 2002 SCR opened the Folino Theatre Center, an expanded three-theatre complex that includes the 507-seat Segerstrom Stage, the 336-seat Julianne Argyros Stage and the 94-seat Nicholas Studio.
Biographies
Elijah Alexander (Theseus/Oberon) has appeared on Broadway in Metamorphoses (Circle in the Square Theatre), with the Royal Shakespeare Company in Tantalus (Barbican Theatre) and in Ping Chong’sThrone of Blood at Brooklyn Academy of Music. Los Angeles credits include Sleuth at Falcon Theatre (Milo Tindle), Don Juan at A Noise Within (Don Juan), andBaal at Yale Cabaret Hollywood (Baal). Regional credits include Oregon Shakespeare Festival (two seasons) as the title role in Henry VIII and Darcy in Pride and Prejudice; California Shakespeare Theatre (three seasons) as Jack Tanner in Man and Superman and Loveless in Restoration Comedy; Yale Repertory Theatre; The Old Globe; Berkeley Repertory Theatre; Denver Center Theatre Company, Geva Theatre Center; Syracuse Stage; Barrington Stage Company; Santa Fe Shakespeare; and Utah Shakesperean Festival (three seasons) including Art (Serge), The Tempest (Caliban), Julius Caesar (Mark Antony), Gaslight (Mr. Manningham) and will assume the title role in Richard III this summer. Film and television credits include Mr. & Mrs. Smith, “Emily’s Reasons Why Not,” “Summerland,” “JAG,” “So NoTORIous,” “1967” and “Guiding Light.” He is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama and received his BA from the University of Michigan. He is also a FOX Fellow Recipient. Mr. Alexander’s voiceover work includes the voice of Vayne Solidor in Final Fantasy XII, and he is currently the voice of Kenmore.
Rob Campbell (Puck) appeared most recently in the David Lindsay-Abaire/John Cameron Mitchell film Rabbit Hole, the Peabody Award-winning BBC drama The Day that Lehman Died, the Cherry Lane Theatre/Women’s Project production of Lascivious Something, the title role in Ivanov at Chekhov at Lake Lucille, as Angelo in Measure for Measure at The Public Theater which also toured NYC area prisons, and was artist-in-residence at The Kings Academy in Madaba-Manja, Jordan. Broadway credits include Translations (Manus) and Ivanov (Lvov). Off-Broadway credits include The Singing Forest, In the Blood, Him, 365 Plays, The Treatment, King Lear, As You Like It (The Public Theater); Mad Forest (New York Theatre Workshop and Manhattan Theatre Club); Gone Home (Manhattan Theatre Club); Small Tragedy (Playwright’s Horizons, Lortel Nomination and OBIE Award); Orphan of Zhao (Lincoln Center Theater); Waspand Tough (New York Stage & Film, Inc); Bad Jazz and Made in Poland (The Play Company); The Illusion (Classic Stage Company); The Seagull (Second Stage Theatre); The Cherry Orchard andHamlet (title role, McCarter Theatre Center); Mojo (Steppenwolf Theatre Co); Snow in June (ART Station Theatre); and The Cocktail Hour (Long Wharf Theatre). Film and television: Unforgiven, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Boys Don’t Cry, The Crucible, City of Ghosts, The Stars Fell on Henrietta, The Photographer, Wonder Boys, Ethan Frome, Dark Matter, “Damages,” “Brotherhood,” “Sex and the City,” “Ned Blessing,” “New York Undercover” and “Law & Order” (multiple appearances on all three). He received his BA from Wesleyan University and his MFA from the Yale School of Drama.
Richard Doyle (Robin Starveling) is an SCR Founding Artist who has appeared in nearly 200 productions, playing hundreds of characters. He appeared most recently in Misalliance, Ben and the Magic Paintbrush, You, Nero (and in the Berkeley Repertory production), An Italian Straw Hat: A Vaudeville and The Importance of Being Earnest. He also appeared in Intimate Exchanges (2004), for which he earned a Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle (LADCC) Award nomination. He won an LADCC Award for his role in Sally Nemeth’s Holy Days and was nominated for his role as Reverend Hale in The Crucible. He was a guest artist at Pasadena Playhouse in the world premiere of Matter of Honor, playing Gen. John M. Schofield. Mr. Doyle makes many film and television appearances and is a voice-over actor in animation, CD-ROM games and Motion Capture. He is currently The Forever Knight Driscoll on “Ben 10” and is the wizened cowboy Old Bill in the upcoming feature Heathens and Thieves. He is the holographic host at the Union Theater at the Lincoln Library in Springfield, IL. Mr. Doyle is a recipient of The Helena Modjeska Cultural Legacy Award.
