20
photo: Anitra Rakel photo: Anitra Rakel IN THIS ISSUE: Bus Stop ...................................................................... 2 Circle Mirror Transformation .................................. 6 The Shirley, VT Plays Festival ................................. 9 Vengeance is the Lord’s ........................................... 10 Double Your Gift! ....................................................... 15 Complete Your Experience ....................................... 18 GET THE MOST OUT OF YOUR SUBSCRIPTION: See the back cover for more information! FALL 2010-2011 Spotlight huntingtontheatre.org

Fall 2010 Spotlight

Embed Size (px)

DESCRIPTION

The Fall 2010 issue of SPOTLIGHT, the Huntington Theatre Company's literary magazine

Citation preview

Page 1: Fall 2010 Spotlight

phot

o: A

nit

ra R

akel

phot

o: A

nit

ra R

akel

IN THIS ISSUE:

Bus Stop ...................................................................... 2

Circle Mirror Transformation .................................. 6

The Shirley, VT Plays Festival ................................. 9

Vengeance is the Lord’s ........................................... 10

Double Your Gift! ....................................................... 15

Complete Your Experience ....................................... 18

GET THE MOST OUT OF YOUR SUBSCRIPTION:See the back cover for more information!

FALL • 2010-2011

Spotlighthu

ntin

gton

thea

tre.

org

Spotlight1.v19.indd 1Spotlight1.v19.indd 1 8/19/10 1:27 PM8/19/10 1:27 PM

Page 2: Fall 2010 Spotlight

“ William Inge was an indisputably major artist, ONE OF THIS COUNTRY’S HALF-DOZEN GREATEST PLAYWRIGHTS.” — The Wall Street Journal

“ RICH, FUNNY, AND FRESH! A memorable achievement! An uproarious comedy that never strays from the truth.” — The New York Times

A snowstorm strands a bus outside of Kansas City, and its passengers — including a stubborn,

lovestruck cowboy and the nightclub singer he hopes to marry — seek shelter and warmth while at a roadside

diner. The motley crew spends one night together, fi lled with bluster, heartache, and laughter, searching for love

in this classic American comedy. Former Artistic Director Nicholas Martin returns to direct.

Production Sponsors: Sherry and Gerry Cohen

Nicholas Martin

SEPTEMBER 17 - OCTOBER 17, 2010Boston University Theatre

by William IngeDirected by Nicholas Martin

BUSSTOP

WILLIAM INGECLASSIC COMEDY

“ William Inge had a timeless sense of humor, and this play, perhaps his greatest, has a very modern feeling of openness and honesty. He was celebrated in his time, but I believe his plays are just hitting their fi nest moment. I know that Nicholas Martin will bring his terrifi c sense of comedy and warmth — so appreciated by Boston audiences — to bear in our production.” — Artistic Director Peter DuBois

2

Spotlight1.v19.indd 2Spotlight1.v19.indd 2 8/19/10 1:27 PM8/19/10 1:27 PM

Page 3: Fall 2010 Spotlight

HONEST AND TRUE:THE COMEDIC LANDSCAPE OF WILLIAM INGE

“ When I walked into this night club place and hear you singin’ my favorite song,

standin’ before that orkester lookin’ like an angel, I told myself then and there,

she’s fer me. I ain’t gonna leave this place without her.” — Bo (Bus Stop)

learn more online: Visit the Learn & Explore section of huntingtontheatre.org/busstop for information on

the four movie adaptations of William Inge’s work, including the fi lm version of Bus Stop starring Marilyn Monroe.

for companionship and understanding. He lets us see that the simple truth is an astonishing thing.”

Inge wrote four Broadway hits during the 1950s, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning Picnic and his early success Come Back, Little

Sheba. Several were set in Kansas, where Inge was born in 1913. Inge would live both there and in Missouri until success drew him to New York, and the prairie vistas, violent weather, and sweet people of his home state were touchstones for Inge throughout his life. “Maybe we fi nd beauty only in what we know,” Inge refl ected. “Mountains have never intrigued me. They have none of the mystery of the prairie, where one can always feel close to some

eternal truth concerning man and his place in the universe.”

The level, expansive character of the prairie is present in the plays that he wrote. Though Inge was a mid-century realist, his plays eschew the extreme highs and lows that mark those of his contemporaries Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams, playwrights whose careers would eclipse his by the 1960s. (Inge, feeling his genius was forgotten, committed suicide in 1973.) Inge’s plays instead capture ordinary people in near mundane situations with a sense of the hidden passion and deep humanity that bubbles up within us all.

Bus Stop is a comedy in the sense that laughter is frequent, but also in the sense of delicate, surprising optimism; we watch as an unlikely couple edges closer together, an innocent girl inches toward confi dent womanhood, and a corrupt man decides once to do the right thing. As Time Magazine wrote on the play’s opening night, “Bus Stop, for all its outward laughs, catches an inner glow.”

— Charles Haugland

The idea for the playwright William Inge’s 1955 hit Bus Stop percolated for some time. Years earlier, Inge had noticed an unusual courtship between fellow passengers on a bus from Missouri to Kansas. “There was a man pursuing a woman on the trip,” Inge recalled. “They were not sitting together, nor was she giving him much encouragement. But the romance progressed a little at each diner stop en route. When we got to Kansas City, they went away — together.”

Inge imagined their backstory, turning the man into Bo, a blustering, inexperienced rodeo rider, and his intended into Cherie, a sultry nightclub singer from the Ozarks. Beyond the pair, the play expanded to other heartaches and foibles of their fellow travelers on the bus and a few people of the town where they stop. “I meant the play as a composite picture of varying kinds of love,” Inge wrote. “The cowboy’s eagerness, awkwardness, and naivete were interesting only when seen by comparison, in the same setting with the amorality, the depravity, the casual earthiness, the innocence, or the defeat [of the other characters].” Inge mines his comedy out of the sheer juxtaposition of this motley crew, stranded in a roadside diner to wait out a snowstorm.

Great drama, Inge knew, wasn’t born out of the characters’ immediate or lasting joy, but instead out of the desire and search for it. Time Magazine later dubbed him “The Laureate of Longing,” a fi tting title for a playwright who celebrates both vivid happiness that may soon fade and sadness that is interrupted by small fl ashes of hope. Brooks Atkinson wrote in The New York Times of Inge’s “wistful awareness of the loneliness of human beings, of the hunger people have

William Inge, 1957; photo: Gordon Parks

AT TOP: A midwestern prairie in winter; photo: Derrald Farnsworth-Livingston

3

Spotlight1.v19.indd 3Spotlight1.v19.indd 3 8/19/10 1:27 PM8/19/10 1:27 PM

Page 4: Fall 2010 Spotlight

CURTAIN CALLSNAME: Noah BeanROLE: Bo

HOMETOWN: I was born in Boston but

grew up in Mystic, CT

LAST SEEN AT THE HUNTINGTON IN: Love’s

Labour’s Lost

FAVORITE DINER: Bee Bee’s on Main Street in Mystic. All the

old time locals used to hang out there and drink coffee.

During the summer, I used to go at least a couple of times

a week, grab a booth by the window, and get grilled tuna

and cheese and chocolate milk.

