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91 University Pl. Princeton, NJ 08540 www.mccarter.org 609-258-2787 For more information, contact: Tom Miller, Director of Public Relations [email protected] 609-258-6524 MCCARTER THEATER CENTER BEGINS 2017 WITH BEDLAM’S PRODUCTIONS OF HAMLET and SAINT JOAN IN ROTATING REPERTORY Bedlam’s Hamlet, featuring (l-r) Tom O’Keefe, Andrus Nichols, Eric Tucker, and Edmund Lewis. Photo: Jenny Anderson. PRINCETON, NJ: McCarter Theatre Center is starting the New Year with a fresh look at two of literature’s most enigmatic and dynamic characters. From January 13 – February 12, the celebrated New York theater company, Bedlam, makes its McCarter Theatre Center debut with their critically-acclaimed stripped down productions of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet and George Bernard Shaw’s Saint Joan, in rotating repertory. Known for their innovative, site-specific stagings, Bedlam’s Hamlet and Saint Joan are performed by four actors playing all roles; ensemble members Eric Tucker, Andrus Nichols, Edmund Lewis, and Tom O’Keefe rocket from character to character at a lightning-bolt’s pace. Bedlam’s kinetic performances will bring these classics to life in McCarter’s Berlind Theatre where stage and audience will shift from show to show, and from act to act. In addition to traditional house seating, patrons have the opportunity to purchase seats on stage for a closer, more intimate relationship to the action. As Bedlam Artistic Director, Ensemble member, and Director of both Hamlet and St. Joan describes, “For us, it’s about making the audience know they're part of the play. Their own placement feeds the energy of the story. As the audience gets moved around, they're sharing the space with us. There's no ‘this is your area, this is our area.’ This is at the heart of what we do.” ABOUT BEDLAM’s HAMLET AND SAINT JOAN Eric Tucker and Andrus Nichols co-founded Bedlam in 2012, presenting George Bernard Shaw’s Saint Joan on a shoestring budget with only four actors playing over 25 characters. The show received instant recognition and was extended four times. Terry Teachout of The Wall Street Journal was an early admirer, describing it as “Thrilling! An unforgettable show! The most exciting George Bernard Shaw revival I’ve ever seen, bar none.” In 2013, Bedlam produced William Shakespeare’s Hamlet with the same four actors, again playing over 25 characters amongst themselves. Hamlet ran in repertory with Saint Joan and both productions were then transferred for a commercial Off-Broadway run at The Lynn Redgrave Theater in the winter of 2013/2014. Ben Brantley, the head theatre critic of The New York Times wrote, “Every member of Bedlam hears voices. Not of God and his saints, but of Shaw (who probably would have said that’s the same thing) and Shakespeare. And I mean they believe they hear these playwrights, in all their sonority, telling them what to do…anyone who listens to the eminently sane and persuasive voices of Bedlam is destined to become a convert.” Bedlam’s shows have been noted as Ben Brantley’s “Critics’ Picks” for The New York Times six times, noted on The New York Times “Top Ten Best Show Lists” two times, as well as those of The Wall Street Journal and Time Magazine respectively. The Wall Street Journal also noted Eric Tucker as “Director of the Year” in 2014. Bedlam has won two Irne Awards, two Off Broadway Alliance Awards and an Obie Grant. Bedlam has also been nominated for two Lucille Lortel awards, a Drama League award, and four Elliot Norton awards, winning for Best Visiting Production and Best Ensemble for Saint Joan. Hi-res photos from previous productions of Hamlet and Saint Joan may be accessed here. For more about Bedlam, Hamlet, and Saint Joan, visit McCarter’s production minisite. ABOUT THE CAST AND CREATIVE TEAM Edmund Lewis (Polonius/Horatio and others in Hamlet; Dauphin/John de Stogumber and others in Saint Joan) was seen most recently in Bedlam’s acclaimed off-Broadway hit Sense & Sensibility. Prior to that, he played various characters in New York Animals (written by Steven Sater) and appeared as Malvolio in Bedlam’s one play/two ways repertory of Twelfth Night and What You Will. A founding member of the company, Edmund acted in the original award-winning runs of Saint Joan and Hamlet, first at the Access Theater and then offBroadway at the Lynn Redgrave Theater. Other roles include Sebastian in The Tempest (A.R.T., co-directed by Aaron Posner and Teller); Sackville and Mr. Harris in The Libertine (Fools’ Theatre, directed by Eric Tucker); Mark in The Philadelphia, Kafka