First Connecticut Performance of "Glass Guignol: The Brother and Sister Play" at Wesleyan University on Saturday February 16
A Mabou Mines Masterclass Workshop Production
“Glass Guignol: The Brother and Sister Play”
Conceived and adapted by Lee Breuer and Maude Mitchell
First Connecticut performance on Saturday, February 16
Middletown, Conn.—The 13th annual Outside the Box Theater Series presented by Wesleyan University’s Center for the Arts and Theater Department continues with the first Connecticut performance of the Mabou Mines masterclass workshop production “Glass Guignol: The Brother and Sister Play,” conceived and adapted by Lee Breuer and Maude Mitchell, on Saturday, February 16, 2013 at 8pm in the CFA Theater, located at 271 Washington Terrace on the Wesleyan campus in Middletown.
Following his 2011 staging of "A Streetcar Named Desire" for the Comédie Française in Paris, writer/director Lee Breuer, a founding co-artistic director of the New York-based experimental theater company Mabou Mines, goes the next step in his investigation of the work of Tennessee Williams. Following the French “guignol” tradition of taking realism to the breaking point of horror and hilarity, “Glass Guignol: The Brother and Sister Play” is an exploration/excavation of the multi-faceted fictional refractions arising from the writer’s erotic, voyeuristic relationship with his sister, Rose Williams. This production uses “The Two-Character Play” as a frame, and constructs “the play within the play” with texts from other Williams works, including “Out Cry,” “The Glass Menagerie,” “A Cavalier for Milady,” and “Suddenly, Last Summer.” “Glass Guignol: The Brother and Sister Play” will feature Obie Award-winners Maude Mitchell and Greg Mehrten, as well as Jessica Weinstein ’02 and Eamonn Farrell from Anonymous Ensemble, and Luly Santangelo. Please see below for more information about the artists.
A panel discussion, Tennessee Williams after "Iguana," will be held on Thursday, February 14, 2013 at 4:15pm in the CFA Hall, located at 287 Washington Terrace. The panel will feature Lee Breuer, Maude Mitchell, and Thomas Keith, Editor, New Directions Publishing and Dramaturg of "Glass Guignol: The Brother and Sister Play." The panel will be moderated by Wesleyan Professor of Theater Ronald Jenkins, and the discussion will revolve around the solutions that Mr. Breuer has come up with for staging the late Tennessee Williams plays written after "The Night of the Iguana." Admission to the panel discussion is free.
Admission for the performance of "Glass Guignol: The Brother and Sister Play" is $25 for the general public; $20 for senior citizens, Wesleyan faculty/staff, and non-Wesleyan students; and $6 for Wesleyan students. Tickets are available online at http://www.wesleyan.edu/cfa, by phone at (860) 685-3355, or in person at the Wesleyan University Box Office, located in the Usdan University Center, 45 Wyllys Avenue, Middletown. Tickets may also be purchased at the door beginning one hour prior to the performance, subject to availability. The Center for the Arts accepts cash, checks written to “Wesleyan University,” and all major credit cards. Groups of ten or more may receive a discount – please call (860) 685-3355 for details. No refunds, cancellations, or exchanges. Programs, artists and dates are subject to change without notice.
About Mabou Mines
Mabou Mines is a collaborative theater ensemble based in New York City currently celebrating their 42nd season. The current Artistic Directors are Julie Archer, Lee Breuer, Sharon Fogarty, Ruth Maleczech and Terry O’Reilly. The company has created more than 60 original works and adaptations of classics for the theater. Their work has been presented at theaters in New York City and throughout the United States, North and South America, Europe, Australia and Asia. Mabou Mines has received more than 75 awards and citations for excellence, including Obie Awards for General Excellence, Sustained Achievement and the Edwin Booth Award. Now in its 21st year, the Mabou Mines/Suite Resident Artist Program mentors the next generation of theater artists.
For more information about Mabou Mines, please visit http://www.maboumines.org/.
About Lee Breuer (Co-Conceiver, Co-Adaptor, Director)
Writer, lyricist, director, and filmmaker Lee Breuer's productions include "The Gospel at Colonus," "Mabou Mines DollHouse," "Peter and Wendy," "The Lost Ones," and "Tramway Nomme Desir" with the Comédie Française, and the forthcoming trilogy "La Divina Caricatura." His books include "Animations," "Sister Suzie Cinema," and the forthcoming "Getting Off” and "Pataphysics Penyeach." Fellowships include the MacArthur, Harvard/Radcliffe Bunting, Ford/USArtists, Guggenheim, Rockefeller, McKnight, three Fulbrights, two Asian Cultural Counsel fellowships, and a Japan American Friendship Commission. Nominations include Pulitzer, Tony, Emmy and Grammy Awards. He has directed thirteen Obie Award-winning performances and two Obie Award-winning productions, and has received Obie Awards for Best American Play, Directing, Writing, and Distinguished Achievement; as well as the Kennedy Center/American Express Award for Best New Play, The Edinburgh Herald Archangel Award for sustained achievement, and a Chevalier Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. He is a founding co-artistic director of Mabou Mines Theater Company.