NAME: Will LeBow

ROLE: Carl

HOMETOWN: Brooklyn, New York (land of

the world’s best diners)

LAST SEEN AT THE HUNTINGTON IN: The Corn is

Green and The Cherry Orchard

FAVORITE DINER: The Parkway Diner (of Billy Joel’s “Brenda

and Eddie” fame). I used to hang out there in my late teen

years trying to pick up girls. My favorite diner food has to

be the classic BLT or corned beef hash and eggs.

NAME: Karen MacDonald

ROLE: Grace

HOMETOWN: Watertown, MA, a town of

many great diners

LAST SEEN AT THE HUNTINGTON IN: All My

Sons and A Civil War Christmas

MEMORABLE BUS TRIP: I got on the crowded bus at Marco

Polo Airport, traveled on unfamiliar roads, through dusty,

unremarkable, slightly industrial suburbs, then onto a

longish bridge at the end of which is Piazzale Roma. The

end of the road. Literally. On the other side, a miracle ... a

city of water, gondolas, palazzos, churches, breathtaking

beauty ... Venice.

NAME: Nicole RodenbergROLE: Cherie

HOMETOWN: Fargo, ND

MEMORABLE BUS TRIP: I had a bus break

down on the way to Minneapolis. It was

the middle of November, and we all had

to fi le onto the highway in the middle of the night. People

started sharing food and blankets and stories to pass the

time. Buses are so intimate.

Former Artistic Director Nicholas Martin returns to the Huntington to helm William Inge’s Bus Stop. Recently, Martin spoke with Director of New Work Lisa Timmel about the differences between Inge and Tennessee Williams and between directing classics and new work.

Did you see the original production of Bus Stop?

I saw Picnic. I never saw Bus Stop even though my favorite actress — Kim Stanley — was the star. You know, in a funny way, there is no star in Bus Stop. It seems to be about Cherie, but really it’s about all of them. The character that most refl ects the audience is the young girl, Elma. Her education (this is the kind of daring they had in the 1950s) is conducted by a kind of reprobate, someone for whom Inge has enormous compassion.

Why is Inge an important American playwright?

Inge was very much of his time. The plays he, Tennessee Williams, and, to a certain degree, Arthur Miller wrote; it’s unthinkable that anyone would write them today. I’m drawn to Inge’s plays not simply because they were the plays of my youth, but because I’m impressed by the unselfconscious approach to character and to emotional lives that you almost never see in current writing. Inge managed to create, in all his plays, real characters with a great deal of depth and to tell each and every one of their stories.

I think that’s unusual in any period. Everything was about to change in the ’60s and, you can kind of feel, certainly in Williams and in Inge, a kind of simmering. There’s an innocence about Inge that Williams just couldn’t manage — that’s not who he was — but I’m drawn to that, too. I think Inge’s plays are a great chance for young actors and old actors to use their muscle, because the characters are so fabulous.

You’re both an elegant interpreter of classics and a champion of

new plays. How have you developed such a wide range?

I’ve been very lucky, because I ran theatres where I was able to do that. For me, unless you can fi nd a balance between doing the classics any way you choose as long as you’re faithful to the writer and bringing new work along, you’re unfulfi lled. The collaboration is everything to me. You certainly get that with a new play, whether you like it or not! And then you can take a little rest with a classic, because the author is dead and you can just relax a little bit on that front. •

CATCHING UP WITHNICHOLAS MARTIN

Nicholas Martin

learn more online:Visit huntingtontheatre.org/busstop

for expanded interviews with the cast.4

Spotlight1.v19.indd 4Spotlight1.v19.indd 4 8/19/10 1:27 PM8/19/10 1:27 PM

Page 5: Fall 2010 Spotlight

Tickets: $25 - $8935 Below: $25 for those 35 and below at every performance

Student Rush: $15 for full-time college students,available 2 hours before curtain (valid ID required)

Subscribers receive $10 off any additional tickets purchased.Prices include a $2/ticket Capital Enhancement fee.

Call 617 266-0800 or visithuntingtontheatre.org

(Listed events are FREE with the purchase of a ticket.)

(•) POST-SHOW CONVERSATIONS • Join us for dynamic post-show conversations with fellow audience members and Huntington staff after most every performance (except select Saturday and Sunday evenings).

(°) 35 BELOW WRAP PARTY • A special evening for young professionals aged 21-35 complete with a post-show party. Visit huntingtontheatre.org/35below for more information.

(

Δ

) OUT AND ABOUT CLUB • A post-show party for GLBT audience members. Use code OUT to purchase discounted tickets to this performance online.

(@) ASL-INTERPRETED • For Deaf and hard-of-hearing audience members. Call 617 273-1558 for more information.

(~) AUDIO-DESCRIBED • For blind and low-visioned audience members. Call 617 273-1558 for more information.

(SM) STUDENT MATINEE • For groups of students in grades 8-12. Call 617 273-1558 for more information.

(d) ACTORS FORUM • Participating members of the cast answer your questions following the performance.

(h) HUMANITIES FORUM • A post-performance talk on the historical and literary context of the show featuring a leading local scholar.

Bus Stopperformance calendar

Will LeBow, Jessica Rothenberg, Kate Burton, Sarah Hudnut, andDick Latessa in The Cherry Orchard; photo: T. Charles Erickson

Nicholas Martin served as Artistic Director of the Huntington for eight seasons, directing 18 productions from 2000 to 2008. This fall will mark the 10-year anniversary of Martin’s acclaimed inaugural Huntington production, Dead End. Martin’s complete Huntington directing credits include:

PLAY SEASON

Dead End ........................................................................................................................................ 2000-2001

Fully Committed ................................................................................................................... 2000-2001

Hedda Gabler (moved to Broadway in 2001).......................................... 2000-2001

Betty’s Summer Vacation .......................................................................................... 2001-2002

Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards theSomme (moved to New York’s Lincoln Center Theater

in 2003) ............................................................................................................................................... 2001-2002

A Month in the Country ............................................................................................. 2002-2003

Springtime for Henry ..................................................................................................... 2002-2003

Butley (moved to Broadway in 2006) ................................................................. 2003-2004

The Rose Tattoo ...................................................................................................................... 2003-2004

Sonia Flew .................................................................................................................................... 2004-2005

The Rivals ...................................................................................................................................... 2004-2005

Laughing Wild ....................................................................................................................... 2004-2005

The Sisters Rosensweig ................................................................................................ 2005-2006

Love’s Labour’s Lost ......................................................................................................... 2005-2006

The Cherry Orchard ........................................................................................................ 2006-2007

Persephone .................................................................................................................................... 2006-2007

Present Laughter (moved to Broadway in 2010 ) ............................... 2006-2007

She Loves Me .......................................................................................................................... 2007-2008

The Corn is Green ............................................................................................................... 2008-2009

NICHOLAS MARTINAT THE HUNTINGTON

5

Spotlight1.v19.indd 5Spotlight1.v19.indd 5 8/19/10 1:27 PM8/19/10 1:27 PM

Page 6: Fall 2010 Spotlight

When the four students in Marty’s creative drama class experiment with harmless theatre games, hearts are quietly torn apart and tiny wars of epic proportions are waged and won. Set in

the Shirley, Vermont community center, this beautifully crafted new comedy mixes antic sadness and hilarious

detail, and became a runaway hit Off Broadway.

