Tuesday–Wednesday, September 22–23, 2009
7:30 p.m.
Wright Memorial Theatre
Classical Theatre of Harlem:Waiting for Godot
The Classical Theatre of Harlem reinvents Samuel Beckett’s seminal work with an imaginative production set in a post-Hurricane-Katrina landscape. After a highly acclaimed 2006 run in New York City, the production travelled to New Orleans’ Ninth Ward for a series of free outdoor performances that spurred nationwide dialogue on race, class, and the agony of waiting. Directed by Christopher McElroen. Sponsored by the Middlebury College Performing Arts Series, the Department of Theatre and Dance, and the Office for Institutional Planning and Diversity.
Tickets: $24/18/6
http://go.middlebury.edu/tickets or 802-443-MIDD (6433).
Additional events in conjunction with this residency:
September 22, Tuesday
“Portraits of Home” by Dane Verret ’12
Opening Reception
4:30 P.M., McCullough, Center Gallery
In this series of nine black and white photographs, Middlebury College sophomore Dane Verret explores his home city of New Orleans in a photo-documentary style. Through photographs as varied as an intimate family scene in a kitchen, streetscapes of the city’s iconic Bourbon Street, and images of grave sites taken one year after Katrina, Verret frames his own view of New Orleans’ beauty, and expresses what home means to him. The photos are accompanied by original poetry. Sponsored by the Office of the Dean of the College. Refreshments will be served. Free
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Waiting for Godot ... After Katrina: A Conversation about Art and Activism with The Classical Theatre of Harlem
1:30 P.M., Wright Memorial Theatre
Members of the Classical Theatre of Harlem will lead a discussion about site-specific and political theatre, and share images from their post--Hurricane Katrina run of Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot, performed outdoors in the devastated Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans. Free
Program:
The Classical Theatre of Harlem
Christopher McElroen & Alfred Preisser, Co-Founders
presents
Samuel Beckett’s
WAITING FOR GODOT
Directed by Christopher McElroen
Set Design: Troy Hourie
Costume Design: Kimberly Glennon
Lighting Design: Aaron Black
Dramaturg: Debra Cardona
Production Manager: Michael Goodin
Stage Manager: Jeffrey Glaser
Cast of Characters:
Vladimir: Billy Eugene Jones
Estragon: J Kyle Manzay
Pozzo: Christian Rummel
Lucky: Glenn Gordon
Setting: A Country Road, A Tree, Evening
Running Time is approximately 2 hours and 30 minutes
including one 15 minute intermission.
Company Biographies:
Billy Eugene Jones (Vladimir) previously appeared in Classical Theatre of Harlem's recent revival of Three Sisters and the critically acclaimed post Katrina themed Waiting for Godot. His Broadway credits include Passing Strange, Radio Golf, A Gem of the Ocean, and A Raisin in the Sun. Billy's regional theatre credits include the world premieres of The Good Negro, Gee's Bend, and Living Room in Africa; Jitney, Fences, Ma' Rainey's Black Bottom, Breath/Boom, Spunk, Angels in America, The Wild Duck, Guys and Doll's, Ain't Misbehavin'; and productions of Shakespeare's Othello, Richard II, Hamlet, Macbeth, Twelfth Night, All's Well That Ends Well, As You Like It, The Merchant of Venice, and Henry IV, Parts I and II. Film and Television: Blood Over a Broken Pawn, Hexed, High Ambitions, The Peanut Man; The Story of George Washington Carver, Wishbone, Madison Heights and Comic View. He is a graduate of Yale School of Drama.
J Kyle Manzay (Estragon) previously appeared in Classical Theatre of Harlem’s critically acclaimed post Katrina themed Waiting for Godot. He received his BFA from Howard University where he majored in Acting and minored in writing. He went on to complete his MFA at NYU Tisch School of the Art graduate Acting program. J Kyle received the 2004 Obie Award for Outstanding Performance for his portrayal of Village in Jean Genet's The Blacks: A Clown Show and has been nominated for 4 AUDELCO awards. Other theater credits include; Light Raise the Roof (New York Theater Workshop), Ain't Supposed to Die a Natural Death, and the tile role of Hamlet (Classical Theatre of Harlem). He starred in the film Little Manhattan, Brother to Brother, Single Hills, and the box office smash hit American Gangster opposite Denzel Washington. His television credits include Law & Order SVU and CSI - New York. J Kyle directed and produced the hit Off- Broadway production of his original comedy The Actor’s Rap!, which is slated to open on Broadway Spring 2010 as well Hip-Hop Monologues: Inside the Life and Mind of Jim Jones. J Kyle has been featured on Good Day New York, Hot 97, The Wendy Williams Show, New Yorker Magazine, and most recently in the March 2009 issue of XXL Magazine.