About Maude Mitchell (Co-Conceiver, Co-Adaptor, Actor: Clare, Laura, Amanda, Nance, Catherine)
A graduate of Oberlin College and The Neighborhood Playhouse (Sanford Meisner), Maude Mitchell has lent a Meisner-oriented approach to workshops conducted in America, Europe and Asia; and was a recipient of a U.S.–Russia Bilateral Presidential Commission to be the first western acting teacher at the Far Eastern Acting Academy in Vladivostok. Maude has been a guest artist at Julliard ("Dreams of the Salt Horse" by Adam Rapp), and she is one of the co-authors of “The Laramie Project,” Dramatist Play Service, 2001.
Maude is best known for playing Nora, and co-adapting “Mabou Mines DollHouse” with Lee Breuer, for a world tour of 31 venues across five continents. For her performance as Nora she won a Village Voice Obie, Drama League Nomination, Backstage West Garland Award and an Elliot Norton Award. She also stars in the ARTE commissioned film version, and has been invited to introduce and lecture at showings in America, Paris, Cairo, Bucharest, and Vladivostok, as well as speaking about Ibsen in performance at the International Ibsen Conference in Oslo, Norway, the Edinburgh Festival, and the Festival Iberoamericano in Bogotá. Recently, Maude was the Dramaturge/Acting coach for the Comédie Française production of “A Streetcar Named Desire” by Tennessee Williams, the first play by a non-European author to be accepted into the Comédie’s 330 year repertoire.
About Greg Mehrten (Actor: Felice, Tom, Amanda, Laura, Mother, Mrs. Venable)
Greg Mehrten has been directed by Lee Breuer in many plays since 1975, including "The Saint and the Football Players," "The Shaggy Dog Animation," "A Prelude to Death in Venice," "LEAR" (Obie Award for Performance, 1991), "The B. Beaver Animation" (revival), "Porco Morto," and the upcoming "La Divina Caricatura." Greg has also worked with directors JoAnne Akalaitis, Zoe Beloff, Anne Bogart, Klye DeCamp, Jonathan Demme, Alison Folland, John Jesurun, Elizabeth Lecompte, Ruth Maleczech, Christina Masciotti, Richard Maxwell, Brooke O’Harra, Pearl Damour, Bill Raymond and Linda Hartinian, David Schweizer, Ron Vawter and Marianne Weems, and Bruce Yonemoto. He was a member and co-artistic director of Mabou Mines from 1980 to 1991 (Obie Award for sustained Achievement, 1984). He is currently an Associate Member of The Wooster Group.
About Eamonn Farrell (Choreographer, Video Designer / Actor: Apparition, Nijinsky, Jim, Doctor Sugar)
Eamonn Farrell is a performer and theater-maker based in Brooklyn, New York. He has worked with Lee Breuer and Mabou Mines since 2002 as a performer, assistant director, choreographer and video designer. He choreographed and was a featured dancer in the decade-long world tour of "Mabou Mines Dollhouse." He also performs in "Red Beads" (Mass MoCA, Skirball Center), "Summa Dramatica" (The Flea, P.S. 122), "Porco Morto" (Under the Radar Festival, New York Theatre Workshop), and "La Divina Caricatura" (in development). Eamonn makes theater and performs with his own company, Anonymous Ensemble, whose work has been presented in New York City, the U.K., Greece, Germany, and Norway. Their current show "Liebe Love Amour!" received its New England premiere at Wesleyan University's Center for the Arts in September 2012, and is touring the United States.
About Jessica Weinstein (Actor: Apparition, Interpreter, Ms. Josie, Sister Felicity)
Jessica Weinstein graduated from Wesleyan University in 2002, wondering how on Earth she could find a way to do the two things she loved most: making theater and traveling the world. Shortly after graduating, she worked as a wind/silk puppeteer for a show with Lee Breuer and Mabou Mines, and she also met Lee's assistant director at the time, Eamonn Farrell, who had just begun a performance operation called Anonymous Ensemble. Over the last ten years, she has created and performed in many shows with both Mabou Mines and Anonymous Ensemble. As an actress and stilt performer, she has been lucky to travel to every continent but Antarctica, performing in venues from underground clubs to the National Opera of Greece, from Madison Square Garden to the Kennedy Center. She is delighted to be able to come back to Wesleyan this year with her two dearest artistic families.
