For Immediate Release January 7, 2008
Contact: Kati Mitchell 617-496-2000 x 8841
American Repertory Theatre
presents
JULIUS CAESAR
by William Shakespeare • directed by Arthur Nauzyciel
February 9 – March 16
Loeb Drama Center
Cambridge, MA - The American Repertory Theatre (A.R.T.) presents Shakespeare’s great political play Julius Caesar, directed by Arthur Nauzyciel. The production runs from Saturday, February 9 to Sunday, March 16 at the Loeb Drama Center, 64 Brattle Street, Harvard Square in Cambridge, and will be available for press viewing on Wednesday, February 13 at 7:30pm.
Fearing Julius Caesar’s rising power, Caius Cassius assembles a group of conspirators to assassinate Caesar. After much effort, Cassius persuades Marcus Brutus, a friend of Caesar and one of Rome’s most respected citizens, to join the conspirators’ cause. On the Ides of March, Caesar ignores multiple warnings and attends the Senate, where the conspirators murder him. In the aftermath of the assassination, the conspirators permit Mark Antony, Caesar’s right-hand man, to deliver the funeral oration. After Brutus convinces the crowd that the conspirators acted justly, Antony eulogizes Caesar and turns the public against the conspirators. Civil war erupts in Rome, and two factions form: one led by Cassius and Brutus, the other by Antony and Caesar’s nephew Octavius.
Paradoxically, while Julius Caesar is one of the most often studied and quoted of Shakespeare’s plays, it is rarely performed. We remember it for its great set pieces – Caesar’s assassination on the steps of the Capitol, Marc Antony’s funeral orations – but there are many other glories in this mysterious and complex tragedy. The play follows a group of idealists and revolutionaries, hoping to change the world they live in, and improvising wildly as their plans unravel. Shakespeare’s Rome is as much a dreamscape as it is a political arena, its streets and battlefields full of dreams, ghosts, and echoes of past and future worlds. The A.R.T. production will be quoting from the America of the 60s — a time of great invention and innovation, the iconic times of John Kennedy, the first president whose image was as important as the content of his words.
The cast includes A.R.T. Company members Thomas Derrah as Julius Caesar, with Remo Airaldi as Casca, Jeremy Geidt as Cicero, and Will LeBow as a conspirator. They are joined by James Waterston as Mark Antony, Jim True-Frost as Marcus Brutus, Mark L. Montgomery as Caius Cassius, and Sara Kathryn Bakker as Portia and Calpurnia. The cast also includes recent A.R.T. graduate Neil Patrick Steward as Decius Brutus, and A.R.T. Institute actors Gardiner Comfort, Perry Jackson, Thomas Kelley, Daniel Le, and Kunal Prasad. The Jazz Trio is composed by Blake Newman, Bass; Eric Hofbauer, Guitar; Marianne Solivan, Singer. Set design by Riccardo Hernandez, costume design by James Schuette, lighting design by Scott Zielinski, and sound design by David Remedios. Julius Caesar is produced in partnership with the Centre Dramatique National/Orléans-Loiret-Centre (France).
Director Arthur Nauzyciel is a native of Paris where he studied plastic arts, film, and acting (School of the Théâtre National de Chaillot, with the great director Antoine Vitez). He was an associate artist at the CDDB-Théâtre de Lorient from 1996 to 2006. He founded his own company, Compagnie 41751/Arthur Nauzyciel in 1999 in Lorient, where he directed his first production, Le Malade imaginaire ou le silence de Molière, after Molière’s Imaginary Invalid and Giovanni Macchia (selected as part of the European program AFAA/Générations 2001, the production was performed in France and at the Ermitage Theatre in Saint Petersburg in 2000 and has been reprised regularly since; it was also performed at the National Theatre of Iceland, Reykjavik in 2007). In June 2003 he directed Happy Days at the Odéon-Théâtre de l’Europe in Paris, reprised for two months in 2004 at the Teatro San Martin in Buenos Aires (awarded the critics’ prize for best foreign play, best actress, nominated for best director) and performed in Madrid in 2007. Other credits include Place des Héros (Heldenplatz), by the leading Austrian playwright Thomas Bernhard, premiered at the Comèdie Française in 2004; B.M. Koltès’ Black Battles With Dogs (Combat de nègre et de chiens) in Atlanta, Chicago, Avignon Festival, and the Athens International Festival; Koltès’ Roberto Zucco at the Emory Theatre in Atlanta; and Mike Leigh’s Abigail’ s Party at the A.R.T. Institute. He collaborated with Maria de Medeiros on A Little More Blue, a recital based on the Brazilian repertoire of Chico Buarque, Caetano Veloso, and Gilberto Gil in 2006; premiered Samuel Beckett’s The Image in Dublin as part of the 2006 Centenary Beckett Festival (reprised in Iceland and in France during the Grandes Traversées Festival in Bordeaux in 2007). Future projects include Kaj Munk’s Ordet (The Word) for the opening of the next Avignon Festival at the Cloître des Carmes. In June 2007 Nauzyciel joined the Centre Dramatique National/Orléans-Loiret-Centre, as Artistic Director.