in Words, Words, Words, and Sir Richard Attenborough in Time Flies (Bang Theatre Collective). Andrus Nichols (Gertrude/Ophelia and others in Hamlet; Joan in Saint Joan) was most recently seen in Ivo Van Hove’s A View From The Bridge at The Kennedy Center in D.C. and The Ahmanson Theatre in L.A. Off-Broadway: Sense & Sensibility (Bedlam; Drama League nom., Best Revival; Off-Broadway Alliance Award winner), Hamlet, Saint Joan (Bedlam; Lucille Lortel nom., Outstanding Lead Actress; Off Broadway Alliance Award, Best Revival). New York: Sense & Sensibility, The Seagull, Twelfth Night, What You Will (Bedlam); Hello From Bertha (Pooks Hill); Hamlet (Shakespeare Forum); The Libertine (Fools’ Theater). Regional: Hamlet, Saint Joan (Bedlam/Olney Theater Center/Central Square Theater; Helen Hayes and Elliot Norton noms, Outstanding Lead Actress; IRNE Award, Outstanding Visiting Performer); Hamlet (title role), Iphigenia and Other Daughters (We Players/Alcatraz Island); Julius Ceasar; The Rainmaker; The Importance of Being Earnest; others. Andrus cofounded Bedlam with Eric Tucker in 2012. www.andrus-nichols.com Tom O’Keefe (Claudius/Rosencrantz and others in Hamlet; Cauchon/Poulengey and others in Saint Joan) Off Broadway: Tamburlaine the Great, Bedlam’s Hamlet and Saint Joan. Other New York: Dead Dog Park, Bedlam's Twelfth Night and What You Will, The Best of Everything, A Hard Wall at High Speed, A Midsummer’s Night Dream, The Libertine. Regional: Outside Mullingar, Richard II, The Taster, Measure for Measure, From Orchids to Octopi, Humble Boy, Questa. TV: Shades of Blue, The Path, CSI, Criminal Minds, E.R., The Shield, Rules of Engagement, Drake & Josh. Film: A New Tomorrow, Avenging Angel, CrashN’Burn, Fill Your Heart with French Fries (short). BA, Pennsylvania State University. JD, Boston University School of Law. Proud member of SAG/AFTRA and Actors’ Equity Association. Tom-OKeefe.com Eric Tucker (Director/Hamlet in Hamlet; Dunois/Warwick and others in Saint Joan) Wall Street Journal Director of the Year 2014. Off-Broadway: Bedlam’s Sense & Sensibility (offBroadway Alliance Award; Lortel nom., Best Director; Drama League nom., Best Revival); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Drama League nom. Best Revival; WSJ Best Classical Production 2015; New York Times Critics’ Pick); Bedlam’s Saint Joan (New York Times/Time Magazine top 10, Off-Broadway Alliance Best Revival 2014); Bedlam’s Hamlet (New York Times top 10, Time Out NY and Backstage Critics’ Pick); Tina Packer’s Women of Will; The Belle of Belfast. For Bedlam: Dead Dog Park, New York Animals (world premiere by Steven Sater/Burt Bacharach), Twelfth Night, What You Will (New York Times Critics’ Picks), The Seagull (WSJ Best Classical Production 2014), Sense & Sensibility (New York Times top 10; New York Times /WSJ/Time Out Critics’ Pick), Saint Joan, and Hamlet (NYC and Tour, Elliott Norton Outstanding Visiting Production and Outstanding Ensemble, Boston Globe Top 10). Other: Sense & Sensibility (Folger); Copenhagen (Central Square Theatre); A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Two Gentlemen of Verona (HVSF); The Libertine (IRNE nomination, Best Director); Hamlet (with William Hurt); Mate (The Actors’ Gang), Macbeth (Best Overall Production and Best Director noms L.A. Weekly). Eric received his MFA from the Trinity Rep Conservatory. He resides in New York City where he is Artistic Director of Bedlam. John McDermott (Set Design) Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival: Macbeth, Measure For Measure, As You Like It, The Winter’s Tale, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Arabian Nights. Shakespeare and Company: Red Velvet, The Comedy of Errors, An Unexpected Man, Sotto Voce, The Taming, Ugly Lies the Bone. Folger: As You Like It, Sense & Sensibility. OffBroadway: The Singing Forest (New York Shakespeare Festival); Play Yourself (New York Theater Workshop); This Thing of Darkness, White People (Atlantic Theater Company); Hamlet, Saint Joan, New York Animals, Sense & Sensibility, The Seagull, Dead Dog Park (Bedlam); Dry Land, Everything is Ours, Fish Eye (Colt Coeur). Rattlestick Playwrights Theater: 25 designs including 3C, Lady, The Undeniable Sound of Right Now, The Revisionist, Saved or Destroyed. Assistant Professor, Adelphi University. Les Dickert (Lighting Design) designs for a diverse range of live performance, spanning contemporary and Shakespearean theater, modern dance, classical ballet, and international performance art. Previous collaborations with Bedlam include Sense & Sensibility, The Seagull, and New York