About Luly Santangelo (Actor: Apparition, Mexican Woman, Sister Grimm)
Luly Santangelo was born in Argentina. She began to dance at a very early age and moved to New York City to perform as a modern dancer. Later, Luly worked extensively as a dance therapist in New York City, Switzerland and France. She collaborated on and directed some theater projects in New York. She also managed and produced the Spanish dance company Noche Flamencafor eight years. Luly is a great admirer of Lee Breuer and is honored to be working with him.
About Thomas Keith (Dramaturg)
Thomas Keith has worked as an actor at The Public, La MaMa E.T.C., Milwaukee Rep, Great Lakes Theater Festival, INTAR Theatre, Champlain Shakespeare, P.S. 122, and Naked Angels, with directors and playwrights including Tom O’Horgan, John Vacarro, Peter Hedges, Maria Irene Fornes, Jeff Weiss, Sharon Ott, Kathryn Long, and Ellen Stewart. As Consulting Editor for New Directions Publishing, he has edited over twenty volumes by Tennessee Williams, including three collections of previously unpublished one-acts—"Mister Paradise & Other One-Act Plays," "The Traveling Companion & Other Plays," and "The Magic Tower & Other One-Act Plays"—as well as Williams’ last full-length play, "A House Not Meant to Stand," for which he wrote the introduction.
About the Outside the Box Theater Series
The Outside the Box Theater Series, presented by the Wesleyan University Theater Department and Center for the Arts, features groundbreaking theater performances and discussions. Previous Outside the Box Theater Series performances and speakers have included Anonymous Ensemble, Amiri Baraka and Blue Ark, Ang Gey Pin, Anne Bogart, Awaji Puppet Theater Company, Bill Irwin, Bill Rauch of Cornerstone Theater Company, Bintang Bali, Biro, Builder’s Association, Catherine Filloux, Charles Mee, The Civilians, Coco Fusco, DAH Theatre, Dan Hurlin, Dario Fo & Franca Rame, David Henry Hwang, Dewey Dell, Ellen Stewart, Great Small Works, Javon Johnson, Lee Breuer, Marco Baliani, Moises Kaufman, The Neo-Futurists, Peter Brook's “The Grand Inquisitor”, Peter Schumann, Pig Iron Theatre Company, Reno’s “Rebel Without a Pause”, Rhodessa Jones, Rinde Eckert, Roger Guenever Smith, Sarah Jones, Sarah Ruhl, Shosha Goren, SITI Company, Spalding Gray, Tommy Derrah & Johan Padan, Tony Kushner, The Wooster Group, and Young Jean Lee.
Save 15% when you buy tickets to four or more Outside the Box Theater Series events. This special offer also applies to Performing Arts Series events. This season's upcoming Performing Arts Series events include the New England premieres of Music at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello (February 1, 2013), and "Mama Call" by Gallim Dance (February 8 & 9, 2013); the 14th annual DanceMasters Weekend Showcase Performance (March 9, 2013); and Hugh Masekela (April 19, 2013). Call or visit the Wesleyan University Box Office at (860) 685-3355 to take advantage of this discount.
About the Theater Department
The Theater Department embraces a broad definition of theater, and considers the critical and creative study of the stage to be essential components of a liberal arts education. Courses and productions reflect the interdisciplinary interests of faculty and majors. The department's diverse faculty conducts research and creative endeavors in every continent. Recent Visiting Artists include Pulitzer Prize winner Quiara Alegria Hudes, Doris Duke Performing Artist Award winner Rinde Eckert, and Obie award recipient Leah Gardiner. English Professor and pioneer American designer Ralph Pendleton created Wesleyan's Theater program in the mid 1930s. Mr. Pendleton served as the department's first chair until his retirement in 1974 and was an important contributor to the opening of the Center for the Arts.
Wesleyan's Theater Department alumni are notably active in the professional world: they appear on international and national stages, on and off Broadway, and many are the recipients of prestigious awards: Bessie Award designers Chloe Brown and Roderick Murray, Emmy Award recipients Dana Delany and Bradley Whitford, and Tony Award winners Frank Wood and Lin-Manuel Miranda are a few examples. Several have joined renowned American companies, while others are the founding members of cutting-edge collaborative ensembles, acclaimed solo performers, and community activists.
For more information about the Theater Department, please visit http://www.wesleyan.edu/theater/.