About the Company:
Remo Airaldi (Casca) has appeared in fifty-three productions at the A.R.T. Performed at Hartford Stage, La Jolla Playhouse, Geffen Playhouse, American Conservatory Theater, Walnut St. Theatre, Prince Music Theater, Actors’ Theatre of Louisville, Serious Fun Festival, Moscow Art Theatre, Taipei International Arts Festival, Commonwealth Shakespeare Company.
Sara Kathryn Bakker (Portia/Calpurnia) recently appeared in A Flea in Her Ear at the Roundabout Theatre and A Winter’s Tale at New York Classical Theater. She is a founding member of Rude Mechanicals Theatre; also was seen at Williamstown Theatre Festival, Pioneer Theatre, Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, Utah Shakespearean Festival, and the Contemporary American Theatre Festival.
Thomas Derrah (Julius Caesar) has appeared in over 100 roles at the A.R.T. over 27 years, has toured with the Company across 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).
Jeremy Geidt (Cicero) is A.R.T.’s Senior Actor, a founding member of the Yale Repertory Theatre and the A.R.T., and has appeared in 97 productions at the A.R.T. He has acted on and off Broadway, the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, and the Lincoln Center Festival; has lectured on Shakespeare in India and at the Netherlands Theatre School. He received the Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Boston Actor and the Jason Robards Award for Dedication to the Theatre. He teaches at Harvard College, its Summer and Extension Schools, and at the A.R.T/MXAT Institute.
Will LeBow (Conspirator) has appeared in fifty productions at the A.R.T., as well as in multiple roles at the Huntington Theatre, Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, Gloucester Stage Company, and all the male roles in Shear Madness. He has been the narrator for the Boston Pops’ “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” since its premiere, and appears on television in the Cable Ace Award-winning animated series Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist as the voice of Stanley.
Mark L. Montgomery (Cassius) was seen on Broadway in Mamma Mia! and in Macbeth at Shakespeare in the Park. He is a member of Chicago Shakespeare Theatre with multiple credits, and has appeared at the Steppenwolf Theatre and the Goodman Theatre among others.
Neil Patrick Stewart (Casca) is a recent A.R.T. Institute graduate seen in The Onion Cellar, and in several institute productions in Cambridge and in Moscow. He has appeared in Hello Herman, Feiffer’s People, E to Jamaica Center in New York and in Broadway! at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center. His films include Up to the Roof, and the upcoming Choozhie (Strangers) by celebrated Russian director Yuri Grymov.
Jim True-Frost (Brutus) played Prez in the first four seasons of The Wire on HBO. He was a member of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago where he appeared in The Pillowman, The Playboy of the Western World, and The Grapes of Wrath, among others. His films include Off the Map, Affliction, Singles, The Hudsucker Proxy, Normal Life, and Far Harbor. Other television credits include Medium, CSI: Miami, Karen Sisco, Early Edition, Crime Story, Law & Order, and Law & Order: CI.