Production Sponsors: Nancy and Ed Roberts

Melia Bensussen

OCTOBER 15 - NOVEMBER 14, 2010Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA

by Annie BakerDirected by Melia Bensussen

“ ABSORBING, UNBLINKING, AND SHARPLY FUNNY!” — The New York Times

“ RIVETING! Circle Mirror Transformation packs a terrifi c punch. It reminds us of our inescapable need to come together and forge human connections — it reminds us of the very power of theatre.” — Entertainment Weekly

TRANSFO CIRCLE MIRROR

ANNIE BAKER

• 2010 OBIE and New York Drama Critics’

Circle Awards

• Voted one of the top ten plays of 2009 by

The New York Times, The New Yorker, and

Time Out New York

ACCLAIMEDNEW COMEDY

PART OF THE SHIRLEY, VT PLAYS FESTIVAL

“ I fell in love with the characters in these plays, and with the idea of creating a fi ctional New England town at the Calderwood Pavilion and the BCA campus. Each of Annie’s plays stands on their own with their imagination and subtle humor, and seen together they form a striking portrait of Shirley, Vermont. The same is true for this festival; each company has their own identity and audience, but together we hope to bring out the richness of a writer’s vision in the creation of this fully imagined community.” — Artistic Director Peter DuBois

.com

6

Spotlight1.v19.indd 6Spotlight1.v19.indd 6 8/19/10 1:27 PM8/19/10 1:27 PM

Page 7: Fall 2010 Spotlight

“A thoughtful new play, and a potent reminder of the impact we have on each other.Annie Baker has an original voice, appealing quirkiness, and an astute sense

of what makes people tick.” — New York Daily News

WELCOME TO SHIRLEY, VT“I think what keeps me coming back to Shirley is just the fact that I’ve thought about it so much, and so as a result I have a cast of like 600 characters in my mind. When I start writing a new play, it’s very tempting to use some of those characters — characters that were mentioned in passing in other plays, or characters that I’ve just come up with for fun ...” — Annie Baker, in an interview with Playwrights Horizons’ Adam Greenfi eld

Circle Mirror Transformation, chronicles the relationship between fi ve people taking a creative drama class. Instead of using a traditional plot structure, the story uses group dynamics and unfolds while the audience watches the characters perform formal theatre exercises. It can seem confusing at fi rst, even frustrating — one of the funniest lines of the show acknowledges this awkwardness. But slowly, information about the characters comes out in unexpected and subtle ways, and by the end the audience is surprised to fi nd they know the characters deeply.

With The Aliens, Baker pushes the concept of stage silence to its limit — as written, it is intended to be fully a third silent. We watch

KJ and Jasper waste their lives sitting in the back lot of a coffee shop. Along the way, they inadvertently inspire and liberate an intelligent, awkward boy. The play is a paean to small-town burnout geniuses that anyone who has done time in a rural town will immediately recognize.

Baker creates these characters and their world working solely with the awkward, interrupted speech of every day interactions and silence. Her characters are drawn both from close observation and a sweeping imagination. Charles Isherwood, writing in The New York Times declared, “Ms. Baker’s means are simple, and her experimenting is less a matter of tricky games of design and structure than an imaginative consideration ofhow an evening of theatre can be made to echo theslow ineluctable pace of change in real life.”The result is a deeply humane,completely different yet utterlyrecognizable kind of theatre.

— Lisa Timmel

Emerging writers who generate the buzz that Annie Baker has this past year often do so by defying convention. Playwriting 101 dictates that the writer grab the audience’s attention in the fi rst ten pages and keep hold of it through a series of surprising, yet believable, turning points. Baker consciously rejects that action-driven style for a much more subtle one of naturalistic writing that requires the kind of patience and attention hard to fi nd in our hyper-linked, attention-defi cit culture. This counterintuitive approach to storytelling requires us as audience to take a different approach. And the best approach to an Annie Baker play is to wait for it.

This fall, the Huntington, SpeakEasy Stage Company, and Company One will present Circle Mirror Transformation, Body Awareness, and The Aliens in concert. The plays share a common setting: Shirley, Vermont, a fi ctional town Baker has created. Although the plays tell completely independent stories, seeing them in proximity provides an unusual opportunity for Boston audiences to experience a writer in depth and to develop an appreciation for how a writer evolves.

In Body Awareness, Baker’s earliest and most traditional play, a male photographer who specializes in female nudes stays with a middle-aged lesbian couple and disrupts their lives for a while. In his fi rst scene, the photographer asks: “But then one day the person says something really weird and you’re like: Do I actually know you? Or are you this total stranger?” Traditionally, disruptive strangers automatically make the characters in a play re-examine their assumptions, and when the stranger leaves, the world of the play is either set right or irrevocably changed.

playwright Annie Baker

7

Spotlight1.v19.indd 7Spotlight1.v19.indd 7 8/19/10 1:27 PM8/19/10 1:27 PM

Page 8: Fall 2010 Spotlight

CAPTURING SILENCE:ANNIE BAKER & THE NEW NATURALISM

“The fact that I hate 90 percent of what comes out of my mouth is a large part of why I am

a playwright,” says writer Annie Baker. “The way human beings speak is so heartbreaking

to me — we never sound the way we want to sound. We’re always stopping ourselves in mid–

sentence, because we’re so terrifi ed of saying the wrong thing. Speaking is a kind of misery.”

A playwright who hates the idea of talking may come as a surprise. (From Shaw to Wilde to Tennessee Williams, the history of theatre is largely the story of the eloquent.) But, tellingly, many of breakout writer Annie Baker’s best reviews focus on her ability to see the ordinary and to render halting, imperfect everyday life in a revelatory light. Adam Feldman of Time Out New York lauds how Baker “depicts major life changes in the most low-key and off-angle ways imaginable. The silences ... — and there are many — speak louder than most of the words.”

Annie Baker’s characters evolve slowly, and, like all of us, they often wish they had said something less, something else, something better. To create them, the playwright cultivates listening as part of her technique. “I will record myself reading [my writing], and I will listen to it obsessively and rewrite according to how I respond to the recording of myself,” Baker says. “It’s just part of the writing. It’s really humiliating, and I would never play these recordings for anybody. I’m not a good actor.”

The intense focus on the speech of real, ordinary people has led Annie Baker’s critical champions to see her as pushing to new frontiers in naturalism. Baker counts the quintessential realist Anton Chekhov as her greatest infl uence, but one can as easily see the echoes of Chekhov’s contemporary and ally Émile Zola,

the primary theorist of theatrical naturalism. (Zola famously said, “A play is a slice of life placed on the stage with art.”)

Baker is quick to point out that we all mean something different by the word naturalism. What one person fi nds “natural,” another person fi nds “affected,” and vice versa. Yet we learn much about how a playwright views the world from the slice of life they present onstage. For Baker, those lives are often silent ones as she focuses intently on the space between her lines. A note at the beginning of Circle Mirror Transformation specifi es the difference between what she means when she writes a short pause versus a pause, a silence versus a long silence.