Animals. Broadway: Wrong Mountain (Assistant), High Society (Assistant). Off-Broadway: Atlantic Theater, Rattlestick Theater, P73, Theater Row, Ensemble Studio Theater, In Violet Rep, others. Regional: Shakespeare and Company, Great Lakes Theater Festival, Geva Theater, Perseverance Theater, Syracuse Stage, Triad Stage, Arden Theater, others. Dance: White Oak Dance Project, San Francisco Ballet, Boston Ballet, Miami City Ballet, Tulsa Ballet, Joffrey Ballet. International: Centre Pompidou; La Scala; and the National Ballets of England, Denmark, Australia, Belgium, Canada, and Russia. Les is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama. Trampas Thompson (Fight Director) is thrilled to be collaborating again with his friends from Bedlam. In addition to choreographing the original critically acclaimed run of Bedlam’s Hamlet, his theatrical work includes Women of Will for Tina Packer and Richard III for Shakespeare Dallas. Trampas has been a professional stuntman and stunt coordinator in film and television for over 20 years. His 100 + credits include four Pirates of the Caribbean films, National Treasure, and Zombieland, among many others. Trampas was Michael Keaton’s stunt double in the film Birdman and recently joined Mr. Keaton again as his stunt double on Spider-Man: Homecoming, due in theaters next summer. He is a member of SAGAFTRA and the Directors Guild of America. Complete credits can be found on IMDb. About McCarter Theatre Center Led by Artistic Director/Resident Playwright Emily Mann and Managing Director Timothy J. Shields, McCarter Theatre Center is a leading destination for playwrights, actors, and directors to collaborate on ambitious world premieres, re-imagined classics, adaptations, and developmental workshops. Awarded the 1994 Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre, McCarter has evolved into a nationally and internationally acclaimed theatre recognized for its first-rate productions, daring world premieres, and lasting contributions to the American theatrical canon. The theatre is celebrated for its emphasis on the creation and development of new work, marked especially by an on-going program of commissions, an annual artists retreat, and the fostering of long term relationships with emerging and established playwrights. Among the noteworthy dramatists whose work has received world premieres, developmental productions, and workshops at McCarter are: Edward Albee, Tarell Alvin McCraney, Sarah Treem, Marina Carr, Lydia Diamond, John Guare, Nilo Cruz, Christopher Durang, Regina Taylor, Beth Henley, Danai Gurira, and Athol Fugard. Many, including Eclipsed, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike (2013 Tony Award for Best Play), Having Our Say, Anna in the Tropics, Crowns, Valley Song, and Yellowman, received original workshops at McCarter before moving on to Broadway and/or become some of the most frequently produced plays in the American theater. McCarter is equally recognized for its reinvestigations of the classic canon including Fiasco Theater’s reimagined production of Into the Woods, Stephen Wadsworth’s acclaimed adaptations of the Marivaux Trilogy and Beaumarchais’ Figaro plays, Brian Friel’s Translations, and Emily Mann’s adaptations of Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard and Lorca’s The House of Bernarda Alba. Next up, McCarter Theatre Center’s 2017 Theatre Series continues with Ken Ludwig’s adaptation of Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express (world premiere), and Lynn Nottage’s Intimate Apparel. Bedlam’s productions of Saint Joan and Hamlet – Production Facts Creative, Production, and Design Team Hamlet by William Shakespeare Saint Joan by George Bernard Shaw Direction: Eric Tucker Set Design: John McDermott Lighting Design: Les Dickert Fight Director: Trampas Thompson Production Stage Manager: Diane Healy Director of Production: David York Resident Producer: Debbie Bisno Managing Director: Timothy J. Shields Artistic Director/Resident Playwright: Emily Mann CAST Eric Tucker: Hamlet in Hamlet Dunois/Warwick and others in Saint Joan Andrus Nichols: Gertrude/Ophelia and others in Hamlet Joan in Saint Joan Edmund Lewis: Polonius/Horatio and others in Hamlet Dauphin/John de Stogumber and others in Saint Joan Tom O’Keefe: Claudius/Rosencrantz and others in Hamlet Cauchon/Poulengey and others in Saint Joan The Actors and Stage Manager in this production are members of Actors’ Equity Association, the union of professional actors and stage managers in the United States. McCarter is supported by Princeton University, the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, and