Kathleen Early (Hermia) made her SCR debut earlier this season in In the Next Room or the vibrator play. On television, she was most recently seen recurring as Nurse Kathy on “Miami Medical.” Broadway credits include the national tour of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? with Kathleen Turner and Bill Irwin (The Kennedy Center, Ahmanson Theatre) and Steel Magnolias (Shelby standby). Off-Broadway appearances include Treason (Perry Street Theatre), Outward Bound (Keen Company), Peg O’My Heart (Irish Repertory Theatre), Edward Albee’s The Play About the Baby (Paul Green Foundation Award) with Marian Seldes and Brian Murray (Century Center Theatre) and the one-woman show Hysteria (Culture Project). Regional credits include Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Neighborhood Playhouse), The Blue Room (Hangar Theatre), Broadway (Pittsburgh Public Theater), Much Ado About Nothing (The Shakespeare Theatre, DC and Hartford Stage), Pera Palas (Long Wharf Theatre) and Only a Bird in a Gilded Cage (Actors Theatre of Louisville). Film and television includes The Assistants, Across the Universe, Trip in a Summer Dress (Beverly Hills Film Festival Outstanding Female Performance Award), “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Medium,” “Guiding Light” and “All My Children.”
Nick Gabriel (Lysander) made his SCR debut last season in Ordinary Days. He played the Emcee in Cabaret at Center Repertory Theatre, Vincent in Beast on the Moon and Orpheus in Metamorphoses at Capital Repertory Theatre, Austin inI Love You Because at North Coast Repertory Theatre, Sebastian in Twelfth Night with the Saratoga Shakespeare Company, the Charlatan in Petrouchka with The Albany-Berkshire Ballet, Bashmachkin in The Overcoat with the Egress Theatre Company at Brooklyn Lyceum, Benny in Martha&Me for FringeNYC, Prince Charming in The Magic of Frederick Loewe with the Bandwagon Theatre Company at Wings Theater and Howard Carter in The Mystery of King Tut for TheatreWorks/USA. He was a principal vocalist with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra in “A Celebration of Leonard Bernstein,” conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas, and has appeared in commercials for products such as iJoy, Afrin and Hemspray. He received a BFA in Musical Theatre from the University of Michigan and an MFA in Acting from the American Conservatory Theater.
Dana Green (Helena) spent four seasons with the Stratford Festival of Canada, where she appeared in Twelfth Night, Measure for Measure, Orpheus Descending, The Brothers Karamazov, Love’s Labour’s Lost and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Regional theatre credits include Yale Repertory Theatre, Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, The Old Globe, California Shakespeare Theater, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, Asolo Reperatory Theatre, Court Theatre, Meadow Brook Theatre and Shakespeare Dallas. Her television credits include “Early Edition” (CBS).
John-David Keller (Snug) is a member of SCR’s resident acting company. He has been with the company since 1973, working as both an actor and director. He has directed A Christmas Carol for its entire 31-year history. He also directed SCR’s Educational Touring Productions for 32 years. Among his other SCR directing credits are Godspell, Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris, In Fashion, The Real Inspector Hound (SCR’s first Equity show), Peg O’ My Heart and Tomfoolery. He has also acted in more than 100 productions at SCR. Most recently he directed If You Give a Mouse a Cookie for the Lewis Family Playhouse and is a recipient of a senior artist grant from the The Kenneth A. Picerne Foundation. Mr. Keller is the concert host for the Orange County Philharmonic Society’s fifth grade concerts. He is a member of Actors’ Equity and SDC.
Patrick Kerr (Nick Bottom) appeared at SCR previously in An Italian Straw Hat: A Vaudeville, The Further Adventures of Hedda Gabler, Habeas Corpus and The Triumph of Love. He is currently on leave from Disney’s The Lion King in Las Vegas and will return there after this show ends. New York appearances include the recent Broadway revival of The Ritz and Jeffrey at Minetta Lane Theatre. He has guest-starred on many television programs but is probably best known for his recurring roles on “Frasier” and “Curb Your Enthusiasm.”