“Crazy stuff happens during silences at the theatre,” Baker believes, melding her observation of the world around her with a sophisticated view of the theatrical experience of an audience. “The audience suddenly becomes aware of itself, and a little weirded out and uncomfortable, and maybe someone coughs and whispers, but if the silence goes on long enough eventually people adjust to it and get kind of comfortable and zen and fi nd their own way back into the reality of the play. And that moment — when an entire audience is relaxed and breathless together in a silence, when time slows down and then starts to speed up again — is very magical to me.”

– Charles Haugland

AT TOP: A valley in Vermont; photo: Dusty Davis

learn more online: Visit the Learn & Explore section of huntingtontheatre.org/circlemirror and

ShirleyVTPlays.com to read about playwright Annie Baker’s imagined town and more.8

Spotlight1.v19.indd 8Spotlight1.v19.indd 8 8/19/10 1:27 PM8/19/10 1:27 PM

Page 9: Fall 2010 Spotlight

(Listed events are FREE with the purchase of a ticket.)

PRE-SHOW THEATRE GAMES • Join us before the show and participate in some of the actor warm-ups featured in Circle Mirror Transformation. Starts at 6:30pm. Visit huntingtontheatre.org/circlemirror for dates.

(•) POST-SHOW CONVERSATIONS • Join us for dynamic post-show conversations with fellow audience members and Huntington staff after most every performance (except select Saturday and Sunday evenings).

(

Δ

) OUT AND ABOUT CLUB • A post-show party for GLBT audience members. Use code OUT to purchase discounted tickets to this performance online.

(d) ACTORS FORUM • Participating members of the cast answer your questions following the performance.

(h) HUMANITIES FORUM • A post-performance talk on the historical and literary context of the show featuring a leading local scholar.

(SM) STUDENT MATINEE • For groups of students in grades 8-12. Call 617 273-1558 for more information.

Circle Mirror Transformationperformance calendar

Tickets: $25 - $6535 Below: $25 for those 35 and below at every performance

Student Rush: $15 for full-time college students,available 2 hours before curtain (valid ID required)

Subscribers receive $10 off any additional tickets purchased.Prices include a $2/ticket Capital Enhancement fee.

Call 617 266-0800 or visithuntingtontheatre.org

THE SHIRLEY, VTPLAYS FESTIVALThis fall, three Boston theatre companies will engage in a landmark local collaboration to produce breakout writer Annie Baker’s fi rst three plays — Body

Awareness, produced by SpeakEasy Stage Company, Circle Mirror

Transformation, produced by the Huntington, and The Aliens, produced by Company One — together in the fi rst-ever festival dedicated to the work of this remarkable young writer.

Circle Mirror Transformation is part of the Huntington’s 7-play subscription season and Huntington subscribers can purchase tickets to either Body Awareness or The Aliens at a discount. To order your tickets online, visit BostonTheatreScene.com and enter SUB11 into the promotional code fi eld or call the Huntington Box Offi ce at 617 266-0800.

BODY AWARENESSby Annie BakerDirected by Paul DaigneaultRoberts Studio Theatre in theCalderwood Pavilion at the BCAOctober 22 - November 20, 2010Produced by SpeakEasy Stage Company

Huntington Subscriber Ticket Price: $35 (reg. $50-55)

THE ALIENSby Annie BakerDirected by Shawn LaCountPlaza Theatre at the Boston Center for the ArtsOctober 29 - November 20, 2010Produced by Company One

Huntington Subscriber Ticket Price: $30 (reg. $32-$38)

.com

RUN THE MARATHON! See all 3 plays in one dayon Oct. 30, Nov. 6, Nov. 7,

Nov. 13, or Nov. 14.

▼ The Plaza Theatre (left) and the Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA (far right)

9

Spotlight1.v19.indd 9Spotlight1.v19.indd 9 8/19/10 1:27 PM8/19/10 1:27 PM

Page 10: Fall 2010 Spotlight

BOB GLAUDINI

Peter DuBois

NOVEMBER 12 - DECEMBER 12, 2010Boston University Theatre

CONTAINS ADULT LANGUAGE

by Bob GlaudiniDirected by Peter DuBois

The Horvath family forgives their trespassers — all but one. A mother’s call for mercy clashes

with a father’s need for retribution when their daughter’s murderer comes up for parole. Sharp jokes and tough

love drive this searing and funny new drama, which unfolds at dinners from Thanksgiving to Easter. A modern

American family asks a classical moral question: what can we do when “justice” is not enough?

“ Bob Glaudini has an incredible ear for dialogue and a good sense of how modern people interact with one another.” — East Bay Express

THELORDTHETHEVENGEANCE IS

WORLDPREMIERE

“ This will be the third play of Bob Glaudini’s I have directed, and I love returning to his work. He writes with a muscular, spare lyricism and creates such deep, meaty roles for actors. This play is propelled by magnetic characters, and takes place at the holidays where the quirkiest dynamics of everyone’s family come out at full tilt. Bob imbues this darkly comic domestic drama with a soul-stirring poignancy.” — Artistic Director Peter DuBois

10

Spotlight1.v19.indd 10Spotlight1.v19.indd 10 8/19/10 1:27 PM8/19/10 1:27 PM

Page 11: Fall 2010 Spotlight

Bob Glaudini’s Vengeance is the

Lord’s continues in this great tradition, but also breaks with it in many ways. Standing on his front porch, paterfamilias Mathew Horvath declares, “Inside to the warmth and bosom of the family ...” — a statement that, if we are familiar with theatre history, we suspect is irony. The Horvath family is a broken one: they are coping with the potential parole of the man who raped and murdered their daughter. However, they are no innocents themselves, having built their family businesses of bars, strip clubs, and auto body shops by legitimate and illegitimate means. The complicated relationship between family and money, innocence and guilt, creates fertile territory for confl ict.

In a prototypical American family drama, the fi rst event is often a kind of reunion. Arthur Miller’s All My Sons (part of the Huntington’s previous season) begins as the Kellers are reunited with Ann, the girl who planned to marry their missing-in-action and presumed dead elder son. Her presence eventually leads to the revelation of Joe Keller’s guilt in valuing the family business over his own moral code. Joe’s son, Chris, repudiates his father, rejecting the life that his parents built for him. Miller uses the story, and an implicit Oedipal struggle, to make an explicit critique of the capitalistic tendency to value profi t over doing the right thing.

In Vengeance, the scenes take place on holidays — moments of ritual family reunion. In these encounters, the Horvaths clash over the appropriate treatment of their daughter’s murderer: granting forgiveness versus exacting revenge. But, over the course of the play, we learn where the Horvaths place the value of a human life in comparison with the value of their business.

“We’re all responsible for our part in things,” says the youngest son, Donald, an advocate for forgiveness. But Glaudini complicates his

place as the hero of the story or its moral conscience. Unlike All My Sons, this modern story dramatizes a world in which everyone is complicit. If Donald has always known his father was crooked, what rejection is possible? When the entire family is tied into the business, what space remains for personal ethics? The Keller family ruptures irrevocably by the end of All

My Sons because Chris wishes to preserve his sense of morality, but the Horvath family is knit tighter by their complicity. Arthur Miller’s moralistic point of view has long since fallen out of favor in the American theatre. The Horvath family’s big

tragedies are past; what is left to fi gure out is how to live in a world where no one’s hands are clean, a

strong parable for today’s America.

