The Call Is Places 2018–2019 SUBSCRIBER NEWSLETTER

Cyrano de Bergerac March 16 – May 5 McGuire Proscenium Stage WELCOME

From Artistic Director Joseph Haj SEASON 2018–2019

Frankenstein – Playing with Fire Sept 15 – Oct 27, 2018 Dear Friends, Wurtele Thrust Stage In the late 1800s, Parisians were enthralled with the theater. Nearly one Noises Off million people went to the theater monthly and a half-million attended Oct 27 – Dec 16, 2018 at least once a week. It’s not surprising that France fell in love with McGuire Proscenium Stage Cyrano de Bergerac — and for far more than just its witty, large-nosed protagonist. The French adore stories that examine where beauty truly A Christmas Carol resides, such as Beauty and the Beast, Hugo’s The Hunchback of Notre Nov 13 – Dec 29, 2018 Dame and Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince. Wurtele Thrust Stage

Perhaps that’s why Edmond Rostand felt compelled to write Cyrano The Great Leap during a volatile time in French history that was rife with political Jan 12 – Feb 10, 2019 McGuire Proscenium Stage unrest. France had lost its position as a world leader rather capriciously, the country was deeply divided and most of the plays being written As You Like It addressed the social ills of the day. Feb 9 – March 17, 2019 Wurtele Thrust Stage Rostand chose to write a heart-forward, romantic story for a cynical age. He was so sure Cyrano would be received poorly that hours before curtain Cyrano on opening night, he found himself apologizing to his lead actor, Benoît- de Bergerac Constant Coquelin, for the fiasco he feared his play would become. Yet it March 16 – May 5, 2019 was one of the most legendary opening nights in the history of theater as McGuire Proscenium Stage the audience applauded for over an hour after the final curtain — proof that people were eager for something beyond the culture’s mounting cynicism. Metamorphoses April 13 – May 19, 2019 In that spirit, I’m thrilled to bring Rostand’s brilliant tale to our Guthrie Wurtele Thrust Stage audiences. Together with this gifted cast and creative team, we’ve created a production that seeks to explore the question of true beauty. As Saint- Guys and Dolls Exupéry wrote in The Little Prince a half-century after Cyrano, “It is June 22 – Aug 25, 2019 only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible Wurtele Thrust Stage to the eye.” Floyd’s July 27 – Aug 25, 2019 McGuire Proscenium Stage Yours, Visit guthrietheater.org for additional productions and play descriptions.

2 \ GUTHRIE THEATER PHOTO: KERI PICKETT Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand adapted and directed by Joseph Haj

The Guthrie gratefully recognizes Cast William & Penny George & the George in alphabetical order Family Foundation as Platinum Producers; The David & Leni Moore Family Foundation and John & Kathy RAGUENEAU Ansa Akyea* Junek as Leading Producers; Benjamin Y. H. & Helen C. Liu, Jim & Julie Chosy LE BRET Remy Auberjonois* and Martha Goldberg Aronson & Dan Aronson as Producers; and Abdhish & CUIGY/THIRD POET/SIXTH CADET Robert O. Berdahl* Mary Bhavsar and Antone & Genevieve Melton-Meaux as Associate Producers. FIRST LADY/SECOND CADET/ Kaitlyn Boyer† SISTER CLAIRE

Setting MARQUIS/MUSKETEER/FIFTH CADET Nate Cheeseman Paris, France and Arras, Spanish Netherlands, 1640 SECOND CAVALIER/FOURTH POET/ Fernando Collado* SECOND PAGE/SPANISH VOICES Run Time Approximately 2 hours, 45 minutes COUNT de GUICHE Cameron Folmar* (including intermission) ROXANE Jennie Greenberry*

Essentials DUENNA/MOTHER MARGUERITE Charity Jones* Maura Gillespie, Tyler Lueck, Kristin Nelson, Jasmine Porter, CHRISTIAN Robert Lenzi* Tucker Brewster Schuster, Jake Stone, Chaz Truog, Joseph Vang MONTFLEURY/CUSTOMER/SENTRY Joel Liestman*

