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American Repertory Theatre Press Contact: Kati Mitchell 617-496-2000x8841 kati_mitchell@harvard.edu

November 2007 Edition

American Repertory Theatre 2007-08 Season Program

BOSTON - The 28^th American Repertory Theatre season will feature eight (8) productions : Don Juan Giovanni • Figaro • Donnie Darko • Copenhagen • No Child • Julius Caesar • Elections and Erections • Cardenio. The ART has created widest range of theatrical experiences, from the grandeur of Shakespeare’s Rome to the intimacy of political cabaret, from a stage adaptation of the cult film Donnie Darko to a pairing of Mozart operas, reimagined by the team that brought Carmen to the A.R.T. two years ago. The season includes comedies and dramas, classics and world premieres, plays about science and love, childhood and revolution, through the work of some of the most talented writers, directors, and designers from this country and abroad, as well as leading roles from the star players of our own resident acting company.

Don Juan Giovanni and Figaro after Mozart, Molière, and Beaumarchais; directed by Dominique Serrand in association with Theatre de la Jeune Lune September 1 – October 6 • Loeb Stage

Theatre de la Jeune Lune’s Artistic Director Dominique Serrand (who brought us Carmen, The Miser, and Amerika) has created a unique pair of productions that combine the beauty of Mozart with the brilliance of two of France’s greatest comic writers. Don Juan Giovanni joins Mozart’s Don Giovanni with Molière’s Don Juan to form a cross-country road trip which skewers notions of love, sex, and hypocrisy;  Figaro unites Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro with its source, Beaumarchais’ revolutionary comedy of intrigue and seduction. The productions are performed in repertory on one set, with a chamber ensemble accompanying a cast of actors and opera singers that includes Steven Epp (Harpagon in The Miser) and the principals from Carmen.

Donnie Darko based on the screenplay by Richard Kelly; directed by Marcus Stern October 27 – November 18 • Zero Arrow Theatre

During the presidential elction of 1988, Donnie Darko, a troubled teenager, encounters a six-foot rabbit named Frank, who tells him the world will end in 28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes, and 12 seconds. Donnie returns home to discover that a jet engine has crashed through his bedroom — and so begins one of the strangest and most haunting stories evertold. A new adaptation of the 2001 cult film (which featured Drew Barrymore and shot Jake and Maggie Gyllenhaal to fame), Donnie Darko is a mind-bending work of science fiction with a rollercoaster plot that leaps from metaphysics to time travel. Marcus Stern, director of The Onion Cellar, returns to Zero Arrow Theatre to create this stage version of one of the most talked-about films of the past decade.

Copenhagen by Michael Frayn; directed by Scott Zigler November 24 – December 23 • Loeb Stage

In 1941 the German physicist Werner Heisenberg traveled to Copenhagen to meet his Danish counterpart, Niels Bohr. Old friends and colleagues, now they found themselves on opposite sides in a world war, and embroiled in a race to create the atom bomb. Why Heisenberg went to Copenhagen, and what he wanted to say to Bohr, are questions that have intrigued and divided historians and scientists ever since. Michael Frayn’s play about their historic meeting has become a classic of modern drama — a meditation on friendship and moral responsibility, by turns intellectually dazzling and deeply moving, that journeys through the realm of science and beyond. Featuring Will LeBow, Karen MacDonald, and John Kuntz.

No Child written & performed by Nilaja Sun January 3 – February 3 • Loeb Stage

Nilaja Sun worked as a teaching artist at a high school in the Bronx, where every day the students face huge challenges in simply coming to school. She directed them in a play, and their trials and triumphs form the basis of No Child. In a performance reminiscent of The Syringa Tree, Nilaja herself takes all the parts, transforming into the students, teachers, parents, administrators, janitors and security guards who inhabit our public schools and shape the future of America. An award winning hit in New York, No Child is a virtuosic performance, joyous and heart wrenching. In Nilaja’s words, “I created this

piece to be a snapshot from the trenches, something entertaining and provocative that’ll get people talking about the state of our public schools.” “Marvelous! Touching and funny.” — New York Times “Astounding! Sun brings us not her world but the world. An object lesson in what should not be missing from any life curriculum: hope.” — New Yorker 

Julius Caesar

by William Shakespeare; directed by Arthur Nauzyciel February 9 – March 22 • Loeb Stage

One of the greatest theatrical studies of tyranny, revolution, and civil war, Julius Caesar is also a highly personal play — a breathless, gripping portrayal of friendships and alliances torn apart by political ambition and the intoxicating effects of power. Centered around three of Shakespeare’s most vivid characters — Caesar, Brutus, and the young Mark Antony — the play contrasts a vast historical canvas with the private fears and dreams of men whose words can change the world. This is the first production of Julius Caesar in the A.R.T.’s history, staged by the talented young French director Arthur Nauzyciel.

Elections and Erections — A Chronicle of Fear & Fun written and performed by Pieter-Dirk Uys (U.S. premiere) April 2 – May 4 • Zero Arrow Theatre

“Fighting fear and political madness with humor has been my way of life since the 1970s. I always said that the previous government wrote my material for me. That’s why I didn’t pay taxes; I paid royalties.” — Pieter-Dirk Uys As promised, the master satirist Pieter-Dirk Uys will return to Zero Arrow with his longawaited. Elections and Erections, postponed from this season. After the phenomenal success of Foreign AIDS in the A.R.T.’s 2005 South African Festival, we invite our audience to spend a second evening in the company of Nelson and Winnie Mandela, Desmond Tutu, Mrs. Evita Bezuidenhout (“the most famous white woman in South Africa”) and of course their alter ego, Pieter-Dirk Uys and his latest, most outrageous attack on political outrage, which underlines the “mock” in democracy and exposes the “con” in reconciliation. “Tremendously moving . . . drop-dead delicious!” — Boston Globe on Foreign AIDS “Sharply funny . . . Uys’s attacks prove that satire can be a positive force for good.” — The Guardian (London) on Elections and Erections

Cardenio by Stephen Greenblatt and Charles L. Mee; directed by Les Waters (U.S. premiere) May 10 – June 1 • Loeb Stage

Shakespeare scholar Stephen Greenblatt and playwright Charles Mee (author of A.R.T.’s Full Circle, Snow in June, and bobrauschenbergamerica) have joined forces to produce a midsummer comedy of love based on Cardenio, a play by Shakespeare that was lost soon after its first performance. Fragments survive, which Greenblatt and Mee have woven into a contemporary reconstruction of the story, now set at a wedding party on the terrace of a villa in the Umbrian hills. Shakespeare’s fingerprints are all over this sparkling new version, from the crisscrossing of suspicious lovers to a cunning Iago-like meddler, from soliloquies (reimagined as wedding toasts) to overheard conversations, from the dream of passion to the pleasures of music and dance.

Detailed schedule available on www.amrep.org

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