— Lisa Timmel

If you were to go to the American drama section of the library, close your eyes, and choose a play at random, chances are that it will be a play about a family. The family romance is the meat and potatoes of our theatre, familiar yet always satisfying. This is a character trait of American drama going back to the 18th century. Families — their structures, their politics, their economics — are the idiom many writers use to illustrate the American experience and their own world view, interweaving personal stories with archetypal characters. The most enduring: domineering fathers, addicted mothers, and misunderstood sons.

Beth Cole, Philip Seymour Hoffman, John Ortiz, and Daphne Rubin-Vegain the 2007 LAByrinth Theater Company production of Bob Glaudini’s

Jack Goes Boating, directed by Peter DuBois; photo: Monique Carboni

VENGEANCE IS THE LORD’S:

BOB GLAUDINI’S VERSION OF THE AMERICAN FAMILY IN DRAMA

11

Spotlight1.v19.indd 11Spotlight1.v19.indd 11 8/19/10 1:27 PM8/19/10 1:27 PM

Page 12: Fall 2010 Spotlight

DESIGNING VENGEANCE IS THE LORD’SOver his prolifi c career, Tony Award winner Eugene Lee has worked on Broadway, Off Broadway, and regionally, bringing his dynamic scenic designs all around the country. He designed sets for Mauritius and The Cry of the Reed at the Huntington, for the Broadway production of Wicked and the original production of Sweeney Todd, and is a production designer for “Saturday Night Live.” Assistant to the Artistic Director Chris Carcione sat down with Lee to ask him a few questions about his career and his innovative design for the world premiere production of Bob Glaudini’s Vengeance is the Lord’s.

What made you become a scenic designer?

Every year in high school they took us to see a play in Chicago. I was always fascinated by those commercial plays. After high school, I went off the University of Wisconsin. They had no design program, but they had a fabulous theatre. I took a class in set design and the guy who ran the theatre gave us a tour. On stage, there was the set for The Bad

Seed — I remember it like it was yesterday — sitting on the stage. Someone asked, “Who does these sets?” and the guy said, “You want to do the next one?” So I said I’d love to do the next one, he told me to come see him the next morning, and suddenly I was.

When you are designing a show, where do you

usually start?

Every show is a little different. That’s what makes it kind of fun. With Vengeance is the Lord’s, the playwright suggested that the whole house is on stage, so I drew a ground plan of a house, just like it was a real house. I tried to make it real in its relationships. I put in toilets, the living room, the dining room,

the kitchen, the hallways, the front closet, and the hall closet. Then I did something I’ve never done before — I put it on a turntable. Usually turntables are good for adding motion, but I haven’t really used them much to change scenery. I don’t know if it’s right, but I’ve never done anything quite like it.

What made you decide to use a turntable?

The playwright had suggested the house is kind of isolated and we messed around with different ideas of how to do that. The turntable isolates the house from the surrounding environment. It’s very real, and the architecture all connects. Often when you do a box set [a single, interior setting], there are doorways to the kitchen, but when actors go to the kitchen, they’re really going offstage.

In my set you can’t do that because everything is connected. So if you go to the kitchen, people see you in the kitchen. You are always onstage on this set. I think it suits the style of the play and makes the action more realistic. I had fun with it, and I’m looking forward to it.

set designer Eugene Lee

Marin Ireland, Michael Aronov, and James Galein Mauritius, 2006; photo: Eric Antoniou

12

Spotlight1.v19.indd 12Spotlight1.v19.indd 12 8/19/10 1:27 PM8/19/10 1:27 PM

Page 13: Fall 2010 Spotlight

Tickets: $25 - $8935 Below: $25 for those 35 and below at every performance

Student Rush: $15 for full-time college students,available 2 hours before curtain (valid ID required)

Subscribers receive $10 off any additional tickets purchased.Prices include a $2/ticket Capital Enhancement fee.

Call 617 266-0800 or visithuntingtontheatre.org

(Listed events are FREE with the purchase of a ticket.)

(•) POST-SHOW CONVERSATIONS • Join us for dynamic post-show conversations with fellow audience members and Huntington staff after most every performance (except select Saturday and Sunday evenings).

(°) 35 BELOW WRAP PARTY • A special evening for young professionals aged 21-35 complete with a post-show party. Visit huntingtontheatre.org/35below for more information.

(

Δ

) OUT AND ABOUT CLUB • A post-show party for GLBT audience members. Use code OUT to purchase discounted tickets to this performance online.

(d) ACTORS FORUM • Participating members of the cast answer your questions following the performance.

(h) HUMANITIES FORUM • A post-performance talk on the historical and literary context of the show featuring a leading local scholar.

Vengeance is the Lord’sperformance calendar

Do you prefer designing for smaller or larger theatre spaces?

I’ve always been a big fan of rearranging theatres. It’s only in my old age I fi nd myself working in a proscenium theatre. With my friend, director Andre Gregory, we do shows where about 25 people fi t in the audience. I love that. I feel much happier when I’m arranging seats and arranging the whole space and can put the audience closer to the action and around it. I prefer that, but you can’t always do that. On the other hand, I love designing big musicals like Wicked.

Do you have a favorite part of the design process?

I have a least favorite part: when you walk into the theatre for the fi rst time and realize what you’ve done. Usually, it’s okay. We do our best not to make serious mistakes. I’m a compulsive worker, and I always work on all kinds of things at once. I just try to have fun. •

learn more online:Visit the Learn & Explore section of

huntingtontheatre.org/vengeance to read

about Bob Glaudini and Peter DuBois’

previous collaborations.

▲ A detail from one of Eugene Lee’s plans for the rotating set of Vengeance is the Lord’s — including a 32-foot-wide circular turntable at the center of the stage

13

Spotlight1.v19.indd 13Spotlight1.v19.indd 13 8/19/10 1:27 PM8/19/10 1:27 PM

Page 14: Fall 2010 Spotlight

IN DEVELOPMENT

It is with great pleasure that we announce the election of Carol G. Deane as Chairman and Mitchell (Mitch) J. Roberts as President of the Huntington’s Board of Trustees.

Carol Deane has been a Huntington Trustee since 2001 and has served on numerous committees. For the past two years, she has served as co-chair of the Spotlight Spectacular!, the Huntington’s annual gala benefi t event. Mitch Roberts has been a Trustee since 1999 and has also been a vital part of a variety of Board efforts and committees, including serving as co-chair of the Marketing Task Force.

Carol succeeds J. David Wimberly, Huntington Chairman since 1996, and Mitch takes over for William (Bill) P. McQuillan, former Vice-Chairman (2001-2007) and President since 2007. Says Mitch Roberts, “David and Bill have put the theatre on such strong footing, having done the heavy lifting and the hard work over the last decade and a half. Thanks to their remarkable work, the Huntington has a strong Board of Trustees, Council of Overseers, a beautiful new second stage at the Calderwood Pavilion, and an endowment for increased fi nancial stability.”