FIRST CAVALIER/FOURTH CADET/ Mark Mazzarella† MUSICAL PAGE

ACTRESS/LISE/NUN Andrea Mislan*

BRISSAILLE/SECOND POET/ David O’Connell† FIRST PAGE

BELLEROSE/FIRST POET/ Jason Rojas* FIRST CADET

CYRANO de BERGERAC Jay O. Sanders*

VALVERT/THIRD CADET Eric Schabla

BUFFET GIRL/SISTER MARTHA Christine Weber*

*Member of Actors’ Equity Association †Student in the University of Minnesota/Guthrie Theater B.F.A. Actor Training Program

3 \ GUTHRIE THEATER Creative Team Understudies Robert O. Berdahl* (Count de Guiche), Kaitlyn Boyer† (First Cavalier/ Fifth Cadet), Nate Cheeseman ADAPTER/DIRECTOR Joseph Haj (Christian), Casey E. Lewis* (Le Bret/Montfleury/Customer/ SCENIC DESIGNER McKay Coble Sentry), Joel Liestman* (Ragueneau), Mark Mazzarella† (Marquis/Musketeer), COSTUME DESIGNER Jan Chambers Andrea Mislan* (Buffet Girl/Sister Martha), David O’Connell† (Cuigy/ LIGHTING DESIGNER Rui Rita Third Poet), Christine Weber* (Roxane)

Understudies never substitute for performers SOUND DESIGNER Elisheba Ittoop unless announced prior to the performance.

COMPOSER Jack Herrick Acknowledgments DRAMATURG Carla Steen Adapted from the English translations by Gertrude Hall and Gladys Thomas/ VOICE AND TEXT COACH Robert Ramirez Mary F. Guillemard.

FIGHT DIRECTOR Kara Wooten Joseph Haj wishes to acknowledge Michael Cumpsty, Todd London and MOVEMENT CONSULTANT Maija García Tom Quaintance for their valuable feedback on the script. INTIMACY CONSULTANT Lauren Keating A special thanks to Mme. Maureen STAGE MANAGER Katie Hawkinson* Peltier from Saint Paul’s Central High School for providing French language ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER Michele Hossle* assistance.

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR Seonjae Kim

NYC CASTING CONSULTANT McCorkle Casting, Ltd.

DESIGN ASSISTANTS Ryan Connealy (lighting) Lisa Jones (costumes) Julie Zumsteg (sound)

FIGHT CAPTAIN Robert O. Berdahl*

4 \ GUTHRIE THEATER THE PLAY

“I’ll lend you my words, and you lend me your face. Together we’ll make one storybook hero!” – Cyrano to Christian in Cyrano de Bergerac

CHARACTERS Cyrano de Bergerac, a poet and soldier Roxane, his cousin and a précieuse Christian, a soldier in Cyrano’s company Duenna, Roxane’s companion Count de Guiche, a nobleman and soldier Valvert, his friend and Roxane’s suitor Cuigy, a marquis Brissaille, a marquis Le Bret, the captain of the Gascony Guards Synopsis Ragueneau, a baker and poet Lise, his wife Cyrano de Bergerac is a poet, soldier and consummate swordsman with Montfleury, an actor a prominent nose that keeps him from declaring his love for Roxane. But Bellerose, an actor and that’s his only vulnerability — he bullies actors from the stage, battles theater manager a hundred swordsmen alone, fights alongside his company of Gascon cadets and composes impeccable verse on the spot. Mother Marguerite, an abbess at the convent When Roxane tells him she loves a handsome new cadet named Christian, Sister Claire, a nun at the Cyrano selflessly takes the tongue-tied young man under his wing convent and helps him woo Roxane, who revels in language and poetry. Their Sister Martha, a nun at the plan works perfectly until Christian goes rogue and decides to speak convent for himself. Other characters include cadets, poets, pages and But Christian and Cyrano aren’t Roxane’s only suitors. The powerful Count cavaliers as well as a marquis, de Guiche, who is no fan of Cyrano, has his own designs on Roxane. When actress, lady, buffet girl, the cadets are sent to war abroad, it is during the siege of Arras that love, musketeer and sentry. heroism and the true Gascon heart are revealed.