over 3,000 individuals, corporations, and foundations. McCarter Theatre is located at 91 University Place in Princeton, NJ. For more information, please visit www.mccarter.org. Hamlet and Saint Joan are made possible in part by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a Partner Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts and by funds from the National Endowment for the Arts. Saint Joan is presented by special arrangement with Samuel French, Inc. Opening Night sponsored by Novo Nordisk. Ticket Information and Performance Schedule Performances for Hamlet and Saint Joan run January 13 – February 12 in the Berlind Theatre. Single tickets range from $25 - $74 and are on sale now online at mccarter.org, by phone at (609) 258-2787, or in person at the McCarter Theatre Ticket Office, located at 91 University Place in Princeton. Hamlet runs 3 hours and 10 minutes, including two intermissions. Saint Joan runs 3 hours, including two intermissions. Friday Saturday Sunday January 13 January 14 January 15 8 p.m. 8 p.m. 2 p.m. SAINT JOAN HAMLET SAINT JOAN Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Saturday Sunday January 17 January 18 January 19 January 20 January 21 January 21 January 22 7:30 p.m. 7:30 p.m. 7:30 p.m. 8 p.m. 3 p.m. 8 p.m. 2 p.m. HAMLET SAINT JOAN HAMLET SAINT JOAN HAMLET SAINT JOAN HAMLET Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Saturday Sunday Sunday January 24 January 25 January 26 January 27 January 28 January 28 January 29 January 29 7:30 p.m. 7:30 p.m. 7:30 p.m. 8 p.m. 3 p.m. 8 p.m. 2 p.m. 7:30 p.m. SAINT JOAN HAMLET SAINT JOAN HAMLET SAINT JOAN HAMLET HAMLET SAINT JOAN Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Saturday Sunday February 1 February 2 February 3 February 4 February 4 February 5 7:30 p.m. 7:30 p.m. 8 p.m. 3 p.m. 8 p.m. 2 p.m. SAINT JOAN HAMLET SAINT JOAN HAMLET SAINT JOAN HAMLET Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Saturday Sunday Sunday February 7 February 8 February 9 February 10 February 11 February 11 February 12 February 12 7:30 p.m. 7:30 p.m. 7:30 p.m. 8 p.m. 3 p.m. 8 p.m. 2 p.m. 7:30 p.m. HAMLET HAMLET SAINT JOAN HAMLET SAINT JOAN HAMLET SAINT JOAN HAMLET Dialogue on Drama Post-show Discussion Pride Night Post-show Discussion Open Captioned Audio Described ASL Interpreted Seating Options Each play offers patrons a choice of Fixed Seating OR OnStage Seating. Patrons have the choice to purchase tickets and watch either or both shows in one of two ways: 1) sitting in the house in a fixed location or 2) sitting on stage for a more interactive, up-close-andpersonal relationship to the action. Onstage Ticket option: Each onstage ticket holder has the opportunity to see the play—while sitting on stage—from multiple perspectives within any one performance. The seating configuration and audience point of view will shift for each act of the play (in both Hamlet and Saint Joan). Onstage ticket holders will be asked to gather in the lobby during both intermissions as the onstage seating is reconfigured for the next act. NOTE: there are a limited number of Onstage seats available for each play; Onstage seating is general admission. Fixed Ticket Option: Patrons are assigned to a fixed seat inside the theater in the traditional seating format. Patrons will stay in the same assigned seat throughout the duration of the play. NOTE: a select number of fixed seat ticket holders may be invited to sit on stage for one act at each performance (subject to availability). Special Events and Engagement Programs Dialogue on Drama Join us for a special post-show discussion with director Eric Tucker and Andrus Nichols (cofounders of Bedlam) after the Sunday, January 22 2 p.m. matinee performance. This is a free event, no RSVP req. Post-Show Discussions Post-show discussions at McCarter are highly interactive audience-based conversations facilitated by a member of McCarter’s artistic staff, often featuring cast members. These discussions focus on a range of topics including how artistic choices were made for the production, the actors’ process, and reflections and questions from audience members. Post-show discussions occur directly following the 7:30 p.m. performance on Wednesday, January 25 and following the 2 p.m. performance on Sunday, January 29. Inside Story Join us 45 minutes before any performance for a talk led by a member of McCarter’s artistic staff. Hear about what inspired the play, its unique creation and style, and much more. All Inside Story talks will take place in the Berlind Theatre unless otherwise noted in the lobby upon arrival. ###