HUNTINGTON BOARD TO BE LED BYCAROL DEANE AND MITCHELL J. ROBERTS

Managing Director Michael Maso, President Mitchell J. Roberts,Chairman Carol Deane, and Artistic Director Peter DuBois

All of us at the Huntington are also deeply grateful for David and Bill’s tireless efforts on behalf of the company – for their time and dedication, for their contribution to the community, and for the great friendship they have shown us all.

The Huntington could not be more fortunate to have Carol and Mitch, astute and energetic members of the community, at the helm of our institution. We are grateful for their service — past and future! •

The 2010 Spotlight Spectacular!, the Huntington’s annual

benefi t event, took place at the Sheraton Boston Hotel

and Towers on Sunday, April 25, 2010. Co-chaired by

Huntington Trustee (and new Board Chairman) Carol Deane and Huntington Overseer Bryan Rafanelli,

this year’s event raised $625,000 to help support the

Huntington’s productions and programs, including

our award-winning youth, education, and community

initiatives. It was a spectacular event, during which the

8th annual Wimberly Award was presented to director Kenny Leon and Bank of America, in recognition of

their signifi cant contributions to the Huntington. Actress

Jasmine Guy (from TV’s “A Different World” and the

Broadway revivals of Chicago and Grease) delivered two

powerhouse performances, supported by members of the

Boston Pops Gospel Choir.

2010 SPOTLIGHT SPECTACULAR!

RAISES $625,000

FOR MORE INFORMATION, or to reserve a table for next year’s

event, please contact Michelle Cicerano, Special Events Manager,

at [email protected] or 617 273-1536.

▲ Jasmine Guy performs “His Eye is on the Sparrow” with the Boston Pops Gospel Choir; photo: Laura Wulf

14

Spotlight1.v19.indd 14Spotlight1.v19.indd 14 8/19/10 1:27 PM8/19/10 1:27 PM

Page 15: Fall 2010 Spotlight

CALDERWOOD MATCHING CHALLENGE UPDATE —

THE FINAL YEAR TO DOUBLE YOUR GIFT!In 2008, the Huntington announced the Calderwood Charitable Foundation Matching Challenge. Through this generous three-year Challenge, our friends at the Calderwood Charitable Foundation agreed to match all new individual gifts to the Huntington as well as increased contributions from current supporters that are made through June 2011.

The response to the Challenge during the fi rst two years has been remarkable! Thank you to everyone who has responded. Because of your generosity, we have secured $1 million from the Foundation.

But there’s still one more year to have your gift matched as you support the Huntington and its programs!

The Calderwood Challenge will continue to double your new or increased contributions during the 2011 Annual Fund Campaign, helping us to continue to stage award-winning productions and programs, to train and support the next generation of theatre artists, to provide arts education programs to our community’s young people, and to operate the Calderwood Pavilion.

WE HOPE YOU WILL TAKE THE OPPORTUNITY TO SHOW YOUR

SUPPORT for great theatre in Boston by making a gift to the

2011 Annual Fund today.

THANK YOU for helping us to make this final year of

the Calderwood Matching Challenge a success!

1. SEND A CHECK TO:

Huntington Theatre Company,

264 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115

Attn: Development Department

2. MAKE YOUR GIFT ONLINE AT:

huntingtontheatre.org/support

3. CONTRIBUTE VIA PHONE:

by calling the Development Office at 617 273-1546

JOIN THE CIRCLE

Nine new Huntington Overseers were elected to the Council at May’s Board meeting: Barbara Boger,Anne Fitzpatrick Cucchiaro, Dr. John Cohen,Marsha Feinberg, Dr. Paul Greenfi eld,Katherine Jones, Victoria Knox, Deborah Lewis, and Dr. Tania Phillips. We warmly welcome these newest members of the Huntington family!

WELCOME TO OUR NEW

OVERSEERS

As you contemplate your support of the Huntington this season, we hope you will consider joining or renewing your membership in the Huntington Circle. This important group of donors who contribute $1,500 or more annually are the cornerstone of the Huntington’s Annual Fund.

Huntington Circle members provide the vital support necessary to sustain the artistic, education, and community programs that make the Huntington one of the best regional theatres in the country. They also enjoy behind-the-scenes access, invitations to exclusive events, and the opportunity to become personally involved in the Huntington’s productions and programs.

FOR MORE INFORMATION about joining the Huntington

Circle, please contact Meg White, Director of Major Gifts

at 617 273-1596 or [email protected].

There areeasy waysto contribute to the2011 Annual Fund:

3

▲ (l-r) Bank of America’s Wimberly Award recipient Boston Market President Bob Gallery and his wife Jill; Huntington Trustee Doris Kearns Goodwin and Wimberly Award recipient director Kenny Leon; photos: Laura Wulf

15

Spotlight1.v19.indd 15Spotlight1.v19.indd 15 8/19/10 1:28 PM8/19/10 1:28 PM

Page 16: Fall 2010 Spotlight

EDUCATION AND COMMUNITY PROGRAMSHUNTINGTON/CODMAN PARTNERSHIP ENTERS 10TH YEARThis season marks the tenth anniversary of the Huntington’s Department of Education and Community Programs’ partnership with Dorchester’s Codman Academy Public Charter School. The theatre and literacy collaboration offi cially began on September 14, 2001 when 25 youth comprising the fi rst Codman class arrived on Huntington Avenue with Codman founder and executive director Meg Campbell and Humanities teacher and new Headmaster Thabiti Brown. The students came for hands-on experience in reading and analyzing plays, as well as training in acting, directing, and theatre production.

Nine years later, over 500 Boston students have spent every other Friday during their freshman and sophomore years onsite at the Huntington Theatre Company in the “reverse residency” program. Unique in its 360-degree concentration on both understanding and experiencing the world of theatre, Codman students study texts being produced by the Huntington in the classroom and attend productions at the theatre. In addition, they work with Huntington staff and teaching artists twice each month to immerse themselves in the workings of a professional theatre. The partnership engages and inspires students from neighborhoods often excluded from Boston’s dynamic cultural life, enabling them to develop both an understanding of and appreciation for the theatre. Teachers leverage that engagement to improve performance in academic areas, particularly literacy, and to develop social capital by building core skills such as teamwork and priority-setting.

The Huntington/Codman partnership has grown to include a summer Shakespeare production featuring students and alumni, participation in the Massachusetts State Finals for both Poetry Out Loud and the English Speaking Union’s Shakespeare Competition, and professional internship opportunities at the Huntington. This fall, Codman will join ten other Boston schools to participate in the inaugural August Wilson Monologue Competition. And appropriately marking the culmination of the collaboration, Codman graduation ceremonies are held on either the Boston University Theatre (the Huntington’s main stage) or in the Wimberly Theatre at the Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA, which is owned and operated by the Huntington.