James Waterston (Mark Antony) is the third member of the Waterston family to perform on the A.R.T. stage. His father Sam Waterston appeared in the world premiere of Marsha Norman’s Traveler in the Dark and his sister Elizabeth Waterston in Chekhov’s Lady with a Lapdog. James was seen in New York in The Importance of Being Earnest at BAM; As You Like It at the New York Shakespeare Festival; and The Jew of Malta at Classic Stage Co. He has numerous regional credits including the Huntington Theatre, Syracuse Stage, Old Globe Theatre, South Coast Repertory, George Street Playhouse, and the Williamstown Theatre Festival. He appeared in several films and on television.
About the Design team:
Set Designer Riccardo Hernandez has created Britannicus, Romeo and Juliet, Desire Under the Elms, The Miser, Uncle Vanya, Marat/Sade, Full Circle, Enrico IV, Phaedra, Othello, The Doctor’s Dilemma, Three Farces and a Funeral, and Dream of the Red Spider at the A.R.T. Broadway credits include Tony Kushner’s Caroline, or Change; Topdog/Underdog (also Royal Court, London); Elaine Stritch at Liberty (also West End’s Old Vic, London and National Tour); Parade (Tony and Drama Desk Nominations) directed by Hal Prince; Noise/Funk (also National Tours and Japan); and The Tempest. He designed a dozen productions at New York Shakespeare Festival/Public Theater, as well as the Santa Fe Opera, Lincoln Center, Second Stage, New York Theater Workshop, MTC, MCC, Playwrights Horizons, Cherry Lane, BAM, and most regional theatres in America.
Costume Designer James Schuette’s work was seen at the A.R.T. in La Dispute and bobrauchenbergamerica. He has designed a number of productions for the SITI Company;, Lady in the Dark at Prince Music Theatre; Mother Courage and her Children, Berlin Circle, Time to Burn, Space at Steppenwolf Theatre; Big Love at Long Wharf Theatre, Berkeley Rep, Goodman Theatre; and Floyd Collins at the Old Globe, Goodman, Prince Music Theater among others. Opera credits include Lilith, The Seven Deadly Sins, New York City Opera; La Bohème, Glimmerglass Opera and NYCO; Carmen, Santa Fe Opera.
Lighting Designer Scott Zielinski has collaborated on Donnie Darko, Oliver Twist, Three Sisters, Dido Queen of Carthage, Black Snow, Woyzeck, and Peter Pan and Wendy at the A.R.T. New York and regional highlights include Topdog/Underdog (Broadway), Classic Stage Company, Lincoln Center, Manhattan Theater Club, New York Theater Workshop, Playwrights Horizons, Public Theater, Signature Theater, Theater for a New Audience, and numerous regional theaters throughout the U.S. and throughout the world, from Adelaide to Berlin. He designs for Twyla Tharp, American Ballet Theatre, Boston Ballet, Centre National de la Danse, National Ballet of Canada, and San Francisco Ballet and for opera nationwide
A.R.T.’s Resident Sound Designer David Remedios has forty-one productions to his credit, including most recently Copenhagen, Donnie Darko, No Man’s Land, Oliver Twist, Britannicus, The Onion Cellar, and Orpheus X. He has also toured regionally and internationally for the A.R.T. and has designed sound for local and national theatres. He has created dance soundscapes for Concord Academy, Snappy Dance Theater Company, Lorraine Chapman, and is the recipient of several awards.
Performance schedule is as follows: February 9, 12, 13, 14, 17, 19, 20, 21, 24, 27, 28, March 2, 4, 5, 6, 11, 12, 13, at 7:30pm; February 10, 16, 17, 23, 24, March 1, 2, 8, 15, 16 at 2:00pm; February 27, March 5, 12, at 10:00am. Single ticket prices range from $39-$79 with $25 advance tickets for students, $15 student rush, and $10 off for seniors. Group discounts are also available.
The balance of the A.R.T.’s 2007-2008 Season includes Elections and Erections: A Chronicle of Fear and Fun written and performed by Pieter-Dirk Uys in association with the Loeb Drama Center (April 3 - May 4, Zero Arrow Theatre); and Cardenio by Stephen Greenblatt and Charles L. Mee, directed by Les Waters in association with The Public Theater of New York (May 10 - June 8, Loeb Stage).
The A.R.T. is offering packages with a host of benefits, including discounts on parking, fine dining, and tickets to other theatres; and pre-performance and post-performance discussion series (Saturday matinees).
To learn more about this and other productions, 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.