Christian Rummel (Pozzo) Off-Broadway: Othello, Antony & Cleopatra (Theatre For A New Audience); other NYC credits include: Johnny On A Spot (Peccadillo Theatre), One Thing I Like To Say Is… (Clubbed Thumb), Tiger By The Tail (Wings Theatre), Troilus & Cressida, A Dream Play (American Studio Theatre). Regional: Intiman Theatre, Riverside Theatre (FL), Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Pittsburgh Playhouse, Pittsburgh Irish & Classical Theatre, City Theatre of Pittsburgh. Television: Law & Order, One Life To Live. Narrator of over 100 audio books for Random House, Audible.com, Hachette Audio, and Talking Book Productions. 2005 graduate of Alabama Shakespeare Festival’s MFA program.
Glenn Gordon (Lucky) Theatre credits include: The Actor's Rap (Baruch Performing Arts Center), Deep Azure (Congo Square Theatre), Marat/Sade (Classical Theatre of Harlem), Revenge of a King (NY Fringe Festival), Rhyme Deferred (Nat'l Black Theatre Festival), and Sanctified (Alabama Shakespeare Festival). TV and Film: Blood Over a Broken Pawn, Criss Cross (Pilot) and the music video Monday Morning. Training: BFA in Acting from Howard University. Glenn is the Deputy Director and Board member of the Continuum Project.
Samuel Beckett (Playwright) was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1969 for a body of work that includes novels, essays, poems and plays. His best-known play, Waiting for Godot (1953) is a comic study of philosophical uncertainty, and, like much of his work, focuses on the absurdity of human existence. Beckett graduated from Dublin's Trinity College in 1927 and settled in Paris, where he worked with James Joyce and published short stories and the novel Murphy (1938). During World War II he joined the French Resistance and was eventually forced to leave Paris, but after the war he returned and wrote most of his important works, including the prose trilogy Molloy (1951), Malone Dies (1951) and The Unnamable (1953), and the play Endgame (1957).
Christopher McElroen (Director) is the co-founder of the Classical Theatre of Harlem (CTH) where he produced forty productions from 2000 – 2009 yielding 13 AUDELCO Awards, 6 OBIE Awards, 2 Lucille Lortel Awards, a Drama Desk Award and CTH being named "1 of 8 theatres in America to Watch" by the Drama League. As a director, he has helmed numerous productions at CTH including The Cherry Orchard with Wendell Pierce and Earle Hyman, The Blacks: A Clown Show (4 OBIE Awards), Marat/Sade and a post-Katrina inspired Waiting For Godot staged outdoors in the Lower 9th Ward and Gentilly section of New Orleans. He has also directed a numerous venues including The Brooklyn Academy of Music, Stanford University and the Walker Arts Center, among others.
Troy Hourie (Set Design) Off-Broadway includes: Black Nativity (CTH at The New Victory); The Dutchman + Havana is Waiting (Cherry Lane Theatre); Esoterica (Daryl Roth Two); Temporary Help (Revelation Theatre, 2003 Drama Desk Nomination); Throw Pitchfork (NYTW); Tartuffe (Acting Company); The Passion of Frida Kahlo (Directors Company/Arclight) and Classical Theatre of Harlem (Resident Set Designer, 15 productions, 2007 Henry Hewes Design Award Nomination for Marat/Sade, 2005 Audelco Award and six nominations). Other NYC credits include: Brooklyn Academy of Music, The Zipper Theatre, Theatreworks USA, The Culture Project, INTAR, and numerous shows at Juilliard Drama School. Regional includes: The Guthrie, Syracuse Stage, Studio Arena Theatre, Bay Street Theatre, New York Stage and Film, Westport Country Playhouse, Williamstown, Berkshire Theatre Festival, Childrens Theatre Minneapolis, Pioneer Theatre, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, The Asolo, and GeVa Theatre. Opera includes: Sarasota Opera (6 productions), Music Academy of the West, Pine Mountain Music Festival, and Juilliard Opera. 2005 Ford Foundation Travel Grant to attend Bregenz Opera Festival.
Kimberly Glennon (Costume Design) received a 2003 OBIE Award and an American Theatre Wing Design Award nomination for her costume design of CTH's production of The Blacks: A Clown Show. She also received a 2005 AUDELCO Award for Melvin Van Peebles' Ain't Supposed To Die A Natural Death. Some additional credits include: Sixteen Wounded (Cherry Lane); Growing Up A Slave (American Place Theatre); As You Like It (Juilliard); 'Tis Pity She's A Whore, Accidental Death of an Anarchist (University of Rochester), Bulrusher (Urban Stages), and The Magic Flute (Ohio Northern University).
Aaron Black (Lighting Design) New York credits include: Funnyhouse Of A Negro (2006 Lortel Award for Outstanding Lighting Design), Trojan Women, Mother Courage And Her Children, Dream On Monkey Mountain for the Classical Theatre of Harlem, for which he was awarded an AUDELCO Award for outstanding lighting design; Hecuba for Friendly Fire Theatre at 45 Below, Bleecker Street Theatre; the world premiere of Almost Blue at the Flatiron Theatre; No Common Thread and Open Field at the Cunningham Studios; the US premieres of Pink for the 2004 Summer Play Festival and Crooked for the 2005 Summer Play Festival at the new 42nd Street Theatres; Soar Like An Eagle at the new 42nd Street Theatres; the US premiere of Benadict Mason's Asko Paradiso.
