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Home , Battersea Arts Centre, Marc Warren

BAM 2003 Next Wave Festival

Roy Kortlck, ear arch with fountain, 2003

BAM 2003 Next Wave Festival ENCORE Is sponsored by: Altria 2003 ~ext Wave EesfuLaJL.....----

Brooklyn Academy of Music Alan H. Fishman William I. Campbell Chairman of the Board Vice Chairman of the Board

Karen Brooks Hopkins Joseph V. Melillo President Executive Producer

presents The Hanging Man Improbable

Approximate BAM Harvey Theater running time: Nov 4-8, 2003 at 7:30pm; Nov 9 at 3pm 1 hour and 30 minutes with Directed, designed, and scripted by no intermission Phelim McDermott, Lee Simpson, and Julian Crouch Co-designed by Phil Eddolls Lighting designed by Colin Grenfell , Choreographed by Steve Kirkham Soundscape by Darron L West Costumes designed by Stephen Snell

Performed by Lisa Hammond Rachael Spence Nick Haverson Ed Woodall Richard Katz Tim Preece Catherine Marmier (Careful Assistance)

A co-production with The West Yorkshire Playhouse, Wexner Center for the Arts at The Ohio State University with support from Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Walker Art Center through a grant from The Rockefeller Foundation's Multi-Arts Production Fund with additional support provided by the National Endowment for the Arts, The Lyric Hammersmith, Wiener Festwochen.

Presented and produced in association with Pomegranate Arts. These performances are supported by the BritiSh Council.

BAM 2003 Next Wave Festival is sponsored by Altria Group, Inc.

The opening night reception for The Hanging Man is sponsored by Suba Restaurant.

Next Wave Theater support is provided by The Peter Jay Sharp Foundation, The SHS Foundation, The Shubert Foundation, and Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust. For The Hanging Man: Company Stage Manager Helen Maguire Deputy Stage Manager Robin Longley Sound Technician and Operator Adrian Parker Rigger and Flyman Bruce Luckhurst

For The Hanging Man U.S. Tour: Production Consultant Marc Warren Tour Manager Griselda Yorke

For Improbable Theatre: Producer Nick Sweeting Administrator (Finance) Ghislaine Granger Development and Training Coordinator Gill Roughley Assistant Administrator Ginnie Stephens Press Representative Sharon Kean

Special thanks to our Arts Centre development company: Pauline Lockhart, Shaun Powell, Rick Bland, Rocio Galan, Alan Cox, and Richard Katz. The People Show, Andrew Dye, Kevin Cassidy, and Master Beader.

Improbable Theatre is funded by Arts Council England and receives project support from the British Council . •• BRITISH ••COUNCIL

Improbable Theatre 43 Aldwych, 4th Floor WC2B 4DN Tel: 44.207.240.4556 Email: [email protected]; Web: www.improbable.co.uk

For Pomegranate Arts: Director Linda Brumbach Associate Di rector Alisa E. Regas Business Manager Kaleb Kilkenny Company Manager Jim Woodard Administrative Assistant Kelly Kivland

Exclusive U.S. Representation for The Hanging Man: Pomegranate Arts, Inc. 632 Broadway, Suite 901 New York, NY 10012 Tel: 212.228.2221, fax: 212.475.0004 Email: pomarts.com; Web: www.pomegranatearts.com The History of Edward Braff

This being the true and honestly related history of the notorious marvel known as The Hanging Man.

It has been my self-given and God blessed task throughout my years to journey to those parts as would furnish me with the many histories of man. My purpose and intent has not been to collect and lend credence to such stories, fables, tales, and myths as well lodge themselves in the minds of the remoter peoples of civilization. I sought and seek only the verifiable and documented history of men, in the humble proposition that such learning might help us know ourselves better and thereby bring us to a greater understanding of purpose our creator would urge us to, were he not beneficent enough to endow us with the freedom to do ourselves ill as well as good ...

This then, drawn from honest sources and provenanced documents is the history of one Edward Braff, commonly known as The Hanging Man.

He had made himself as self sufficient as the world. But now all he could feel was the dancing glee of every man and woman at his downfall. His skull echoed to the sound of their triumph over him and most acutely he felt the satisfaction of his friends that they could now rest secure that they were better than him and always had been. The thing he had tried to avoid all his life, the thing above all others he had striven to never encounter-over reaching followed by failure-had now happened.

There was never any possibility of redemption, of struggling free from this thing. Until he died this ugly empty vain self-glorifying nothing would be him. It was unbearable. It would begin the moment the building was finished. And it would be like this until he died.