Hal Landon Jr. (Peter Quince) is an SCR Founding Artist who recently appeared in Hamlet, Nothing Sacred, Man from Nebraska, Born Yesterday, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, A View from the Bridge, Habeas Corpus, Cyrano de Bergerac, Safe in Hell, Antigone, The Drawer Boy (Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award nomination), Major Barbara and The School for Wives. Other credits include Arcadia, Our Town, Sidney Bechet Killed a Man, BAFO, Six Degrees of Separation, An Ideal Husband, A Mess of Plays by Chris Durang, Play Strindberg, Faith Healer, Ghost in the Machine, Green Icebergs, Morning’s at Seven, The Miser, Our Country’s Good and Waiting for Godot. He created the role of Ebenezer Scrooge in SCR’s A Christmas Carol, and has performed it in all 31 past productions. He appeared in Leander Stillwell at the Mark Taper Forum and in Henry V at The Old Globe in San Diego. Other resident theatre roles include Salieri in Amadeus, Malvolio in Twelfth Night and Gordon Miller in Room Service. Among his television and film credits are “My Name is Earl,” “Numb3rs,” “Mad Men,” Trespass, Pacific Heights, Almost an Angel, Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure and Playing by Heart.
Michael Manuel (Francis Flute) participated in SCR’s Hispanic Playwrights Project and Pacific Playwrights Festival from 1994-2004. On stage he was most recently seen as Andre Thibault in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels at the InterAct Theatre Company. He has worked in regional theatres across the country from The Empty Space Theatre, Seattle Repertory Theatre and Seattle Theatre Group to Yale Repertory Theatre, The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey and Theatre for a New Audience on the East Coast. In Los Angeles, he has worked with Mark Taper Forum, Cornerstone Theatre Co, A Noise Within (Drama Logue and Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle awards), Geffen Playhouse, InterAct Theatre Company (LA Weekly award), Pasadena Playhouse, Main Street Players, About Productions, and Parson’s Nose Theater. He has appeared in numerous television programs and films, most recently in Dennis Leoni’s “Los Americans” with Esai Morales and Raymond Cruz. Mr. Manuel is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama.
William Francis McGuire (Snout/Egeus) appeared at SCR previously in A Wrinkle in Time, The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow, A Christmas Carol and Tartuffe. He has also worked at the Guthrie Theater (The Rover, Naga Mandala, The Seagull, Electra, Iphigenia at Aulis, The Good Hope, Peer Gynt, Billy and Dago, among others), The Shakespeare Theatre Company (Henry V andMacbeth), Bay Street Theatre Fest (Tropeano Paints), American Repertory Theatre (Boys Next Door), Yale Repertory Theatre (Search and Destroy) and many others. His film credits include The Day After Tomorrow and Mission Impossible III, among others. Television credits include “100 Deeds for Eddie McDowd” (series regular), “Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior,” “The Mentalist,” “Saving Grace,” “Weeds,” “Numb3rs,” “Crossing Jordan,” “Navy N.C.I.S.,” “Without a Trace,” “NYPD Blue,” “ER” and many more, as well as a number of movies-of-the-week. He is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama.
Susannah Schulman (Hippolyta/Titania) appeared previously at SCR as Ashley in Man from Nebraska, Hedda in The Further Adventures of Hedda Gabler, Sarah in On the Mountain, Roxanne in Cyrano de Bergerac, Milly in The Dazzle, Buddug in Nostalgia, Bianca in The Taming of the Shrew, Elizabeth in Six Degrees of Separation and Belle in A Christmas Carol, as well as several Pacific Playwrights Festival readings. Other theatre credits include Yale Repertory Theatre, Roundabout Theatre, Hudson Stage Company, Huntington Theatre Company, Geva Theatre Center, Syracuse Stage, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, California Shakespeare Theater, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, Marin Theatre Company, Magic Theatre, Aurora Theatre Company, Zephyr Theatre, Barbican Theatre and the national tour of Steve Martin’s Picasso at the Lapin Agile.
Tobie Windham (Demetrius) was most recently seen in the historic collaboration of The Brother/Sister Plays in the Bay Area, where he appeared as Oshoosi Size/Shua at American Conservatory Theater in its production of Marcus; or The Secret of Sweet and as Oshoosi Size in the Magic Theatre’s production of The Brothers Size. Other Bay Area credits include The Pastures of Heaven at California Shakespeare Theater and A Christmas Carol at ACT Theatre. Regional credits include performances in American Buffalo with City Equity Theatre and Renovation Theatre Company, Of Mice and Men with South City Theatre, and Romeo and Juliet with Birmingham’s Park Players. Mr. Windham earned a BA in Theater Performance from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He has an MFA from the American Conservatory Theater.