Michael Goodin (Production Manager) has been working in film, television and theatrical production for over eight years. He has toured with The Flying Karmazov Brothers, The Bindlestiff Family Circus and The National Theatre Company. He has produced numerous feature films. Featured works have been screened at numerous prestigious film festivals including: Tribeca, Toronto and Slamdance. He has had the privilege of working with a plethora of talented performers including The Sopranos', James Gandolfini, 2007 Oscar nominee, Amy Ryan, X-Men's Famke Jensen and The Day After Tomorrow's Dash Mihak, along with numerous others.
Jeffrey Glaser (Stage Manager) Waiting for Godot (Lower 9th Ward & Gentilly). Director: FUCT (Joe’s Pub, Cherry Lane, Caroline’s Comedy Club, et al.); Moral Values: or Me No Likey the Homo Touch-touch by Ian McWethy (Village Theatre, NYC Fringe); Galveston by Michael Swift (Marigny Theatre, NOLA Fringe); Twinicide: 2+2=2 by Linsday Newitter (West End Theatre); Forgiveness by Bradley Glaser (La Mama); Roscoe’s Little Theatre by Julianne Homokay (American Theatre of Actors). Dramaturge: Macbeth for Rehabilitation Through the Arts (Sing Sing Correctional Facility). Acting: Preacher in Emancipation (CTH); Longi in Caravaggio Chiaroscuro (La Mama); Patient in Marat Sade (CTH). Jeffrey would like to thank The Classical Theatre of Harlem, the city of New Orleans, the state of Louisiana, and the entire Gulf Cost.
Classical Theatre of Harlem (CTH), a nonprofit theatre company, was founded in 1999 by Alfred Preisser and Christopher McElroen. In each of its productions—which have included numerous works by Shakespeare, a new stage adaptation of Richard Wright’s Native Son, Melvin Van Peebles’ Ain’t Supposed To Die A Natural Death and Jean Genet’s seminal political drama, The Blacks: A Clown Show, CTH is dedicated to returning the “classics” to the stages of Harlem, to nurturing new, young, and culturally diverse audiences, and to producing theatre that truly reflects the diversity of ideas and racial tapestry of America. The company’s long list of awards and nominations includes 6 OBIE Awards, 2 Lucille Lortel Awards, a Drama Desk Award, and an Edwin Booth Award for Artistic Excellence, among others.
Director’s Note
In November 2007, I partnered with visual artist Paul Chan and Creative Time to stage a free site-specific production of Waiting for Godot in the still devastated Lower Ninth Ward and Gentilly neighborhoods of New Orleans, where “waiting” has taken on a whole new meaning of national implication.
The project was an overwhelming success, drawing thousands of local residents, many of whom have never before attended theatre, to the otherwise almost deserted Ninth Ward and Gentilly sections of New Orleans, and garnering positive responses from local residents and critics alike.
In addition to the free performances we conducted over a dozen educational workshops, community dinners and humanities events, to create a true community-development-through-the-arts project which provided nearly $50,000 in direct funds for local rebuilding efforts in New Orleans.
The Times-Picayune, the New Yorker, the New York Times, The Nation, ArtForum and NPR all followed the story of Godot in New Orleans, calling the project "incisive," "inspirational," "remarkable," "exemplary," "ever-inventive," and "multifaceted…various in form and meaning, communal, physically ephemeral yet socially and politically continuing."
A letter to the local paper from a man whose 80-year old mother survived Katrina represents the incredible impact this project had on the community of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast:
Friday morning at 7 a.m., my 14-year-old son, wife and mother will start the roughly 560-mile drive from Nashville, Tenn., to...see a corner lot staging of Waiting for Godot…I want [my son] to see how a neutral ground stage can become a place of social and political comment and a play can be a call to action. I want my son to see theater that touches lives and does more than just entertain. So, we're driving nine hours, lawn chairs in the trunk, to see art.
Clearly this production touched a nerve, in New Orleans and nationally. And the production gave a powerful immediacy to a classic that has often been perceived as remote, fully realizing the agony of waiting as well as the irrepressibility of humanity, imagination and humor that is inherently faithful to Mr. Beckett’s play.
Our goal in remounting Waiting for Godot in 2009 is to simply continue to tell the story, through Mr. Beckett’s play, of those in the Gulf Coast who are still “waiting.”
Company website:
http://www.classicaltheatreofharlem.org/
Press Quotes:
“Remarkable, important and valuable theatre”--The New York Times
“A company to follow and relish”--The New York Times
“If there is a more dauntless ensemble in New York I don't know what it is”--The New York Times
“The youngest, most diverse audiences in town”--New York Magazine
“Ever inventive”--The New Yorker
“One of the gutsiest and physically fearless groups around"--Time Out NY
“One of the most consistently intelligent and dramatically compelling companies in New York City”--NYTheatre.com