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SHAKESPEARE THEATRE COMPANY Dear Friend, Table of Contents Welcome to STC’s Hero/ STC Board of Trustees Traitor Repertory, the first Coriolanus Title Page 5 installment in the Clarice Board of Trustees W. Mike House Emeritus Trustees Smith Repertory Series. Michael R. Klein, Chair Jerry J. Jasinowski R. Robert Linowes*, About the Playwright: Shakespeare 6 Robert E. Falb, Vice Chair Norman D. Jemal Founding Chairman William Shakespeare’s John Hill, Treasurer Jeffrey M. Kaplan James B. Adler Synopsis: Coriolanus 7 Coriolanus and Friedrich Pauline Schneider, Secretary Scott Kaufmann Heidi L. Berry* Michael Kahn, Artistic Director Abbe D. Lowell David A. Brody* Coriolanus Cast 9 Schiller’s Wallenstein Eleanor Merrill Melvin S. Cohen* share a stage because the title characters The Body Politic Trustees Melissa A. Moss Ralph P. Davidson share a dilemma: their power as charismatic Nicholas W. Allard Robert S. Osborne James F. Fitzpatrick by Drew Lichtenberg 10 Ashley M. Allen Stephen M. Ryan Dr. Sidney Harman* military leaders brings them into conflict with Stephen E. Allis George P. Stamas Lady Manning Wallenstein Title Page 11 the political world. In this North American Anita M. Antenucci Bill Walton Kathleen Matthews Jeffrey D. Bauman Lady Westmacott William F. McSweeny About the Playwright: Schiller 14 premiere of Schiller’s work, translated and Afsaneh Beschloss Rob Wilder V. Sue Molina freely adapted by former Poet Laureate Robert Landon Butler Suzanne S. Youngkin Walter Pincus Synopsis: Wallenstein 15 Pinsky, Wallenstein muses, “Once men have Dr. Paul Carter Eden Rafshoon Chelsea Clinton Ex-Officio Emily Malino Scheuer* Wallenstein Cast 17 climbed the heights of greatness…the world Dr. Mark Epstein Chris Jennings, Lady Sheinwald forgets the things that got them there.” Watch Andrew C. Florance Managing Director Mrs. Louis Sullivan Cast Biographies 18 Miles Gilburne Daniel W. Toohey how military strategy, political ambition and Barbara Harman Sarah Valente Direction and class warfare collide in these two classic works John R. Hauge Lady Wright Design Biographies 23 and judge for yourself whom to name “hero” Stephen A. Hopkins Lawrence A. Hough * Deceased About STC 26 or “traitor.” Support 27 I’m pleased to once again work alongside David Muse, STC’s former Associate Artistic For STC 38 Director and current Artistic Director of The STC Staff 42 Studio Theatre, who collaborated with me on our Leadership Repertory in 2010 and our Audience Services 43 Roman Repertory in 2008. David directed a breakthrough production of Coriolanus at Yale School of Drama 10 years ago, and we The Shakespeare Theatre Company dedicates these are both excited to re-explore the play in new ways. We are fortunate to also welcome back productions to the memory of our dear friend. STC Affiliated Artist Patrick Page and Chicago talent Steve Pickering to lead our casts. For the final show in our 2012–2013 Season, Nancy Mitchell McCabe we will produce Rebecca Bayla Taichman’s interpretation of Shakespeare’s The Winter’s “Volunteer and Fan” Tale. Rebecca has a stimulating vision for this production, one of Shakespeare’s most beautiful and theatrical late Romances. We One of STC’s longest-serving hope you can join us. and most active volunteers and Warm regards, supporters, Nancy touched the lives of STC artists, audiences and staff through her work on First Rehearsal breakfasts, actor welcome baskets, Michael Kahn Artistic Director Happenings at the Harman and Shakespeare Theatre Company her beloved Academy for Classical Acting. We will miss her deeply. Cover photos by Scott Suchman. 2 3 “Colorful, intense, energetiC … FORCeful” THE WASHINGTON POST Recipient of the 2012 Regional Theatre Tony Award® Artistic Director Michael Kahn ANGELS, DEMONS, AND SAVAGES Managing Director Chris Jennings William Shakespeare’s Performances Begin March 28, 2013 Opening Night April 9, 2013 Sidney Harman Hall Director Fight Director David Muse Rick Sordelet Set Designer Voice and Text Coach Blythe R.D. Quinlan Ellen O’Brien Costume Designer Literary Associate Murell Horton Drew Lichtenberg Lighting Designer Assistant Director Mark McCullough Jenny Lord Composer/Sound Designer Production Stage Manager Mark Bennett Bret Torbeck* New York Casting Stage Manager Binder Casting Joseph Smelser* Jay Binder, CSA/Jack Bowdan, CSA Assistant Stage Manager Resident Casting Director Hannah R. O’Neil* Daniel Neville-Rehbehn www.phillipscollection.org THROUGH MAY 12, 2013 1600 21st Street, NW Co-organized by The Phillips Collection and the Parrish Art Museum Dupont Circle Metro 202-387-2151 Made possible through support from The Clarice Smith Repertory Series is sponsored by the Robert H. Smith Family Foundation. Thursday Nights Open Until 8:30 pm Proudly sponsored by Restaurant Partner: Zaytinya Members enjoy free unlimited admission and discounts. Join us! *Member of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers. 5 Jackson Pollock, Number 1, 1950 (Lavender Mist), 1950. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund © 2012 The Pollock-Krasner Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York PHLINS2733_STC1p.indd 1 2/13/13 4:58 PM About the Playwright: Shakespeare Synopsis: Coriolanus No man’s life has been the subject of more speculation than William Rome’s plebeians riot over a food shortage, angry that the patricians have been hoarding corn. As Shakespeare’s. While Shakespearean scholars have dedicated their lives Menenius, a patrician senator popular among the people, attempts to calm them, Caius Martius, a military to the search for evidence, the truth is that no one really knows what hero, arrives. He scorns the plebeians and tells Menenius that the rioting has won them a concession: the truth is. Scholars agree that a William Shakespeare was baptized tribunes will be elected to represent the interests of the people in the senate. News arrives that Rome is at Stratford-upon-Avon on April 26, 1564. Tradition holds that he was about to be invaded by a neighboring tribe, the Volscians. Eager to fight Aufidius, the Volscians’ general, born three days earlier, on April 23—the same date on which, 52 years Martius volunteers himself. After the patricians leave, the tribunes Sicinius and Brutus discuss their dislike later, he was recorded to have died. On November 27, 1582, a marriage of Martius and his contempt for the people. license was granted to 18-year-old William and 26-year-old Anne Hathaway. A daughter, Susanna, was born to the couple six months Volumnia, Martius’ mother, lectures his wife, Virgilia, who is afraid that Martius will die in battle, on the later. We know that twins, Hamnet and Judith, were born soon after and valor to be found in war. As fighting begins in the Volscian city of Corioles, Martius curses his retreating were baptized. What we do not know is how the young Shakespeare troops and forces his way through the city gates, alone. The soldiers believe him dead, but he returns came to travel to London and how he first came to the stage. Whatever and rallies the Romans to conquer the city. Covered in blood, Martius finds and defeats Aufidius, leaving the truth may be, it is clear that in the years between 1582 and 1592 him and the Volscians humiliated. After the battle, Cominius honors Martius with the honorific surname someone calling himself William Shakespeare became involved in the London theatre scene and was a “Coriolanus,” in recognition of his role in taking Corioles. principal actor with one of several repertory companies. In Rome, Menenius criticizes Brutus and Sicinius for their hostility to Coriolanus and their political By 1592 Shakespeare had become prominent enough as a playwright to engender professional jealousy. ambitions. When Coriolanus returns from Corioles in triumph, the senate votes to elect him as consul, the A rival playwright, Robert Greene, wrote snidely of an “upstart crow, beautified with our feathers, that with highest office in Rome. He cringes, however, at the required ceremony of wearing the “gown of humility,” his tiger’s heart wrapped in a player’s hide supposes he is as well able to bombast out a blank verse as in which he must show his scars to the plebeians and beg for their votes. When the plebeians arrive to see the best of you, and being an absolute Johannes-factotum is in his own conceit the only Shakescene in a his wounds, Coriolanus is condescending, but they approve his election nonetheless. After he departs, the country.” In the years between 1591 and 1593, the theatres of London were temporarily shut down due tribunes stir up anger in the plebeians at Coriolanus’ mockery. At home, Volumnia tells Coriolanus that he to an outbreak of plague; Shakespeare turned his considerable talents to sonnet writing and acquired a must apologize to the people, and he reluctantly assents. When Coriolanus returns, the plebeians, urged on patron, the young Lord Southampton, to whom two of his poems, Venus and Adonis and The Rape of by the tribunes, banish him from Rome. Coriolanus leaves, denouncing Rome bitterly. Lucrece, are dedicated. In Antium, the capital of Volscian territory, a disguised Coriolanus interrupts Aufidius’ feast and makes In 1594 Shakespeare was listed as a stockholder in the Lord Chamberlain’s Men; he was a member of him an offer: kill me now, or accept my help in conquering Rome. Aufidius embraces him as an ally. In this company for the rest of his career, which lasted until approximately 1611. When James I came to Rome, the tribunes congratulate themselves on their ousting of Coriolanus, until they hear news of the the throne in 1603, he issued a royal license to Shakespeare and his fellow players, inviting them to call Volscian army approaching, led by Coriolanus. In the field, Aufidius tells a lieutenant that he hates being themselves The King’s Men. The King’s Men leased the Blackfriar’s Theatre in London in 1608.