Braff took a rope from the store shed. Tied it to a beam. Tied it around his neck as he stood on a chair and kicked the chair away. YJfuo's Wb~o _

Improbable Theatre brings together the diverse years. His first work was for dereck dereck and acclaimed talents of some of Britain's most Productions which he co-founded with Julia highly imaginative theater practitioners includ­ Bardsley. He performed in Cupboard Man, a ing founders and Artistic Directors Phelim solo show for wh ich he won a Fri nge Fi rst. He McDermott, Lee Simpson, and Julian Crouch. then co-directed and performed in Gaudete for which he won a Time Out Director's Award, McDermott, Simpson, and Crouch had been going on to direct The Vinegar Works, The working in theater separately and together in Glass Hill, and The Sweet Shop Owner. He has various combinations for some years, and had directed a number of shows in repertory theater successfully resisted the urge to formalize their including The Ghost Downstairs (Leicester relationship into a "theater company." In the Haymarket); Dr. Faustus and Improbable Tales autumn of 1996 they gave in and formed (a totally improvised two hour play which ran Improbable with producer Nick Sweeting. for four weeks) at Nottingham Playhouse. At The West Yorkshire Playhouse he has directed Since then, the seven shows they have made The Servant of Two Masters, The Hunchback as Improbable-70 Hill Lane, Animo, of Notre Dame, and, most recently, The Lifegame, Cinderella, Coma, Spirit, and Government Inspector. During 1996/97 he Sticky-have established an international directed A Midsummer Night's Dream for the reputation for innovative, exciting, accessible English Shakespeare Company, which won a theater. In addition, Phelim McDermott and TMA Regional Theatre Award for Best Touring Julian Crouch paired up for the international Production. Other projects include Get off My music theater hit, Shockheaded Peter. Foot, a play he co-wrote and appeared in with Lee Simpson. Productions with Improbable Improbable's work has been seen in the U.K., Theatre include the multi-award winning 70 the U.S., Egypt, Malaysia, Australia, Belgium, Hill Lane, Lifegame, Animo, Coma, Spirit, Germany, Greece, Canada, Lebanon, Ireland, Sticky, and Angela Carter's Cinderella. He Holland, Austria, Portugal, and New Zealand. recently co-directed Shockheaded Peter with 70 Hill Lane has won several major awards Julian Crouch, a junk opera collaboration with including an OBIE for Outstanding Achievement The Tiger Lilies, for Cultural Industry (Olivier in Off-Broadway Theater, the 1997 Time Out Award, Best Entertainment, TMA Best Director Award for Best Production, Best Award, Critics Society Best Designer Award, Performa nce at The Ca iro InternationaI Theatre and a South Bank Show Theatre Award for Experimental Theatre, and The Manchester Nomination). Evening News Award for Best Fringe Prod uction. Julian Crouch (co-artistic director) is a director, designer, writer, maker, and teacher whose Improbable's shows have grown out of a way career has spanned theater, opera, film, and of working that mea ns bei ng prepa red to create television. Initially a mask and puppet maker, work by the seat of your pants and the skin of Crouch designed Charivari for Trickster Theatre your teeth, stepping onstage before you are Company, a company he toured the world with ready and allowing the audience to have an in 1985 and 186. In the following years Crouch integraI pa rt in the creation of a show. specialized in site-specific design including seventeen productions for Welfare State Phelim McDermott (co-artistic director) has International. In 1992 he began a successful been directing and performing for over twelve creative partnership with Phelim McDermott, for whom he designed Dr. Faustus, Improbable Lee Simpson (co-artistic director) grew up in Tales, The Servant of Two Masters, and The Gt Yarmouth by the sea, where he found gain­ Hunchback of Notre Dame (which earned him ful employment cooking burgers in a Wimpy, as a T.M.A nomination for Best Designer of the a croupier in a casino, and as a cinema projec­ Year). They also co-directed and designed The tionist. Unable to get a proper showbiz job, he Quest for Don Quixote, which received a Best became an improviser. The money was bad but Design Nomination in the London Fringe there was precious little hard work involved Awards and A Midsummer Night's Dream and the people seemed nice. Since then, apart (TMA Best Touring Production Award) for the from his work with Improbable, he's become a English Shakespeare Company. Along with Lee member of the Comedy Store Players; he's writ- Simpson, McDermott and Crouch formed their ;ten plays; appeared in some sit-coms; acted in own company, Improbable Theatre in 1996. some proper television drama and some films; Their productions of Animo, 70 Hill Lane, performed a very poor poodle act at the London Lifegame, Coma, Spirit, Sticky, and Angela Palladium, and spent six months as a Breakfast Carter's Cinderella have gained far-reaching Show OJ. It is this obvious lack of direction national and international recognition, winning that he feels is the real essence of his work. several major awards. Crouch and McDermott's most enduring collaboration to date has been Lisa Hammond's (performer) theater credits Shockheaded Peter for Cultural Industry include A Little Fantasy, Shoot Me In The (Olivier Awards-Best Entertainment, also Heart (); Peeling, The Last nominated for Best Direction and Best Design, Freak Show (Graeae); The Adventures of The TMA Best Director Award, Critics Society Best Stoneheads (Trestle/); Designer Award, and a South Bank Show and King of Fools (DASH). Television includes Theatre Award Nomination). This production, North Face (BBC); Grange Hill (BBC); Focus based on the Struwwelpeter book, has returned (BBC); Freak Out (Channel 4);and A Date to the West End after four years of record With ... (Channel 4). Films include Quills (Fox). breaking international touring. In 2000 they Radio includes Stories of Fire (Radio 4). produced a German version, Struwwelpeter, for the Deutches Shauspielhaus, Hamburg. Nick Haverson (performer) trained at The They returned in 2002 to mount Ein London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art Sommernachtstraum. In 2000 Crouch collabo­ (LAMDA). Theater credits include A Family rated with Balinese puppeteers and musicians Affair, A Mad World My Masters (New in The Theft of Sita for the Adelaide Festival, Wolsey); Bouncers, Up 'n' Under (Derby which appeared in London as part of LIFT. Playhouse); Romeo and Juliet, Outside Edge, Most recently Crouch designed Tiny Dynamite Buddy's Song, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, for Paines Plough and Frantic Assembly. He Sweeney Todd (New Vic, Stoke-on-Trent); continues his work with Wolfgang Stange and Relatively Speaking (Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, the Sunetra Foundation in the refugee camps of Guildford and tour); The Edge, Comic Potential, Sri Lanka. Crouch designed and associate Love Songs for Shopkeepers, Bolt from the directed Jerry Springer-The Opera by Richard Blue, Figuring Things, Fool to Yourself, The Thomas and Stewart Lee, which after a concert Musical Jigsaw Play, By Jeeves (Stephen version at the Assembly Rooms as part of the Joseph Theatre); By Jeeves (Duke of York's and Fringe Festival 2002 opened at the Lyric Theatre Hammersmith, West End); Big National Theatre in April 2003 and subsequently Trouble in the Little Bedroom (Hull Truck); transferred to the West End. Amadeus, A Midsummer Night's Dream (Bedford Theatre Company); Blood Brothers Catherine Marmier (performer) trained at Ecole (Frankfurt); The Rivals (Redgrave Theatre, Jacques Lecoq, Paris. Marmier is joint artistic ); Neville's Island (Belgrade Theatre, director and co-founder of Brouhaha. Their Coventry, and Swan Theatre, Worcester); The shows include Muses a Part; Witch Hunt Well; Comedy of Errors, Wind in the Willows and Farewell; The Opium Eaters; Bluff; Light at Habeas Corpus (Mercury Theatre, Colchester). Night; Whatever the Weather; and Fish Soup Television includes Devices and Desires, The (winner of the Prix d'Or at the Grenoble Theatre Chief, The Uninvited, Wyrd Sisters, Sunday, Festival). Other directing credits include The Murder Rooms, The Scarlet Pimpernel, All the Illusion Brothers. Other theater credits include King's Men, The Last Days of Ashenden, A Shockheaded Peter (Albery Theatre); Kiss My Fatal Inversion, Absolutely True, Inspector Echo (The ); I Can't Wake Up, Morse, Head Over Heels (for which he also You Haven't Embraced Me Yet (Told By An recorded the title song), . Fi Im work Idiot); and Obsession (Parti-Pris Theatre includes Susie Gold, Hilary and Jackie, Company). Film and video includes Dead Redemption, and Sherman. Radio includes By Ringers, Brum, Fluke, and Proverbes. Radio Jeeves (Radio 4) and The Edge (Radio York). includes Amadeus II.