The Huntington’s partnership with Codman Academy is the showcase of the theatre’s acclaimed and wide-reaching youth and education initiatives that have reached over 250,000

students since 1982. The collaboration has been recognized both locally and nationally as a model for improving urban students’ reading, speaking, writing, and presentation skills. The partnership was recently honored with the Commonwealth Award, the state’s highest award in arts and culture given by the Massachusetts Cultural Council. Codman Academy is the only public school to have received this recognition.

“Our partnership has demonstrated that performance-based drama and poetry are powerful, life-transforming strategies for improving adolescent literacy and self-awareness,” says Campbell. “For adolescents, drama is a face-saving way to study Shakespeare and other great playwrights.”

Thanks in part to the programs designed and administered by the Huntington, 99% of Codman Academy’s 10th graders pass the English Language Arts portion of the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) exam, a requirement for graduation. 100% of Codman’s fi ve graduating classes have been accepted to college.

Donna Glick, the Huntington’s Director of Education and Community, points out the ripple effect of a 10-year partnership. “This collaboration has meant so much to the Huntington Theatre Company as a whole. So many artists and professional staff have taken time to meet with Codman students over the years, sharing their expertise, mentoring the kids, and acting as ambassadors throughout the many communities that the theatre touches. The Education Department staff is expected to brag about our programs, but it’s incredibly gratifying to hear praiseworthy kudos from other staff, visiting artists, and board members, which has increased the visibility and infl uence of the program.”

WATCH ALL SEASON for more Huntington/Codman events and

celebrations of this special milestone. •

The cast and crew of the Huntington-Codman Summer Theatre Institute’sThe Taming of the Shrew, 2010

phot

o: K

alm

an Z

abar

sky

for

B.U

. Ph

oto

Serv

ices

creating. community.16

Spotlight1.v19.indd 16Spotlight1.v19.indd 16 8/19/10 1:28 PM8/19/10 1:28 PM

Page 17: Fall 2010 Spotlight

Hold a poetry competition at your school as part of the 6th Annual Poetry Out Loud National Recitation Contest. A national spelling bee-style poetry contest, Poetry Out Loud encourages students in grades 9-12 to memorize and perform great poems and explore the dynamic aspects of slam poetry, spoken work, and theatre in their English and drama classes.

The Huntington facilitates this national contest in conjunction with The Massachusetts Cultural Council. Last year more than 14,000 students at 64 schools from Great Barrington to Provincetown participated in the 2010 competition. Schools will administer the fi rst round by staging classroom- and school-wide contests in February. School-wide winners will compete at a regional semi-fi nal

Wilmene Hercule, the 2009 and 2010 Poetry Out Loud Massachusetts State Champion, and her mother, Marte.

POETRY OUT LOUD 2011:

REGISTER NOW!

The Huntington Theatre Company

continues its commitment to accessible

theatre by offering American Sign Language-interpretation and Audio Description for select performances

of both Bus Stop and Ruined.

To purchase $15 tickets to any of our

ASL-Interpreted or Audio Described

performances, contact our Education

Manager and Access Coordinator,

Meg Wieder at 617 273-1558 or

[email protected].

ACCESSFOR ALL

learn more online: Visit huntingtontheatre.org/studentmatinee.

round in early March at locations across the state. The state fi nals will be held on March 13, 2011. The winner receives an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington, D.C. to represent Massachusetts at the national fi nals in April.

The deadline to register your school for Poetry Out Loud 2011 is December 23, 2010.

FOR MORE INFORMATION and to view a video about Poetry

Out Loud, visit huntingtontheatre.org/poetry or e-mail

[email protected].

2010-2011STUDENT MATINEESAll student matinee performances start at 10am

and include a lively post-show Actors Forum with

members of the cast. Student groups are also welcome

at regularly scheduled performances.

TICKETS are $15 per student. Additional subsidies or free tickets available.

For more information and to reserve tickets, please contact Education Manager

Meg Wieder at 617 273-1558 or [email protected].

ARE YOU ATEACHER OR

A PARENT?Make the Huntingtonpart of your school’s

experiencethis year!

BUS STOP*September 24, 2010Boston University Theatre

CIRCLE MIRRORTRANSFORMATIONNovember 4, 2010Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA

RUINED* January 14, 2011Boston University Theatre

EDUCATING RITAMarch 24, 2011Boston University Theatre

SONS OFTHE PROPHETApril 8, 2011Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA

RICHARD IIIMay 26, 2011Boston University Theatre

COMEDY OF ERRORSJune, 10, 2011Boston University Theatre

*ASL-interpreted and Audio-described performance

BUS STOPASL: Friday, October 8 at 8pmAD: Saturday, October 9 at 2pm

RUINED ASL: Friday, January 21 at 8pmAD: Saturday, January 29 at 2pm

Education and Access Partner:

17

Spotlight1.v19.indd 17Spotlight1.v19.indd 17 8/19/10 1:28 PM8/19/10 1:28 PM

Page 18: Fall 2010 Spotlight

COMPLETE YOUR EXPERIENCE

Your theatregoing experience can begin long before the show and doesn’t have to end when the curtain goes down. The Huntington provides many opportunities for you to engage with us and our shows. Hear from our artists. Explore literary and historical angles. Connect with fellow theatre lovers.

STAY AFTER THE SHOWTake sides. Join us for dynamic post-show conversations with fellow audience members and Huntington staff after most every performance (except select Saturday and Sunday evenings).

Form new ideas. The Humanities Forum explores the context and signifi cance of the play with a leading expert. Past forms have featured historians Doris Kearns Goodwin (Team of Rivals) and Beverly Morgan-Welch (Museum of African-American History), playwrights Paula Vogel and Lydia R. Diamond, Boston Globe columnists, and accomplished scholars.

Interact with artists. Meet the cast and ask them your questions at the Actors Forum.

Join the party. Out & About Club includes a post-show party for GLBT audience members and 35 Below Wrap Parties provide special evenings for young professionals. Both feature cocktails and live music from local acts.

CHECK OUT THE PERFORMANCE CALENDARS on pages 5, 9, and 13

to see when these events will be held for Bus Stop, Circle Mirror

Transformation,and Vengeance is the Lord’s. We hope you’ll join us!

AT TOP (clockwise from top left): A backstage tour of the B.U. Theatre; Elliott Norton Award-winning actress Karen MacDonald with patrons at the All My Sons Out & About Club party; The 35 Below Wrap Party for Prelude to a Kiss (photo: Anitra Rakel); Presidential historian and Huntington Trustee Doris Kearns Goodwin, playwright Paula Vogel, and Charles Haugland at the Humanities Forum for A Civil War Christmas; Peter DuBois and Michael Maso discuss the Huntington’s season at a reception for subscribers. creating. fun.

GO BEHIND THE SCENES AThuntingtontheatre.orgThere’s plenty to do online from your home, as well. With our new and improved Huntington website, you can now plan your visit to the Huntington and interact with us like never before. Visit our terrifi c backstage blog led by Production Manager Todd Williams (now in its 4th year), watch our in-depth videos with artist interviews and scenes from the shows, read extended articles from our publications, listen to our new podcast series featuring conversations with Artistic Director Peter DuBois, post-show forums, and much more.

Interact with us! Become a fan on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter. Get the scoop on breaking news and backstage details

Join our e-list and receive helpful reminders about your upcoming tickets including pre-show reminders about each show and the venue to help you enjoy your experience more, e-mails in case you miss your scheduled performance (subscribers only), as well as news and discount information.