5 \ GUTHRIE THEATER PHOTOS: COSTUME SKETCHES BY JAN CHAMBERS THE AUTHOR

Edmond Rostand

Born April 1, 1868, in Marseille, France, to a family that counted poets and a composer among their ranks, ROSTAND’S WRITINGS Edmond Rostand was a quiet, intense student who enjoyed 1888 The Red Glove, written with Henry Lee, premieres at designing stage sets and costumes for his puppet theater. Cluny Theatre By adolescence, he was named “school poet” and began to publish his poetry in the local magazine Mireille. 1890 Publishes poetry collection Les Musardises

At age 16, Rostand went to Paris to The play was almost immediately 1894 The Romancers premieres attend the Collège Stanislas, where translated into other languages at Comédie-Française he excelled at French composition, and produced around the world. history and philosophy. He also 1895 The Princess Far-Away studied law to please his father In 1901, Rostand was the youngest premieres at Renaissance Theatre but pursued his literary interests writer to be elected to the by writing plays and poems. prestigious French Academy. 1897 The Woman of Samaria premieres at Renaissance Theatre His first play was produced in His next play, Chanticleer, finally 1888, and in 1890, he published a appeared in 1910 after delays due 1897 Cyrano de Bergerac poetry collection, Les Musardises. to Rostand’s health. The hype was premieres at Porte Saint-Martin That same year, he married poet almost unprecedented, yet it proved Theatre Rosemonde Gérard, with whom he to be a disappointment among would have two children. audiences. Scholars today consider 1900 The Eaglet premieres at it to be Rostand’s masterwork. Sarah-Bernhardt Theatre Rostand would rise to the heights Chanticleer premieres at of French theater over the next During World War I, Rostand was 1910 Porte Saint-Martin Theatre decade. The Romancers received disappointed that his declining popular accolades (and is the health kept him from fighting 1910 Publishes poetry collection source story for the 1960 musical for his country, and he produced The Canticle of the Wing The Fantasticks), and he wrote two a collection of patriotic poems plays for actress Sarah Bernhardt: in The Flight of the Marseillaise. 1914 Publishes poetry collection The Princess Far-Away and The Rostand died on December 2, 1918, The Flight of the Marseillaise Woman of Samaria. But it was shortly after the war ended. His Cyrano de Bergerac that made final unfinished play,The Last Night 1922 The Last Night of Don Juan premieres posthumously Rostand an overnight sensation of Don Juan, was published and with its opening in December 1897. performed posthumously.

6 \ GUTHRIE THEATER THE DIRECTOR

FROM DIRECTOR JOSEPH HAJ: An Earnest Tale for a Cynical Time

Artistic Director Joseph Haj is no stranger to directing on our stages — he’s helmed six shows since he joined the Guthrie in 2015, including last summer’s acclaimed West Side Story. Yet every show has been on the Wurtele Thrust Stage and, in his own good-humored words, “people were starting to talk.” This season, he’s breaking his one-stage streak by directing his own adaptation of Cyrano de Bergerac on the McGuire Proscenium Stage — a perfect landing place for all that panache.

7 \ GUTHRIE THEATER PHOTO: NATHAN DALE STUDIOS When I was working as a freelance director in 2006, PlayMakers Repertory Company asked me if I would direct their upcoming production of Cyrano de Bergerac. I was honored and accepted, as I had long been interested in the themes playwright Edmond Rostand was pursuing in his heroic tale.