Richard Katz (performer) trained at Bretton Rachael Spence (performer) trained at Central Hall. Theater credits include: The Golden Ass, School of Speech and Drama, Ecole Philipe A Midsummer Night's Dream (Shakespeare's Gaullier London. Theater credits include Pub Globe); Genoa 01 (The Royal Court/ Quiz (Time Out Critics Choice at BAC); Presto Complicite); Aladdin (Told By an Idiot/Lyric or The Secret Life of Swift, Gulliver (U. K. tour, Theatre Hammersmith); Mnemonic, The Noise Group K Theatre Company); We Haven't Said a Of Time (Complicite); The Arabian Nights Porky Pie Yet (Pleasance, BAC, Non Fiction (); Angela Carter's Cinderella Theatre Company); Sex 1: Death 2 (Soho (Improbable/Lyric Hammersmith); Don't Laugh Theatre, Non Fiction Theatre); sob Stories It's My Life (Told By An Idiot); King Ubu (The (BAC, ); Duchess of Suffolk Gate); Wind In The Willows, The Skriker (Royal (rehearsed reading at The Globe); The National Theatre); In Savoy (Royal National Fireraisers (BAC, sob Theatre Company). Theatre Studio); Twelfth Night (Imaginary Television includes It's a Girl Thing (Channel Forces); Much Ado About Nothing (West End); 4); Wellington's Women (Channel 4). Film The Games Rule (Tandem Theatre); All God's includes Grace, The Man Who Loved Flowers, Chillun Got Wings (West Yorkshire Playhouse); and All Over. The Honest Whore (606/ Boulevard Theatre). Television includes Origins Of Evil (CBS); Black Ed Woodall (performer) trained at Ecole Books (Channel 4); Afterdeath (HTV); People Jacques Lecoq, Paris. Theater credits include Like Us, Finding Freud (BBC); The Life and Out of a House Walked a Man (Theatre de Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (Company Complicite), The Mysteries, Everyman (RSC), TV); London's Burning (LWT); and The Bill The School for Wives (Salisbury Playhouse), (Thames TV). Film includes Start, Enigma, and School for Scandal (ETT), Wanted Man (Table The Last Sin. Radio includes Mnemonic, and Show). As a Director: Een Hand Begraven as a co-writer and performer in The Newbury (Union Theatre, BAC, ). Arms. Television includes Cold Lazarus, The Tenth Kingdom, Oliver Twist, and Harbour Lights. Wbo's Wb~o _