Fact Sheet
A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare directed by Mark Rucker
CREATIVE TEAM:Cameron Anderson (set design), Nephelie Andonyadis (costume design), Lap Chi Chu (lighting design), John Ballinger and Ken Roht (original music), Kimberly Egan (sound design), Ken Roht (choreography), John Ballinger (music director) and Jamie A. Tucker (stage manager).
CAST:Elijah Alexander (Theseus/Oberon), Rob Campbell (Puck), Richard Doyle (Robin Starveling), Kathleen Early (Hermia), Nick Gabriel (Lysander), Dana Green (Helena), John-David Keller (Snug), Patrick Kerr (Nick Bottom), Hal Landon Jr. (Peter Quince), Michael Manuel (Mechanical/Francis Flute), William Francis McGuire (Snout/ Egeus) Susannah Schulman (Hippolyta/Titania) and Tobie Windham (Demetrius).
CORPORATE HONORARY PRODUCER: Deutsche Bank
INDIVIDUAL HONORARY PRODUCER: Laurie Smits Staude
SEGERSTROM STAGE MEDIA PARTNER: KOCE-TV
SYNOPSIS: Off go four young lovers into The Woods where the meddlesome Puck creates chaos in the night. But at daybreak all will be well in this mystical, moon-drenched masterpiece.
TICKETS: $20-$55 previews, $28-$66 regular performances.
BOX OFFICE WINDOW HOURS: 10 a.m. to showtime Tuesdays through Saturdays, noon to showtime Sundays, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays and non-performance days. American Express, VISA and MasterCard accepted. (714) 708-5555.
LOCATION:Folino Theatre Center, 655 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa CA 92626. One block east of South Coast Plaza at the Bristol Street/Avenue of the Arts exit off the San Diego (405) Freeway.
PHOTOS: Digital images of South Coast Repertory productions are available at www.scr.org/press.
PRESS CONTACTS: Soyia Ellison 714-708-5561 soyia@scr.org Madeline Porter 714-708-5562 mad@scr.org
RUNS: Jan. 21 - Feb. 20, 2011 PREVIEWS: Jan 21 FRI at 8 p.m. Jan 22 SAT at 8 p.m. Jan 23 SUN at 7:30 p.m. Jan 25 TUE at 7:30 p.m. Jan 26 WED at 7:30 p.m. Jan 27 THU at 8 p.m. OPENING NIGHT: Jan 28 FRI at 8 pm REGULAR PERFORMANCES: Jan 29 SAT at 2:30 p.m. Jan 29 SAT at 8 p.m.(Press Night) Jan 30 SUN at 2:30 p.m. Jan 30 SUN at 7:30 p.m. Feb 1 TUE at 7:30 p.m. Feb 2 WED at 7:30 p.m. (Post-Show Discussion) Feb 3 THU at 8 p.m. Feb 4 FRI at 8 p.m. Feb 5 SAT at 2:30 p.m. (Inside the Season) Feb 5 SAT at 8 p.m. Feb 6 SUN at 2:30 p.m. Feb 6 SUN at 7:30 p.m. Feb 8 TUE at 7:30 p.m. (Post-Show Discussion) Feb 9 WED at 7:30 p.m. Feb 10 THU at 8 p.m. Feb 11 FRI at 8 p.m. Feb 12 SAT at 2:30 p.m. Feb 12 SAT at 8 p.m. Feb 13 SUN at 2:30 p.m. Feb 13 SUN at 7:30 p.m. Feb 15 TUE at 7:30 p.m. Feb 16 WED at 7:30 p.m. Feb 17 THU at 8 p.m. Feb 18 FRI at 8 p.m. Feb 19 SAT at 2:30 p.m. (ASL-Interpreted) Feb 19 SAT at 8 p.m. Feb 20 SUN at 2:30 p.m.
POST-SHOW DISCUSSIONS Wednesday, Feb. 2 andTuesday, Feb. 8 Discuss the play with members of the cast following the performance. Free.
INSIDE THE SEASON Saturday, Feb. 5, 10:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. A 2-hour comprehensive seminar featuring creative personnel from the current production. Tickets: $12.