If you see a production of Cyrano in English, it will likely be the work of Brian Hooker, who wrote the two English translations cited elaborate garments, wigs and his magisterial translation in above and wrote a new adaptation makeup — things we put on 1923, or Anthony Burgess, whose of Cyrano with the goal of staying to make ourselves look more version premiered here at the as close to Rostand’s original story appealing than we believe Guthrie in 1971. While both are as possible. ourselves to be. And the scenery, extraordinary works, neither costumes, lighting and sound felt right to me. Hooker took As I wrote, I made some notable follow the same journey as the language that was deeply poetic changes. I strengthened some characters, removing masks and and added more decoration in of the characters in meaningful disguises one by one until only the a way that slows what I believe ways — Roxane and Christian in truth remains. to be one of Rostand’s great particular — and created some accomplishments — the play’s composite characters to bolster The play is fabulist in ways that powerful, front-footed, forward certain roles and tighten the don’t correlate with anything action. And Burgess’ translation storytelling. Most importantly, I in our modern lives or world. firmly belongs to 1971 and seemed attempted to create a well-built, Yet there is something deeply off the mark in 2006. forward-moving story with a human about how we take a steady rhythm that remained in blemish — an oversized nose Because Cyrano was an pursuit of what I believed to be in Cyrano’s case — and allow instantaneous hit when it opened Rostand’s key theme: the idea that it to become the overriding in 1897, it immediately went into true beauty resides within. characteristic that determines translation. I promptly immersed our worth. It also interrogates the myself in two of the play’s first After many drafts and discussions, idea of how we treat people we English translations: one in prose I got the green light to move find highly attractive and project by Gertrude Hall and one in verse my adaptation into production. qualities onto them that they may by Gladys Thomas and Mary F. As I collaborated with scenic or may not possess. But as Roxane Guillemard. While reading those designer McKay Coble, who I’m and Cyrano come to learn, it’s only translations and working with thrilled to work with again on the with the heart that one sees best. Rostand’s original script, I thought Guthrie’s production, the idea for I saw a path to something a a deconstructing curiosity cabinet That is the truth I was after when bit different. was born. It was — and still is — an I wrote and staged my adaptation ingenious way to visually represent in 2006, and I’ve revised and So I made PlayMakers a the play’s themes and accentuate strengthened it (I believe) further proposition: I would write my the final moments when Cyrano still for our Guthrie production. own adaptation of Cyrano with a and Roxane bare their souls My hope is that audiences will promise to abandon it with no hard and finally speak their truths to wholeheartedly enjoy Rostand’s feelings if we didn’t agree it was one another. time-transcending play, about the right direction. They accepted, which American theater critic and I got to work. Over the next On the surface, Cyrano is a John Simon once said, “Cyrano de few months, I combined my world teeming with disguise. Bergerac is not a great play, merely working knowledge of French with Everywhere you look, there are a perfect one.”

8 \ GUTHRIE THEATER PHOTO: JAY O. SANDERS, ROBERT LENZI AND JENNIE GREENBERRY (NATHAN DALE STUDIOS) PLAY FEATURE

1897 Cyrano de Bergerac: A Story With Staying Power

By Carla Steen 1950 Dramaturg

1897 Edmond Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac debuts in Paris to immediate acclaim. Within a year, a production is staged on Broadway in English.

1950 United Artists releases a film version starring José Ferrer, who also played the title role onstage. He wins a Tony and an Oscar for playing the swashbuckling Cyrano.

1964 1973 The cartoon character Mr. Magoo stars as Cyrano in his own version of the tale, which is released as 1987 part of “The Famous Adventures of Mr. Magoo” television series.

1973 The stage musical Cyrano, written 1996 by Anthony Burgess and Michael The Truth About J. Lewis and starring Christopher Cats & Dogs, starring Plummer, plays at the Guthrie Uma Thurman and before a short Broadway run for Janeane Garofalo, 1996 which Plummer wins a Tony. takes inspiration from Cyrano but switches 1987 the genders of Steve Martin adapts and stars the principals. 2018 in the filmRoxanne , an updated retelling of the story with Martin as 2006 C.D. Bales and Daryl Hannah as the Inspired by Cyrano, Michael 2018 leading lady. Golamco’s play Cowboy Versus Netflix releases the filmSierra Samurai is set in Wyoming where Burgess is a Loser — a riff on 1990 the only two Asian-American men Cyrano that takes place in a high A faithful film adaptation in French in town vie for the affection of new school and swaps text messages stars Gérard Depardieu as Cyrano. arrival Veronica Lee. for letters.

9 \ GUTHRIE THEATER PHOTOS: CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER IN CYRANO (ACT TWO PHOTOGRAPHY); BENOÎT-CONSTANT COQUELIN AS CYRANO (PAUL BOYER) ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

A Nose Fit for a Hero

Actor Jay O. Sanders, who plays Cyrano, lends his profile to create a prosthetic of the hero’s iconic, oversized nose.

WATCH THE VIDEO

Next on the RECOMMENDATIONS FROM Wurtele Thrust Stage SAINT PAUL PUBLIC LIBRARY

Panache! This curated list of Cyrano-inspired books and resources has it all: romance, comedy, swashbuckling adventure, movie recommendations and even French cookbooks.

EXPLORE RESOURCES

A visually stunning masterpiece Metamorphoses April 13 – May 19 based on the myths of OVID written and directed by MARY ZIMMERMAN from the translation by For more staff-recommended book lists on DAVID R. SLAVITT a variety of topics, visit www.sppl.org. WATCH THE TRAILER

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