Featherstonehaughs, where he performed in all Pomegranate Arts (U .S. touring producer), stage and TV work, and with its sister company founded by Linda Brumbach in 1998, is an The Cholmondeleys. He has toured internation­ independent production company based in ally with DV8 Physical Theatre and been a New York City dedicated to the development of soloist at The , Covent international contemporary performing arts Garden. He created his first one-man show, projects. Pomegranate Arts produced the world­ Crash, in 1999 to great critical acclaim in wide tour of Dracula: The Music and Film with London and The Edinburgh Festival. Kirkham Philip Glass and the Kronos Quartet, and the spent 2000/2001 creating the comedy American producer of Shockheaded Peter, a dance character Kirky, and his first short film, music theater work based on the Struwwelpeter Showtime, has just been nominated for an IMZ Tales by Heinrich Hoffman, directed by Phelim award for Best Screen choreography. He has McDermott and Julian Crouch and featuring choreographed and co-directed two shows for the music of Martyn Jacques and The Tiger the company Frantic Assembly. Presently he Lillies. Other international projects include the is back working with Matthew Bourne and North American 1999/2000 launch of was part of Bourne's new company, New Brazilian vocalist Virginia Rodrigues and The Adventures, that recently won two Oliviers for Screens, a concert featuring Philip Glass and Play Without Words at the National Theatre. West African griot Foday Musa Suso. Recent He is currently on a world tour with the multi­ projects include Philip on Film, a 25 year award winning Swan Lake, playing the part of retrospective of Philip Glass' work for film The Private Secretary. He was an original cast featuring newly commissioned film shorts by member of Swan Lake in 1995 and an original Atom Egoyan, Peter Greenaway, Shirin cast member of The Nutcracker back in Neshat, Michal Rovner, and Godfrey Reggio; 1993-94, both with Matthew Bourne. In international touring of Charlie Victor Romeo; 2000 he won the Peter Wilson award to Happiness, a solo work by Laurie Anderson; re-train as a dance editor. He also teaches and Dan Zanes and Friends, a folk rock concert various workshops and dance courses around for families. Current and upcoming projects the country and was a part time lecturer at De include a new work by Laurie Anderson and Montfort University for five years. Orion, a collaboration between Philip Glass and world musicians commissioned by the Athens Nick Sweeting (producer), since starting a free­ 2004 Cultural Olympiad. lance career with a short spell at The Chicago International Theatre Festival, has worked with a broad range of national and international clients, including The David Glass Ensemble, Phoenix Dance, Lip Service, Wierzalin Theatre (Poland), Nada Theatre (France), and Mouthpeace (South Africa). In the mid 1990s he was a co-founder of both Told by an Idiot and Improbable. Over the last few years he has concentrated more and more on his work with Improbable, as it tours more widely, working in collaboration with a series of key presenting partners in Europe and North America.