18

Spotlight1.v19.indd 18Spotlight1.v19.indd 18 8/19/10 1:28 PM8/19/10 1:28 PM

Page 19: Fall 2010 Spotlight

MEET THE HUNTINGTON HUNTINGTON PRODUCTIONS

SWEEP SPRING AWARDS Many recent Huntington productions were honored by the Independent Reviewers of New England and the Elliot Norton Awards Committee this past spring.

In February, the Huntington received a record 29 IRNE

Award nominations for productions in the 2009 calendar

year, far more than any company in the region. Fences led the

pack with nine nominations, followed by Pirates, (or, Gilbert

and Sullivan Plunder’d) with six. On Monday, April 19, we

received eleven awards, including Best Production, Director,

Actor, Actress, Lighting Design, and Sound Design for Fences,

Best Solo Performance for Maureen McGovern’s A Long and

Winding Road, and Best New Play for The Miracle at Naples. Best

Supporting Actress went to Jacqui Parker for her performance

in A Civil War Christmas.

In April, we learned that we’d been nominated for eleven

Elliot Norton Awards. Huntington productions took all

nominations in the Outstanding Production category (Fences,

All My Sons, and Stick Fly), and we were acknowledged in the

Director, Design, Actor, Actress, and Ensemble categories. On

the Monday, May 17 ceremony, Fences was named Outstanding

Production and Crystal Fox Outstanding Actress. In addition,

Karen MacDonald (A Civil War Christmas, All My Sons, and

the upcoming Bus Stop) received the 2010 Norton Prize for

Sustained Excellence. Also, our very own managing director

Michael Maso received StageSource’s 2010 Theatre Hero

Award for his service, inspiration, and role as a champion to

Boston area theatres and the arts. Read his acceptance speech

on our blog at huntingtontheatre.org/theatrehero.

CONGRATULATIONS to all of our nominees and winners!

Do you ever wonder who is on the other end of the telephone when you call the Box Offi ce or behind the window at our curtains? We invite you to learn a bit more about our hard-working and dedicated Huntington Box Offi ce staff!

(l-r) Box Offi ce staff members Derek Fraser, Jon Slater, Derrick Martin,Barbara Crowther, Bridget Frey, Katie Catano, and Amy Klesert

■ KATIE CATANO, Box Offi ce Associate

WHAT DO YOU DO “OUTSIDE THE BOX”? The thing that takes up most of my spare time is photography. I love to fi nd new and interesting things to do in Boston with my friends and try to spend as much time with my family in New Hampshire as possible.

■ BARBARA CROWTHER, B.U. Theatre Box Offi ce Coordinator

HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN AT THE HUNTINGTON? This will be my third season. I started as the Professional Intern in the costume shop and then joined the Box Offi ce the following season.

FAVORITE HUNTINGTON SHOW? I love so many of them — but since working here, I think my favorite was Stick Fly because I was able to run wardrobe for it.

■ BRIDGET FREY,Associate Audience Services Manager

WHAT DO YOU DO “OUTSIDE THE BOX”? I’m a dramaturg and worked at Emerson College last year advising their students. I’m also a mom, and I love to garden, cook, make ice cream, and sew, although since my son was born I haven’t had much time to work on any sewing projects.

WHAT IS ONE THING PEOPLE DON’T KNOW ABOUT YOU? I’ve had season tickets for the Red Sox since 1998!

learn more online: Learn more about

the staff at huntingtontheatre.org/meet.

■ DERRICK MARTIN, Calderwood Pavilion Box Offi ce Coordinator

WHAT DO YOU DO “OUTSIDE THE BOX”? I am a big geek, so I enjoy all things geeky. Additionally, I’m always up for anything fun and creative — from theatrical performances to outdoor scavenger hunts.

■ JON SLATER, Audience Services Manager

WHAT DO YOU LIKE BEST ABOUT YOUR JOB? I like the many different aspects of the job that I might face in any given day, and I enjoy fi nding creative solutions to technical and logistical challenges. The people working in the Box Offi ce are wonderful, and it’s a joy to work as a team and to share our accomplishments. •

19

Spotlight1.v19.indd 19Spotlight1.v19.indd 19 8/19/10 1:28 PM8/19/10 1:28 PM

Page 20: Fall 2010 Spotlight

THE HUNTINGTON THEATRE COMPANY’S 2010-2011 SEASON.

Buy additional tickets or redeem your FlexPass tickets today!

Keira Naughton inBecky Shaw; photo:T. Charles Erickson

YOU’RE INVITED: SUBSCRIBER AND FRIENDS RECEPTION Join us for a wine and cheese reception with Huntington Artistic Director

Peter DuBois and Managing Director Michael Maso. Meet Huntington staff,

take a backstage tour of the B.U. Theatre, and get a preview of our 2010-2011

Season. Please RSVP by September 16 at huntingtontheatre.org/reception.

Monday, September 20, 20105:30 - 7:30pm Boston University Theatre264 Huntington Avenue

Artists, repertoire, and dates subject to change.

BUS STOPby William IngeDirected by Nicholas MartinSept. 17 – Oct. 17, 2010B.U. TheatreCLASSIC COMEDY

Part of The Shirley,VT Plays Festival

CIRCLE MIRRORTRANSFORMATIONby Annie BakerDirected by Melia BensussenOct. 15 – Nov. 14, 2010Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA

ACCLAIMED NEW COMEDY

SONS OFTHE PROPHETby Stephen KaramDirected by Peter DuBoisApril 1 – May 1, 2011Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA Commissioned and produced by special arrangement withRoundabout Theatre CompanyWORLD PREMIERE

RICHARD III and

COMEDY OF ERRORSby William ShakespeareDirected by Edward Hall May 18 – June 19, 2011B.U. TheatrePropeller Theatre CompanyPresented in association with Boston University’s School of TheatreSHAKESPEARE IN REPERTORY

VENGEANCE ISTHE LORD’Sby Bob GlaudiniDirected by Peter DuBoisNov. 12 – Dec. 12, 2010B.U. TheatreWORLD PREMIERE

RUINEDby Lynn NottageDirected by Liesl TommyJan. 7 – Feb. 6, 2011B.U. TheatreIn cooperation withLa Jolla Playhouse andBerkeley Repertory Theatre2009 PULITZER PRIZE WINNER

EDUCATING RITAby Willy RussellDirected by Maria AitkenMarch 11 – April 10, 2011B.U. TheatreOLIVIER AWARD WINNER FOR BEST COMEDY

617 266-0800huntingtontheatre.org

Groups (10+): 617 273-1665

NON-PROFITORGANIZATIONUS POSTAGEPAIDBOSTON, MAPERMIT # 52499

Michael MasoManaging Director

Peter DuBoisNorma Jean CalderwoodArtistic Director

264 Huntington Avenue

Boston, MA 02115-4606

huntingtontheatre.org

huntington theatre company

in residence at boston university

Spotlight1.v19.indd 20Spotlight1.v19.indd 20 8/19/10 1:28 PM8/19/10 1:28 PM